patrick h wrisley

Sermon:           Examine Yourself
Scripture:        1 Corinthians 11:23-29
Preacher:         Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:         First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:                 April 18, 2019, Maundy Thursday

1 Corinthians 11:23-29

^23-26 Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said,

This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.

After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:

This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you drink this cup, remember me.

What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.

^27-28 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.[1]

Please humor me a moment as I am going to teach you two similar-sounding words that have very dissimilar meanings.  The first word is anamnesis. Try it.  The second word is one you have heard before, amnesia.  Anamnesis and amnesia.  Two very similar-sounding words that come from the same Greek root word but have two drastically different meanings.

Let’s start with the easy one, amnesia. We know that people who suffer amnesia are people who struggle to remember things. People with amnesia have forgotten certain facts about their lives.  Well, if amnesia means to forget, anamnesis is the word for ‘remember.’ Jesus uses this word in our scripture today.  “When you eat this bread and drink from this cup, do so in anamnesisof me.” It’s a word that means more than recollecting a fact or memory; anamnesismeans to re-member, to reattach ourselves, to the original event as though we are living it all over again in the present moment. Pastorally, there are times when I think the Church collectively and Christ-Followers individually, are more inclined to have spiritual amnesia as opposed to spiritual anamnesis with regards to the Lord’s Supper.  What makes me say that?

We come to the Table without thoroughly examining ourselves and our walk in Christ.

We talk to our pew-mates, text message or make calls during Communion.

We grumble because we want to be served in our seats as opposed to coming up and having to dip our bread in the chalice.

We’re apt to check our watches to see if it’s time to be done with the service so as to beat the Baptists and Methodists to lunch or dinner.

Yet, as we read in verse 28 of the Scripture tonight, we’re implored to “Examine our motives, our hearts, and come to this meal in holy awe.”   But my friends, do we?

Beloved, I want us to take a moment and look at the Lord’s Supper.  As I read these words of Christ directed through Paul, I find myself asking, “What, Lord, what is it that you want me to remember? What is it that you want me to relive and experience as though I was with you that night with the disciples?” Looking at and sitting with this question, I have come to some conclusions.

            First, note verse 24:  This is my body, broken for you.  Do this to remember me.  You see, as we eat of the bread, we remember the way Jesus lived his life as well as how he died.  His life was a continuous breaking of himself as he distributed himself to the people he loved: The Leper, the Prostitute, the Roman, the Greek Woman’s dying son, the Pharisee’s dying daughter, and the socially and spiritually outcast woman whose twelve-year menstrual flow was healed.  Jesus lived his life on the edge of cultural norms in order to ensure the Presence of God was brought into the shadows of everyday existence.  We’re to remember that just as Jesus gave himself totally to those he taught and cured, he ultimately gave himself broken and despised at the same hands of the people he taught and cured.  It is through his brokenness that you and I are given the gift of Easter Life.  So tonight, we’re to remember that our new life was bought with a price of the broken and distributed life of Jesus of Nazareth.  The baby we heralded into the world just four months ago at Christmas has had his wooden manger fashioned into a wooden cross.  We’re to remember the way he lived his life and each of us are called to follow by way of his example.

            Second, though, note verse 25: After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.  Each time you drink this cup, remember me.

What are we to remember here?  Whereas verse 24 describes that way Jesus lived his life, verse 25 calls us to remember the purpose of his life.  It’s all about the new covenant.

We don’t use the word covenant in our vernacular much today.  A covenant can spell out a list of boundaries on what is and is not acceptable but it also has another meaning.  It means making a promise.

When Jesus is saying that we are to remember the new covenant between God and ourselves, we’re not so much remembering a list of do’s and don’ts; rather, we’re to remember that on this night when Jesus was betrayed and commuted a death sentence, we are to remember the promise  and hope his death provides.  Jesus is telling us to remember that from now on, when we drink of the cup, we are remembering that God has, in and through Jesus the Christ, instituted a new promise between God and His created.  And that promise is a promise of life, of hope, and of peacefulness. We’re to remember that God’s new agreement with us through Jesus’ Passion is not based on a list of do’s and don’ts and musts; Jesus’ Passion, God’s commitment to us His beloved, is based on reckless, lavish grace.

