1 Lent

Video of service
Worship Booklet
Sermon by Rev. Renee LiaBraaten

 I know that we might be feeling a little snoozy this morning, since we lost an hour of sleep last night, but we’re still going to start with a few questions. I’ll make the first one easy, ok?  
 
1.How many of you enjoy playing card games?  And what are some of your favorite card games? 

This next question is going to require a little more thought, so you may need a moment to think about it. But that’s not a problem because we started an hour early, so we have plenty of time, right? 

2. When you are facing a difficult situation in life, what sorts of things do you say to yourself to help you get through it?    

In the name of the God of all creation,
the God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And in the power of God, made known in the Spirit.  Amen

FULL SERMON

I know that we might be feeling a little snoozy this morning, since we lost an hour of sleep last night, but we’re still going to start with a few questions. I’ll make the first one easy, ok?  
 
1.  How many of you enjoy playing card games?  And what are some of your favorite card games? 
This next question is going to require a little more thought, so you may need a moment to think about it.  But that’s not a problem because we started an hour early, so we have plenty of time, right? 

2.  When you are facing a difficult situation in life, what sorts of things do you say to yourself to help you get through it?   For example, my favorite church secretary used to say, “Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine, because it’s going to be over.”  
 
Well, I love playing card games.  It’s sort of in my blood. My dad was part of a big family of poker players.  When I was a little girl, I loved sitting on my Dad’s lap while he played poker with his brothers. I would count and stack and organize his poker chips and sip on my Shirley Temple.  
 
And, I spent countless happy hours playing Gin Rummy and Euchre with my grandma and grandpa on my mom’s side—sipping on homemade lemonade and munching on popcorn.  Back in those days, there were no I-Pads or cell phones.  There was only one screen, the TV.  And cartoons were only on Saturday mornings.  So, when I was bored, my parents would say, “Go and play some Solitaire.” 
 
I wish I could tell you that when I face a difficult or frightening situation in life, I have a favorite bible verse that I say to myself.  But, the first thing that usually comes to my mind is a little saying I learned from my brother, who also has card playin’ in his blood.  In hard times, he will often say to me, “Well, Sis, we gotta’ play the hand we’re dealt.” 
 
There are times in life when we really don’t like the hand we’ve been dealt. 
We receive an upsetting diagnosis after some medical tests;
Our job or our children’s job is terminated;
Someone close to us struggles with a mental illness or addiction;
A beloved person in our life dies;
Our partner decides they want a divorce; or
We’re in a car accident and end up in rehab for months.  
Some of us don’t like the hand we are being dealt in our country right now.
 
There is an endless list of things that cause us emotional angst or physical pain and make us want to cry out, “Wait a minute, this is not fair! Misdeal! I want a new hand!”  But we don’t get a new hand until we play the hand we’ve been dealt. The game of life just keeps moving on and we have to figure out how to play a difficult hand.  We can’t throw in our cards because God needs us to stay in the game.
 
So what does the Word of God have to say to the People of God when we are dealt a difficult hand?
 
Today is the first Sunday in Lent, and over the next six weeks, we get to watch how Jesus plays the hands he is dealt.  We can learn a lot from Jesus, because he was a master at staying in the game, even when it wasn’t fair, even when it felt like a misdeal.
 
Lent always begins with Jesus in the wilderness—led by the Spirit and tempted by the devil. Let’s take a closer look at how Jesus plays this particular hand.
 
Luke tells us that Jesus is “full of the Holy Spirit.” He is all set to begin his public ministry.  He is still dripping with the waters of his spectacular baptism in the Jordan, where the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove. God’s words of affirmation are still resounding deep within him, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus is energized.  He is ready to dive in…to begin teaching and healing and ushering in the Kingdom of God.
 
But, that is not the hand he is dealt.  Not yet.  That same Spirit who descended on Jesus in his baptism, filling him with a powerful sense of God’s presence, now leads him away from the crowds and into the wilderness…away from the people Jesus feels called to engage with and into solitude.  At first glance, this doesn’t feel like a good hand.
 
But Jesus follows the lead of that still small voice within, even though that voice is leading him in a very different direction than he was all set to go. 
 
And, once Jesus is in the wilderness, what does he do?  He prays. He talks with God and listens to God. He spends 40 days attuning his life to the presence of God within him—aligning his way of thinking with God’s way of thinking. So, when the devil appears at the end of these 40 days to test Jesus, Jesus is ready.
 
When we are dealt a bad hand in life, the first thing we learn from Jesus is to follow the lead of the Spirit of God.  This same Spirit is within each of us. This same still, small voice speaks within our hearts. But, we need to be able to hear this voice, which means we need to move away from the constant stimulation, chatter, distractions and information overload that is part of our daily lives.   
 
When we are faced with difficult situations in life, we need to do is find a quiet place where we can spend some time talking with God, remembering that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters, attuning our lives to God’s presence, and aligning our way of thinking with God’s way of thinking.
 
