The Lord Is Risen Indeed! (Me Too!)

2025-16 sermon preached at Church of the Good Shepherd, Federal Way, WA www.goodshepherdfw.org b y Billie Jones Stockton, MA First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025 Deuteronomy 26:1-11 ; Romans 10:8b-13 ; Luke 4:1-13 ; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Episcopalians do not often talk about the devil and temptation, but in today’s Gospel, Jesus is confronted and tempted by the devil. In our culture, the devil is a red mythic character with horns and a pitchfork. By viewing the devil in this way, we can deny the reality of his power and our responsibility for our actions. In Hebrew, the devil was known as an adversary and accuser. I also see the devil as a challenger, as the one who exploits our human vulnerabilities and as the one who can disrupt our relationship with God. We are somewhat familiar with the workings of the Holy Spirit and the Communion of Saints, but what about the workings on an evil spirit? We can view all that is wrong in our world as a sign of our brokenness, a misuse of God’s creation, and mistreatment of His people, who are exploited, deprived of resources and human rights, and who struggle with untreated diseases and extreme poverty. This awareness can be overwhelming, and we can feel hopeless and helpless, but with God’s grace we can contribute to the healing of the world. As a sideline, I want to commend to you an excellent sermon by our former Presiding Bishop the Right Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, titled “ Have You Met the Devil? ” Temptation for Jesus was possible because of his being fully human and fully God. He had self-interests such as we do. In this encounter, Jesus could choose to serve God or serve the devil. Being filled with the spirit of God who came down on him at his recent baptism, he exercised his free will and rejected the devil’s offers of physical comfort, self-fulfillment, and power. Now, we don’t have to be concerned about big choices like whether we will murder or rob someone, no, our temptations are often more subtle. The temptations may appeal to our own selfishness, self-preservation, our thinking we are superior to another class or ethnic group, or being fearful of losing influence or power. Through prayer or discernment, we can choose good and love God and our neighbors. Even though we may not think of it as a response to temptation, we can frame this in the choices or decisions we face every day, in how we think, believe, and act. We can choose to follow Christ’s command to love God with our whole being and love our neighbors as ourselves or we can choose to express judgement and hatred that are so common in the current social and political spheres. I want to give you an example from my personal experience. I worked with marginalized people as a social worker in my early career and then later as a Psychological Practitioner in the KY Corrections system. I tried to view my clients as wounded people who had been deprived of the necessities of unconditional love, nurturing families, and adequate resources. However, I never lost sight of why they were in prison. Sometimes, I failed to love my clients because they had a thick façade that was off-putting. They behaved as though they were unlovable. That was when I had a spiritual challenge. Trying to love sometimes was hard because some of my colleagues had written off the prisoners as unredeemable. I had to do some inner work to be able to balance out what my colleagues and I thought how I was supposed to love. I knew that I I did not look for that spark of a soul who can respond to God’s love, then I had no purpose there. Eventually, some of the prisoners learned that I was someone who would listen, rather than judge. I hope I helped to develop a more peaceful environment among the prison population. As time passed, I noticed that some colleagues were showing the prisoners more understanding, compassion, and helpfulness. During that time there, I grew spiritually from interpersonal interactions and from being part of a team. Now, I am reminded that when we learn of government and social policies that negatively impact the marginalized, we need to stop and think that we, including our leaders, should look for that spark of a soul who is beloved of God. As people of faith, we need to make our views known to those who form policies. In our scripture from Deuteronomy, the Israelites’ relationship with God called for tithes of the first of our crops in the third year after coming to the promised land. They were told to acknowledge before God from whom they came— “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor…” They were to recognize that they were strangers in a strange land. Through their gifts and tithes, many people were cared for—the Levites, resident aliens, orphans and widows. These people were all viewed as part of the community and needing care. So, what does God want from us in dealing with strangers, immigrants, the homeless, and the unfortunate? Be merciful, for you were strangers in a strange land. The Epistle for today says, “There is no distinction between Jews and Greeks for salvation. The Word is near you, on your lips, and in your hearts. The Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. Everyone who believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth shall be saved.” Again, the scripture tells us that all are under the umbrella of God’s love. Thus, being recipients of God’s grace, we cannot withhold God’s generosity from anyone. Our psalm today reminds us that as children of God, we are protected from danger. We can let go of our self-serving ways, our anxieties and concerns for emotional and physical wellbeing, wealth, success, and comfort. As Robert Boak Slocum wrote in “ Turning Around – Reflections, Questions, and Prayers for the Days in the Season of Lent ”, “We can discover life that lives, life in God if we can see beyond ourselves. Our life is not all about us. We are not and cannot be the center of our world.” If we can accept this, then, we will be freer to love others unconditionally and view ourselves as the hands and feet of Jesus. There are quite a few scriptures supporting our love for God and service to our neighbors. In this time when hatred, judgement, and discrimination dominate the speech of some of our leaders, we need to recognize who we are and whose we are, that our God loves all humanity. Likewise, we should love and care for the stranger, the immigrant, the homeless, and the poor, for our ancestors were also immigrants and strangers in a strange land. Amen.