A new defense

Luke 4:1-13

Last week we talked about the part of the Lord's Prayer where Jesus prays "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  Today's story begins with the strangest line.  This line is recorded in three of the gospels.  It says that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness - and it was in this wilderness that Jesus was tempted

Sometimes we find ourselves in the wilderness.  We call them dry spells or desert times - the times when our faith is emptier than we would like.

This is a significant theological point.  We would like to believe that Satan is the one who leads us into the wilderness - but in this case at least, it is God's Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness where He is tempted.

I want to tell you about two instances in my university days when my faith was improved greatly.  The first one is very simple.

I had a lecturer at my university that I absolutely hated.  He was a grouchy, mean old man.  He was a jerk.  And he taught about the Bible.  This never made any sense to me, because I'm one of those crazy hippies that believe that Christianity should make you a nicer person and that at a Christian University everyone should at least try to be nice.  I spent the first few months of class just fuming with anger.  But, I got to know him a bit better.  His heart was in the right place, he just couldn't convince his face that he was happy.  His wife was nice and smily and friendly ... and one day in class he stated that his wife smiled enough for both of them.  It was a bit unorthodox, but it made sense in its own way.

When he talked about this passage, he talked about God leading us through the desert places.  he said, "Most Christians believe that the only thing to do in a desert place is to get out of the desert place.  This is stupid.  You are all so stupid.  It's only in the desert place that you LEARN ANYTHING.  When you are in a desert place, a dry spell, a wilderness - your job is not to figure out how to get out of it ... you job is to learn something while you are there.  I have been in desert places for years at a time - and God has taught me much."

This was a real revelation for me.  I had always assumed that when things were bad, or I was sad, or things weren't going my way that it was because I had sinned or done something wrong.  It was a real revelation for me that I might be in this place because God wanted to teach me something.

The second is a bit harder.  It's more personal.  When I was in university, I decided I didn't want to be a Christian any more.

I had a lot of Bible classes, and I was taught a very strict, hard theology.  People around me used the Bible to advance the causes of hate.  They used scripture to put women down to a lower position.  They quoted scripture to prove their point.  They used scripture to show that they were right and everyone else was wrong.  They believed that if you didn't agree on every tiny theological idea that you would burn in hell for all eternity.  It was during one these Bible classes that I realized I didn't believe any of these things, and that those around me really did believe it.

I was studying to be a missionary, and I realized that to be a missionary I probably needed to be a Christian. I went to the head of my department, and I sat in his office and I told him that I planned to leave the department. That was what I planned to do.  To get a form signed.  And then I told him that I planned to leave the university.  That wasn't planned.  Then I told him that I was leaving the Christian faith as well. And that wasn't planned.  And then I started to cry, because I hadn't heard myself say the words out loud before that I didn't want to be a Christian any more.  And it certainly wasn't my plan to sit in the head of my department's office and cry.  I told him that I had learned all of these things about the Bible, and I didn't want to believe in a book filled with hate.

And Dr. Smith, he was perfectly organized.  His office was perfectly neat, and all of his books were organized alphabetically.  And at the center of his desk was a large scheduling calendar, with each day and time filled in down to the quarter of an hour.  And Dr. Smith looked across his perfectly neat desk, in his perfectly neat office at the absolute mess of a student sitting in a torn hoody with months of beard stubble forming something less than a beard - and he pushed his perfectly neat scheduler aside.  He said, "Michael, let's meet twice a week and read the Bible together.  My schedule is perfectly empty.  You name any time, and I will meet you then.  If you still feel this way in a couple of weeks, I will sign the form and let you leave the department.  We met for lunch twice a week for months and read the Bible together.  It was a different Bible than I had read before.  We talked about how Jesus turned the world upside down, about how God's grace is greater than all of our sins.  We prayed together, and each time it got easier and easier to pray again.  I remembered why I had fallen in love with God in the first place.

And so, when I read this story of Jesus being led into the wilderness - and of the devil using scripture to tempt him away from God's plan; it rings true for me.  It was scripture that pushed me away from God, and it was scripture that brought me back.  

