I want to talk to you this morning about something difficult. It is a subject that most Episcopalians avoid.
I want to talk to you about the devil.
There is no denying that the Bible depicts another being. There is God and there is humanity but there is also someone else. From the Garden of Eden, where the snake lures Eve to conceive of disobedience, to the final book of Revelation, there is clearly evidence of a presence.
The word devil means the tempter. This presence is also called by other names: Satan, the adversary, the Evil One... I know that the word devil might sound medieval to you, too simplistic, like a caricature. But I want to use the word because that is the word that Luke uses in the gospel for today. And because, I do believe that there is such a thing as the devil.
Jesus had just been baptized. At age 30, everything that God had in mind for him was about to begin. He had so much work to do! There were people hungry for the word of God, people in need of healing, people who wanted to follow him. No one had more of an excuse to get to work than Jesus. No one had more important things to do. How strange that instead of launching into his ministry, instead of teaching and healing and rounding up his disciples, the first thing that Jesus does is nothing at all. He goes out into the desert, fasts and prays.
Jesus goes out into the desert to be alone with God, but someone else is there. If you read the gospel carefully, it says that the devil tempted Jesus for 40 days. I had always assumed that the devil showed up at the end, but that was not the case. The devil was there the entire time. Just as the devil is often there whenever we sit down to pray.
The work of the devil happens inside the human mind. You cannot even begin to identify temptation unless you get to know your own thoughts.
A thirty-one year old woman just died. From what? You ask. She died from drinking coca cola. You see, she drank it all day every day for a decade. If she did not get her cokes, she would begin to shake and get irritable. Her family begged her to stop, but she would not. She drank more than a gallon of coke every day. Eventually, all that sugar and all that caffeine made her heart stop. What in the world was she thinking? How could she justify pouring those chemicals into her body in such grotesque amounts? What was going on inside her mind?
We all are tempted, just like Jesus. We all can be not just distracted from God but tempted to do things that are not at all good for us or for others. How do you know when you are being tempted? Here are some clues for how to identify the tempter.
Clue #1 The devil always focuses on the self. It wants you consumed with yourself, either by feeling like a failure or feeling like a great success. If you are thinking about your success or your failure, whether people like you, how you are feeling, generally, it is temptation. Praying for others, well, that doesn't work so well for the tempter. Jesus is tempted in three ways. He is tempted to feed himself when he vowed to fast. He is tempted to worship the devil for power and success and he is tempted to kill himself. All of these temptations are about himself. Never does the devil suggest that he think of anyone else but himself.
Clue #2 The devil is not original. Temptation usually sounds like a broken record. Unlike God, whose revelation is always new and creative, the devil will say the same things over and over again. So if you are having a thought that you have already heard over again, it might be temptation. (You probably could rattle off some phrases that come up from time to time in your mind...or feelings that you are a looser or something like that, too fat perhaps, too stupid?)
Clue #3 The tempter tends to think everything is a crisis. Whatever is happening in your life is not just bad, it is awful! Patience, taking time, these are not things that the devil wants. The devil wants you to rush, to panic, to think that everything will NOT be OK. The devil does NOT want you spending time alone with God and you can bet that when you sit down to do so, you will be attacked by temptation. The devil does not want you to think about the meaning of your life or whether you are treating your loved one well or anything like that. The devil wants you so busy that you do not know that you haven't had a meaningful conversation with your spouse in a week. Or that your job is consuming your life, or that you have become desperately unhappy. The devil wants you to be too busy to notice.
Did you know that a frog, when placed in a pot of water, will stay in the water and allow its body to be boiled to death if you simply increase the temperature gradually? The frog never knows that his reality, the substance in which he sits, is becoming toxic, because he does not take himself out. If you never spend time alone, how will you know when your busy life has become toxic or when the tipping point has occurred and you no longer know yourself? If you fill your days with noise, how will you listen?
Final clue: The devil does not love. That means that if you are having a thought that is hyper-critical of yourself or others, something that has no connection to love itself, then it is probably from the tempter.
