Sermon for March 9, 2025

Readings:

• Deuteronomy 26:1-11
• Romans 10:8b-13
• Luke 4:1-13
• Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

“After his baptism, 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.” 

On the first Sunday of Lent, the church’s season of fasting and penitence, we hear the familiar story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the desert.

 He is tempted to turn stones into bread. That is the temptation of gluttony or lust. The temptation to serve the flesh. 

He is tempted with worldly goods and power if he will only serve the devil. That is the temptation of greed. 

He is tempted to publicly display his own power and divine status by throwing himself off the temple to see if angels catch him. That is the temptation to pride. 

These are familiar temptations, because we all suffer from them. 

We overindulge our bodies. 

We chase after things. 

We are controlled by pride and vanity. 

Jesus’s temptations are not unique to Jesus; they are temptations that we all must contend with. The reason that Lent focuses on the spiritual disciplines of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, is that each of those is a weapon against one of those temptations. 

You don’t want to be controlled by your stomach? Then try fasting.

You don’t want your life to be focused on acquiring more stuff? They trying giving some of your stuff away to those who have less.

You don’t want to be so utterly self-centered all the time? Then try praying and focusing your mental energy on a power much greater than you. Try remembering that you didn’t give birth to yourself. Try remembering how much you have needed God in order to be who and what you are. 

That’s not what the devil wants. The devil wants you to forget. But God wants you to remember. If you think about those temptations of Jesus for a moment; we say there are three temptations, but they are all really just variations on one big temptation. The temptation to forget God. 

Forget about God. You can make your own food and feed yourself. You don’t need him.

Forget about God. You don’t need to serve him. There are easier ways to get power and money in this world.

Forget about God. You are the one who is powerful and special. You don’t need to heed his warnings. You have control over your own destiny. 

The devil thinks that he can drive a wedge between Jesus and God. The devil thinks that he can make Jesus forget about God. He fails with Jesus, and that’s what makes Jesus special. Jesus does not fall for Satan’s tricks, but we often do. Jesus does not forget God, but we do. That is why our scriptures are littered with divine commands to remember. The devil tempts us to forget, but God commands us to remember. And God commands us to remember for our sakes, not for his. 

The Book of Deuteronomy, which we hear this morning, and which we are going to start studying this week, is really all about the command to remember. Moses is commanding the Israelites to remember their story. To remember where they have come from. To remember what their God has done for them. And this memory is for their sakes, not for God’s. Their success as a nation will hinge on their capacity to remember. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who I mentioned in my sermon on Wednesday, in his book on Deuteronomy, notes that the Israelites, who have wandered for forty years in the wilderness, have more hard times ahead of them in the Promised Land than they do behind them in the desert. He says, “The real challenge is not poverty, but affluence, not slavery, but freedom, not homelessness, but home. Many nations have been lifted to great heights when they faced difficulty and danger. They fought battles and won. They came through crises – droughts, plagues, recessions, defeats – and were toughened by them. When times are hard, people grow. They bury their differences. There is a sense of community and solidarity, of neighbors and strangers pulling together. Many people who have lived through a war remember it as the most vivid time of their life. The real test of a nation is not if it can survive a crisis but if it can survive a lack of a crisis. Can it stay strong during times of ease and plenty, power and prestige? That is the challenge that has defeated every civilization known to history. Let it not, says Moses, defeat you.”

The real challenge is not poverty but affluence. The real test of a nation is not if it can survive a crisis, but if it can survive a lack of a crisis. Nations crumble when they forget. When they forget their history; when they forget their values; when they forget their God. When they become comfortable and powerful and well-fed and well-respected, that is when a nation is really put to the test. That is when it is tempted. With stability, and affluence, and power comes the overwhelming temptation to forget. Moses does not want his people to forget, so not only does he remind them of their history but he also gives them specific instructions on how and when to remember. In our passage this morning he says to them, AFTER you have taken possession of the promised land and are settled, and AFTER you can collected the first fruits of your harvest, THEN you must take an offering to the priest and recite this: 

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.

This is what the Israelites were supposed to say after they entered the promised land and collected the harvest. Not before, but after. It is one thing to pray for something when you don’t have it, but it is another thing to remember to give thanks once you have what you want. That is when it is easy to forget. Earlier in Deuteronomy there is a verse where Moses says “When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” The instruction is to give thanks AFTER your belly is full. Most of us I would argue are used to saying grace before a meal, but here Moses wants folks to say one after, because that is when it means more. That is when you are most likely to forget. It is easy to forget when your stomach is full that not very long ago you were hungry. 

It is amazing how quickly we humans can forget things. We don’t just forget phone numbers and car keys. We forget God. We forget our own stories. We forget history. We forget values. We forget who we are and how we got here. Forgetting is a temptation, perhaps THE temptation of the devil. But God commands us to remember. Over and over God commands us to remember, and he does it for our sakes, not for his.