February 14: An Offering

Sunday, February 14, 2016  Lent I C

Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16; Romans 10: 8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

Every first Sunday in Lent we hear the Temptation Narrative; this year it’s Luke’s version.  We begin our 40 days of journeying toward God with this story because it contains some important truths we need to hear; truths we need to claim in order to become realigned with God.

Beloved, there are so many whispers trying to lure us away from our true identity, trying to make us lose sight of those promises we make at baptism.  There is an onslaught of everyday enticements which tell us to go ahead and satisfy our appetites no matter the cost, to go ahead and strive to gain power, status and authority, no matter what we might have to compromise or who we might have to infringe upon in order to achieve our personal success.

These are the same whispers the Adversary murmurs into Jesus’ ear.  At one of his lowest moments---when Jesus is weak, hungry, exhausted---the Adversary whispers: If you are the Child of God……hoping to make Jesus question his central identity, hoping to turn Jesus away from God’s vision toward evil’s’ vision.  If you are….

In his famished, weakened, tired, hot and empty state how does Jesus say no---how is Jesus strong enough to resist temptation?

Jesus knows who he is.  Jesus knows he belongs to God, that he comes from God and that he is returning to God.  This truth, the truth of his identity, the truth of where he comes from and where he is going---this truth allows Jesus to trust completely in God’s vision.  And from that trust, Jesus surrenders himself to God’s plan---even though God’s plan includes pain, suffering, loss, betrayal and death---Jesus believes, Jesus trusts, and Jesus obeys. And through his obedience, Jesus is freed from the hell of self-absorption.  He is released from worry, fear, and anxiety. He is able to say no to the Adversary and to say yes to God.

Jesus embraces his central reality that He is an offering, that his life is an offering, that all that he has is meant to be given. And so his ministry begins.

An Offering. Offertory.  Oblation.  The reading from Deuteronomy calls us to make an offering.  Yes, it is a liturgical act, an act we repeat each Sunday.  But it is so much more than simply placing money into the plate.  Our pledges, our offerings, are the sign of our thankfulness to God for all we have been given.  We try to fool ourselves into thinking that the money is ours---after all, we earned it.  But the ability to earn it, the opportunity to earn it, even the very desire to earn it---comes from God.  God is the source of all that we have and all that we are.  In great thanksgiving, we take the best of the fruits of our labors---a percentage off the top of our harvest---and we give it back to God.  For the good of the Kingdom.

Because here is what we know about God; God takes those bits and pieces of our offering---some are meager, some are plentiful---God takes all our offerings and multiplies them.  We lift them up to be blessed, and in that blessing, God turns our offering into abundance.  Like the fishes and the loaves, God blesses and multiples whatever we are willing to offer--- so that the offering can be shared and God’s people can have enough.   Not just enough, but then some.  Like the feeding of the thousands and the manna from heaven, there is enough to meet people’s needs and then some.  But first, we are called to make the offering.  If we don’t offer, God can’t multiply.  Paucity doesn’t come from a lack of resources; paucity comes from a lack of offering.

This invites us to consider how we can be an offering--- as individuals and as a community.  How can we offer ourselves and our gifts so that others can experience God’s abundance?  How can we offer shelter, refuge, safety?  How can we be a community that is an oasis of God’s grace, mercy and compassion?  What will we need to sacrifice in order to be that offering?  With whom are we called to partner so we can turn the offerings we have into the abundance needed to meet the needs of all in our communities?

For, it is in our offering that we build bridges, we create relationships, we experience and practice resurrection---bringing life where before there was only barrenness and death.  Our worship can be such an offering when it is first and foremost centered on God and drawing others to God rather than created for our preferences and our comfort.  God multiplies our offering when we join with others, like our partnership with St. Paul’s United Methodist for our young people and our youth, as well as the partnership we are starting with Redeemer Lutheran in order to answer our common call to Mission.  These joint offerings begin to heal the divisions within the Body of Christ and restore our union to one another.

None of this is easy.  Most of it is challenging.  But here’s another great truth we need to recognize in this pivotal story on this first Sunday of Lent.  Before Jesus entered the wilderness, he was filled with the Holy Spirit.  We cannot do the work to which we are called if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit.  Are we regularly and consistently participating in opportunities where the Holy Spirit can possess and fill us with God’s strength and grace?  Or are we lured away by our business, our inertia, our own convenience? Beloved, if we are truly seeking to live out our truest identity as God’s own, the Word points us to the truth that we cannot do this from our own strength---but only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the grace and power of God, we can be turned from being inward-focused in order to become outward-focused.  A transformation that gives us the desire and the fortitude to offer our selves and our lives for God’s glory. And for the good of the Kingdom.

This past Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, Laura Courtright Burns from St Paul’s and I (with help from Sally Jones), went over to the University to offer Ashes to Go.  A few students even took us up on it and were reminded that they are but dust and to dust they shall return.  We had a few good conversations, lots of smiles and greetings on that cold, cold day.  In between the passing times of students, we went into Zest to warm up. 

During our first warming session in Zest’s, there was a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab.  We made eye contact and said hello.  Now, picture this with me.  I am in my collar, my cassock, my white surplice, my purple stole, and my large black, woolen cape.  I have on a hat and a sign around my neck declaring: It’s Ash Wednesday people!  Get your Ashes to Go! 

The young woman looks at me, takes it all in and pointing to my vestments and clerical regalia asks: “So, what is all this about? “  I explain it is Ash Wednesday, a day when we remember that God took dust, blew God’s breath into it and created life. I ask her if she is a Muslim and she says yes.  I say, “So then you know about the prophet Jesus (because Muslims honor Jesus as a great prophet whose life is an example of goodness). Well, Ash Wednesday,” I explain,  “is the first day of Lent, and Lent is a season that reminds us of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness and how it is like our journey of drawing closer to God.”

She thanks me for the explanation.  I then ask her to teach me the tradition Muslim greeting.  “asalam alaykum,” she says.  I have to repeat it a couple of times to get it right.  I thank her.

Might not seem like much, these few minutes of time.  But, as an outsider looking at this conversation, all you would have seen is what divides us: She in her hijab, me in all my clerical regalia.  From the outside we are so different.  But in those minutes, in the midst of all the items that pointed to our differences, we offered ourselves to one another.  We each moved from a greater truth---that we belong to one another---that we can feel safe enough to see one another.  She offered a question; I offered a response, and in that offering, some of the broken strands of God’s web of grace were restored.  A small bridge built, the seed of a relationship sown.

Asalam Alaykum; Shalom; Namaste; Peace be with You.

Let us be so possessed by the Holy Spirit that we are empowered to live our true identity, strengthened to be an offering of God’s love.