St. Andrew’s, Elyria
Rev. Catherine Wright
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 42; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon series on Celebration of Discipline, Richard FosterZZZ
It is great to be back. It was great to be home with Sarah, and in a nutshell everything went well with her birth and things are going well now.
It has been interesting emerging from our domestic seclusion. I feel like time stood still, but it didn’t. Things here at St. Andrew’s continued on well I believe- I look forward to hearing from you about what has been going on in each of your lives. Taking a bigger focus, there is the political turmoil in the Middle East and, the earthquake in Japan and tidal waves from that. Our prayers are needed- for those who struggle close by and in distant lands.
And it is Lent- Sarah managed to arrive after Christmas and give me just enough time to get back before Ash Wednesday. So we are able to spend all of Lent together, this time before Easter, this season of preparation. And I am a fan of Lent. It is an odd position to take- being a fan of this time of year. This season of repentance and giving things up. David Lose had a post on Huffington Post this week that really resonated with me. In part he wrote:
And maybe, just maybe -- and this takes the greatest amount of imagination of them all -- just maybe Lent really isn't mine to do with whatever I please. Perhaps Lent isn't even the Church's to insist upon or discard at will. Maybe Lent isn't any of ours to scoff at or observe. Maybe Lent is God's. Maybe Lent is God's gift to a people starved for meaning, for courage, for comfort, for life.
If it is, if we can imagine that Lent is not ours at all but is wholly God's, then maybe we'll also begin to recall, at first vaguely but then more strongly, that we, too, are not ours at all, but are wholly God's -- God's own possession and treasure.
Seen this way, Lent reminds us of whose we are. The "sacrifices," the disciplines, these are not intended as good works offered by us to God; rather, they are God's gifts to us to remind us who we are, God's adopted daughters and sons, God's treasure, so priceless that God was willing to go to any length -- or, more appropriately, to any depth -- to tell us that we are loved, that we have value, that we have purpose.
Yes. I need Lent. I need an absence of gifts so that I might acknowledge the Gift. I need a time to be quiet and still, a time to crane my neck and lift my head, straining to hear again what was promised me at Baptism: "You are mine! I love you! I am with you!"
David Lose, Huffington Post online, posted 3/7/2011
This is why I like Lent. I need to hear again what was promised at my Baptism, what will be promised to Sarah when she is baptized at the Easter Vigil by Bishop Hollingsworth, what was promised to each of you. You are God’s. You are loved. God is with each of us.
In our Gospel lesson for today we hear, as we do each first Sunday in Lent, of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. After fasting for forty days and nights, Jesus was famished. Vulnerable to the first temptation put before him, turning stones into bread. But this and the other two temptations he resists. He rejects the lure of the powers of this world in favor of uncompromising obedience to God the Father. As completely human, Jesus felt the full force of these temptations; yet his relationship with God the Father enabled him to resist and renounce these assaults.
Jesus did this fast right after his Baptism, right after he heard the voice of God proclaiming that he was his son, well loved and with whom God is pleased. So our 40 days begin, leading up to Easter with it’s Baptisms and Confirmations and reminders to each of us that we are loved by God also.
But there is the forty days to get through. This desert between now and Easter.
This Lent I have chosen to focus on Richard Foster’s Book, Celebration of Discipline. He looks at 12 classical disciplines- classical because they are central to experiential Christianity. Experiential- how we experience, do, are Christians. We will be looking at them over this and the following 4 weeks during my sermons. We will also be discussing them on Wednesday nights during our Lenten evenings together. The final week I have added some that he doesn’t cover- some that I encountered at a youth minister training years ago- Spiritual Disciplines for the undisciplined. Items that don’t fall under the category of classical but seem particularly appropriate in our day and age- getting enough rest, disconnecting from electronics on occasion.
The disciplines are things that move us beyond surface living, where we are just going through our days on autopilot as fast as we can, and into living in the depths. These are not just for spiritual giants, those whose whole lives are dedicated to spiritual living. These are for each of us. The primary requirement to do them is a longing after God, and I believe as St. Augustine of Hippo did, that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We all long after God- the aches in our lives are aches for God. And the closer we are the more the pains of this world fade away. And Celebration is very appropriate in the title of Foster’s book- for the disciplines lead to joy. We become liberated from our self-interest and the fear that is there. We are filled with the joy and love of God.
The two big difficulties with the disciplines are this: We doubt our ability to reach beyond this physical world- we doubt that we can draw closer to God, have any growth in this area. We doubt it’s importance- the world is prejudiced against the nonmaterial world and calls us to not spend time on it, but rather to focus on material things.
The second big difficulty is a practical one- we don’t know how to explore the inward life. The logistics are unknown to us. Foster’s book covers that also, and we will go into it here and on Wednesday nights also. But the mechanics aren’t it- the attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics.
And they are not to turn into law, not to manipulate or control people, we are not to think that we are earning our way into God’s prescience. They are a means for us to place ourselves before God so that we may receive the gracious gift of God and be transformed by God.
Foster categorizes them into 3 groups- Inward, Outward and Corporate.
In the Inward category he places Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study.
In the Outward category is Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service.
In the Corporate we have Confession, Worship, Guidance and Celebration.
Today is mostly about an overview of the next four weeks, but we do have time to look at one a little more closely. Given our Gospel, looking at fasting seems appropriate. The Plain Dealer had a piece on fasting this past Monday. It gave the following statistics: 4 in 10 Americans say they have fasted for religious or spiritual reasons. 6 in 10 Catholics in the U.S. abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent. 3 in 4 Jews have abstained from food for religious reasons. 4 in 4 Muslims make the same claim.
Throughout the history of our religion, people have fasted. Throughout scripture fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. It is not a hunger strike done for political power or to attract attention to a cause. It is not done for health dieting, for physical benefits. It is unto God, with the focus being on worshiping God. We are reminded during a fast that food does not sustain us- God does. We can put aside our craving for the nonessentials and not be enslaved by them.
On the practical side, there should be a progression- walk before you run. A partial fast of 24 hours to begin, perhaps lunch to lunch. Drink fruit juice. Do this for several weeks. At first the physical aspects will be fascinating, but watch the inner attitude of the heart. After a few of these partial fasts, move on to a 24 hour fast. Drink healthy amounts of water. Master your stomach. Perhaps use the time previously spent eating in prayer and meditation. Perhaps donate the money to a good cause- the food pantry or community meals or some other organization that helps feed others. Don’t call attention to what you are doing. This is between you and God and you are not doing it to get attention from others. There will be a spiritual progression over the course of many fasts. Longer fasts can be done after you have achieved several fasts with a degree of spiritual success.
Yes, there are people who should not fast. Certain medical conditions. The pregnant and nursing are excluded. Children. But many of us could, and yet never do. And the history of its efficacy for religious people is indisputable.
Next week is meditation, prayer and study. Hope to see many of you Wednesday night. If you have experienced the power of fasting, fill out one of the cards in the pew and let us know about it.
Again, it is good to be back.
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