Last week we talked about prayer, and tonight we talk about reading the Bible.

I love the Bible.  I love reading the words of Jesus.  I love the way that those words challenge me.  The Bible is filled with wonderful stories, words to challenge us to live in a better way, and songs and prayers that can lift up the worst day.

But the Bible is filled with lots of other words as well.

There is one joke about a man who was in dire straights and opened the bible randomly. His eyes fell on Mt 5:27 "...and he went and hanged himself." The poor fellow slammed the book closed and thought, "that can't be right". So he opened the bible again and his eyes fell on Luke 10:37, "...Go and do likewise."

As the devil proved in tempting Jesus, you can take out random verses from the Bible to prove any point you want.  If you pick and choose and slice verses away from their books and context.  My mother always warned us when we were growing up that if someone ever came and talked about religion, that we should always listen to what verses they were quoting.  If they gave very strong value to one verse over the others, it was a clear sign that it was a cult and we should get away from them.

When one of my friends fell into a sect in American a few years ago, we sat down and talked about it.  They were pushing a verse in the Bible where Jesus said you should love God and the church more than your family - that God's family is your new family.  They were trying to get her to stop talking to friends and family.  Sadly, she saw these words, saw that they were in the Bible, and fell for the trap.

We need to know this book.  We need to know the Big picture the Bible paints, and we need to know why we believe the things we do.  If someone is picking out a few verses to prove some point that sounds wrong, you need to be able to show them the bigger picture.

But, let me be clear, that you will never know this book well enough.  Don't let that discourage you from starting.  I know that many people just feel that they don't know the Bible well.  While a group Bible study or some Bible classes can help you understand the context and history better - there is nothing than sitting and reading the Bible every day.  Whenever I am troubled, I can always pause and ask myself when the last time was that I just sat and read from the Bible.  Usually the answer is , more than a few days.  When you sit and read the Bible, God challenges you in different ways every time.  I have been reading the Bible for years, and I always find a new story or am hit by a verse that never seemed special before.

[Olia Kryvycka will come and say some words about reading the Bible]

This book can sit at your house and never be more than a book or it can be the book that changes your life.  It can hold up the short leg of a couch, or it can hold up your life. It's your decision.

These words can just be words to you.  They can be boring words - nothing more than ink on a page ... or these words can bring life to you and everyone you love.

We read scripture through the lens of history, reason, and tradition.  We will always read scripture through some lens.  My eyeglass lens help me see clearly.  Without them I can't see anything.  If I didn't need them, I wouldn't wear them - but I do need them, so I do wear them.

We aren't living in the Holy Land during the first century.  We live in Ukraine in the 21st century. It is important for us, when we study and reflect, to come as close as we can to understanding the meaning behind these words.  We search out the history - what was happening in that country when these words were written.  We read through the lens of tradition.  When we hear some theological idea, we need to ask how long people have believed that.  There are some theological ideas that are popular in America - that no Christian believed before the 1890s.  We can read the words of the desert fathers and the early church councils and Martin Luther and John Wesley and see what the church has believed for hundreds of years and what are our modern inventions.  We read the Bible through the lens of reason.  If someone reads some Bible verse and gives some crazy idea about it ... that idea might be crazy.  It's important to think through what we read.

These are the three lenses that we read the Bible through.

But, here is the new defense.  These words they change our lives.  They call us out of darkness.  These words they fight the powers of evil and wickedness - but only if we read them, and only if we live them.

I use this phrase a lot, but it's true.  You might be the only Bible that someone will ever read.

In some African American traditions, they often end prayers with the words, "And Lord, help us to walk your words today."

Our new defense is that we live out these words.  Our lives lived in pursuit of the words of Christ give power to those words that he spoke two thousand years ago.  It is important that we know these words, that we can hold out against any attacks we might here - but it is much more important that we try to live out these words, that the attacks won't be able to hurt us.

Lord, help us to walk your words today. Amen.