“Self-Awareness: An Opportune Time!”
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11; Luke 4: 1-13
Lent
Milk and honey, come and go. Here today and gone tomorrow.
But when we’re in the land of milk and honey, we are tempted to forget it is God who sustains us…. wish we could breathe into a spiritual breathalyzer!
Now living in such a land, the Hebrew people stop to catch their breath, to remember their story…from where they came, how God provided when life did not, and that the story isn’t over. Together they find strength in the story, their collective one story as well as their individual stories, knowing deeply they are all part of that one breath…..and together they rejoice in the moment. Confessing their faith, they give freely their first fruits to God in support of helping others, and then live abundantly enjoying the remaining fruits of their labor. You see….there really is enough!
Can you tell the story? …our story? Not just our faith story about Jesus, but our story here, the Tippe story…at least the part since you’ve been here? It’s your story, too…do you know what’s been happening in you since you’ve first came here…have you noticed what’s happening in others as well?
This place changes lives. It helps folk to keep breathing, to exhale and inhale deeply. If you have any doubt about that…this place changes people, ask the person sitting next to you today. And everything that has happened here…blessings and woes, easy times and challenging ones, all the feelings and situations of our time together over the years, before and since my presence here…makes this so….and here leaders (the elders and deacons, the ministry team members, you and I) are not afraid of running and getting out of breath…we’re not worried about becoming breathless. We’re more worried about not running the race than running out of breath!
We know what it means to be alive, breathe deeply…and we know together we can go to God’s new horizon for Tippe…because we know deeply this ministry changes lives!!!! And we have enough, more than enough to continue to do little great things God calls us to do. We have to go…toward God…to breathe…God in and live God out!
So…Have you connected yourself to the Tippe story yet in ways so powerful that it brings the depth of your faith to the tip of your tongue….the bend in your knee, the look in your eyes, the angst in your soul and the fold in your wallet? ….like the Israelites so long ago?
This isn’t about money, this isn’t about Tippe, this is about you…your well-being! You see, everyday is a wilderness, dessert experience for us. Hard situations come up. Hard choices have to be made. If you do not know who you are in the story of believers and stand firmly in the stream of our faith, if you do not come breathe with the faith…..the “devil” will tempt you to question your identity …and try on false ones.Temptations surround you. And temptation is more likely to come in the seemingly innocuous. Temptation rarely expresses itself in a form obviously evil. If someone came to you saying, “Wouldn’t you like to make a wreck of your life and bring shame to all who know you by stealing, committing adultery, or destroying your health with drugs or food? You would say, “No thanks, I’m not interested.” But temptation usually cloaks itself in something seemingly harmless, even virtuous…self-pride, a sense of entitlement, hard work, frugality, feeling wronged…..leaving destructive consequences. You see Jesus was, and we are, often tempted in the places where we have relative strength. A poor person wouldn’t be tempted to flaunt their wealth. A very ordinary person won’t be vain about their appearance. It is in our places of relative strength where the misuse of our gifts and the abuse or manipulation can occur, often with a pious, righteous face….a devilish face.
That takes my breath away! Evil tempts you to forget your place in the greater story of life and the faithful. Evil tempts you to question God and question your own identity.
Evil tempts you to blame someone else. Evil tempts you to think there is no compassion left in this world! You breathe alone…that there is no one breath!
So….do you know who you really are, where you are? Are you willing to take a breath and look in the mirror of self-awareness? Have you attached the meaning and purpose of your life to the “more”…as the Celtic tradition refers to God? Do you go to the “thin” places where God is closest to you during desert, wilderness time, the tippe-canoe times, the times you feel out of breath, when you realize you’re holding your breath, not breathing/not living? When you are scared to even take a breath…times when the life around you is a disaster? Do you go to the “thin” places when you’re feeling intimidated and alone, when you can’t remember who you are…in such times do you go to the thin places and draw near to God?
Such times are of great danger…..and the greatest hope for renewal.
Jesus knows who he is. He knows his identity is in God….his identity is not as a teacher or carpenter, a director or retiree, an engineer or a nurse, a mother or father. Jesus’ identity is within God. His breath, God’s breath. He draws on God for his identity and he calls upon God, literally, for help in these tough desert times. He calls God and he puts himself into the story of the faithful citing scripture and remembering, remembering, remembering he is more than he is…he is in God! God never lets us go out into the desert days alone. You can’t hold your breath no matter how hard you try, to you have to breath! The Spirit is with us just as it was with Jesus. In fact, at times it will indeed seem as if the spirit is leading you into some pretty unsafe places. Yes. When filled with the Spirit, life giving breath, you will go to unsafe places cause that’s where life is lived and help is needed…your help…your first fruits…for others…as well as for yourself. The faithful see the unsafety of the world and go right into the world, knowing who they are, living within God’s grace moment to moment. You can breathe right through life’s raging storms…you can! Stop holding your breath! God breathes in you and life won’t leave you breathless…it is God who breathes for you when you can’t find your breath…God is your breath!
Jesus holds on to his identity placing himself in the context of the story of his faith. We are to know ourselves, call on God, and use the words of faith to protect us and give us courage. Courage: grace under pressure. “Help me Lord!” is a prayer!
But you have to say it, you have to take a deep breath. You have to say “Help me Lord!” whether it’s said from desperation, anger, lightheartedness, confidence, or fear. And notice you are part of a one breath…for we are all more alike than different…all holy! Holy Breath! In this first week of Lent, Jesus comes to grips with his all too real human nature. The line between goodness and evil blurs. He becomes fully aware of himself and aware of his faith…it is then he can move out into the rest of his life.
It is in knowing himself that he changes the world. Until we know who we are, we are not truly able to live our lives, change our lives or this world of ours. We are just like him!
I think this morning’s gospel story is an invitation to use these 40 days, wherever the spirit meets us or leads us, to look at our faith, to test our assumptions and our convictions, to find ourselves…in the story of God’s people and draw strength from our past to live bravely in the moment, creating a new future.
How do you remember who you are when all around you is in chaos? When you face life’s many temptations, do you do what is easy instead of what needs to be done? Breathe…take a new breath…a breath of air that has been here since the beginning of time, the same breath of air the first earthlings, Adam and Eve, breathed, Moses and the Israelites breathed, Jesus and the disciples breathed, Columbus and Confucius breathed, the native Americans and early settlers breathed, George and Abraham breathed, Father Grappe the person here at Tippe breathed as this church came to life in 1917…the same breath….take a very old, new breath.
And look up, open your perspective, your point of view, point of reference, lift up…and see the waters are full of tippe-canoes filled with deep breathers just like you. We can support each other, breathe with each other, help guide and protect each other so we can stay joined to that one holy breath…so we not only stop holding our breath, but deeply breath new breath, new life, new joy. Living fully is the point…and with each breath we take, new life is breathed in. It’s not about having a vision of what will be or trying to reclaim a favored vision of the past. The faith journey is living and breathing in the real world a new life….for your own good and for the good of all. Breathalyzer Report: Everything isn’t about you! What do you have to do to be able to take a new breath, a deep breath, a holy breath? Begin to begin….begin in your heart….calling upon the name of God?
All you have to do is….breathe connecting yourself with the Holy, with one another! And the first breath will probably be….self-awareness! Notice where you have breathed today, stopped breathing, lived with baited breath or breathlessly. This is the opportune time.
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