Lent 2011: Facing Temptation

Homily Lent 1 Yr. A

Sackcloth & ashes & psalms penitential,

bowing & scraping, looking reverential.

ashes on foreheads, repenting of sins –

these are a few of our Lenten things..

Downcast expressions & copious masses,

Beating of breasts & whipping of lashes,

No chocolate, no fun, no drinking of gin –

These are a few of our Lenten things..

When the sun shines,

When our hearts sing,

When we're feeling glad,

We simply remember our Lenten things,

& then we feel quite bad.

(to the tune of My Favourite Things, from Sound of Music)

Well, I don’t think those will ever be sung on stage anywhere. But that’s perhaps the popular impression of Lent, a season when Christians are supposed to drop their alleluias and glorias from worship, give up something, preferably a vice, and engage in prayer, confession, and study to prepare ourselves for the Easter feast to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

There’s some truth to the popular impression. Lent, for those Christians who observe it, is an important time of self examination and penitence. It is a yearly reminder of the cross we bear as Christians. We are connected to the journey to the cross, and the sacrifices made by Jesus, as he offered up his life on our behalf.

Since Lent is a time of self-examination for individual Christians, it is also a time of self-examination for Christian communities—congregations who are called to mission and ministry in God’s church.

Here at Canon Davis we are in the midst of a critical time in the 85 year history of this parish. The parish has not had a full time rector for a full year since 2008. Parishioners decided to seek out a new priest so the parish could continue its mission and ministry, and explore new directions in a new decade.

On behalf of the parish lay leadership I would like to keep you posted regularly on how we are doing. And that means talking about money. It is inevitable.

Money is the subject talked about almost as often as love in the Bible—there are more than 2,000 verses directly related to money in scripture.

Yet as Anglicans, we are often reluctant to talk about money, especially in church.

But the wardens and I think you need to know we are already facing a serious shortfall in 2011. Since I arrived last fall we have had a significant shortfall each month— and for the last two months—about $5,000 each month.

It means our current account is down to around $11,000 early this month----down from $30,000 when the year started.
W
e are already trying to make economies as much as possible, but we have a budget without significant spending to trim.

Most of our money is spent on building and rectory maintenance and services, and staff salaries. Our projected deficit for 2011 was $17,000 at the vestry meeting in late January, but at this point unless giving improves it will be much more.

What it boils down to is asking everyone who cares about Canon Davis to consider if it might be possible to increase your level of support.

But that isn’t enough and we recognize that. We need to attract more parishioners. We need everyone to invite friends, neighbours, relatives to join us for worship at the beautiful church.

Since it is our 85th anniversary, we hope to make a focal point for this year a celebration of the anniversary on June 5. We don’t want to wait until the fall for our customary anniversary Sunday.

This week some of our members are phoning people who are on our list but haven’t been active in recent months, to invite them to try us out again.

Our Lenten season offers not only a parish Bible study, but a study on the six marks of Mission which will include five churches from three denominations.

On Holy Week our friends at St. Bart’s are coming here for the Good Friday liturgy, and there will be an all-Sarnia Anglican church Easter Vigil at St. Bart’s at 8pm.

We, as the parish leadership team, are asking for your support both by your presence, and by your givings, as we continue with this process of renewal of the parish.

Now I’d like to turn back to our readings for the first Sunday of Lent---particularly the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness.

The common element in these two stories is temptation. When tempted, Adam and Eve chose the path that led to death. They thought they knew better than God, so they could eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Then even before encountering God, they tried to hide themselves.

Think of that in contrast to Jesus in the wilderness. Confronted with hunger, he is asked by the devil to turn stones into bread.

In other words –he is asked to yield to temptation and take the easy way out, after 40 days of fasting and prayer.

Then the devil challenges Jesus to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple, so he can be rescued by the angels and convince people of he is the Messiah.

But that temptation—which would have reduced Jesus to participating in a side-show—a spectacle, would have also taken him away from his mission—suffering in the wilderness, preparing himself for the journey to come.

And finally the challenge to bow down before the evil one, in order to achieve power over all the kingdoms of the world. That temptation dramatically demonstrates the devil’s misunderstanding of Christ’s mission.

So the question we are asked this Lent is: how do we respond to temptation?

Do we go along with the ways of the world, which value material well being over anything else, which see power and wealth as objectives, which ignore or downplay the needs of the poor, the widows, the orphans, and other disadvantaged groups?

Or, do we follow Jesus, who brought good news to the poor, who wants us to love one another as God loves us, who ate with tax collectors and sinners, and defied the conventions of his time?

We are seduced in many ways by our culture—by the internet, television, cell phones, retail stores, credit cards, the cult of celebrity which makes a sick and thoroughly obnoxious man like Charlie Sheen into a household name.

We can—like Jesus—refuse to submit to temptation—and live a different way. We have to use the wisdom, and the love God gives us to discern how to live out our faith in this often misguided culture. That’s an important thing for all of us to think about, and pray about during this season of Lent.