When Jesus went to pray, he was accosted. Naturally, we avoid quiet time too. Who wants to hear temptation? It's easier just not to listen. To be quiet is to walk into a battle-ground with our own minds. Even if all your thoughts center around is the laundry that you have not done, nevertheless, it is a battle as part of your mind tells you to get up and the other tells you to sit still. No wonder we are so afraid of silence, of doing nothing. Doing nothing means doing the most important thing, identifying the voice of darkness within our own minds and letting it go.
But the most important step in battling the devil is identification itself. Once you know that what you are hearing is temptation, it makes it easier to say no. So we must have the courage, like Jesus, to find time alone with God, knowing that devil will also come, at an opportune time, and we will have to learn to say no.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Ashes Ashes We All Fall Down
Did you say this rhyme as a child?
Ring around the rosy
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.
I remember distinctly grabbing hands with unidentified friends and twirling around and around in a circle, changing the rhyme and falling down.
Ashes ashes we all fall down.
Today the season of Lent begins and we remember the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert. He walked out there immediately after his baptism and he sat down in the dust and prayed to God. It is hot in the deserts of Israel, hot and dusty. Dust gets everywhere, in your shoes, all over your hands, in your pores. After a week or two of fasting, I bet Jesus began to think about how his body was formed of that dust and what would happen to his body if he died right then and there from starvation or exposure or something else. Nothing can change the fact that the human body turns to dust. Abraham Lincoln's body turned to dust just like the common man's body. That's what happens to the body of a human being. So we sit with Jesus in the dust and we remember that is what we are.
I am battling a strange phenomenon here at the Cathedral and at every church in which I've served. People always call the body or cremated remains of a person by the person's name. "Oh, Sally is in my office." "George was buried here." "Let's go visit Angela at the grave." But if you stopped at Ash Wednesday. If there was no cross and no resurrection, then those statements would make sense to me. But if we, who are nothing but dust, if we are risen, then surely we are not to be contained in a box under the ground. Surely it is inadequate to say that our loved ones are present in those remains. They are just the body.
But we must begin at the beginning, sitting in the dust with Jesus remembering that without God's redemption, we are are nothing but dust, and we all fall down.
It is only God who can make us more than dust. Only God.
Ring around the rosy
A pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.
I remember distinctly grabbing hands with unidentified friends and twirling around and around in a circle, changing the rhyme and falling down.
Ashes ashes we all fall down.
Today the season of Lent begins and we remember the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert. He walked out there immediately after his baptism and he sat down in the dust and prayed to God. It is hot in the deserts of Israel, hot and dusty. Dust gets everywhere, in your shoes, all over your hands, in your pores. After a week or two of fasting, I bet Jesus began to think about how his body was formed of that dust and what would happen to his body if he died right then and there from starvation or exposure or something else. Nothing can change the fact that the human body turns to dust. Abraham Lincoln's body turned to dust just like the common man's body. That's what happens to the body of a human being. So we sit with Jesus in the dust and we remember that is what we are.
I am battling a strange phenomenon here at the Cathedral and at every church in which I've served. People always call the body or cremated remains of a person by the person's name. "Oh, Sally is in my office." "George was buried here." "Let's go visit Angela at the grave." But if you stopped at Ash Wednesday. If there was no cross and no resurrection, then those statements would make sense to me. But if we, who are nothing but dust, if we are risen, then surely we are not to be contained in a box under the ground. Surely it is inadequate to say that our loved ones are present in those remains. They are just the body.
But we must begin at the beginning, sitting in the dust with Jesus remembering that without God's redemption, we are are nothing but dust, and we all fall down.
It is only God who can make us more than dust. Only God.
Moving
I mentioned at the beginning of this season that the word Epiphany means showing. The season of Epiphany is made up of various examples of Jesus showing us who he really is. We began with Jesus' baptism, when God spoke from out of the sky and proclaimed Jesus as God's Son. And today, the final Sunday of the season of Epiphany, Jesus shows himself in the most potent way. He is transfigured before three of his disciples. And once more, God the Almighty speaks from out of the sky. And God says words very similar to those that were said at his baptism.
