LENT 1-C, February 29, 2004

So tell me, what would you have done if you had been in Jesus’ shoes in today's Gospel reading? You've been on a retreat, a long one, forty days. Food and drink have not only been sparse, scarce. They have been non- existent -- the better to keep your mind to the task on hand: preparing yourself mentally, physically and spiritually, as you are about to begin your ministry. By the time day forty rolls around, the day you've set ahead of time to end your self-imposed exile in the desert, you are famished. Your body tells you that you can't wait much longer to get something inside your stomach, to get something to eat, anything. Even liver and onions would seem like a gourmet meal.

At that moment there would be no such thing as a lousy meal. Food is food and all you want -- or at least all your body wants -- is to have at it. But you're still out there in the desert. And there is no food out there. So your stomach will have to wait a little bit longer. And then, Bingo! You realize there is an immediate solution to your problem. You don't have to wait until you get back into town to purchase some bread. You can make bread right out there in the desert. You can even use the stone you have been using as a pillow each night. You're the Son of God, by God! All it would take is a word, a touch, even a thought, and ZAP! the stone becomes bread and your hunger is satisfied -- right then when your hunger is at its peak; right there in the desert with no one else around to see what you did for yourself.

So what would you do if you were in Jesus' shoes in today's Gospel reading? I don't know what you would do. And I don't know what I would do. But I do know I would be sorely tempted to turn that stone pillow into bread. Forty days without food? Heavens! I'm tempted and I'm hungry after four hours without food. Four days would almost tempt me to sell my soul to the devil. Forty days and I'd probably give it to him with no questions asked, free of charge, all for a loaf of bread and a glass of water. And yet Jesus said "No! Can't do it. Won't do it. It's not my style. It's not my way."

That was not Jesus’ way. But is it our way? Is it our way, our style, to give in to temptation when the going really gets rough, when outside pressures are strong, when internal needs scream for attention? We are all tempted every day to do that which we know we should not do and to not do that which we know we should do. As the old confession in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer has it, every day we can honestly confess that "we have not done that which we ought to have done and we have left undone that which we ought to have done."

And then that old confession adds an interesting phrase. "And there is no health in us." "And there is no health in us." As a Christian when we do that which we know we should not do, we are ill. We are not well. When we leave undone that which we should do, we are also not well. We are not in good, Christian health. We are spiritually sick. In other words, the struggle with temptation is not a struggle with the devil. It is a struggle with ourselves. It is a struggle for spiritual health, a struggle to be well.

And as with physical health, so with spiritual health: the temptation is to be satisfied with being in pretty good health, fairly good shape. We'd all like to be in excellent health, excellent physical shape. But we know what that takes. It takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline. Most of us are simply not that self-disciplined. Yes, the grace of God is necessary as well. But God will not do for us that which we are unwilling to do for ourselves. God will not keep me in either physical or spiritual shape if I do not do my part. Jesus did not overcome those temptations out in the desert simply because of self-discipline, nor was the grace of God totally responsible. Jesus did His part. God the Father did God’s part.

God expects us to do our part in both physical and spiritual discipline. That is why the church specifically sets aside the season of Lent as a time to practice both spiritual and physical discipline. Remember Jesus' experience out there in the desert. It was both a spiritual and physical retreat. There was fasting to discipline the physical person and there was prayer and meditation to discipline the spiritual person. Jesus was preparing his total being for what he was about to do – preparing his body, his mind and his spirit.

Now this is not a plug for our Lenten program on Thursday evenings during which we will learn more about different forms of spiritual discipline, although I do encourage all of you to participate. No, that’s a lie. It is a plug. But it is also a reminder of what the church is reminding us. That is, in order not only to resist the temptations that come our way to avoid living out our faith as fully as we could and should, but also to give us the strength to in fact be living examples of a faith-filled person, we need to learn self-discipline. If, as I mentioned last week, others are to see the face of God when they see us, if they are to see God living in us, then we need to live a disciplined life, like Jesus, disciplined in body, mind and spirit.

The disciplined life is not easy. Scott Peck calls the disciplined life "The Road Less Traveled." And it is. And it is less traveled for one very simply reason: we are lazy. In fact, Peck says that laziness is the original sin. We do not do that which we know we should do and we do that which we should not, not because of irresistible temptations but simply because we are lazy. We take the easy way out, the lazy person's way. We want the quick solution to our problems. The Tempter asks: "Do you want to be like God?" "Sure," says the woman. "No problem," says the Tempter. "Just take a bite of this fruit and your dreams will come true."

Walk through the checkout lines at the grocery stores. For every article on some movie star there is another article on how to lose ten pounds in two weeks eating whatever you want. There are articles on how to become rich overnight, how to own your own dream home in ten easy steps, and on and on. The disciplined life is not only not for sale, it is looked upon as foolish and needless. Who needs to be disciplined when we can have whatever we want and have it at so very little cost: two short weeks, ten easy steps, one little bite. Take the yellow brick road to the new Garden of Eden where everything comes easy and is almost free. Now that's the road to travel!

That, of course, is not the road we are asked to travel as Christians. There is no easy way around the temptations that bombard us every day, temptations to sell out and sell ourselves short. The road to Calvary began in the desert and ended on the cross. The only way Jesus could travel that road was by means of a disciplined life -- body, mind and spirit.

The same is no less true for you and for me. The only way we can overcome temptations to selfishness, temptations to putting personal goals, our wants and desires ahead of loving and serving God and other people, is through self-discipline, walking that less-traveled road, by the sweat of our brow, as the Genesis story reminds us. Again, the reason why Jesus spent forty days walking that road through the desert in prayer and fasting was to prepare himself for the temptations that would eventually come, temptations to preserve himself --body, mind, and spirit -- as he walked that road to Calvary.

Resisting turning stones into bread, as hungry as he was, was easy compared to giving in to the temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane to chuck it all in and take the easy way out. If he could make it forty days without food, he could make it to the cross. But to make it to the cross Jesus first had to be disciplined enough to make the tough decisions, the difficult choices all along that road.

And so do we. The reason why we are encouraged to discipline ourselves during this Lenten season is to train ourselves to be able to resist the really difficult temptations that come our way in life. The road we are asked to travel is full of temptations to do what we ought not to do and not do what we ought to do. It is full of temptations to sacrifice present health for future health, to take the lazy person's road, the seemingly easy way.

What would you do if you were in Jesus shoes in today's Gospel? I can't answer that for you. I can only answer that for myself. And if my life at present gives me a clue as to what I would do, I'd probably sell out. I am not disciplined enough at present to say "no" to that to which I should say "no" and "yes" to that which I should say "yes." Too often I find myself taking the more traveled, easier road.

That is why Lent is so important for me as a time for learning even more self-discipline. For it is only through self-discipline and the grace of God that we can always do that which we ought to do and not do that which we ought not to do so that there will be health in us. I pray that we all use this Lenten season as a time to grow in body, mind and spirit; to learn to live a more disciplined, healthy life, to walk that road less traveled.