"I want to go home"

                                                        

“I Want to Go Home” 

This narrative in the Passover Haggadah, begins thus:

My father was a wandering Aramean.

It was a difficult conversation. Cindy and I had agreed to answer a call to “retirement” and to serve part time at St. Peter’s Church in Salem, Massachusetts. It was our ticket home. We had served St. Mark’s Church in Saint Albans, WV for 11 years. I had enough years of credited service in the church to receive my full pension. That together with income from St. Peter’s would actually give us a respectable salary increase. I had spent many years of my professional life too far away. It was time to go home.

First however came that difficult conversation. I made an appointment with the Senior Warden. We had lunch at our customary meeting place when important matters needed to be discussed. I think he knew what was coming. When I informed him that I would be “retiring” at the end of December in 2006, his response was not one I could repeat here in exactly the same terms he used at the time. Suffice it to say, we had forged a close relationship as pastor/parishioner. His family had become close to our own.

Bruce was a man of enormous faith. He looked intently at me and said after that initial reaction, “Perhaps this is God’s way of looking out for you and your family”.

As it turned out I needed good medical care and I received that at Mass General. Cindy needed to be near her family as her folks approached their riper years. And Joshua was able to find a decent job at Logan Airport with American Airlines.

Deep within all humankind there is a yearning to go home. In our first lesson we hear that ancient creedal formula as recited by all Hebraica as a part of the Liturgy of the Passover Haggadah; “A wandering Aramean was my father”. In Rabbinical tradition the wandering Aramean was Jacob. We understood ourselves to be a people enslaved and in exile, but also a people for whom God would intervene to bring us freedom and the Law.

Many of us are a people who wander far from our homes in our origin stories. Unless we are among the peoples whose origin stories are from these lands. Often we were a people driven out of our homes by invading armies. History recounts endless examples of invasion and slavery. The Viking invasions of the British Isles in the seventh century, the European invasion of Colonial America, and of course our own participation in the slave trade. Presently, the Russian invasion of the Ukraine leaves us edgy about what comes next in our own history. 

We are driven time and again into the Wilderness. There, we are confronted with our demons. Jesus is haunted by the Evil One in today’s fascinating account of his own wilderness experience. 

Jesus ate nothing during those forty days. The Devil and Jesus knew he could turn stone into bread if he wished. How tempting,

when you are hungry to make such a command. It would be so easy. But humankind does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Desert Fathers and Mothers often repeated those very words when they were famished.  In prayer their spirits were fed. And there is the wonderful story of a couple that went to St. Columba for marriage counsel. He fasted with them for one night. God’s word came to them in the long, lonely, hungry silence and they heard God speak to their hearts of their love for each other. That’s a unique approach to marriage counseling. Yes, humankind does not live by bread alone.

It was tempting when the Devil showed Jesus the glory of the nations. Imagine the authority and the power he has at his disposal, and all Jesus had to do was worship Satan. It is easy to give in to the evil of warfare. You can see the rubble throughout the nations during and after armed conflict. It is terrifying. Imagine having all that power at your disposal. But Jesus is unarmed. His only weapon is obedience to the law of God; love, forgiveness and reconciliation. Again and again we have to learn what Martin Luther King reminds us; “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” And hear these words from Dr King; “Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but one day that same Christ will rise up and divide history”. There is no room for violence or hatred in the heart of Jesus; his only possible answer to Satan is; “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

The Last Temptation of Christ is perhaps his most compelling. “Prove it Jesus. Prove you are the Son of God. Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the Temple so we can all believe you.” The tempter quotes Scripture; ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ Jesus’ reply is another quote from Scripture; ’Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ As to proving that he is the Son of God, look, even if he does rise from the dead and manifestly appears to the women first of all, then to the twelve and more than 500 at one time, still they will not believe. How would throwing himself off the Pinnacle of the Temple prove anything?

Our faith is tested time and again. We are tempted to turn away in fear. We are now in the Wilderness of War. God knows what will become of us. A mind set of cold and calculating thought is hard to predict as is its stability. 

Jesus directs us in the wilderness experience to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, to worship God and worship God alone and not to yield to the many temptations that beset us at times like this.

For as St. Paul puts it; “The word is near you,” it is “on your lips and in your heart”. It is “the word of faith that we proclaim”.

I am glad I am at home where I can retire again and again and again. It has been more than 15 years since I retired the first time. The search for peace continues. There have been many wars in all the intervening years. But as long as I am among a people of faith like yourselves, it is worth keeping the candle of faith burning. Because the word of God is always very near.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen. 

Fr. Paul

Below are the readings appointed to be read on the First Sunday of Lent along with highlights of those thoughts that speak to my heart. 

The Collect:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Deuteronomy 26:1-11

When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
       abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
He shall say to the Lord,
  “You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
       my God in whom I put my trust.”
Because you have made the Lord your refuge, *
       and the Most High your habitation,
There shall no evil happen to you, *
       neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over you, *
       to keep you in all your ways.
They shall bear you in their hands, *
       lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and adder; *
       you shall trample the young lion and the serpent
                              under your feet.
Because he is bound to me in love,
     therefore will I deliver him; *
       I will protect him, because he knows my Name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
       I am with him in trouble;
       I will rescue him and bring him to honor.
With long life will I satisfy him, *
       and show him my salvation.

Epistle: Romans 10:8b-13

“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Gospel: Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.