Don't Test, Don't Stray

Matthew 4:1-11

One of the things that experts keep predicting will become irrelevant in the near future, if it hasn’t already, is the printed map. Instead of unfolding a map and reading the symbols, people will just check the GPS on their phone and listen to a voice tell them where they are, when to turn, and when they have arrived at their destination.

I am old enough to know how important it is to read a map, which I learned to do when I was in the Boy Scouts. And the first step in reading a map is getting it oriented. It is important to know the difference between north and south, east and west, when reading a map. It is especially important when you are in open country and using either a compass or the sun to get your bearings.

Following a map is challengingif we don't know where the road before you may take you. It is also hard if you don't know where it is that you want to go. As the old saying goes, “If you don't know where you are going, any road will do.”

Most of the time when we look at a map, we put “north” to the top. This is the way we look at local maps, state maps, and even the globe. If we are in the field, we might then turn our body to the north so that we are oriented to the map. I said, most of the time. When Pam and I went to the Charles Wesley Society meeting in Kentucky a few years ago, the local map affirmed its connection to the past by putting “south” at the top of the map. We had to keep turning the map upside down to make any sense of it.

One of the ways we talk about the Christian life is that it is a journey of faith. For the past several weeks, as we worked our way through the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, we learned that God is with us always. Character matters. Holiness defines our character. And holiness is revealed in love. During Lent, we are going to learn how to read the map we have been given, so that we can go on to perfection in love.

It is important for us to read this map correctly, because this map is the only one which can tell us how to get to where we are to go. Unlike the wisdom of the world when it comes to matters of the spirit, not just any road will do to get us to the kingdom of God. The path we need to follow is the one declared by John the Baptist, a road which has filled the valleys, leveled the hills, and made straight the crooked paths – the road which Jesus travels. Otherwise, the map we are using, even if it is the right map, may be turned upside down, and it won't make any sense.

Since we don't all start from the same place in life, and since we are all at different places on the map, there are two classic ways we can become oriented so that we can all read the map together, and follow its directions to get to the right destination. There is an orientation we all need, and which we can all use as Christians, so that we can read the Bible in such a way that we don't get lost.

One of the signs that we are lost is when we get distracted by the side issues and the false trails which lead us away from God and into sin. We are lost when we search the Bible for ways to divide us, rather than searching the Bible for ways for us to become one in Christ. We are lost when we search the Bible for signs that we are blessed personally, but ignore the signs which seek the blessings of our neighbors. We are on the right path when it leads us to the perfect love revealed in Jesus Christ, who loved us while we were still sinners.

The good news about these two classic ways is that they are not dependent on our theological reasoning, our denominational traditions, or our personal experiences. It doesn’t matter if you were raised in an evangelical, a reformed, or a catholic approach to the faith. It doesn’t matter if you have had a dramatic coming to faith or if you can’t identify a time when you didn’t know that you were a child of God’s grace. Like I said, as Christians, we are all over the map. But these classic ways can help all of us be properly oriented to our journey of faith as we follow the map we call the Bible.

Are you ready? I am going to name the orientation process, and I want you all to repeat it, so you will know it, remember it, and use it. Here we go: Giving up, letting go. Let’s do it again, so we can remember how to be oriented. Giving up, letting go. Again: giving up, letting go. These are the two ways we can orient ourselves to read our map.

When we know this, it shouldn’t surprise us that when it comes to Lent, our season for being intentional about following Jesus, these are the two main options for observing it: giving up and letting go. When we come before God, when we commit ourselves to become disciples of Jesus Christ, the way to understand the map is giving up and letting go. Otherwise, Lent becomes little more than a time to somehow pretend that chocolate has something to do with our eternal destination and glory.

Of course, it isn't enough to be able to repeat (say it with me) “giving up, letting go.” We have to know what it means so we can actually put into practice “giving up and letting go.” Otherwise, we risk testing God to prove to us why we should be accountable to God. Otherwise, we risk straying from the path God has prepared for us.

We can spend a lifetime on trying to understand “giving up and letting go”, so this morning I am just going to help you with the first step, on how toturn the map the right way.

The orientation of “giving up” is focused on the testing of our intention. This is what Jesus said in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, that the intention of our heart makes a difference to God. “Giving up” is declaring that it is my intention to engage in a discipline which includes stripping away anything that might get between loving God and loving my neighbors.

Classically, when we think of “giving up,” we think of the monks living in the desert. They lived a very simple life, eating simple foods, observing simple rituals, and sometimes taking vows of silence so that even talking wouldn’t get in the way of focusing on Jesus. When “giving up” reaches this level, we call it “mortification,” a literal losing their life in the world in order to gain their life in the next. But this form of discipline, I believe, puts an over-emphasis on the individual’s relationship with God, while neglecting their relationship with the neighbors we are called to love.

