Creekside Church Sermon of February 29, 2004 "Words to Live By" Luke 4:1-13	Rev. David Bibbee
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In a recent sermon I quoted the Russian dissedent Alexander Solzhenitysn. Rosanna McFadden latched on to it and fashioned it into a striking work of calligraphy that will be displayed in a gallery in South Bend. Calligraphy fascinates me. The careful composition of the text translated by the graceful flow of the calligraphy pen makes meaningful words come alive.

I asked Rosanna how speech would sound if we could speak in calligraphy. Imagine speaking in Roman Capital with key words emphasized in elegant flourishes. Calligraphers understand the beauty and the power of words. As the saying goes, "Words are so powerful they should only be used to Heal, to Bless, and to Prosper."

I invite you to think with me about the power of words to shape lives-- words which keep us rooted; words that create rather than destroy; words that can be trusted when life pins us to the wall and we must appeal to something more than our ingenuity.

You may remember the inspirational spots from the Unity Church that aired on television years ago. Celebrities like Phyllis Diller and Audrey Meadows would say, "Today's word from Unity is…. 'Optimism,' or 'Friendliness,' or 'Perseverance.'" They offered simple, helpful advise the viewer could weave it into his or her life.

In offices, hospitals, and businesses you have seen beautiful framed photographs by the firm, "Successories." One of the pictures is of a lighthouse pummeled by furoscious North Sea waves. Below the picture is the bold-lettered word, "COURAGE," and beneath it an inspirational quote.

I came across an Internet site that markets prints with the same format, but different messages. Here is a picture of a beautiful ocean sunset with the bow of a sunken freighter protruding from the water. The word below it is, "MISTAKES," with this quote: "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others." Here is a picture of a golf ball at the base of an enormous sand dune. The word to live by is, "FUTILITY"-- "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and, statistically speaking, 99% of the shots you do." Here is a tennis player on his knees at the net; he is arched backward, his hands over his head. The word to live by is "STUPIDITY,"-- "Quitters never win. Winners never quit. But those who never win and never quit are idiots."

We are people of the Word, which means more than abiding by print on paper. We live according to the words of the Word made flesh. As the Bible says, "He alone has the words of life."

The text before us is usually read on the First Sunday of Lent… the story of Jesus' temptation.

Before getting into the story its important to understand how the word "temptation" as its used by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We associate temptation with seduction applied to a point of weakness-- sexual temptation, financial temptation, and culinary temptation, like a three-layered dark chocolate cake with sour cream fudge frosting.

Jesus' temptation is best understood as a "test." It is also important to know that the test is applied not at the point of greatest weakness, but at the point of Jesus' greatest strength. To grasp the significance of Jesus' temptation, let's recall what happened immediately before it. John the Baptist was dunking people by the thousands in the Jordan River. One day at the end of the line was Jesus. After John baptized him, the skies opened, the Spirit fell upon him and a voice said, "You are my Son. You are chosen and marked by my love. You are the pride of my life."

Jesus knows who he is. He knows what he must do with his life. He has the God Housekeeping Seal of Approval; he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will face the tests that challenged Israel… food, wrong worship, and putting God to the test, and Jesus will do it alone. When I first read this story, I couldn't see what was so diabolical about what Satan asked Jesus to do. What is wrong relieving hunger? What's wrong with getting a bigger audience to get your message across What's wrong with showing the power you possess to win followers?

Years later I learned something about the power of evil. If it presented itself as evil, we would avoid it. To survive, evil wears a mask. It must appear harmless, innocent, and good. You can think of situations where seemingly good people with seemingly good motivations did lots of damage.

In Thomas a` Kempis' book, The Imitation of Christ, he wrote, "That which seemeth trifling sometimes giveth rise to a grievous temptation; and when I think myself to be secure, and least expect it, I am overcome by a light breath." He also said to walk away from temptation at the moment of recognition because if you engage in argument and hand to hand combat, you'll lose.

Jesus' temptations-- turning a stone into a loaf of whole-wheat bread, honoring Satan in exchange for ruling the world, and doing a swan dive from the tip-top of the Temple into a net of angel's wings, were part of a larger test. Jesus had to decide whose story he would live. Elie Wiesel writes, "God made man because God loves stories." We aren't living unless we know and can articulate the story of our lives. Learning our story is our spiritual quest. Sue Kidd says we are stories being told by God. "We are called to participate with God in telling our own tale…"

Jesus had to choose between the sublime story God has scripted for his life, and the cheap, paperback that Satan offered. Would Jesus serve, or be served by self-centered control? Would he live by trust, or would he ask God to prove his promises? In the end, would Jesus save himself, or offer his life as a ransom for many?

