READING of LUKE 4: 1-13

         According to the online people's encyclopedia, Wikipedia, over 70, 000 people compete in ultramarathons each year around the world, often under punishing conditions.  Ultramarathons are grueling runs longer than a standard 26.2 mile marathon.  Over the years this extreme sport has added longer distances (100 miles) and longer time periods (48 hours!).  "On December 17, 2006, ultramarathoner Mike Pierce completed one of the most difficult races on Earth, a 100K (62.1 miles) marathon in Antarctica, the last desert.  Pierce completed the race in 17 hours and 15 minutes."[1] When I read the gospel story of testing in the desert, I am reminded of people who engage in all kinds of extreme sports, testing their body's limits.  But what is the point of testing?  The constant training of the ultramarathoner goes beyond hobby and becomes obsession, and their devotion seems excessively self-centered to me, their desire is to separate themselves from the pack of other competitors.  Therein lies an important difference as we approach our biblical text for today: Jesus' 40 day 'ultramarathon' is extreme, but his focus beyond himself and discernment of God's will are opposite to the ultramarathoner.

         The testings, or temptations, are the first part of Jesus' work begun around the age of 30, the age when Roman men shouldered adult civic responsibility in earnest.  This passage shows up like clockwork on the first Sunday in Lent, poised like a boulder at the head of our annual journey to Jerusalem with Jesus, the journey that will end with crucifixion and death, the journey that we must undertake in order to be formed into little Christs, i.e. Christians.  In the passage immediately preceding, Luke inserted his version of Jesus' family tree; it was not the royal 'son of David' genealogy that Matthew emphasized.  For Luke, Jesus' pedigree as son of God runs back through Adam, the original son of God and representative human being.  Jesus is in his full humanity then when he undergoes these tests.  Because the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness, we must view this episode in a positive light, much as God led the Israelites into the wilderness to shape them into the community of free people after generations of slavery in Egypt.

         Our Christian consciousness has shaped a negative concept of temptation as the precursor to sin.  Truthfully though, the strength to overcome sin, to resist bad choices, to discern the best action among ambiguous possibilities is gained by enduring testing in wilderness settings.  When we are stripped down to essentials, taken to the limits of our endurance, pretense and social niceties are not maintained and we are forced to rely on our core values to get through it.  Ironically then, the wilderness/desert of the bible is a symbol of barrenness and deprivation, but it is also filled with God.  Our wildernesses may not be literal places, but situations – our experiences last month with the ice storm, a job offer that stretches us, a bout of serious illness, a divorce, whether one that has been brewing or one that seems to come out of nowhere.  Whereas we want to get out of the wilderness as quickly as possible, we would do well to reflect upon what we can learn while we are there.

        Although we can see the value of being tested, we ought to reject some fairly common views on God testing people.  First of all, the God I know through the Bible and Jesus does not inflict suffering upon people as a test of faith; this would be an exceedingly cruel God.  At the same time, however, suffering can and may bring on a crisis in faith, and force us to re-evaluate our image of God.  Secondly, God does not conduct temptation 'sting operations' in order to lead people into bad choices.  In the Lord's Prayer for example, we ask God – Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  The Holy Spirit power that accompanied Jesus provides strength to show ways past temptation, not the way in.

Andrew Pratt, the chaplain at William Jewell College in MO writes about his summer as a student missionary outside the US.  Another student began the summer with the prayer "God, exercise our faith." As the unfamiliar culture, close living quarters and intense fatigue of their work wore on their group, that petition kept bothering him as he questioned his normal faith in God.  Most of the time his prayers (like ours) asked for life to be smooth and trouble-free.  How could it be that his encounters in that wilderness summer were of God testing his and the group's determination, resourcefulness, cooperation, and commitment?[2]

So, alone in the wilderness, Jesus is forced to look within himself, to discover what resources he has to answer the questions posed from within and without about his identity and purpose in life.  Quite often, a person's character is revealed by what they do and say when no one is around to watch.  He is called upon to exercise his faith.  The temptations or tests are familiar to us in form, if not in their intensity – first, bread for our famished hero and also for the world; Jesus was well aware that bread, the basic food of life was in short supply for many of his followers.  Would Jesus reproduce God's wilderness welfare manna program on demand?  Then the devil offers instant control over all the world's empires.  Wouldn't instant deliverance for the chosen people be fine and dandy?  And finally, the devil urges Jesus to test God's safety net of temple religion, equating God's love and care with protection – that would have gotten the attention and support of the high priest, scribes, and Pharisees.  Notice that even the devil can quote Scripture, which should make us cautious about throwing around tidbits of biblical verse with reckless abandon.

