Year C

Luke 4:1-13

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Journey to the Cross

We now start the journey to Jerusalem, the events of holy week, and the hope of Easter morning. Each of our texts today helps us begin at the right place in our Lenten journey so that we can come out at a good place and be ready for the good news of Easter. I’ve made a few journeys in my lifetime as I know you have also. There have been traveling journeys and spiritual journeys. Some of the best journeys have been those I’ve taken with others whether they are family or friends. The journey doesn’t seem so lonely or long when others are traveling with you. Yet, whether traveling with others or alone there is always a starting place.

The text from Deuteronomy gives us our Jewish roots as the starting point for our journey. It is a good place to begin because it reminds us that we cannot get a good grasp on where God is taking us without understanding what the journey has meant up to now. Understanding where God has been leading us in the past helps us to navigate the present. Much of the Book of Deuteronomy consists of Moses saying to the people he led out of Egyptian bondage, “Remember who you are” to prepare them for what lay ahead. Their journey, at least one part of it, was coming to an end. Soon, as a people bound together, they would enter the Promise Land, and a whole new phase of the journey would begin.

Even the aliens and foreigners were to be included in their fellowship and worship as they journeyed. Along the way, to help the people remember who they are Moses gave them many ceremonies, rituals, and laws. For example, in today’s reading, it deals with offering the first fruits of their harvest in the new land-what to do, how to do it and why. The heart of the ceremony was the presenting of tithes or portions of their harvest as offerings of thanksgiving to God and through retelling the story of what God had done for them, they remembered that all they had, had come from God. They were reminded by these rituals, ceremonies and laws who they were and whose they were.

In the same way today, we re-remember what God has done for us in Christ, in our creeds and stories, and in a meal. At the core of our faith is a meal of thanksgiving for the gift of salvation in Christ-the Eucharist or Holy Communion. This meal reminds us of our identity. We are those who have experienced the saving grace of God in Christ and who seek to follow and serve Christ each day and in every way we can. We share the one cup, the one loaf of bread and the one Christ. We are one family and we need each other. This journey marks us as people of a particular way.

The text from Romans today as Deuteronomy reminded us that all are welcome on this journey; all are called to make the trip. This letter Paul writes to the Romans is possibly the hardest writings of Paul to study and understand. Yet, Paul gets at the heart of our faith in this text. He brings us back to the essential basics and his starting point in our Lenten journey. Paul reminds us that being a Christian is an inward and outward experience. We hear the good news about God’s love for us in Christ with our minds then come to believe and experience it in our hearts, and then we are made right with God when we confess this belief with our lips. Putting it on our lips has a way of making it real in a way that keeping it inside does not and confessing brings others into this journey of faith as well.

I have to admit to you that even though I have spent many years studying the scriptures I have only memorized a few. Roman’s 10:9 is one of the verses I memorized years ago because like John 3:16, it beautifully expresses and confesses the truth of our faith. This confession is “Jesus is Lord,” which is probably the earliest Christian creed we have. It means we place our lives under the control of Christ. It is also a confession of belief that God “raised him from the dead,” that is, that not only did Jesus live, he still lives, he still reigns. He is Risen to Redeem. This is the good news that Paul writes about in these verses and seeks to share this understanding of what God has done for everyone in Christ as we travel in this season of penitence.

Yet, confessing our faith takes practice, it is the starting point in our journey of faith that evolves throughout life. Lent asks us to consider what it means for us to live out the faith that we hold in our hearts. Our task during this season is to practice this call. We get help for the journey ahead by listening to the voices of those who have gone before us, our ancestors in the faith. They show us in their struggle what it looks like to call on the name of Lord. And what better traveling companion can we all have with us on this journey of faith than Jesus who is on this journey with us. We see him being tested and tempted today like every one of us.

This reading from the gospel of Luke is about finding and staying on the right path in our life’s journey. Lent invites us to embrace this way of life, this right path and to prepare for the events of Holy Week by following the example of Jesus who was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days was tempted by the devil.” Jesus is never separated from God, for the Holy Spirit fills him in the beginning at his baptism and walks with him giving him strength during his encounter of testing. He understands and accepts his calling by rejecting the false paths the devil offers him. His faithfulness to God, amid the testing prepares him for his mission.

 It is not enough to be chosen and anointed for ministry, we must be tested. Only then do we learn dependence on God, who provides for our needs in all of life’s journey; because there are many voices crying out to us on this journey telling us who to be, how to live, what to do. The wilderness is a tough place, but Jesus was able to resist, stay on the right path because God’s Spirit walked with him. And thanks be to God, we are never alone on this wilderness journey. The Holy Spirit helps us to stay on the right path and guide us, even when we get lost, or fall on our faces, or begin giving in to those other voices.  Jesus does not give up on us or forsake us.

We do not journey alone as once again the call goes out to journey with Jesus during these last weeks of his life as he makes his way from the Mount of Transfiguration to the cross. If we choose this Lenten struggle to be intentional in our journey with Jesus; if we, who are filled with the Spirit, pick as our starting point prayer, the words of scripture, worship, confession, learning from past voices, we will encounter a faithful God who leads us not only into the wilderness but also through the wilderness. Confess, believe, and “Return to the Lord your God” for this is not the end of the journey Easter is on the horizon. We are accompanied all of our lives by the One Risen to Redeem.