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First Sunday in
Lent
February 13, 2005
Sermon by Rev. Barbara Hauck, Deacon
Have you noticed that spring
is in the air?? I don’t know about you, but I can feel it. I can
even see it – just outside our doors in the piles of snow! As a small
child, I loved the peace and quiet of winter. I was raised in Michigan…
where our state motto was “a winter wonderland.” Now don’t think I was
into outdoor sports… no, my idea of exercise has always been doing
leg-lifts in my Lazy-Boy recliner! We played games and put puzzles
together on those long, cold, dark evenings. Once the holidays were
past, and the decorations put away… that was when the fun began. In
those days, it wasn’t until after Christmas that the catalogs began to
arrive.
There was the Hardy Seed catalog and the Michigan Nurseryman catalog –
but my personal favorite was always Burpee’s. My dad was a research
scientist by profession, but a gardener by vocation. Yes, January was
when the catalogs arrived… and by February, the seeds were on their way.
It was time to drive out to the farm, clear the snow away from the
greenhouse doors, go inside and turn on the heat.
We had locked the greenhouse the previous November, when the snow
started to fly. After a busy summer and fall, it was time for a rest.
The flower beds were clean… the tractors, inside. The pile of rich,
fertile, black earth resting in the back corner of the greenhouse had
shovels sticking out of it – patiently waiting for our return. Having
chosen the seeds I wanted to grow, it was time to get ready for their
arrival. We always had plenty of peat pots around… so we got out the
flats, filled them with pots, and filled the pots with Dad’s good clean
dirt (that’s what he called it when Mom would give him a hard time for
tracking it into the house!).
When the seeds arrived, everything was ready. We’d read the packages
carefully to see how deep to plant them. One knuckle-deep was one inch,
two knuckles-deep… well you get the idea. Once the seeds were planted we
still had plenty of work to do. They always grew better if you talked to
them – so Dad would take me out there on Saturdays for that. As we moved
from the cold darkness of winter toward the warm light of spring, we
watered them and turned them occasionally, making sure the littlest ones
got their fair share of attention and sunshine. Things began to happen.
First one leaf, and then another. Stems grew stronger… flower buds began
to form. Many of the trees and shrubs growing on the 20 acres of land
where the greenhouse stood were also beginning to wake from their long
winter’s nap. Purchased by Dad as seedlings from the county each year,
they’d been weeded, cultivated, fertilized, and transplanted…. lovingly
cared for over the years while they grew and matured. Soon we would be
making a gift of landscaping to several new churches in the area – one
of my father’s ministries.
But why have I chosen to share this story with you as we begin the
Lenten season – a time usually reserved for introspection and
confession? Historically, in the early years of the Church, it was also
a period of preparation… a time when those who desired to be baptized,
gathered together to learn about the faith and discern whether they had
the strength to continue on that path. In the early centuries, most of
those baptized were adults – persons who had given what today we might
call “informed consent” and who entered the symbolic burial waters of
baptism and rose from them in newness of life. Our baptisms at the
Easter Vigil are a vivid reminder of that. In those early centuries, the
life of a Christian was a hard life. It was good they had had that
period of preparation… it gave them the strength to persevere… and the
hope necessary to survive.
The story I shared with you was also one of preparation. From cleaning
the greenhouse and repairing the garden tools in the fall… to allowing
the earth to rest and ourselves, as well… to the rejuvenation we felt as
the new year’s catalogs arrived and we began to imagine the beautiful
plants that would emerge all around us. All of that was time spent in
preparation.
In our opening collect we heard, Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led
by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are
assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each
of us, let each one find you mighty to save… In case you missed it,
“temptation” is one of the threads woven through our sacred Scriptures
this morning – just as it is woven through our lives.
In the reading from Genesis, we heard how God created humankind. Seeds
of wonder, curiosity, hunger, imagination, obedience, tenderness and
love had probably taken root when God formed man from the dust of the
ground and breathed life into him – but it would take time for them to
mature. Eve, living in the Garden of Eden was tempted by the “crafty”
serpent. Unable to resist, she ultimately ate the fruit of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, shared it with her love – and their eyes
were opened, they saw their nakedness, and they were ashamed by it.
Their disobedience carried with it, consequences.
And in our gospel passage today, we listened to the story of Jesus in
the wilderness. After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus was
“famished.” At this moment of his greatest hunger, Satan tempted Jesus
with food (something our bodies need)… tempted Jesus with making his
name a household word (something our egos want) … and, finally, tempted
him with unimaginable power. No small potatoes, here… and on an empty
stomach, no less!
