Luke 4:1-13 The temptation of Jesus

God is ubiquitous. God is always available. The problem is, we are not.

Life is full of temptations. Thankfully, unlike Jesus, we do not have to wander the desert for forty days with no food or water. But then again, that kind of temptation we might more readily recognize as temptation. Big temptations are easy to see, it’s the little ones. The ones that happen every single day that are a lot harder to spot and a lot more difficult to avoid.

There are so many things in this world that we take for granted will always just be there and available to us. Most of us for instance don’t worry about finding food. It’s everywhere. If you’re hungry, feel free to go down into the fellowship hall kitchen, I’m sure you can find something there to eat. You might not even need to leave your seat though, ask someone next to you with a purse or a handbag they probably have some candy, a granola bar or who knows what in their purse or backpack. We don’t worry about having enough air to breath, there’s plenty of that to go around. We are insanely blessed we don’t even have to worry about having clean water to drink.

We assume so many things are always available to us and as such we don’t think about them a whole lot, like God. We don’t spend our days searching for that which we already know is there but we also… can overlook that it’s even there.

God is ubiquitous. A fancy way of saying: God is everywhere all the time.

How much value do we place on things that are readily available, immediately at our disposal all the time? When was the last time you got charged for the air you breathe? We pay once a month for all the water we could possibly ever drink and then some. Potable water is so ubiquitous in our country that we bathe with it! Over 700 million people on this planet lack access to safe drinking water and we’re bathing in it!

You might not think about that but in areas where there are water shortages, they do not bathe with the same water they drink. Water that is safe for drinking is kept safe and sealed away. And here… we wash our cars with drinkable water. A couple of years ago the WV UMC Annual Conference started investigating more into McDowell County, WV where 40% of their children do not receive enough food to eat on a daily basis. About 700 households in the towns Anwalt, Gary, and Leckie do not have steady access to clean drinking water due to failing infrastructure. Residents of Indian Creek in Wyoming County have been dealing with massive contamination problems from coal mining runoff for years.

When we think of poverty, hunger, or water insecurity, most of us don’t think of our own state. Just as when we think of temptation, we think of the big things that affect other people. It’s really easy to just ignore problems that don’t seem to directly affect us. The temptation is there to just look the other way. While most of us are fortunate enough to read of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness as something that would never happen to us, there are people walking the streets of West Virginia towns every day who live in Jesus wandering wilderness as their reality. And there are people sitting in the pews of churches every Sunday who yield to the temptation to believe that its somebody else’s problem.

One of the greatest temptations of this world is to think that spirituality and religion are individual concerns not community concerns.

Saint Teresa of Avila, the first woman to be named Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, who lived in the 1500’s said “And be certain that the more advanced you see you are in love for your neighbor the more advanced you will be in the love of God.”

In case you’re wondering, I made it about a half a page further in Sallie McFague’s book before I started writing yet another sermon. She says “We misinterpret God’s love when we think it is merely for our comfort or even our spiritual growth. If the saints give us a lesson, it is that God’s presence in our lives should turn us into workers for an alternative world.”

Jesus went through these temptations in the desert alone so that we don’t have to. Because we can’t. We would not have survived. Only the Son of God could survive. This journey we call life is not a solo one for us. There is not a person in this room that does not rely upon the world outside of themselves for at least part of their dinner, anyone make their own plates? The clothes they wear, even if you sew, do you make your own fabric? Spin your own yarn? Sheer your own sheep for the wool for that yarn or grow the cotton to make the thread?

Temptation is ubiquitous. The temptation to believe we can live on our own.

Jesus goes through three temptations: hunger, power, and trust.

So much suffering occurs in this world not because of God but because of us. Because we humans have fallen prey to the temptations. We eat more than our share, we exercise power over those we are created to serve, and we trust no one but ourselves. We have failed the temptations of the desert as God’s people.

Perhaps I should have warned you, Lent is a time of repentance and reflection. It is not the time for me to tell you how amazing you are and focus on all the amazing things to do in this world and this community. Lent is a time to acknowledge we have failed! We have fallen short in thought word, and deed. As a church and as individuals. It is a dark and tormenting time of truth.