You're getting impatient, aren't you? You're waiting for me to make good on the sermon title and spit out the words to live by. You can read, can't you? "We don't live by bread alone." "We worship the Lord our God and him only will we worship." We shall not put the Lord our God to the test." Here are the words to live by.

Since you've gone to the trouble of listening to this point, I will tell you a story related by Tom Long. The university where he teaches bestowed an honorary degree to a man named High Thompson. He was a young helicopter pilot flying over the countryside of South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. As he flew along with his crew over the village of My Lai he saw what could only be described as a nightmare. Troops in the Army's Charlie Company had lost control of their reason and humanity and were slaughtering unarmed civilians, mostly women, children, and elderly men. They had already killed 504 innocent people.

Without giving it a second thought, Thompson set his helicopter down between the troops and the few people who were still alive. Placing his own life in grave danger, he got out of the helicopter and challenged the officer in charge. Some of you still remember the officer-William Calley. Thompson airlifted as many survivors as he could out of My Lai and reported to headquarters who stopped the assult.

When he received the honorary degree, High Thompson addressed the question everyone's mind: Where did he find the moral courage to do what he did that day? Here's what he said: "I'd like to thank my mother and father for trying to instill in me the difference between right and wrong. We were country people. I was born and raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and we had very little. But one thing we did have was the Golden Rule. My parents taught me early, 'Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.' That's why I did what I did that day. It's hard to put certain things into words. You're going to have to make many decisions in your life. Please make the right decisions because we're depending on you. God bless you all."

Where do common people like High Thompson find such uncommon courage and conviction? They sat at their parent's feet hearing the message over and over… "Do unto others… do unto others… do unto others." They went to worship and Sunday School where they heard, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself."

Finding the courage to do what is right isn't about a heroic impulse or abiding by an ethical ideal. The courage to resist temptation is a result of habit. Christians are made, not born. Like Jesus, we worship each week to rehearse the story to which we belong. Jesus was in the synagogue every week as was his custom, hearing again and again, "We do not live by bread alone. We do not live by bread alone." "Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Worship the Lord your God and serve only him." "Don't put the Lord your God to the test."

While writing this sermon I thought about Pat Helman. Pat is an artisan of language. She comes as close as anyone I know to speaking in calligraphy. When talking about immersing ourselves in the spiritual life, she used the expression, "Marinating in the Spirit." When we worship and pray and read Scripture and wait for God in silence, we are soaking up the marinade of God's grace and love. The Spirit seeps into our pores and tissues, into the marrow of our bones and soul so that when we find ourselves confronted by tough choices, making the right choice comes from who we are.

Aristotle said it was too much to expect ordinary people to be good. The most he thought we could hope for was developing good habits so that making good decisions would be a reflex.

Kathleen Norris recalls an intense exchange between a seminary student and an Orthodox theologian at Yale. The theologian had finished a lecture on the history of the development of Christian creeds. The student's question had to do with belief.

"What can one do when one finds it impossible to affirm certain tenets of the Creed? The priest answered, "You just say it. It's not that hard to master." Feeling that he had been misunderstood, the exasperated student asked, "What am I supposed to do when I have difficulty affirming parts of the Creed - like the Virgin Birth?" Again the priest said, "You just say it. Particularly when you have difficulty believing it. You just keep saying it. It will come to you eventually." The student fired back, "How can I with integrity affirm a creed in which I do not believe?" And the priest replied, "It's not your creed. It's our creed, the Creed of the entire Christian Church."

Our culture is antagonistic toward tradition. Old is obsolete. New is best. What can the past possibly say to today? The world doesn't know it is part of the story God is writing, and each one has an important part in it. The story progresses with each decision we make. There are times in worship when it doesn't seem like much is happening. The scriptures, the music, the sermons - we've heard it before. We forget that doing anything well takes practice. Repetition is the key.

I am blessed every time I think of my favorite college professor, T. Wayne Rieman. I asked Tim to lead a retreat for the church board at Crest Manor. During a discussion on "doing God's will," one of his students from before my time asked, "But how do we know God's will?" Tim answered, "You know God's will! You've been in the church all your life. You've read the Bible since you were a child. You know the story of Christianity. You took classes with me at Manchester. You've watched people live it. Don't tell me you don't know God's will!"

All of us will do time in the wilderness, tested by a voice telling us to live by what feeds our needs and will advance our own agendas. The voice will come and go as it did to Jesus. But he has shown us what is good. He has shown the will of the father. In him we have all the words necessary to live by.

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