"There is a story about a Catholic priest who was working in the inner city. He was walking down an alley one evening on his way home when a young man came down the alley behind him and poked a knife in his back. "Give me your money," he said. The priest opened his jacket and reached into an inner pocket to remove his wallet, exposing his clerical collar. "Oh, I'm sorry, Father, "said the young man, "I didn't see your collar. I don't want YOUR money." Trembling, the priest removed a cigar from his shirt pocket and offered it to the young man. "Oh, no, I can't do that," the young man replied, "I gave up cigars for Lent!"
(Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXII, No. 1, p.57)

Obviously, this is a classic example of the frequent trivializing of Lent. This is a very serious season for the Christian Church. In our Gospel for today Jesus, having been baptized by the Holy Spirit, was pushed by that same spirit into the desert, where he stayed for forty days fasting. The desert has traditionally been a place of revelation, transformation and self-discovery when entered alone. Here Jesus was tempted by the devil with food representing possessions, and power and religion. Each was spun in a seductive way, and no one of them was awful in and of itself. Turning bread into stones could feed many, at least for the moment. To have power over the world would be a swift way to bring about God's reign. Finally, to be rescued by angels when one throws oneself off the pinnacle of the temple would clearly establish Jesus as God's son. Each of these temptations was under girded by pride, and each was on-going, not once and for all. Jesus resisted these temptations, but most probably realized each would return later. It has been said that Jesus was first known to us in what he refused, not in the things he affirmed or the things he did. (copied)
We, too, are tempted. It is easy to be enthralled by worldly goods and the power they impart. Power is a seductive thing…even good people can be corrupted when they have too much of it. It has been said that once we start abusing power it is hard to stop; that we become possessed by power, rather than simply possessing it. It can make us forget our Baptismal promises and cause us to use religion for personal gain. To avoid suffering we are tempted to choose success over faithfulness. James Howell has said: "Of all the temptations that "Our downfall is when we try to be God instead of letting God be God. For all of us, the more we have, the more stuff we accumulate, the more personal clout we wield, the graver our spiritual danger." (Pulpit Resource, 2/25/07, p. 35, Vol. 35, No. 1, Logos Productions, Inc.)
In this complicated world, most of us long for simple answers. The New Interpreter's Dictionary has said: "Christian ethics doesn't come prepackaged. The call is not to adherence to a list of rules and regulations, but to faithfulness to the call and purposes of God." (NID, Vol. IX, Abington, 1995, Nashville)
By fully identifying with human beings in the incarnation, God showed God's self as a God who suffers with us; an "in-suffering" God. Our God does not behave like a great puppeteer in the sky, one who decides who will live and who will die at any given time. The promise has never been that life would be easy or that God would remove our pain. The promise is that God will never, ever leave us…and that promise was affirmed when God became fully human in Jesus Christ. We are called to be in-suffering with our fellow human beings, to hone our empathy and to be "with" others as they struggle.
"At the end of World War II the Russians were marching prisoners of war back to Germany. Ordinary citizens lined the streets for the Russians had suffered more casualties of war than any other nation. It has been estimated conservatively that 40 million of their people died. The hated Germans were mocked as first the German officers, looking relatively well-fed, marched down the street. However, when the bulk of the prisoners, ordinary German foot soldiers, appeared the jeers and abuse stopped. They could hardly march at all, let alone in step. They were emaciated, with few clothes, truly humiliated, wretched, gaunt, pitiful creatures. Finally, a couple of elderly Russian women broke through the ranks and held out crusts of bread. Suddenly others were moving into the columns with offerings of bread. It became so overwhelming that the Russian guards could not stop the crowd…Somehow, these ordinary Russian people were moved with an unconditional love that revealed to them that their enemies were simply other people's children who were lost, hungry and needing to go home. (Dynamic Preaching, ibid. page 64)
As Episcopalians we are at a crossroads. It has been a difficult week. We find that we in North America see the church and our denomination in a different way from much of the sub-Saharan Anglican Church. The majority of us are committed to our Baptismal Covenant; that set of promises that calls us to justice and to care for every human being. We believe that it is what Jesus lived and preached. We are called "progressives" and the votes over the past thirty years of The General Convention have illustrated that. However, there are those who see things very differently. They are calling for strict reading of scripture, adherence to a set of rules, and an ethical system that delineates who is in and who is out. In many ways it is "anti-intellectual" and flies in the face of years of scholarship and many newer discoveries. They call themselves "orthodox," though, to my knowledge, the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Churches, have never embraced such an understanding.
We are being called to hard choices; choices that will surely involve suffering. We may find that our numbers and our stewardship of treasure will shrink. We may find that we are jeered at and made outcasts in our own denomination. The Anglican Communion is a voluntary federation of independent, national churches. We have come together in a relational way, choosing to interact with one anther. We have traditionally held disparate views in tension, allowing each church and individual the space to be who they wish and feel called to be. Now that tension seems to have broken, for the only way we are to be allowed to stay in the Anglican Communion is by buying in totality the "Orthodox" view. The implications are serious, and many of us feel that we cannot sacrifice any group of people, the freedom of Dioceses to choose their own bishops, or the independence and democratic process of the Episcopal Church on the altar of unity.
This Lenten Season I would invite you to meditate on our Baptismal Covenant. Let us remember that we are to seek the dignity of every human being, including those who oppose us. I believe with all that is in me that that is what God asks of us and what we are called to do. We are called to be like the Russian people, to love our enemies, to reach out to those in need, and to seek justice and freedom for every single human being. Our God of love would have us do no less. AMEN