We, God’s children, who claim to be God’s church are trying to live on bread alone. Speaking of which does anyone in here have any idea where yeast even comes from or how to get it on your own? We are not independent. We depend on community for so much more than we care to recognize.

We have thrown ourselves down and sat idly by while the world around us suffers saying “God will take care of it, I don’t need to do anything.” We have tested our God instead of trusting our God when we should. We have worshipped money, and buildings, and iconography, and pews, and policies, instead of focusing on worshipping God. We want God to take care of the things we just don’t want to acknowledge or we just plain don’t want to do.

The devil has seen the opportune time and has struck. We have failed. We have been complacent. We have ignored others sufferings saying it’s not our problem.

God is ubiquitous. God is always available. The problem is, we are not.

We’re too busy trying to face trials and tribulations alone like Jesus Christ did. Which is incredibly vain of us to even think that’s an option. We cannot do this alone! We need partners. We need neighbors. We need communities. We need organization. We need leadership. We need servants. We need love. We need to wake up and notice that we are the problem which means we can also be part of the solution.

We cannot do everything ourselves. We are not responsible for everything or everyone but we can be a part of something and be responsible for something. Lent is a time of preparation. What do you want to prepare for?

The church does not have a mission. God has a mission. We refer to it as missio dei. Missio meaning well mission and dei meaning God. God’s mission. And God’s mission has a church. It is our job as a church not to have our own mission but to join God’s mission already at work somewhere around us.

Jesus conquered temptation in the desert for us. We are not to reinvent the wheel here. Our mission is to get on board with some aspect of God’s mission that already exists in this world, in this community, maybe even in this neighborhood. And to join it not take it over. To be a part of something bigger than ourselves. To not rely on ourselves but to learn to trust and rely on others for the things we do not have, cannot make ourselves, and know nothing or little about.

During this season of preparation, look around you, not only inside you. What is God doing around you that you need to get on board with? We are servants first and foremost. We don’t have to do something new, God already is, all we have to do is perceive it. We are not trying to conquer the world, we’re trying to find our place in it.

In the words of Saint Teresa of Avila “be certain that the more advanced you see you are in love for your neighbor the more advanced you will be in the love of God.” We are seeking to find a way to advance our love for our neighbor so we can advance our love for God who is already everywhere.

God is ubiquitous. We are not spreading God. God is already everywhere. Our part in the missio dei is to meet God where God already is. God is always available to us. It is us who need to start being more available to God.

Temptation is occurring all around us. The most prolific of which is complacency. When we are complacent, we do nothing. We become bystanders to God’s world rather than a part of God’s world. Spectators to God’s mission rather than team players. We are not sit back and watch atrocities, we are to do something about them.

This does not mean marching on the White House! Look around you. Who around you, in your local community, your neighbors, who is hurting right now. Who is scared right now? Who is lacking a basic necessity for life right now that you can help provide. Who is lonely right now that could use your company? Who is hungry that you could cook for, invite to dinner, engage in fellowship with? Who are you intentionally or unintentionally being complacent about?

God is always available. The problem is, we are not.

Who are you personally and we as the church not being available to that we easily could? God is ubiquitous. God is everywhere. What is God doing around you that you could hop on board with?

This Lent I want you to give up something. This Lent give up complacency. Stop ignoring the suffering around you and step up. There are people who need us just outside that door. People who, despite that God is all around them, don’t realize the need to acknowledge and worship him. This Lent pay attention.

Notice that you have clean water in such abundance you can wash your car and water your garden with it. Notice that the air is so clean here you do not have to wear a mask or install a filtration system in your home to breathe it. Notice that God is hard at work around us, in your life and in mine, and get on board with it.

We misinterpret God’s love when we think it is merely for our comfort or even our spiritual growth. If the saints give us a lesson, it is that God’s presence in our lives should turn us into workers for an alternative world.

This Lent, let’s work on creating an alternative world where no one goes hungry, no one thirsts, no one is lonely, no one has to live in fear of judgment, persecution, or deportation. Our part in making this alternative world where God is worshipped not money or power is only possible if we turn our back on the temptation of this world to be complacent and get on board with God’s mission. This Lent, give up complacency. Stop being the center of your world and instead make God your center.