I’m sure you remember the words that immediately precede this gospel
passage. After the baptism of Jesus, a voice from heaven announced, This
is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. This gospel writer
made it clear that everyone was to hear these words – everyone was to
know this was the Son of God. In today’s vernacular, this was a “done
deal.” Why not just get on with it? What’s the point of tempting this
guy?
Well, in the Mediterranean society of Jesus’ day, people had a deeply
rooted belief in spirits – they were everywhere. There were more of them
than we could imagine, and their main endeavor was to interfere in the
lives of human beings – without any concern for the chaos they might
create. Now if they were everywhere, that meant the spirits had heard
that voice from heaven. One of them led Jesus to the wilderness, where
Jesus’ loyalty to the One who was pleased was tested. I don’t know about
you, but at that point, I would have “caved.” Forty days of fasting and
I would’ve been ready to eat the rocks themselves, too impatient to make
them into bread! But not Jesus – this Beloved faced the challenges to
take an easier path and emerged as One whose loyalty to God was truly
profound. Here was someone upon whom others could depend… worthy of
their confidence and commitment. This man’s heart was fertile ground…
and there’d been time for the seeds of obedience to mature in him.
What about us? Have the seeds of obedience matured in us? When we hear
the voices of temptation – voices telling us we deserve the abundance of
blessings with which we are surrounded – how do we respond? Do we
remember to ‘proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in
Christ’? When we hear the voices of temptation – voices telling us that
in these times of tight budgets we should concentrate on taking care of
ourselves and not be concerned about those in need… how do we respond?
Do we remember to ‘seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our
neighbors as ourselves’? When we hear the voices of temptation – voices
telling us that meeting the needs of those who don’t look like us, don’t
think like us, don’t act like us isn’t our responsibility – how do we
respond? Do we remember to ‘strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human being’? Have seeds of
wonder… seeds of faith… seeds of trust in God and hope for what St.
Paul’s can yet be taken root in our hearts? Or have seeds of anger,
anxiety and fear taken hold?
In this period of transition here at St. Paul’s… a time for discerning
what God is calling us to do and be… it’s important to honor our history
as we stand ready to walk toward the unknown future. It was seeds sown
by God in the fertile ground of the hearts of earlier generations here
at St. Paul’s that gave life to St. Luke’s Hospital. Likewise, when
Hmong refugees needed sponsors, it was seeds sown by God in the fertile
ground of the hearts of some of our current members that gave life to
the outreach efforts resulting in several Hmong families resettling here
in Duluth – and the ministry of the House Next Door. And when we needed
to make repairs to this building a few years ago, it was seeds sown by
God in the fertile ground of our hearts which resulted in tithing the
proceeds of our Heritage Fund to the Neighborhood Partnership. Just
consider for a moment the hearts touched and lives transformed by the
programs those dollars help fund: the families whose children attend
Little Treasures… those in Women’s Transitional Housing… the Pioneers
for Positive Change… families served by East Hillside PATCH and Mind to
Mind – people offered hope through a multitude of endeavors this
community dared to dream possible. Yes… generation after generation, St.
Paul’s has been fertile ground, indeed… giving life to a garden of
ministries more vibrant and varied than even the landscaped gardens my
father planted could ever be.
It is my prayer that in this Lenten season we prepare ourselves to
discover and embrace the seeds God is sowing in our hearts today, too.
Life House has 10-15 beds available for homeless teenagers here in
Duluth. There are another 150 homeless youngsters who’ve placed their
names on the waiting list, but they may be too old to qualify when their
turn arrives. Do we carry seeds within us that will grow into a response
to this very real need? There’s a tremendous shortage of affordable
housing for families, too. Have seeds been sown in our hearts which will
result in St. Paul’s embracing that challenge, turning it into an
opportunity? And health care… with our governor’s proposal to balance
the budget by reducing, and in some cases eliminating, the benefits of
those on Minnesota Care – our state’s health care program for the poor –
many of our most vulnerable citizens will soon be even more vulnerable.
Might there be some seeds germinating within us that, with our
investment of time, talent and treasure might develop into a more
compassionate solution to that problem?
Our God is a God of hope… and God calls us to be a people of hope, calls
us to offer hope to others. We encounter many temptations to live
fear-filled lives. With adequate preparation to face those temptations,
I believe we will, instead, find the strength to persevere and the hope
necessary to live faith-filled lives. With God, out of darkness comes
light. With God, out of dust comes life. Each of us carries seeds within
us. With God, what will we dare to dream possible now? AMEN