"This is my Son. Listen to him!"
Jesus went up mountains to pray alone often. He sought time with God and this time rejuvenated him. Throughout his ministry, this is his habit, to find time alone with God. Then one day, something changed and instead of making this journey alone, Jesus invited his friends. He brought three of his disciples up the mountain with him. He invited them to pray with him. What an invitation, to pray with the Son of God. Can you imagine?
In the final showing, Peter, James and John catch a glimpse of what happened to Jesus when he prayed. And what happened was inconceivable.
I searched the Internet this week to find evidence of light shining from people who pray. Sure enough, in every major world religion, the holiest of people, the ones who devote their entire lives to the practice of prayer, often are depicted as being surrounded by light. Buddha, Hindu saints, mystical rabbis...all have flames,or halos or simply radiate light intensely from their faces. One man, who meditates two to three hours every morning and every evening, talks about seeing light, passing through light. People who have died and return often speak of moving toward the light when they were dying. When Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," he meant something incredible. He meant that he was God and that he touched God.
When Moses saw God's backside on the mountain, his face and hair became dazzling and white. Elijah too began to shine with the brightness of God.
So Jesus entered into the very presence of God, into God's being. And his friends were there. There were other people with him. Often people who are dying begin to talk to loved ones who have died. To be with God is not to be alone but to be with those who have loved God along with you.
So here was beauty, mystical beauty beyond imagining. And Peter tries to hold onto it.
This scene is so important because the way that Peter responds to this deeply mystical experience is the way all humans respond to God in life and in meditation. We try to hold God.
Peter asks if he can build three booths, three monuments, three places for them to stay. He is trying to bottle the experience, grab hold of it and possess it. There is was not unheard of. Jacob the patriarch built an altar at the scene where he wrestled an angel. Abraham built altars in holy places. Even today, we mark the place where a dead body lies with a large stone or permanent plaque. Why? Because we want to hold on to the people that we love. We need something permanent, something to latch ourselves to, something that does not go away or change. Peter was telling them to stay put. He did not want it to end or to change. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him, that moment with God. He wanted to hold on.
That's what we all want. We want to feel good, to have the love of God and family and friends and to hold onto it, to make it last. We want to buy it, bottle it, grab it and hold on. But that is not how God works, nor even life itself. And once we try to hold onto an experience or a loved one or even a time in our lives, it damages the experience itself.
What Moses and Elijah are talking about with Jesus is the fact that he will have to die. They are talking about his departure from this world. He is hearing his fate and Peter cannot stand to hear it.
When we fall in love, we want the feeling to stay just the same. But relationships are ever changing and growing and if we could only recognize this, we might not have a 70% divorce rate in Duval County, because when people stop feeling in love they might wonder what new kind of love could be raised up from the old one.
Can you bottle happiness? My husband and I joke about putting bricks on our boys heads. But if they'd did not change and grow, we would not get to know them as men, the full person that God made. Instead God asks us to listen to what God is doing in their lives and in ours.
Listen to me, God says. I am always doing something new and unexpected. This planet that I made, it is spinning. The cells in your body are changing and altering constantly. To truly be with me is to move.
To be devout is to be a follower of Jesus. And to follow him means movement and change. You cannot follow Jesus by standing still and wishing things were the way that they once were or wishing that they could stay the same. Watch and listen to the new things that God is doing. God shows himself in a new way every day.
When a Talmid was accepted as follower of a rabbi, that person would leave their life behind and follow the rabbi everywhere. To the market, to his home, to the synagogue, wherever. The Talmid was always on the move and not on his schedule but according to the actions of the rabbi. Many of us want to follow Jesus but the reality is that we really want to build a nice life and put him in it with us. We want a happy status quo, not the chaos and craziness of not knowing what's next.