All for the 'small' price of setting up each of these goals as idols in place of God.  Substituting idols of secular and religious power and material security for God is what we are really encountering in the devil, whose very name means deceiver or liar.  Will Jesus believe that the liar can deliver the goods?  More importantly though, will Jesus accept the deceiver's version of what it means to be human?  Or will Jesus choose God's view of the human being, made in God's image, the power of love, not force?  The choice seems clearcut - devil is bad, God is good - and Jesus delivers the right responses without hesitation.  Even these choices that seem black and white for Jesus are not so easily discerned.  Each of them – bread, empires, religious authority – have good things going for them, at least in the short term.  In reality, temptations come disguised and in ambiguous shades of gray.

         The most dangerous temptations are dressed up to look good; for why would we be tempted to make choices that are obviously bad.  Take the most dangerous of mushrooms, Amanita phallides, whose common name is the 'death cap.'  It kills 50-90% of those who eat it and there is no antidote to its poison.  Even those who recover from the severe abdominal pain and vomiting may die a few days later from liver or kidney failure.  Yet, Amanita is a most beautiful creature.  Its soft, cream-colored cap is tantalizing; people who have eaten this mushroom say it is a most delicious treat.  Maybe mushrooms don't send you swooning into ecstasy, and you have no trouble resisting that temptation.  But we each have treasured goodies that lure and preoccupy us, excuses that keep us insulated from the wilderness, precious things that turn us away from God.

         Our whole life though offers opportunities to exercise our faith in work, in church, in child rearing, in love, and in leisure.  'Exercising our faith'- is especially appropriate during Lent, using this wilderness time to learn, to discipline, to accept guidance, to draw upon the traditions that are wells of water when we need our spirits revived.  Our character develops throughout life by practicing, exercising our faith in God over and over again.  Those of us who have been Scout leaders are aware that 'wilderness' endurance and adaptability is best developed gradually in our children and youth.  The practice, the exercise, includes failure, and a willingness to start over and be persistent.  I signed on to two prayer covenants with a partner from the Acts 16 meeting I attended, where we agreed to pray a specific prayer for one another for a month.  My month is nearly up, and I have to confess that I have forgotten to carry out this simple task more than a few times.  My prayer partners will never know which days those were.  But I haven't given up, just turned each day again to this commitment and tried to honor it.

         Our deacons, with Gordon Hatcher's help, are intentionally practicing visitation during this Lenten season.  This is a wilderness experience for many of us, for we aren't always confident that our presence will help someone else in their wilderness of illness, depression.  We risk putting our foot in our mouth and worry about saying and doing the right things.  Of course, we put ourselves 'out there,' testing our abilities to comfort and listen while we visit those in need of companionship.

         Our adults who have been learning about Islam have entered a bewildering wilderness of culture and beliefs that we don't understand.  In this experience, we are the 'outsiders.'  It is risky and humbling to set aside our Christian doctrine (but not our faith) in order to look more deeply at another faith.

There may be someone in your life whom you need to reconcile with.  Writing a letter, making a phone call, or stopping by for a personal visit would be perfect opportunities to swallow one's pride, to discard a desire for revenge.  In short, exercise your faith.  This may be the time to form partnerships for prayer with a friend as you seek endurance.

         Alone and together, we can exercise our faith.  May our spring visitors see and feel the Holy Spirit power in this place.  When these 40 days in our 21^st century wildernesses have passed, may we be able to say that we have been strengthened in our faith. Amen.