Sermon Snippets

I don't write many sermon manuscripts these days, but given what has been happening in Wisconsin over the past few weeks, I felt it imperative to put my thoughts in writing, both from the standpoint of getting clear myself and to keep me (as much as possible) from saying something I would later regret. Eventually, today's sermon will be available for your hearing (should you want to do that) at:

http://www.trinitywauwatosa.org

The Gospel reading upon which the sermon is based is Matthew's account of the Temptation of Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11). This sermon was my attempt at connecting the lesson assigned by the lectionary with the context of "where I live". Time will tell whether or not I was successful in accomplishing such a thing.In the meantime, I have opted to post a few paragraphs from today's sermon instead of the entire text. Hopefully these snippets will give the reader a general feel for the sermon's overall trajectory without the laborious task of reading it all...

*************

We do live in wildernesses, don't we? And not just for 40 days! Some of our wilderness wandering has gone on for years or even decades. We even brought our own personal wildernesses to church with us this morning.

Wildernesses of disease, grief, addiction or anger. Wildernesses of shame, resignation or depression. Wildernesses of greed, inattention or apathy. Wildernesses of distraction, hatred or pride. Wildernesses of guilt, self-righteousness or pain.

We will not walk out of these wildernesses by simply giving up chocolate or reading some devotional literature. We've lived within these wildernesses so long, we think they are our homes. Our sense of ourselves has become skewed. Our priorities have become disordered. Our behaviors constantly miss the mark -- we fall short of what we know to be true -- individually and collectively.

Whatever else may be going on in Madison, at the root of it all is the constant human temptation to believe that we can save ourselves. We can save ourselves if we balance the budget. We can save ourselves if we can maintain our rights. We can save ourselves if we create enough jobs. We can save ourselves if our voices are heard. We can save ourselves through the legislative process. We can save ourselves through bold, decisive leadership. We can save ourselves through a recall effort. We can save ourselves if we "believe in Wisconsin again".

We fall victim to the belief that we can turn the rocks of poverty into the bread of plenty simply by trickle-down economics or through the construction of vast swaths of social safety nets. We put God to the test by asking God's "blessing" on our own opinions and prejudices, promising that, if we get our way, we will "give God the glory". We fall down and worship just about anything -- be it the markets on Wall Street or the unions on Main Street -- if we even vaguely think such worship will give us the power over our own lives (and the lives of others!) we so crave.

The temptation is to think that our hungers are the only ones that need filling. The temptation is to behave recklessly in the name of "having faith". The temptation is to reduce worship to some sort of transaction in which if we say/do the "right thing", all the good stuff and ONLY the good stuff will come our way.

*************

Enough said (for now).