Before Jesus begins the work he was sent to do, he goes off, alone, to a quiet place to talk with God. And throughout his ministry, he continues to do this.  Before he begins the work of the day, he gets up early before dawn and goes into the hills to pray.  At the beginning of Lent, we find Jesus praying in the wilderness.  And at the end of our Lenten journey, we will find Jesus, once again, alone, praying—talking with God in the Garden of Gethsemane about the very difficult, unfair hand he is about to be dealt.
 
When life deals us a bad hand, before we take any action, before we respond, before we panic, we can follow Jesus’ lead and take a time out with God. Here in St. Augustine, we are so lucky. We can go and find a deserted section of beach and sit on the sand or walk and talk for as long as we need. 
 
“Lord, I’m frightened.  I’m overwhelmed by what is happening in my life right now.  I’ve never dealt with anything like this.
I’m confused by what is going on in our world. I don’t know what to do.  Please show me the way through this.

O God, please help me to feel your presence, your nearness…help me sense your Spirit guiding me. 
Please give me the courage I need to deal with this in a wise, faithful way.  Help me to trust that you are with me, leading me every step of the way.”
 
Lesson Number One for Staying in the Game:  When you get a bad hand that you don’t know how to play, go to a quiet place and pray. Just lay it out there before God, and then be still, wait and listen for that still small voice to speak to your heart.
 
Next, let’s move on to Lesson Number Two:  How to Deal with the Devil
 
As I was thinking about Jesus’ dialogue with the devil, two things kept coming to my mind.  And whenever something keeps coming up as I am working on a sermon, it feels like a clue that the Spirit is leading me to share it with you.
 
The first thing that I kept thinking about is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, the inspiring civil rights leader in India, whose use of non-violent resistance led to India’s independence from Britain, and inspired the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Gandhi once said, “The only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts – that is where the battle should be fought.” 
 
And the other thing that kept coming to mind is a story that you’ve probably heard before, but it bears repeating.
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One day an old Cherokee man sits down with his grandson to teach him about life.
“A fight is going on inside of me,” he says to the boy. “It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One of the wolves is bad – he is full of anger, jealousy, arrogance, greed, regret, lies, laziness, and self-pity. He wants me to be vengeful. To forget no wrong. To forgive no slight. To attack first. To be cruel and cunning and brutal to friends and enemies alike. To spare no one.
The other wolf is good – he is filled with love, joy, peace, generosity, truth, empathy, courage, humility, and faith.  He wants me to be strong and compassionate.  To be wise and courageous and vulnerable enough to be forgiving.
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And this same fight is going on inside the heart of every single person, including you, my son.”
His grandson thinks about this for a few minutes, and then asks his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
And his grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”
 
When it comes to Jesus, we tend to focus on the fact that he was the Son of God.  But he was also the Son of Man.  Jesus was human, just like us.  And that means that he also wrestled with “the devil running around in his own heart,” just like we do.  He experienced the inner struggle between “the bad wolf and the good wolf,” just like we do.
 
Jesus lived in the world, just like we do.  The voices of the world were running around in his head, too.  Should he use his power to be the kind of Messiah the world had in mind—a political leader to challenge Ceasar’s oppressive rule?  Or the kind of Messiah God was calling him to be—a teacher helping people understand God’s compassionate rule? Should he align with the values and power of the kingdoms of this world or the values and power of the kingdom of God?  You and I must make the same choice—day after day.
 
We are all a combination of light and dark.  We need to be conscious and aware of the dark side within us so that we can control it and prevent it from getting the upper hand. When we are dealt a difficult hand in life, that dark, shadow side of us gets triggered.  At times like this, the still, small voice of the Spirit can easily be drown out by this louder voice, which leads us into temptation—the temptation to doubt ourselves and to doubt God.
 
That devilish voice in our heads says things like, “If you really are a beloved child of God, shouldn’t things be going a bit smoother for you?  Shouldn’t all this going to church make a difference?  Shouldn’t you be happier, healthier, richer, safer?  The people that could care less about God and justice and equality seem to be doing a lot better than you.  In fact, they seem to be ruling the world.”
 
“If there really is a loving God, why is there so much suffering in the world?  How can God allow all the injustice and destruction in Ukraine and Gaza to go on and on?  If God really cares about this world, where is God now, when the whole planet needs help? Does God even exist?  Enough of this caring for others, you need to take care of yourself because no one else will.”
 
Jesus teaches us to recognize this voice for what it is.  It is not the voice of the Spirit. It is the voice of self-interest and self- preservation.  It is not based on the Wisdom from on High. It is based in the wisdom of this world.   It is not the Truth that will set us free.  It is a lie that will enslave us.
 
When a bad hand in life triggers the “bad wolf,” dark side of us…   
 
When that devilish voice within tempts us to doubt our identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters…  
 
When that voice leads us away from doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God…
 
We need to listen to Jesus, our brother.  He gives us the perfect line to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”
 
Whatever difficult hand we are dealt in life, Jesus reminds us that God is with us…that God is enough…that God will get us through…and that in the end, God’s love always wins the game. Amen.