LENT 1A 2008
Another in a Series about Baptism
It is hard to believe that this is the first Sunday in Lent! It seems like we just took down the Christmas tree! But here we are, beginning another Lent. One of the strengths of our tradition is the church year. The church year gives shape and meaning to time. In theological terms, it “sanctifies”, or makes holy our life’s time. Everyone does this is some way, with birthdays and new years, but we as Christians take our time and infuse it with the teachings of our faith. In Lent, we enter a time in which we deal with some of the deeper issues of our life: sin, suffering, brokenness, death and our mortality, forgiveness and more. I hope you put a little effort into Lent, and make it a season different than the rest of time.
This morning we are going to continue our look at our baptismal covenant, and we have great lessons to help us. Let me begin by reviewing very briefly the concept of covenant, a concept which shapes our relationship with God and with other people. In a covenant there are at least two parties. In our baptismal covenant, of course, it is between God and us. God is the maker and giver of the terms of the covenant. We are not equal partners. A covenant sets forth the responsibilities, or promises of both parties. It lists the consequences for not keeping the covenant, and then it is sealed in some manner. In baptism, the seal of the covenant is the water and the ritual around baptism.
Now our lessons lead us logically to what I call the three fold renunciations of our baptismal covenant. Let me read them.
Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of
wickedness that rebel against God?
Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which
corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from
the love of God?
Lets look at each of these briefly.
First, we promise that we will renounce, -- that we will refuse to follow or obey -- Satan and the spiritual forces that promote wickedness in the world.
The Christian tradition has always believed in a powerful heavenly being that rebelled against God and, in a mysterious way that I don’t really understand, is still allowed to continue this fight until a final end. In the Old Testament Satan is mentioned around 43 times. We meet Him in Job:
One day the heavenly beings came to present
themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them
In the New Testament Satan is called: the devil, the tempter, the enemy, the evil one, the adversary, the deceiver, the great dragon, and Jesus calls him the father of lies and a murderer.
Here is a passage from the book of Revelation about Satan.
7And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, 8but they
were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9The great
dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and
Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him.
Not having more time to go through all the passages in the Bible that talk about Satan, let me just say that the presence of an evil being is assumed, just as we see in our lesson about Jesus being tempted by the devil.
Our second renunciation may seem more real to you. We promise to fight against the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God. While we may have a hard time seeing Satan, it doesn’t take much effort to see evil powers operating in this world which hurt, corrupt, use and destroy God’s children. We see corrupt governments which exist only for power and pleasure while the poor suffer and die. We see armies recruiting children to fight and kill by plying them with drugs and sex. Adults take children and use them for sex and profit. Parents use drugs while their children suffer. Corporations make money, caring little for the people. Out of greed business people steal money while pension funds go broke. And I could go on and on. Injustice and suffering perpetrated by human beings is so obvious that it hardly need be mentioned – except to convince the raving Romantics and optimists of the human race!
Our third renunciation is also very obvious. We promise to renounce and fight against our sinful desires. Now I don’t know about you, but I have a few sinful desires. Would anyone of you like to stand up and share some of your sinful desires? I love the story in Genesis 3. When Eve looks at the tree, the writer tells us:
“when the
woman saw that the tress was good for food, and that the tree was to be desired
to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Vs. 6
This is as good a description of the process of sin as you can get. Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree. This was their part in the covenant. They could eat everything else, and go everywhere else, but this they were not to do. But it looked so good, and the Serpent said that it would make them like God, and thus a desire rose in their hearts, and they broke the covenant with God. And I have often thought that the serpent was telling them the truth when he said that they would be like God when they ate. Maybe, being like God has something to do with knowing and experience suffering. God wanted us to avoid this, and yet, through this act, now we know sin and suffering and death, and in this sense, we are like God. Maybe?
Again, I don’t need to convince too many of you of the reality of sinful desires that reside in our hearts. If you don’t have any, I think you should find another church, because the rest of us have lots of them and you won’t be happy with us sinners!
Now, if we take these vows seriously, our lives will be one’s of constant
struggle, for we will realize we are in
a war. It may be hard for you to think of your fight against evil in this way,
but imagine that you live in a village in
Listen to this verse from Ephesians 6:12
Ephesians 6:12(NRSV)
For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and
flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places.
Note the word “struggle”. And note that this struggle is against “cosmic powers” and “spiritual forces of evil.” I realize that most of us don’t go around worrying about spiritual forces of evil, but I think if we open up our eyes to see, or experience the tremendous suffering that goes on in our communities and in the world, and if we ever begin to fight against this evil, we will realize very quickly that we are in a very real war.
Renouncing evil is not a passive thing. The best way for the powers of evil to win is to get us first not to believe in them, and then to accept evil and try and ignore it as long as it does not affect me. Evil also uses that great human capacity for rationalization so that we can justify sinful, and even evil action and think that we are doing just fine. Evil makes religious people think they are doing just fine as long as they don’t get too serious or radical about loving God and serving others.
The writer of Ephesians encourages us, in order to fulfill our baptismal vows to renounce evil, to train and prepare ourselves for our struggle.
Ephesians 6:13(NRSV)
13Therefore take up the whole armor of God ….. fasten
the belt of truth around your waist, …put on the breastplate of righteousness.
15As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the
gospel of peace.16With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you
will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Of course the image here is that of a soldier going into battle, but the weapons used are “truth… righteousness…. The gospel of peace…. The shield of faith.. the helmet of salvation… and the word of God.”
And we could not have a better illustration of what this writer is talking about than our gospel story of Jesus in the wilderness being confronted by the devil. In essence, Jesus is under a ferocious attack. He is hungry, so his physical desires are attacked… “command these stones to become loaves of bread..” Just like us, Jesus had physical and emotional desires for pleasure and comfort. He is then attacked in his relationship with God…”if you are the son of God?” God loves you, so you can do what you want. You can get away with anything, because you are loved. Grace is cheap, so do what you want…”throw yourself down…” And then he is attacked in the area of worldly riches and power, one of the greatest of all attractions for men. “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.”
But notice how Jesus renounces the devil here. He does so by using truth rooted in the scriptures. Even when the devil uses the bible to attack, Jesus bases his actions on what he knows to be true from the scriptures. He says three times: “It is written.” If Jesus uses what he knows from the scriptures to fight the attack of evil, ought not we to follow his example?
So we are living life, and the tempter comes to us and says: “Go ahead, sleep with Him or her, you need pleasure in your life.” You are loved by God, so you can do what you want. Don’t worry about rules and laws. Or we think: “don’t worry about those poor people. You have enough problems of your own. It’s not your problem.
When we face the million temptations of life what do we stand on? How do we make decisions? How do we know what is truth or just or right? Since we can be so easily deceived, and can so easily rationalize almost any behavior, what mirror do we look in to make decisions?
We can’t do much better than using what Jesus used.. the scriptures.. He also knew that giving his allegiance and worship to God came first in his life. For us to renounce Satan, the evil powers of this word, and the sinful desires of our hearts, we have to exert some effort in reading and meditating and struggling with the scriptures. In a real sense, they are able to shape our character and our thinking, if we will let them.
Let me sum up. In our baptismal covenant, we made a promise, and sealed it with water, that we would renounce, in the words of the old prayer book, the world, the flesh and the devil. This is a struggle. It is a battle. As a matter of fact, the better Christians we become, the more fierce the battle is. For us to fulfill these promises, we need some help, and we find that help in the scriptures and in the worship of God. Let us take some time this Lent, and really for the rest of our lives, to make the scriptures our friend, and worship of God a priority, so that we can be as faithful as we can to the covenant we have made at our baptism. AMEN!