Download 17 February 2013 - Heathmont Uniting Church

Deuteronomy 26.1-11
Luke 4.1-13
Have I brushed my teeth? Where are my car keys? Did I take all my pills this
morning? When is my wife’s birthday? Have I missed our anniversary? There
are so many things to remember. Some are small (where did I put my
glasses), and some are big (surgery next week). Memory is important in
order to keep our stuff in place and we remember for appointments; we
remember for people and we remember for ourselves.
Remembering is also about keeping us aware of things that are important, as
well as things to do. My wedding anniversary, my mother’s birthday.
Some things are so important that they should not be forgotten – so we have
diaries and reminders and calendars.
But we also have special dates and times for remembering things from our
past – For example ANZAC day. If we didn’t have a date to remember, we
would and could so easily forget, because day to day living can consume so
much of our memory that we … forget.
This week we have remembered 30 years since Ash Wednesday. Yesterday
at the working bee, we were remembering the droughts and the water
restrictions. These memories serve us as reminders and lessons to learn not simply about things that happened, but about what we might do differently
in the future.
In these cases remembering is about bringing the past into the present in
order to understand our present and our future. In this way we shape our
present, we are reminded NOT to repeat our mistakes, and we are
encouraged with hope and strength for the future.
God expects the Israelites to remember their past, God’s presence and their
future: Lent encourages us to remember Jesus journey to Jerusalem and the
cross - and our discipleship; In communion we remember Christ’s death and
resurrection.
In all of these rememberings, we highlight past events, including our own
personal past, in order to shape our present and future.
Deuteronomy
In the story in Deuteronomy, the festival to be celebrated calls the people to
remember – the hard times, God in the hard times, that where they are now is
a gift from God, the strangers and foreigners among themselves.
The people of Israel were encouraged / commanded to remember the work of
God in their lives. In the good times, when they had plenty and were settled,
they were called to remember the hard times when God was with them.
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Remembering was to be a discipline. Remembering their story, and
remembering God’s story. This is what we were – God rescued us and
brought us to this place. We recognise that, and do so in a physical and
tangible way – with gifts and with worship and with celebration WITH the
strangers and foreigners. They were told to take the ‘very first things that they
picked”. It is a celebration of God keeping God’s promises.
More than that, by including the ‘foreigners’ in the celebration, God is
reminding the people that this is not their land – it is God’s land, and the
people live in it – including the foreigners.
In a week when politicians remember that the first Australians need to be
recognised, we all need to be reminded that this land is not our right and
possession. We are stewards of it for a next generation, just like others were
for us.
The Israelites had a ritual for remembering this history. It was a ritual that
included several things, but focussed the people’s attention away from
themselves and onto God and God’s provision. This was especially important
in the hard times.
In this story we are also encouraged to remember – this is not the last stop for
us. God has plenty more adventures for us. Our meaning is not in ownership
and things. There is a journey for ourselves and generations to come – there
are more stories to tell and experience.
So what might be our rituals or practices of remembering what God has
provided and that it is God who provides …
How might we remember God in hard times – not as something trite or cliche,
but as real, concrete and hope-ful.
What landmarks or markers might we use this lent to do this remembering.
[turn to the person beside you]
The choice here is about myself or others; about possession or gratitude
What do you find meaning ful in your story?
What are the landmarks or stones that guide you through lent?
Luke 4
The story of Jesus in the Desert can be used in the same way: as a reminder
of God’s faithfulness in the past.
Jesus was at odds with common perceptions of money and possessions,
power and of religion. He is offered bread, and remembers his purpose is not
to be full, but to meet God; he is offered power, and remembers that he is to
worship God alone (not himself); he is offered religious power, and
remembers that he is in God’s hands.
It is in the nature of Temptation that we forget what is important.
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Stealing, lying, sexual temptations, gossip, racism, discrimination …
Many temptations seem “reasonable”: Have you ever tried fasting? Whether
for medical reasons or spiritual ones, there are times when it seems
reasonable to eat bread when we are hungry – but not if we are fasting. It is
reasonable for Jesus to show off God’s power in a public display so that
everyone will believe in him – …
Isn’t it interesting that in all these cases, the opposite to what is good is a
focus on ME at the expense or detriment or forgetting of either God or others?
One way in which we are helped to remember is through ritual, annual
calendar dates, regular practices like communion. On a day to day basis,
maybe finding a practice to remember God or others will put temptation into a
better perspective. It is about a choice to remember.
So If I remember God, and if I remember others, and if I remember that this is
not about Me, ‘reasonable’ is no longer as ‘reasonable’ as it may sound.
They are called to remember God. DT Niles, the Minister from Sri Lanka said,
“the choice between God and every other god is a real choice. Both make
promises, both demand loyalty. If there were no real alternative to God, all
humanity would choose God. Indeed God is the more difficult choice to justify
in terms of provable results.
The chief difficulty is that God demands of us that we live by faith; faith in
God, God’s sovereignty over the future; God’s sufficiency for the present;
while, on the other hand, the various other gods whom we can serve appeal
to us on terms of the things which we can see and the forces which we can
calculate. The choice between the life of faith and the life of sight is a choice
between a God who only faith can apprehend and gods whom one as only to
see to understand. (The bible through Asian eyes)
To our soon-to-be-inducted Church Councillors and Elders: It is reasonable to
spend a whole evening of energy on discussing and deciding about the
upkeep of this building, and about money. We are afterall stewards of these
things. But it is no longer ‘reasonable’ when we remember that our main
purpose is the people, and those who are NOT part of our church – our
community. A missional Church has a focus on people, on growing people
and the faith of our community. It is someone’s business - but not ours.
We are often encouraged to ‘give up’ something for Lent. This is not to make
us suffer, but to remind us that what we have is not all ours. It is also good for
us to “take up” something for Lent – to put down and pick up, to give up and
take up.
When you give up something, replace it with something beautiful and life
giving.
What might you ‘give up’ and what might you ‘take up’?
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