St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

WILDERNESS TEMPTATIONS       The Rev. Brian Backstrand       February 22, 2015

Mark does not waste time. In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is baptized, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, and Jesus proclaims the Good News, that the Kingdom or reign of God has arrived—come near.   All in seven compact verses.

The Lenten journey begins this way on the first Sunday and the accounts of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness receive attention on this day.   Matthew and Luke provide us with extended passages that focus on Jesus’ temptation. But Mark only says the following

First, Mark says he was in the wilderness forty days. Forty here is a significant reference. Forty days fit the pattern of both Moses and of Elijah’s fasts, placing Jesus in the tradition of the great prophets of old.   Forty years also comes to mind, reminding us of the long wilderness wandering of Israel as it was tested. Besides Deuteronomy, Psalm 95 verse ten makes reference to this experience. Here God says for forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not regard my ways.”   Forty years keeps a whole generation of the Israelite people in the wilderness and they are not allowed to enter the Promised Land, to enter the divine gift of the land which is described as God’s rest.

Second, Mark tells us simply that Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by Satan. Satan is described as God’s adversary. Satan is also called the tempter. And so Jesus is exposed to the power of temptation.   Alone, in the desolation of wilderness, we should see Jesus here as vulnerable—being tested, tempered like steel is tempered, readied for the mission ahead, prepared.

Third Mark tells us that Jesus was with wild beasts.   Perhaps this phrase shows us the vulnerability of being alone in wilderness. Others would see in this phrase a reference to paradise—a restoration in which Jesus enters the paradise of Eden. The reference is unclear.

Fourth and finally the angels waited on him. Alone, isolated, vulnerable, exposed to the power of temptation, in need of solace and comfort – Jesus spends this long time in wilderness.

The specific temptations to eat stones turned into bread while famished; to worship a being less than YHWH; to exercise pride in throwing oneself down from a pinnacle all are absent from Mark as is Jesus’ quotation in response from the Mosaic book of Deuteronomy Do not put the Lord your God to the test.   We find these in Matthew and Luke’s more extended accounts.

But in Mark we are left only with the more general idea of temptation itself.

The Holy Spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness.   We should not miss the fact that Jesus is a player in a larger drama. In this larger drama, Jesus’ ministry will often be confrontational.   This confrontational approach, balanced by acts of healing power and compassion, will characterize his ministry and eventually lead him to die as a common criminal.   It will not be easy.

Lent reminds us that our own following of Jesus will also not be easy. We also are exposed to temptations that would distract us or rob us of spiritual purpose and power.

Temptations can be subtle.   We can be tempted to focus upon ourselves and forget about compassion.   Our world, filled with persuasive messages in all the forms of mass media, constantly tempts us to think about ourselves, indulge ourselves, protect ourselves.   Self focus, preoccupation and self-love can become a powerful force in our lives that can isolate us from others and keep us from the great commandment that we have to exercise love—for God and for one another.

We can also be tempted to discount ourselves. To send ourselves little internal messages in which we put ourselves down, minimize our god-given gifts and abilities, and in general create a negative view of ourselves. This in turn can rob us of our own sense of what we should be about as followers of Jesus.

All of us can add to the beginning of this list of temptations.

***

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the churches of the west that you and I were invited to attend.   We met in Richland Center at St. Barnabus Episcopal Church and about forty were present to hear a presentation on the Christian life model and to discuss the needs of their churches. Mineral Point, Prairie du Chien, Platteville, Richland Center and through me Monroe all were represented.

As I listened to other church leaders discussing the problems they were facing and possible solutions I could not help reflecting on our own situation and the Bishop’s comment that St. Andrew’s Monroe is small but mighty. We remember that phrase as a wonderful description of our Christian community.

But there is a sense in which we also can be tempted corporately as a church; a sense in which we also can become exposed and vulnerable and tested.

And so we must ask the question about ourselves from time to time.

• How do we see ourselves?
• Is there room in our current understanding of who we are for faith, for optimism, for energy that comes from prayer, for energy that comes from mission?

When we live in the presence of faith and trust and hope and love, we live together and come together with purpose and joy.   We share our common life and reach out to others.   We present ourselves to God and ask for guidance. We listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit.   We engage in mutual ministry.   When we do these things together we become mighty. Faith, hope, mission, prayer and compassion drive out temptation and fear and place us in the presence of the Spirit.

But it is also possible to abandon these qualities and the life-giving power that comes with them.   It is also possible to yield to the temptation of negativity. It is possible to tell ourselves that we are going nowhere, that we are so few, that we have so little resources.   Emotionally and spiritually it is possible to yield to the temptation of fear and to focus on mere survival.   It is also possible to feel the burden of mission and of our actions together when we reach out and tell ourselves that we are too tired to go on. When we do these things, wilderness draws close around us and we give away the power that comes through faith. When we do these things, we become famished and small.

