This morning, as is customary on the First Sunday of Lent, our Gospel reading tells the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. St Mark’s account of this is very brief and doesn’t go into any detail about how Jesus was tempted, but what it does do, as does the gospel of St Matthew, is tell us that Jesus’ ministry began after John the Baptist had been arrested. This fits with John’s own words that he must decrease whilst Jesus increased, but why should this be? We know that John was sent to prepare the way for Jesus, but why couldn’t he have continued his ministry of baptism and sent people to Jesus as we’re told he did with some of his own disciples?
I think the answer to that lies in the similarity between John and Jesus. We’re told in the Gospels that many people thought John was the Messiah, and that after John’s death, many people thought that Jesus was John come back to life. So there must have been a great similarity between them to lead to this kind of confusion. But any confusion about who was the Messiah would have inevitably led to confusion amongst people about who to follow. And notwithstanding the similarities in the message that John and Jesus were proclaiming, any confusion about who to follow would also inevitably have led to some people following the wrong path and potentially being led astray. And so the reality seems to have been not so much a case that John had to decrease so that Jesus could increase, but that John’s ministry had to come to an end before Jesus’ ministry began so that the field would be left clear for Jesus to go about his work.
One of the great problems in the Church, and for the Church too, is just this kind of confusion. All Christians and all Churches proclaim the same Gospel, or they should do at least, but because there are so many different Churches, so many different denominations of the Church and so many different factions within the same Church, the same denomination, and even within individual congregations, people can be confused about who is right and who to listen to. In fact people can become so confused that they give up trying to listen to anyone and simply make their own mind up about what’s right and wrong, which makes the situation even worse because it creates yet another voice, within the Church, another ‘truth’ vying for attention with all the others, and even more confusion. And none of this helps the mission of the Church, in fact it can’t do anything other than hinder the Church’s mission to fulfil its Christ given Great Commission to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all people.
I think in many ways we can see the problem of disunity in the Church as stemming from the Church’s individual and collective failure to resist the very things Jesus himself was tempted with in the wilderness. A failure to live by God’s Word, a failure to resist putting God to the test, and a failure to serve God alone.
As I said earlier, St Mark doesn’t tell us how Jesus was tempted but I’m sure we all know the story. Jesus’ first temptation was to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger, and Jesus’ answer was,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
How many people in the Church though, don’t live by every word that comes from the mouth of God? And by that, I don’t simply mean how many people in the Church sin because we’re all sinners. But how many people excuse their sins? How many people in the Church do things that God says we shouldn’t, or don’t do things that God says we should, but say that they haven’t done anything wrong and are doing what they should do as Christians? How many people teach their own values and pass those off as Christian values, or twist God’s Word to make God say what they want God to say, in effect wanting to make God live by their words rather than trying to live their own lives according to God’s Word? These things happen all the time in the Church and amongst Christians and when they do, aren’t we seeing people trying to turn stones into bread? Trying to turn the stones of their own words into the bread of God’s Word? And what does this do except set a bad example of how Christians should live, and confuse people because they don’t know who or what’s right and wrong and who or what to listen to?
Jesus’ second temptation was to throw himself from the top of the temple in order to prove that he was the Son of God. And this time Jesus’ answer was,
“‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
But again, how many people in the Church give in to this temptation and do put God to the test? How many people have we all met who’ve left a church, a congregation, or changed denomination, or even left the Church completely and say they’ve lost their faith? And how many of these people have done these things simply because things haven’t gone the way they want them to?
People do this for all sorts of reasons, perhaps because they think their prayers haven’t been answered or because they don’t agree with what’s going on in a congregation or a denomination or even the Church itself. But in the vast majority of cases that I’ve come across, what the problem has really been, is that people haven’t got, or can’t get their own way. And this goes back to the first temptation, people thinking that their way is God’s way and that anyone who doesn’t agree with their way isn’t following God’s way. In this second temptation, the tempter, the devil, told Jesus to throw himself from the top of the temple to prove that he’s the Son of God by quoting from scripture:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you’, and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
But if people leave churches, or the Church, because they can’t get their own way, isn’t what they’re doing tantamount to saying, “I’m right, I’m on God’s side, and I expect God to uphold me by letting me have my own way. And if I can’t have my own way then I want nothing more to do with God?” But what is that if it’s not putting God to the test?
Jesus’ final temptation in the wilderness was to worship the devil in return for earthly power and glory. And in this case Jesus’ answer was,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
But how many people in the Church and how often does the Church itself succumb to the lure of earthly power and glory? How many people in congregations are given an office, a role in the Church that gives them some kind of status and authority, and then use that office and authority to throw their weight around? How many accusations and instances of bullying and abuse by those in authority in the Church have their been? And on a larger scale, what are the arguments between differing traditions in the Church and denominations of the Church other than attempts to pressure people into doing things in a certain way by saying what amounts to, “We’re right, they’re wrong, so ignore them and follow us because we know what God wants and anyone who disagrees with us doesn’t.” But aren’t arguments of that kind about influence over others and so, ultimately, about power? Aren’t they also examples of Christians doing, or at least trying to do the very thing that Jesus says Christians mustn’t do and ‘Lord it’ over others?
When I hear about these things I sometimes think of the words of a man not often noted for his religious tolerance, Oliver Cromwell. He once wrote to the Kirk, the Church in Scotland, saying,
“Is it infallibly according to the Word of God, everything that you say? I beseech you, in the very bowels of Christ, to consider the possibility that you may be mistaken.”
Why is it that so many people in the Church seem to think that everything they do say and do is infallibly according to the word of God, and that anyone who disagrees with what they say and do are the ones who are mistaken?
We’re called to worship God alone and to follow the teaching and example of Christ but so long as we try to turn the stones of our own words into the bread of God’s Word, so long as we put God to the test by insisting on having our own way in the Church, and so long as we play politics in the Church and with the Church for earthly power and status, we’ll neither worship God as we should nor follow Christ as we should. And so long as we do these things and play these games and fail to resist these temptations, we, the Church, will always struggle to fulfil our Great Commission to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all people because all our self-righteousness, and petty squabbling and lusting for influence and authority does is confuses people about who and what is right and wrong and about who they should listen to and follow.
John had to decrease so that Christ could increase and we, as individual Christians, as Churches and as a Church need to follow suit, we need to decrease so that Christ can increase. Perhaps a good, collective Lenten discipline for the Church and everyone in it would be to do that so that people will hear a lot less of our confused and confusing voices and a lot more of his voice.
Amen.
Propers for Lent 1, 18th February 2024
Entrance Antiphon
When he calls to me, I will answer; I will rescue him and give him honour.
Long life and contentment will be his.
The Collect
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)
Genesis 9:8-15
Psalm 25:4-9
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:12-15
RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1 -9
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 