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

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Our reading from Deuteronomy today…  is more than just a story…  it’s a liturgy of thanksgiving…  it establishes the ritual remembrance of God’s liberating act…  it instructs God’s people…  to remember their status as aliens…  and as slaves…  and tells them…  when you come into the land that God is giving you…  take some fruit…  and put it in a basket…  and go the place where God’s name dwells…  and say these specific words to the priest who’s there…  and set the basket down…  and bow before God…  and then…  you…  and the Levites…  and the aliens who reside among you…  go and party for all you’re worth…

And this last part…   about those who reside among you…  catches my attention…  include in your celebrations…  the aliens who reside among you…  whatever it is that makes them different from you…  that’s OK…  don’t make them conform to who…  or how you are…  before you think them worthy to be included in the festivities…

And our reading from Romans expands on this idea…  that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek…  the one God is God of all…  and is generous to those who call upon God’s name…  and calling upon God’s name means leaning into…  and trusting in…  God’s reputation…  I have a list of twenty-seven names for God…  though there may be more…  one that we’re most familiar with is Immanu-El…  God with us…  but three others are…  El-Rachum…  the God of Compassion…  El-malei-Rachamim…  the God of Mercy…  and El-Emmet…  the God of Truth…

I was in Israel for eight weeks in the summer of 1971…  I spent three weeks on an archeological dig in the northern part of the Negev desert…  in Be’Er Sheva…  up on the Tel…  we uncovered coins…  and pottery…  and the most amazing blue iridescent glass perfume bottle with a stopper that was in perfect condition…  but by 11:00 every morning…  it was about 105°…  and we were done for the day…  but in the nearby town of Omer…  there was a public pool…  and you could get a ride from someone…  or you could walk across the desert directly to the edge of town where it was…  and walking across the desert…  that mile or so…  was a walk in a hot and dry land…  barren of anything but sand and silence…  it’s no wonder the desert Mothers and Fathers found God there more easily…  the silence is broken only by the sound of the wind…  and it reminds me of what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John’s Gospel…  the wind blows where it chooses…  and you hear the sound of it…  but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes…  so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit…

Pastor Martin Billmeier writes…  that walking in the wilderness…  is a necessary part of the spiritual journey…  it is an inevitable part of life…  and the wilderness teaches us of our need for God…  but notice that it’s the Spirit…  and not the devil…  who leads Jesus out there…  and so the wilderness is one place where we meet all three… 

And little did I know…  that years later…  I would embark on my own wilderness journey with God…  that brought my actual walk across the desert front and center…  God and I were going out together into what was for me totally uncharted territory…  and I could do nothing but trust totally and completely in God’s compassion…  mercy…  truth…  and love…  to get me where I needed to be…  and I was willing…  when I arrived on the other side…  to be empty and empty handed…  but I also believed I’d be better for it…  I realized that I had to die to the life I had…  in order to be born into a new one… 

When we are baptized…  we die to self and are reborn with Christ…  and we are all driven out into the wilderness…  our lives are lived in a different kind of wilderness…  there’s temptation all around…  but in Eastern Europe this week…  more than 1.5 million Ukrainians have been driven out of their homeland…  into wilderness…  maybe not literally empty-handed…  but carrying only what they could gather in the moments before they had to flee…  maybe not whole and better for it…  maybe traumatized…  and certainly wondering what kind of new life they were being born into…  and the welcome they’re receiving in these countries reflects God’s welcome…  but they were not driven by the Holy Spirit…  but by evil…  by one who is said to be the wealthiest man in the world…  by one who worships geopolitical power and authority and is willing to use division and accusation to get it…  and who would threaten the world with hints of nuclear war…  and those who are fleeing…  have become aliens in the countries which are receiving them…  and while there may be grieving instead of celebration…  what’s available is being shared with them regardless of condition or conformity…

You see…  God cares little about the distinctions we make…  distinctions between Jew or Greek…  slave or free…  Russian…  Ukrainian…  European…  American…  God doesn’t care how we vote…  or who we love…  God doesn’t care about our education or occupation or income…  where we live or vacation…  God doesn’t care about whether we’re single…  married…  or divorced…  but…  God…  does…  care…  that we love God with all our heart…  soul…  strength…  and mind…  and that we love our neighbors as ourselves…  that we honor the vow we made at our baptisms…  to seek justice and peace for all people…  and respect the dignity of every human being…  and to stand firm by the answer we gave to this question then too…  Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? I will, with God’s help… 

And this question anticipates that we will fall into sin…  so it’s not a question of IF but of WHEN…  but not so that God has an excuse to punish us…  but so that so we can learn what we need to know…  to grow more into the stature of Christ…  who shared our humanity…  and yet was without sin…  the temptations we face may be different than those we faced when we were younger…  but temptations remain…  Pastor Jennifer Moland-Kovash wrote… and one of the biggest temptations we face during times of struggle and wilderness wanderings…  is the temptation to believe that we’re all alone…  part of it is the myth of self-sufficiency…  a myth often upheld and perpetuated by our society…  but Jesus is with us…

We are marked with the cross of Christ in baptism…  in the wandering…  desolate places of our lives…  in our failures and failings…  that mark remains…  and in Genesis 4:7…  there was another mark… the one that God put on Cain…  after he became angry that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice…  but not his own…  and God warned Cain that…  sin is lurking at the door…  it’s desire is for you…  but you must master it…  though Cain falls to temptation anyway…  and murders his brother…  and perhaps one purpose of the mark was so that no one would take vengeance on him…  but so he’d have a lifetime to contemplate what he’d done…

And I pray that any one of us…  who has violated God’s will…  and that anyone or anything which has encouraged or enabled the evil we’ve seen this week…  to stop their actions…  and take the opportunity to find whatever it is they need…  to feel deep remorse…  to seek true repentance…  and to experience life-giving renewal… for their sake…  and for all our sakes…  Holy God…  make it so…  Amen.