And so we have a choice to make. It is not just for today or for the past but it will also lie ahead of us in the future. We will have to make it again and again. We can live in the powerful of world of Christian community and mission that comes to us through corporate faith and trust. In the words of our Bishop, we can become mighty.

Or we can choose to listen to the negative messages about who we are – messages that come to us with tempting power.   We can abandon our plans to live together and grow into our future.   We can see ourselves in minimalist and negative terms as merely small.

Jesus’ crew was small.   Only twelve were chosen for his core group. They were small to be sure.   But through faith and commitment to him they became mighty.   Who will we be today, next week or one year from now.   And whose will we be.   Will be we small or through the Spirit will we be mighty?

WHAT POSSESSES US?     The Rev. Brian Backstrand        February 8, 2015

And the whole city gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.                   Mark 1: 33-34

I am going to wander around in the midst of the congregation this morning and preach this sermon together with you, asking you to join in. So here we go. I’ve got some questions to get us started.

What do we know about demons – in ten words or less? Demons seem like spirits, don’t they.   Answers from the congregation:   shadowy presences,  open the door to evil,  invading spirits…

Here’s a question to ponder:  Are demons from within or from without? What do you think? Sometimes we see or feel something inside of us as being outside of us. Sometimes when we feel deeply discouraged, for example,   it feels like we are surrounded by a wall, or carry an especially heavy burden that presses down upon us.

Have you been to a program at school that talks about depression or about suicide? Depression is something that affects all of us at one time or another and many people speak of times in their lives when depression was so painful that they felt like they no longer wanted to live.

The main point:   Jesus is a healer.   Jesus is concerned about our mental health as well as our physical and our spiritual health.   In fact the term saviour means healer.

Here is another question:     What possesses us?   In our lesson this morning, when Jesus heals, he casts out demons. Something that is possessing someone is addressed in a   particularly powerful moment and that something is asked to come out and to depart.

So what possesses us?   What do we worry about?   What do we lose sleep over?   Help me out here…   Congregational responses include anger,  depression,  negative messages,  mental abuse,  financial concerns,  etc.

Rollo May was an existential psychologist and this is how he explained the idea of demons.   May tells us that the word demon comes from a Greek concept. The Greek word is daimon and it means something that can interrupt our sense of emotional stability and balance. The Greeks had this idea that we needed to be balanced. And a daimon means that   part of us –emotionally and mentally—begins to dominate other parts until we are bound up, possessed.   For example we could think constantly about one thing or another and let these thoughts completely dominate us.   We could worry about something until we become physically sick.

If we think that this is a harmless idea, consider a couple of examples that have happened around here at one time or another.

A man goes beserk and kills members of his own family. This happened close to us not long ago.

Another man goes beserk. He drives across the State of Wisconsin and is convinced that there are people out there who are following him. He drives into a field until the car cannot go any farther. It is cold outside but he takes off most of his clothes. He wades across a river and hides out in a barn. He finally winds up killing three people.   This happened very close to where we live.

We have these words   CRAZY     BESERK   MADNESS   INSANITY   PSYCHOTIC BREAKS WITH REALITY     GOING OUT OF ONE/S MIND It seems to me that all of these things are very close to the Bible’s idea of demons.

Today the message from our Gospel lesson is that Jesus has the power to heal even those parts of us that can dominate our thinking and dominate our feelings. That can possess us. And to day we see that Jesus’ healing power is pretty dramatic.   Word of his ability to save, that is to heal, spreads from town to town where he lives. At the end,   he tells the disciples Let us go on to the neighboring towns so that I may proclaim the message there also.

Only the people who came to him were healed.   Only the people who were willing to be in his presence were healed.

I think that this is one reason why we come to church.  Together, we want to be in the presence of the living God and in the presence of the Spirit of Christ. Here we can present ourselves to Jesus.   If we are discouraged or anxious or preoccupied or bitter about something we can lay these burdens down.   We can say the words of the hymn that we are going to sing at communion

It’s called Just As I Am and it is number 693.   Please turn to it.   Let us read verses two and three

Just as I am though tossed about with many-a conflict, many-a doubt.

Fightings and fears within, without—O Lamb of God I come.

Just as I am poor, wretched blind; sight riches healing of the mind,

Yea, all I need in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come.

So that is the message today.   God has the power to heal. And our task is to present ourselves before God—to come.   To let go.   To say to the Spirit of Jesus that is present in our midst. Here I am.   Here is what I am dealing with. Here are the parts of me that do not make sense. Here is where I feel some real pain and loneliness and perhaps even isolation.

Lay your hand upon me, O Lord.   Make things right. Come into my life.