The example of the monks does have the advantage of helping us to see that the opposite of “giving up” is “self-indulgence.” This is a problem we are more likely to deal with when it comes to loving our neighbors. Self-indulgence is revealed when we base our identify on the stuff we have, instead of on our relationship with God and our neighbors. This is why, during Lent, we believe we can move closer to God by giving up something, by becoming less self-indulgent. Giving up lets us test our intention to live as disciples.

The other classic way to get oriented is “letting go.” This is what underlies the Beatitudes, in the Sermon on the Mount. The orientation of “letting go” is focused on trusting God, rather than trusting in the things of this world. “Letting go” is believing that God will bless us. “Letting go” is declaring that it is my intention to engage in a discipline of letting go of control over how God may use me next. We may also call this submitting ourselves to the will of God revealed in Jesus Christ, and doing what the Holy Spirit leads us to do. Because we have submitted ourselves by letting go, we do what God wants us to do without question or reservation.

Classically, this is how we would describe the saints. The saints are the people whose intention is always do the right and holy thing because they have the expectation that God will bless us in the doing. We “let go and let God” work through us. The saints seek to do the will of God in every moment, in every action, for every person, in every situation, for as long as God gives them life. But this form of discipline, I believe, puts an over-emphasis on what we do in God’s name to love our neighbors, which can sometimes lead to the neglect of our relationship with God.

It is the “burned out and frustrated saints” who reveal to us that the opposite of “letting go” is “hanging on.” When we hang on to our image as saints, we neglect our confession and repentance. When we hang on to our particular ministries, we may be declaring that God needs us more than we need God. When we hang on to holy habits only because they are holy habits, we may be trying to keep God in a comfortable and comforting box. When we hang on to our sins, we may have a need to prove we are worthy enough for God. “Hanging on” for the reason of hanging on has the effect of denying the sacrifice and grace of Jesus Christ.

This is why, during Lent, we have the emphasis on confessing our sins, accepting our mortality, and humbling ourselves before God. These are all calls to “let go” of our claims of being good enough, to “let go” of our sense of not being accountable before God, and even to “let go” of our sense of value before the Creator of the Universe to whom we owe everything.

In our reading, the devil comes to Jesus after forty days of fasting, after forty days of giving up food and fellowship so that all other obstacles to perfect love would become apparent. In Hebrew, Satan means “the adversary,” the one who tests the intentions behind the actions. That was Satan’s role in the Book of Job, and that is what Satan is doing in our reading with Jesus.

Satan comes to Jesus in the wilderness, after a time of giving up and letting go. Satan comes because it is not enough that Jesus will do the right things according to the Law. Satan comes because it is not enough that Jesus do the right things according to the prophets. As the Son of God, Jesus has to have the right heart, the right intention, the right and pure will of God motivating his actions and relationships.

Satan comes to Jesus to test his intention. There are three tests presented, and each test seeks to answer two questions. The first question is:“Even though we are called to depend on God, is it ever right to make God prove that God is dependable for us?” The question behind this question is, “Should we ever give up on God?” The second question is:“Even though we are called to live into the kingdom of God, is straying away from God’s will ever the right way to build the kingdom?” The question behind this question is, “Should we ever let go of God?”

As disciples, we are faced with the same challenges to our heart. We are tested by Satan to depend on things which are not God. We are tested by Satan to build a kingdom in the name of God, even as we are tempted to use means which are not from God, or in keeping with God's will revealed in Jesus.

Giving up, letting go. These orientations keep us from testing God and from straying from God. These orientations help us turn the Bible right-side up so we can follow Jesus into his perfect love and kingdom. These orientations help us get on the right path to do the will of God, and to be disciples of Jesus Christ. If we are not giving up and letting go, then we will be wandering in the desert instead of making our way to the home God has promised us.

It is often impossible, as well as unnecessary, to think of “giving up” and “letting go” as two separate practices. Sometimes, the only way to give something up is to let it go. And sometimes, the only way to let go of something is to give it up, to hand it over to God. Whether together or apart, these are the ways to get your map turned right-side up, so you can find how to get from wherever you are to the perfect love of Jesus Christ.

This is the season for us to test our hearts and our intentions as disciples. You may be comfortable in your theology, confident in your practices, and committed to your church. Those are all good things, but they are not enough for going on to perfection in love. We also need to be disciplined enough to test our hearts. If we don’t, our temptation will beto test God and to stray from God.

Lent is the season for us to give up and to let go. Lent is the season for us to walk the path from wherever you are to the perfect love of God and our neighbors, on earth as it is in heaven!

FWS 2112 “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”