But if you do not move, the earth will move out from under you. And you will find that The rabbi has walked on ahead and you cannot see him anymore. So look up, pack your bags, and be ready to move.
"This is my Son. Listen to him!"
Jesus went up mountains to pray alone often. He sought time with God and this time rejuvenated him. Throughout his ministry, this is his habit, to find time alone with God. Then one day, something changed and instead of making this journey alone, Jesus invited his friends. He brought three of his disciples up the mountain with him. He invited them to pray with him. What an invitation, to pray with the Son of God. Can you imagine?
In the final showing, Peter, James and John catch a glimpse of what happened to Jesus when he prayed. And what happened was inconceivable.
I searched the Internet this week to find evidence of light shining from people who pray. Sure enough, in every major world religion, the holiest of people, the ones who devote their entire lives to the practice of prayer, often are depicted as being surrounded by light. Buddha, Hindu saints, mystical rabbis...all have flames,or halos or simply radiate light intensely from their faces. One man, who meditates two to three hours every morning and every evening, talks about seeing light, passing through light. People who have died and return often speak of moving toward the light when they were dying. When Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," he meant something incredible. He meant that he was God and that he touched God.
When Moses saw God's backside on the mountain, his face and hair became dazzling and white. Elijah too began to shine with the brightness of God.
So Jesus entered into the very presence of God, into God's being. And his friends were there. There were other people with him. Often people who are dying begin to talk to loved ones who have died. To be with God is not to be alone but to be with those who have loved God along with you.
So here was beauty, mystical beauty beyond imagining. And Peter tries to hold onto it.
This scene is so important because the way that Peter responds to this deeply mystical experience is the way all humans respond to God in life and in meditation. We try to hold God.
Peter asks if he can build three booths, three monuments, three places for them to stay. He is trying to bottle the experience, grab hold of it and possess it. There is was not unheard of. Jacob the patriarch built an altar at the scene where he wrestled an angel. Abraham built altars in holy places. Even today, we mark the place where a dead body lies with a large stone or permanent plaque. Why? Because we want to hold on to the people that we love. We need something permanent, something to latch ourselves to, something that does not go away or change. Peter was telling them to stay put. He did not want it to end or to change. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him, that moment with God. He wanted to hold on.
That's what we all want. We want to feel good, to have the love of God and family and friends and to hold onto it, to make it last. We want to buy it, bottle it, grab it and hold on. But that is not how God works, nor even life itself. And once we try to hold onto an experience or a loved one or even a time in our lives, it damages the experience itself.
What Moses and Elijah are talking about with Jesus is the fact that he will have to die. They are talking about his departure from this world. He is hearing his fate and Peter cannot stand to hear it.
When we fall in love, we want the feeling to stay just the same. But relationships are ever changing and growing and if we could only recognize this, we might not have a 70% divorce rate in Duval County, because when people stop feeling in love they might wonder what new kind of love could be raised up from the old one.
Can you bottle happiness? My husband and I joke about putting bricks on our boys heads. But if they'd did not change and grow, we would not get to know them as men, the full person that God made. Instead God asks us to listen to what God is doing in their lives and in ours.
Listen to me, God says. I am always doing something new and unexpected. This planet that I made, it is spinning. The cells in your body are changing and altering constantly. To truly be with me is to move.
To be devout is to be a follower of Jesus. And to follow him means movement and change. You cannot follow Jesus by standing still and wishing things were the way that they once were or wishing that they could stay the same. Watch and listen to the new things that God is doing. God shows himself in a new way every day.
When a Talmid was accepted as follower of a rabbi, that person would leave their life behind and follow the rabbi everywhere. To the market, to his home, to the synagogue, wherever. The Talmid was always on the move and not on his schedule but according to the actions of the rabbi. Many of us want to follow Jesus but the reality is that we really want to build a nice life and put him in it with us. We want a happy status quo, not the chaos and craziness of not knowing what's next.
But if you do not move, the earth will move out from under you. And you will find that The rabbi has walked on ahead and you cannot see him anymore. So look up, pack your bags, and be ready to move.
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