Let us pray.     Be the healing power and bring the perspective that would free us from all that possesses and dominates us– Be a healing presence in each one of our lives O Lord we pray.   Amen.

BLACKBERRIES & OTHER DISTRACTIONS   The Rev. Brian Backstrand 1-18-15

When it comes to the life of faith, one of the questions that haunts me concerns the holy and the ordinary and our ability to perceive:   What do we see? What do we see of the holy?  What claims us, arrests us?

The other night in the midst of a cold spell, after feeding the cows I walked up the hill to our home and found myself praying with arms open and uplifted under a starlit sky with the western star blazing and the moon already up high. It was a powerful moment of the holy for me, but I must confess that quite often this kind of experience would be totally by-passed,   ignored, crowded to the sidelines of perception and so rendered invisible or innocuous.   What arrests me usually is the ordinary in place of the marvelous; the to do list instead of the deliberate pause;   the opaque instead of the transparent; the dull and the jaded in place of the dazzling presence.

This past week I had the privilege of driving across the state of Wisconsin to the Dekoven Center in Racine. I arrived in high gear. It had been snowing and the roads were slippery and even the door was locked when I made my way up the steps to Taylor Hall where our retreat was to be held. Dinner was just beginning. I was late.   I was harried and hassled and there was no room in my spirit for receptivity. But then the retreat progressed. We worshipped with Evening Prayer. We listened to the first presentation by Dr. Steven Peay about thin places—that is, those places where earth and heaven touch—and I begin to slowly thaw and relax.   Slowly my spirit began to be fed by the presence of quiet and holy talk and reflective space.

The question of the Gospel that comes to me this morning is this question of perception.   Nathaniel is given to stereotyping when it comes to perception.   He sees Jesus as a product of his region: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? he says. But Jesus’ perception of Nathaniel—Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile—puts things on a different plane. Nathaniel’s perceptions change one hundred eighty degrees when with great hyperbole and enthusiasm he says Rabbi you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel!   And then Jesus widens the perceptions and the context when he in turn states: Truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.   It is a question of perception.   What do we see? And what do we expect to see?   When it comes to the holy and to the presence of the holy — what is it that we expect to see?

The boy Samuel expected that a voice in the night would only be the voice of the old priest Eli.   The Lord calls and Samuel dutifully goes to Eli because he perceived that the only reasonable location for that voice would be Eli calling him for one thing or another. The text says: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Receptivity. Attentiveness. A willingness to think outside of the box of the ordinary.   Three times Samuel hears the voice and goes to the priest until a moment of insight happens to the old man. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.   What do we see?   What do we hear?   What do we know?   What do we expect?

I have a memory of a thin place in Alaska that takes me back to 1979.   I don’t talk about it much because I do not want to hem in the experience much with words, but suffice it to say that walking along the Indian River trail beside a rushing stream just outside of Sitka Alaska in the quiet made this place a thin place for me—a place where the Spirit and the Holy came to meet me and somehow a window to the holy opened as I stood alone on the trail, arrested and claimed.

But Dr. Steven Peay, our retreat leader, pointed out that thin places are not always exceptional places but very often are located about us all along. Dr Peay began as a Congregational minister and then made an abrupt shift and spent 18 years as a Benedictine monk after which he sought the middle ground of Episcopal faith. He is now the new Dean of Nashotah House and is a breath of fresh air.   His presentations focused on creativity and the relationship of creativity to the life of faith.   And one of his tenets was that heaven is a lot closer than we might at first surmise.   Heaven and earth can touch.

I came away with some wonderful perceptions and one of them comes from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,

And daub their natural faces unaware.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, Aurora Leigh

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was raised in a religious home, the eldest of 12 children. She began writing from the age of six and her mother saved her early work.   She was educated at home and was frail.   Her intense ability to see and to perceive illustrated by this quote of earth being crammed with heaven is in stark contrast to her own life. She was often in pain from an early childhood disease that plagued her ever-after.   She had intense head and spinal pain.   Later she battled tuberclerosis.   She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and wrote through the pain for the rest of her life. Her marriage to Robert Browning was not approved by her father who disinherited her.   The couple moved to Italy in 1846 and she would write there for the rest of her life which ended in 1861.

Here once more this invitation to encounter the holy.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,

And daub their natural faces unaware.

The life of faith is an invitation to take off our shoes.   To take another look at the ordinary.   To listen to the voice of God like young Samuel for a third, perhaps a fourth time until we get it right.

It is holy ground that we are seeking.   That place where we like Nathaniel of old might see heaven opening and angels both ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

This is the invitation of Epiphany, the season of light. The season of perception and insight. The season of looking in our life experience and in our life story for those places where earth and heaven truly touch.