St
Bartholomew’s Church West Pinchbeck
Murray
Harvey
Deut 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
Last weekend I was in York for the Viking Festival. There were ‘Vikings’ wandering everywhere through the streets of the city. All this was tremendously exciting to my five year old son. He was beside himself! As one lone Viking came down the street my son said ‘there’s another Viking!’ The man stopped, turned around and sounding rather insulted, said ‘I’m not a Viking, I’m a Saxon!’
To this participant in the festival there was an important distinction to be made: home team vs. visitor. Resident vs. invader. The Vikings were the invaders, plunderers, pillaging vandals. The Saxons (at least by that time) were the home team, well established and settled.
To the Israelites wandering in the desert Moses gives a reminder: the land they are going to occupy was already occupied. They were to remember their own alien past. In this new land God was to be worshipped not just by the Israelites but by all… (v11) ‘You, together with the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord has given you…’
We can’t deny the harsh treatment of the prior inhabitants of this promised land (Deut 20:16-18) but the aim was not the kind of racial/ethnic cleansing we might see today, but rather a concern that God alone must be worshipped, not some foreign god (20:18).
But I want to focus not so much on their arrival in this promised land but on how they got there. The journey itself was formative for the Israelites and it determined how they were to live once they arrived.
The importance of this journey for the Israelites is not to be underestimated. As Moses reminds them and as they are reminded again and again, ‘a wandering Aramean was my ancestor .. he went down into Egypt and lived as an alien .. The Lord brought us out of Egypt … and he brought us into this place and gave us this land.’
In this wilderness, this frightening uncomfortable place, this place of suffering and alienation and vulnerability, God formed a relationship with Israel. These were the days of their youth. And they were never to forget it.
When they looked back they could see that these weren’t aimless, reckless wanderings in the desert. And their entry into the promised land wasn’t a reckless plundering. All this had a purpose, a direction, a goal.
God was forming a relationship with them. Although they perhaps tried to deny it at the time, God was forming them as he led them, making them into his people.
The Vikings traversed much of the known world of their day, possibly as far west as Newfoundland in N America and as far east as Eastern Europe. I don’t know enough about their history to know whether they had a plan or not. Whether their aim was trade, colonization or plunder or all three. They were certainly very skilled sailors and navigators. I know that.
The Israelites on the other hand didn’t have a plan. They had a promise. They were participants in God’s plan.
On the surface they were wandering Arameans. Below the surface they were God’s people.
What does all this mean for us?
What is our aim in life? Does my life have a purpose? Certainly I seem to dash about from this task to that, attending to this job here, patching up that problem over there. So often my life seems to be reactive. On the back foot. Perhaps that’s what it feels like in your life too. At home or at work or both. So if you feel that way then you’re not alone.
Recently there has been a lot of research into people’s lives and what stresses them out. My background is health care and I know something of the stresses amongst health care professionals. A recent survey* indicated that one of the main sources of stress amongst health professionals is a lack of agreement about aims and objectives of the organisation. When this happens questions like ‘What am I doing here?’, or ‘Are we achieving anything?’ are asked and are evidence of the frustration and disillusionment that leads to stress. A major part of this is a feeling that one isn’t contributing to lasting change or the betterment of peoples lives. Workers begin to feel they are stop gapping here and there rather than approaching the real problem in an organised and proactive way.
When it feels like that it can be very frustrating and disillusioning. Our disjointed and compartmentalised world seems to get the better of us. This is when we’re most vulnerable to the kind of temptation that confronted Jesus in today’s Gospel.
But of course we shouldn’t be vulnerable. We have more than a strategic plan, more than a set of agreed objectives. We have God’s plan and God’s will. This can be our guiding force in the face of the fragmented, disjointed, reactive world of today. The Israelites in the desert appeared to be wandering aimlessly, reacting to unpredicted events, complaining and turning back, then suddenly deciding to go on again. Maybe we can relate to this because God was refining them just like he is refining us.
God’s primary purpose is our growing closer to his will whether we succeed or appear to make progress in human terms or not. This is what he was doing with the Israelites and this is what he is doing with us.
The Roots Resources material gives us a theme for today that reminds us that Jesus lived in humble trust and obedience towards God. If he hadn’t, he might have been led astray by the devil in that Gospel scene we heard today. But he wasn’t wandering aimlessly through life – he was focused and committed to God’s will.
Let’s use this time of Lent to look at the direction of our lives and reassess where we are. Intentionally, let us see to it that all these different things we do are somehow done to God’s glory. Most importantly, that our actions and our will are aligned with his will for our lives.
So on the surface we may look like wanderers but let’s show that we are guided by something deeper – God’s will for us.
A Lent
Prayer Gracious God, as we journey through Lent, we
commit ourselves to being open to your Spirit. Guide us during this period so
that our faith may be increased and our service encouraged and strengthened,
and that our knowledge and love of you, the living God, may be deepened. Use us
as you will. Bend our will and our ways to your will and your ways, through
love and obedience. Show us the way of Christ, the way of suffering love.
Enable us, by the power of your Spirit, to walk that way not just for the 40
days of Lent but throughout our lives, so that we may show your will, your way
and your love. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Notes * Joint Royal College of Nursing and Health and Safety Executive
report
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/crr_htm/2002/crr02435.htm