Merely to Remind Myself John 3:1-17

After I lost my sight for the first time, my mom bought me a number of record albums of musicals. You might remember albums, they were those 12 inch diameter vinyl discs. You put them on a thing called a record player, and then you had to take the needle arm and place it on the record album. I know, it was primitive, but that was the way we did things in those days.

One of the albums was the Hans Christian Andersen musical with Danny Kaye, and one of the songs I liked the best was a song that Hans Christian Andersen sings while he is walking down the road one day. Here are the words as I remember them:

“I write myself a note each day, and I put it in my hat./ The wind comes by, the hat blows high, but that’s not the end of that./ For ‘round and ‘round the world it goes./ It lands here right behind myself./ I pick it up, and I read the note/ which is merely to remind myself/ I’m Hans Christian Anderson.”

There are times in our lives when we need to be reminded of who and whose we are. Today’s text is one of those reminders. In the midst of the darkness of our world, as we long to see the light of truth, as we wander through the testings of our lives, we need to know who and whose we are and what value we have.

In the searching, we discover that who we are has little to do with what we do, but everything to do with whose we are and what God is doing for us each and every day. We need to be reminded that it is not what we do, it is what God has done and is doing today.

How many times have we seen the signs at sporting events that say 3:16? The first time I saw one of those signs, I thought, “Wow! What a great testimony.” And then I saw it more and more. I even heard it announced on the radio stations that broadcasted the games.

In an interview after one of the games, one reporter asked a sign bearer what it meant to them? The woman’s response made me cringe. She said something like, “It means so much to me that God loves the world this much and unless people believe in God’s love, they will all be damned.” This woman had found the perfect way to makes God’s amazing gift of love and caring into a club to beat people with. This is because we have all learned this verse and carry it with us in so many ways, but we have forgotten the verse that goes along with it: “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

In these few words, we are reminded that we are not the ones who save people. It is Jesus who saves—Jesus, the only son of God, in the communion of the Holy Spirit. We can assure one another of the forgiveness of our sins, but it is God who does the forgiving. On Sunday mornings, when we confess our sins and I make the declaration of forgiveness, it is not me that is forgiving you. It is God who forgives you; I am only the vehicle of transmission.

Yes, we claim that we have sinned in thought, word and deed; by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have declared before God and one another that, by ourselves, we are hopeless sinners, and so we turn to God, justified by Christ’s death and resurrection, for that forgiveness and hope that we need for the future. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we receive what we need.

Now any Christian can hear the confession of another Christian and assure them of God’s love and forgiveness absolving them of their sins, but, in our public worship, it is the privilege of the pastor to give that public assurance. So it is that I can say, “In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake, God forgives our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the Church of Christ and by Christ’s authority—by Christ’s authority—, I declare to you the forgiveness of all of your sins.” And when that declaration is made, I seal you in God’s love, not in my name, but in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It isn’t me, it is the continuing work of Christ in the Holy Spirit that continues to forgive and hold us in that right relationship with God and one another. Indeed, “God so loves the world that God gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

This everlasting life is something that is given to us in Baptism. In those waters, with God’s Word, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we die and are raised up into new life. We hear those words that Jesus commanded his disciples to do at the end of Matthew, “Go into all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Baptize them into that new relationship of love and caring.

So it is that we come today to witness Nicodemus coming to Jesus in the night, in the darkness of his world, in that most creative time of God--the night—remembering that in the darkness God creates the light; in the darkness of night God speaks all of the cosmos into being, that in the darkness of the world, even we were brought into being and invited to share in the benefits of creation; and, in the darkness of the night and our world, Christ’s light of hope continues to shine. This light shines in a way that does not condemn the world but lights the way forward in hope and forgiveness in and through the work of Christ.

I write myself a note each day, and I put it in my hat. The wind of the Spirit comes by, the hat blows high, but that is not the end of that. For ‘round and ‘round and ‘round and ‘round the world, the Spirit blows, and it drops my hat behind myself. I pick it up, and I read the note, which is merely to remind myself that I am Peter Todd Heide, a child of God, baptized in the waters of Baptism, and claimed by God.

As the serpent is lifted up in the wilderness so the Son of Man will be lifted up that all the world will see and know of God’s desire for the healing wholeness that only comes from Godself.

May you always walk in the assurance of God’s love for you.

Wilderness Testing Matthew 4:1-11

We’ve been telling this story about Jesus in the wilderness for roughly two thousand years. Yet, in the last ten to twenty years, scholars have been looking at this story anew. They have concluded that as God’s word continues to be a living thing among God’s people, as it continues to draw us into thinking about God’s words in today’s context, and as we continue to diligently unpack the original language and sharpen our translating skills, fresh and maybe even better ways of telling the story of Jesus’ time in the wilderness emerge. It is not that we have been wrong, but that there are nuances in this story that are waiting to be highlighted that help us appreciate this testing ground story more fully.

One of our recent observations is that when we preach this story, as preachers we need to make the stronger connection of this story to the baptism of Jesus and disconnect it from the Mountain of Transfiguration. As the season of Epiphany started with Jesus’ baptism, so now Lent begins with the end of that baptism story.

For many years we have been so preoccupied with the forty days and the forty nights in the wilderness and connecting the symbolism of the forty days to the forty days of Lent, to the forty days and nights of Moses on Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments, to the forty days and forty nights of Noah’s flood time and the restoration of the world through him and his family, to the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, that we have forgotten that this story is part of the greater account of Jesus’ baptism.

In our preaching, the Church has forgotten to strengthen the understanding that God, with the Holy Spirit, does not send people out into wilderness time to create believers, but that God, with the Holy Spirit, sends us out into the wilderness because we are believers. God sends Jesus into the wilderness with the confidence of a Father who knows his son is equipped to engage the wilderness.

