10:30 am, Sun, Feb 26, 2023 - J G White / FBCA
(Psalm 32; Gen 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Phil 4:8-13; Mtt 4:1-11)
Into the wild we go! The Church
season of Lent has begun: it is a journey with Jesus towards His cross.
Into the wild we go. Today, we
look back to Christ just before His ‘sermon on the mount,’ when he takes forty
days of solitude in the wild, for prayer and fasting.
Into the wild we go. What could
our prayer and fasting be like this year? The devotional activity books that
use the art of Matisse will challenge our creativity, and our faith.
So, how is your fasting from food
going? Ha ha. Here yesterday, amid the Scrabble games and Racko and all, we ate
potato chips, nuts and bolts, home-made cookies, chocolate cake with boiled
icing, all washed down with punch.
Fasting from food is a spiritual
practice that is thousands of years old. Moses fasted; Jesus fasted. We see it as
part of ancient Judaism, and early Christianity. We see it in other world
religions also. Do we see it as a helpful option in our lives?
There are fasts other than food
fasts, of course. Ever try a fast from criticizing anyone or everything for a
week, or more? Or a fast from looking in the mirror. How about a technology
fast? The Matisse devotional book suggests this one…
Fasting can be life-giving:
try a “tech fast” this week, refraining from screens for a portion of each day
(or choose one or two evenings for starters). Be bold enough to take in God’s
beauty and colour all around: read a book, make a meal together, check out the
stars, play an instrument – in short, plunge toward the things you love! (p. 10)
What does fasting do? We see what
happened to Jesus when He went out into solitude with no food for forty days! He
came face to face with evil. He had some big temptations to consider. He made
some good decisions, using His scriptures. He got blessed by angels!
We can’t quite expect the same
experience. We are not the Son of God. The world does not revolve around us!
Yet fasting can train our souls.
And bodies. It may humiliate us, as we realize
how much our peace depends upon our stomachs, or scrolling facebook, or telling
others just what we think, or whatever. It can get pretty wild! Fasting can teach
us how we can survive without something we sort of thought we
just had to have. In time, with practice, it purifies our motives and
our praying. We live into our limitations. We know ourselves better. And thus,
we live better.
Yet, Matthew’s story of the
temptation of Jesus in the wilderness may not quite be a lesson in fasting for
us. Fasting is the backdrop. His own temptations echo those of the children of
Israel, when Moses led them into the wild. They complained because they were
hungry. They angrily grumbled, wanting proof that God was with them. They
idolized and worshipped things that were not God – literal idols, statues of
wood and metal.
What are our temptations
today? In this era when times are lean for the Church? Finances could be one. Whether
a little congregation is just scraping by, or a bigger church has millions on hand, the temptations are just opposite
sides of the same coin, I’d guess. And a coin it is, for we can cling so
tightly to the dollars we think we have, or grasp for the ones we don’t.
Church temptations? Tradition,
sameness, comfort are all very tempting and powerful in the fellowship,
sometimes. So it has been in the Church in the West, all of our lives,
probably. Way back in 1965, Pierre Burton spoke, in ‘The Comfortable Pew,’ of
established religion in which Christianity becomes a mere vehicle on the
road to worldly success, and “faith” a kind of super-aspirin that can be
painlessly swallowed to provide fast, fast, fast relief from the burning issues
of our time. (p. 97)
Another temptation category is
always self-service, and the survival mentality that goes hand-in-hand
with it. Our own church website says, at the top of the opening page, First
Baptist Church is always working to meet the changing religious needs of its
members. Gratefully, I don’t believe this is our central motto, and we are
not just a “bless me club.’
To develop our prayer, and
fasting, could be helpful, helpful training to take together, with God. A
congregation can fast for a season in many ways. I remember well, in 1996,
hearing John Boyd at First Baptist Halifax telling the children that the Church
would fast from the word ‘alleluia’ in Lent. Someplace else, I remember a
neighbouring United Church that would ‘fast from meetings’ in Lent: no committees
or boards for a month and a half. Or here and now, we try something with an
environmental impact, we fast from paper. Naturally, my not-so-hidden agenda is
to lower our paper use some, long term.
Real fasting is to take a little
step into purposeful poverty. To be empty; we get to be in solidarity with the
hungry, to have true empathy for the needy, to grow in genuine compassion. We
learn what the apostle Paul learned, recorded in Philippians 4:
I have learned to be content
with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it
is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of
being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. This was not fasting: this was real life!
To me, this is like the
Pavlichenkos, who are ready to stay in their war-torn country, and also
ready to leave, for good. Last Wednesday a letter from Olexandr and family
arrived in email. He summarizes a whole year, in a letter filled with photos. I
want to read the ending, but let me start with their beginning and a few
excerpts.
In a few days there will be
exactly a year of the war.
2022 February 24, somewhere at
5 in the morning, we woke up from strong explosions. A few kilometers from our
house, the military unit was blown up by the missiles. The explosions was so
strong. Many neighbors lost windows. We were saved that it was not cold outside
and we did not completely closed the windows. In our house, they simply opened
strongly.
The family fled their home. Then
they fled Ukraine, and stayed in Poland as long as they could. Now, they are
back at home.
Your many letters showed us
another reality. Especially the birth of a butterfly was so symbolic. For me
this showed that we need to live on. Taras was simply delighted, he is still
looking for the opportunity to repeat experiment.
We keep all the letters!
Our documents have been in
processing for a very long time. It seems to me about 240 days. And when a visa
invitation came, we were already in Ukraine. Because we could no longer stay in
Poland for various reasons related to documents and permits.
Now I understand that it
was the will of God.
You helped us survive a
most difficult winter in my life.
At the end of the letter,
Olexandr writes:
In a few days there will be a
year of war, and Russian promise us something special. We are all waiting for a
second big Russian offensive. The management of the company where I work
recommended to prepare all things for evacuation and be ready to leave if
necessary.
I’m writing this letter to you
and look at the suitcases in the corner of the room … Will I really have to run
again and go through all these trials again... For all the will of God.
If this really happens and
we again have to run away from Ukraine, then we will come to Amherst.
If this does not happen, then we want to continue to live in Ukraine.
With love Pavlichenko
family
Whether you know all about
wilderness times in your life from your personal struggles, or from taking your
soul into the wild on purpose, take time to go into the wild with Jesus this
winter, with hopes of spring and resurrection. Let us, who have life so easy,
fast and pray for those who face disaster. Then, with people most in
need, together we might say:
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