Vision First

Habakkuk 2:2-3; Mark 1:9-15

This first Sunday of Lent we generally start with the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  This year we are concentrating on the Gospel of Mark, who only writes of the occurrence and not interactions with Satan.  Mark mentions Satan three other times.  The next time is in chapter three, and refers to “Satan casting out Satan.” Jesus is making the point that even Satan doesn’t succeed split, then in chapter 4 is in the explanation of the Parable of the Sower.  The last is in chapter 8 and is actually the lectionary scripture for next Sunday.  This one is the most pertinent to today’s reading.  It is when Jesus tells Peter to get behind him, Satan.  Right after Peter answered correctly who Jesus was. 

Of course in the first chapter of Mark Satan is the tempter but what is he tempting?  In chapter 4 with Satan coming and taking the word from the one’s on the human created path.  That is not where the seeds will grow, so Satan seems to tempt the word away with the what we humans create.  This is goes right into Jesus’ use of the word “Satan” for the man who just identified Him correctly.  Jesus knows that Messiah has a connotation of an earthly king.  He realized when Peter rebuked Him about the way being the death and resurrection, Jesus knew Peter mind, “was not on divine things but on human things.”  Peter was thinking of the packed down earthly path was the way, but Jesus knows that is Satan’s temptation.  That we take the ways of the world to be the ways of the church.

So when Jesus went from His baptism, into the wilderness, driven by the Spirit.  What was the temptation according to Mark?  For Jesus to start His ministry it was important He did not sin, but the ultimate sin would have been for him to rule the earth like an earthly king.  It is clear this temptation by Satan was squashed, for as John reported in his Gospel, when Jesus feed the 5,000 they wanted to force him to be king, he slipped away.  And found the twelve in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in rough water, thus demonstrating with His power over the elements, was not a king as they know earthly kings.

Now before I was a minister I was a pastry chef in a Manhattan Restaurant.  I was thinner then and so often people would state they would not be so thin if they did what I did.  Well little did they understand it was hard physical work as well as you do get tired of the desserts.  I would encourage my workers to always try the desserts for it was important to keep things tasting their best, and they would consume the least attractive versions.  It was never an issue.

I do remember my first week as the head pastry chef, three weeks into the job (it was a surprise to me as well).  I was working on a hazelnut linzer torte with a fig filling as I had developed at a previous restaurant.  I made a small version for the chef.  This was inspired by the fact the kitchen had a plate with black mission figs, but they were not using enough.  She suggested using Madeira Wine to enhance the fig filling.  So the next morning before anyone was at the restaurant, I went to the bar to sign out my two cups of wine.  I started by searching the well and then the lower shelves.  I found no Madeira Wine until I looked about eye level (important to note I’m tall).  So I signed out the wine and made my tasty torte and served it with cardamom ice cream (it was very tasty).

So the next day when the bartender arrived he came to talk to me.  Well yell in my face, and as I took it I did realize that the numbers he mentioned would mean the 12 slices of that dessert at 12 dollars would not pay back those two cups of madeira.  I knew the chef had said Madeira and I know I did not miss any cheaper version in the bar.  When I apologized to her, she apologized to me, that I was not yet informed of the cooking madeira and red wine in the kitchen.  I never really got upset at the bartender for even today I can feel my blood boil when someone cuts off the entire top of a strawberry to remove the stem.  It is simple with a small pairing knife to remove just the green, and waste no strawberry meat.  In the kitchen I had talked to many assistants about that, even making some go back to cut the green out of the scraps for a strawberry sauce.

For in a restaurant it is really a business.  The vision may include tasty gourmet food, a wonderful dining ambiance, but it comes down to money.  It is all about making a profit. The church does need to be in the black, which is difficult for many congregations.  However the vision cannot be the worldly path.  That path seems the easiest and is the path for businesses, but the church is different.  It is not of this world.

Our path is among the good soil.  We are rooted in God’s Word and Love and yet we are running off the path that Satan tempts us with.  We need a vision that resembles the one Habakkuk writes of:

Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
   make it plain on tablets,
   so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
   it will surely come, it will not delay. (2:2-3)

Jesus knew the worldly path, the worldly kingship, would be our temptation as well.  Church we need to look for Jesus’ vision and get behind him and follow.

The Potter’s Clay

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:1-12

Language makes humans unique from animals.  That is a fine statement, but it is also true that animals do have communication that could be termed language.  Words are funny, they are powerful and flexible.  Paul writes of the word of God, but he is not referring to scripture.  Paul does refer to the written scriptures and their importance but hear it is the Word.  In Greek, it is Logos, which I explain is the meaning behind a word.  So if you take “chair” everyone will have a different, image, thought and yet an understanding of what it means.  It is powerful and flexible, and if we look for the meaning of the three letter word “God” we will spend eternity finding the powerful and flexible understanding; Logos.

Paul wrote before the Gospels were written and this idea of Logos was cemented in the tradition by the Gospel of John. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it….And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5,14)

Jesus the incarnation is the Word of God; the Logos.  We know from John, that the Word is full of Grace and Truth; love that is given without reason and pure righteousness.  Of course these are simply words of our language to explain the great Divine.  Jesus himself is the meaning.

In the Gospel message, we are told to be humble and to do the work of you one Father.  We are not to be like the Pharisees who preach good work and do not do it, rather we are to follow the one teacher.  This one teacher is the Logos, the Word of God, and is truly humble.  Jesus went humbly to the cross to save us all that is the Word.  We have the word in our hearts as Paul writes thus we are to emulate His humility, His Grace and Truth.  We attempt to be the Word of God on earth, the Body of Christ.  That requires us to be powerful and flexible. 

We are to be like clay for the one potter, the one teacher.  We are to be molded by God.  We are not to be rigid and powerful nor flexible and weak nor rigid and weak.  We are to be the potter’s clay. 

For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Cor. 4:6-12)

We are to hold the grace and truth in us, the Word of God, and go out humbly in response to the Potter’s hand.