So it is that we witness Jesus coming up out of the waters of baptism and the Spirit coming down from heaven and alighting on him. With Jesus, we hear God’s words, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased,” and then we witness the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness. This is not a time to discover if Jesus is the Son of God, but a time of witnessing who Jesus is as the Son of God.

Recent scholars who have noticed this shift in translating the story prefer to record this dialogue between the devil and Jesus in statements rather than questions. The devil is not confused about who Jesus is, and so he says, “Since you are the son of God, do this or that. Since you are the son of God, then you were there when the world was spoken into existence, so speak these stones into bread.”

It is like those questions we ask when we are children. Since God is all powerful, can God create a stone that is greater than what God can lift? Or, since angels have no substance, how many can stand on the head of a pin? Since Jesus rose from the dead, why isn’t our world better than it is? Since Jesus has the power to heal, why doesn’t he heal everybody?”

So, I bring this question to you today. What is the difference between testing and tempting? I ask this question because I believe this story is more about testing than it is about tempting. It is more about standing up for who we are than discovering who we are. It is more about determining what authority is rather than discovering whether Jesus has authority. This authority is more complicated than performing a few magic acts like speaking stones into bread or jumping over tall buildings in a single bound and has much more to do with bowing down before the powers that defy God in the world. It is much more about not being distracted and seduced by the splendor of power but living in a right relationship with God.

We probably all know the proverb, “If you give a hungry person a fish, you feed that person for a day, but if you teach hungry people to fish, you can feed them for a lifetime.” The challenge we witness today is, “Since you are the Son of God, solve the problem of world hunger. Speak these stones into bread.” But the real issue is not only about whether people are being fed, it is whether people know how to be fed and how to feed themselves.

Our challenge today is not about whether the Son of God can throw himself from the pinnacle and not be destroyed, but it is about our faith in God which does not depend on spectacular magic acts of entertainment for belief; an understanding that God’s power in our midst goes beyond the spectacular to the strength of a saving, grace-filled relationship with us. It is not about the glory and the splendor of the kingdoms and the power and authority that we might have within them, but it is all about God’s grace, that is God’s undeserved love, and our ability to live with one another. It is not always pretty; it is not the Hollywood romance; rather, it is part of what happens in our everyday lives, in the kind word, the loving touch, or the blessings we give and receive.

There is a difference here between test and temptation. In the middle of a test we are sometimes tempted to take short cuts, to make quick fixes without considering the systemic problems causing the need in the first place. A few years ago, Dr.  Craig Nessan wrote a book called, “Give Us This Day.” In it he shows that the problem with world hunger is not that we don’t have enough food in the world to feed all the people of the world; the problem is being able to distribute the food we have to the people who need it. He discusses what some of the problems we have in organizing that distribution. The problems seem so big that one is daunted in even considering whether or not to try to overcome the problem. Yet, in part, because of Dr. Nessan’s book and a deep concern and commitment from our Lutheran brothers and sisters, through organizations like Lutheran World Relief and the Lutheran World Hunger Appeal, in part because of you supporting our synod and our churchwide organization, and your faithful presence in the world, policies are being changed, work is being done, and we are finding ways of getting that indispensable food from one place to another.

I know I told you the story last year, but I am going to tell you again. While working with some young people studying this passage, I asked them why it was important for Jesus to not change the stones into bread. Those young people argued about it for a while, and then one of the young women said, “It’s sort of like when my parents have a dinner party. When the people first arrive, they may stand around and talk with a drink, and they may take some food from the hors d’oeuvre table, but no one takes plates and plates of food then.”

When I asked her how that helped us understand Jesus changing stones into bread, she said, “They don’t take a lot of food then because they know that the dinner is coming.”

When I pushed her on that she looked at me and said, “Well, duh! Jesus didn’t come to be an hors d’oeuvre for us, he came to be the whole meal.”

In the systems of how we live with one another, at the systemic level of what we need to live, there is more than food. So Jesus says, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” In order to live healthy lives, in healthy relationships, we need bread and God’s words of forgiveness, God’s assurance of grace, that is God’s undeserved love. We need the whole body of Christ, not just an hors d’oeuvre, to walk in the knowledge of God’s presence with us each and every day.

The Gospel story is an account of that assurance. It tells us that Jesus is the Son of God; even the devil recognizes this. The test is to see whether Jesus will go for the quick fix, immediate gratification, or whether Christ’s authority includes a longer plan that will address the systematic problems of our world.

So we begin our Lenten season this year, remembering that we too are being tested (not to discover whether we believe, but because we do believe) because together we are the Body of Christ. I know that you have heard the test come in various words, but the test is often worded something like this. “Since you are the body of Christ in the world, solve the world problems. Make all of the relationships of the world beautiful and pleasing. Make peace happen.”

If we just work at the surface level without considering the systemic problems like racism, classism, sexism, and ableism, we don’t get to the core of the problem. The symptoms may go away for a while, but the problems will continue to arise. It would be so nice if we could just pray everything away, but our life involvement in Christ is required. We, with Christ, must stand against the forces that draw us away from God and stand up for who and whose we are.

In this Lenten season, we will continue to walk together with the assurance of Christ’s presence. We will journey to the cross, and we will explore the many relationships we have in Christ’s resurrection world. We will be with Nicodemus in the night. We will be with the Syrophoenician woman at the well. We will be with the blind man who receives sight, and we will witness Lazarus rising from the dead. Each of these meetings have complicated systemic problems that are raised for us to consider as we live into God’s word and God’s world with God’s people. May you know God’s blessings in this Lenten time.