F.R.O.G.
Who remembers the WWJD Christian marketing campaign of the
late 90’s? It’s still around. You can still find bracelets and hats and shirts
that ask you “What Would Jesus Do”? I think it’s a good question. As followers
of Jesus we should be constantly examining our life against the example of
Jesus.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that Jesus would have been in
a lot of the situations that I find myself in. I don’t mean to say that I’m
that terrible of a person. No, it’s more that Jesus never had a car loan or a
mortgage. And I think that Jesus would be more concerned about the fact that
there are people that lack bread than my moral dilemma over the cost of the
bread I buy. I think Jesus would be more concerned with economic systems that
oppress workers and food production systems that are dependent on migrant
workers who are often treated as criminals.
No, I don’t think Jesus much cares which bread I buy, and
I think there are a lot of things I do that WWJD is simply not the right
question to ask or statement to make. So, a while back I began to look for some
other way to demonstrate my faith through a kitschy acronym, and I found this
hat. It has a cute little frog on the front and says, “Fully Rely On God” on
the back.
Indulge me if you will, but I think that the truth of the
gospel today can be revealed if we think of FROG as the answer to WWJD? That
is, of course, a broad generalization, and there is a lot more to the gospel
than that – especially on this the first Sunday of Lent!
I say that because in this story we have Jesus facing
temptation at the end of his 40 days of preparation, whereas we are just
beginning ours. While it certainly should encourage our devotion at the
beginning of Lent, there really are two other issues at stake here – and they
aren’t the choice between giving up red meat or chocolate.
The issues at stake here are the identity of Jesus, and
what God is doing in and through him. Jesus was just baptized by John and named
and claimed by God. Then God’s Spirit lead him into the wilderness for the
purpose of temptation. OK, already we’ve got all kind of stuff to unpack here.
The first is what does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God? Then, why would
God tempt him? Was it to test him, or teach him something? Is it to prove something
to us? For that matter, what kind of hat was he wearing?
Ok, so he wasn’t wearing a hat. But he could have been –
metaphorically speaking. We all wear different “hats” from time to time,
depending on the roles that we fill. Sometimes it can feel like there are too
many, other times maybe not enough. In fact, H.A.T. (since we’re going with the
acronym thing today) is also a way to describe the situation that Jesus may
have found himself in after 40 days of fasting and prayer: Hungry, Angry, and
Tired.
I can remember being told in a seminar years ago, that
those three were a recipe for bad decisions, and while they don’t line up
exactly with the temptations of Jesus they do make a pretty good connection
between his experience and ours. In his story, Jesus encounters the Tempter
directly, something he tells us to pray that we never should face.
Even so, Mathew’s Gospel does not mythologize the Devil or
give him some purpose here beyond misleading Jesus. In fact, the word
translated as “Devil” literally means “One who misleads”. His only role is to
try to drive a wedge between God the Father and Jesus the Son. For that reason,
we really just have to focus on the humanity of Jesus in this story. And
although the Devil seems to expect Jesus to be able to make stones from bread,
call angels into action, and shift the authority of God to him through worship
what we see in Jesus is a man who refuses to do anything that does not give
glory to God.
Over and over he is tempted, but (as one author put it)
these are just variations on a theme. Again and again Jesus answers the
temptation to be like God with the recognition that he is already involved in
what God is doing. And in this story God is demonstrating that power is held in
trust by Jesus. Power is kept in check by the trust in something beyond his
mortal flesh.
And this power drove him to turn to scripture and proclaim
that a person is more than what she or he can consume. This power drove him to
turn to scripture and say that our actions do not call God’s will into order.
We do not test God. Instead we move in response to God’s grace and mercy. And
this power drove him to reject the idea that there is anyone or any power other
than God that has authority over God’s good and broken creation!
And for all of that, Jesus is rewarded and taken care of
by God’s angels.
So, here’s the thing. As much as I want this to be about
us, it’s really all about Jesus. As much as I want Jesus to be some spiritual
version of a ninja who sneaks in and sends the devil packing, this story is not
about us. None of us will be challenged with the chance to re-order the cosmos
to satisfy our needs, or call angels to our aid, or exercise dominion over all
we survey.
We are, however, called to examine our lives against the
one who was tempted and yet did not sin. Just as the gospel bears witness to
Jesus as the one who fully relied on God, so the Psalmist echoes our stories
throughout history. And we can be assured that these words are true – that God
will forgive us and redeem us and protect us even when the waters rise!
That’s easily said when your house wasn’t flooded, yet it
remains the truth. I know because I’ve seen it in the work that we are doing
with our PDA Teams! I know because I’ve heard it in your voices when we visit in
the hospital and when we share prayer requests. I’ve seen it in the passion for
supporting our ministry partners at CUPS by selling parking while everyone else
was partying at Mardi Gras, and then again in the care many of you took for
God’s property when all was said and done. And I saw it last Wednesday when we
came together with our sister congregation, Grace, on Wednesday to receive
ashes and remember how limited we are.
Yet in our coming together we find out that we, like
Jesus, are already wrapped up in what God is doing in the world. And the more
we can rely on God the less we will be misled. The more we can recognize the
value of people apart from what they produce, what they consume, and how they
seek satisfaction in the world, the more we can recognize how God is already
providing for us all. The more we can recognize that being vulnerable is what
opens us to God’s presence, the less we will see those who are different as
threats. And the more we can let go of our need to control, the more we can see
that God has already entrusted us to care for the earth and all the resources
that we share.
In the end, fully relying on God is not the same as being
dependent – even though sometimes we act like we just want God to take over and
fix everything for us. In the words of Paul Tillich, “We long for a Christ of
power. Yet if He were to come and transform us and our world, we should have to
pay the one price which we could not pay: we would have to lose our freedom,
our humanity, and our spiritual dignity.”
Fully relying on God does not mean that we expect God to
do everything for us. It simply means that we don’t expect that we can do
everything ourselves. It means we make it a point to become less self-absorbed
and more connected to what God is doing in the world, and the best place to
start is with the person closest to you now. Then the next place to go is to
the one that you would rather be furthest from.
That may be a scary thought, but you are God’s beloved,
baptized child. And when you go out wearing your various hats, even the ones
that leave you hungry, angry and tired, just remember to fully and completely
rely on God.
I pray that it may be so with me, and that it may be so
with you. And to God be the glory, now and always. Amen!