[Note: This is my last sermon in Korea, for a long while.]
Luke 4:1-13
1Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.
3 Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’”
5 Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”
8 Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say,‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. 11 And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”
12 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”
13 When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is a season of repentance and fasting. It is kind of like spiritual spring cleaning. This is the time for us to take a fresh look at how we are living and ask God where we need to change. During Lent, we fast to help us refocus our lives on God instead of on all of the other stuff in this world that begs for our attention.
In the past few decades, Christians have developed this tradition of giving up all kinds of different stuff. Some people give up a food: meat, coffee, sweets, chocolate, spices, soda, etc. Other people give up a normally innocent activity: watching TV, Facebook, internet, shopping, movies, elevators. Some try to stop a negative behavior: complaining, gossip, using the snooze button on the alarm, not listening when someone is talking. Some people try to add something instead of giving something up: waking up early, 15 minutes of prayer every day, writing a letter every day, giving compliments, or picking up trash you see on the street. A few people try to get funny. One year, Scott Norris said he was giving up fasting for Lent. I read a story this week about an old lady who apologized for being a little shaky, “I’m giving up beer for Lent, but the whiskey is really killing me.”
But for pretty much all of these fasts, even the funny ones, the people choose for themselves what to give up. As I’ve been thinking about this sermon today and its timing, it struck me that there is another kind of fast going on here - one you didn’t choose. It’s kind of like KNU International English Church is giving up having a full-time permanent pastor for Lent. Yes, you’ll have Bill Patch, and he’s great, and he’ll do a good job. And yes, you have a great team of assistant pastors, but they none are full-time, and none are the lead pastor. Yes, you’ll hire a new lead pastor - maybe not by Easter, but eventually.
In the meantime, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit has led KNU International English Church into a time of testing. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, and people have debated why ever since. It seems that Jesus needed to learn some lessons. Jesus needed to settle some fundamental issues before he got started in his ministry. The wilderness was his time of trial and testing between two important stages in his life. In a similar way, this interim period between pastors is a time of testing for our church between two important stages in our church life.