Third and finally, as we come this night, we are to remember that we too, both as a Church and as individual disciples, have in some way betrayed our Lord Jesus.  Paul tells us to examine ourselves. As he says in verse 26, “We must not let familiarity breed contempt.”  Indeed, we must examine ourselves!  How can we remember and reflect on the way Jesus lived and died and contemplate on why he did it and not honestly stop and look into the mirror?  The breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup forces you and me to ask ourselves how we are living our faith.  As a church, we’re to be honest on whether we are being the hands and feet of Jesus out in the world where we’re called to be!

If we’re honest, we come this night when our Lord hosts this dinner and have to admit we have betrayed him

…with our words,

…with our reluctance to use our talents and spiritual gifts,

…with broken promises,

…with divided loyalties,

…with lackadaisical commitment to discipleship,

…with our stinginess of our financial resources,

…with our convenience-based faith.

…and with our lack of love we show each other or to those in the world who are considered “The least of these.”

My beloved, this night, come to the Table and remember.  Remember what tonight and tomorrow means to God.  Remember the life Jesus lived.  Remember how Jesus died.  Remember the new promise of the blood covenant.  Remember how you, how I, have betrayed Jesus.  And don’t forget to remember this one important reality as the night slips into darkness.  Remember who you are:  You, my beloved, are a child of God.  Let it be.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Sermon:        Do we, like the disciples, fully realize what Palm Sunday means?
Scripture:     Luke 19:28-40
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:             April 14, 2019

            This morning’s sermon title is not what it was originally.  I sent the original title to the people who send out the E-Pistle each week and they wrote back, “This is way too political and will stir people up. We suggest changing it. Please explain the meaning of this!”  What was the title that was so controversial? I originally entitled this message as, “What do Jerusalem and Charlottesville Have in Common?”

Yes, it’s rather arresting and will cause you to sit up a bit and pay attention. Yes, it captures what is really going on in our text this morning as we have forgotten the gravity and controversy the Triumphal Entry represented and caused. It was the time in human history when two opposing forces came face to face and the people present were left to choose which direction they would go.  On one hand, there were the forces of hate, separation, and oppression. On the other hand, riding down the hill on a young donkey is Jesus who represents the Force of love, light, inclusion, and reconciliation.  When those forces came together in Charlottesville, Virginia, the situation got volatile and ugly. It was a highly charged political situation. We tend to forget it was no less as volatile and ugly the week Jesus paid a visit to Jerusalem. We tend to forget that Jerusalem was set on the edge of exploding into a riot the entire week we call Holy Week.  You see, Jesus was coming home to the Holy City and claiming what was his.  His presence and message were revolutionary, incendiary and challenged the Jewish religious system, the Roman legal system and the way the larger culture treated one another; indeed, the first thing he did was enter into the Temple area and start flipping tables of the moneychangers because their expression of their Jewish faith had become so off track. So, I’ve changed the title to make it more palatable for people. Today, I will build my words around the whether or not we truly understand Palm Sunday any better than the first disciples. Hear the Word of the Lord from Luke’s Gospel!

Luke 19:28-40

²⁸ After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹ When he had come near Bethpage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” ³² So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ They said, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸ saying,

“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”[1]

Let’s unpack what Jerusalem was like when Jesus entered the Holy City.  Just like today, there were people who split into groups based on interpretations of faith, politics, economics and who “your people” were and where you were from. You had your groups of religious conservatives and progressives.  There was the vast divide between the financial haves and have-nots just like there is today; even in the first century there were those “1-percenters” and then the rest of us. Politically, even one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas, was thought to be a member of a highly nationalistic group, the Zealots, who wanted to overthrow the Roman government and rule of the day.  In the first century, there was rampant national, ethnic, physical, and religious discrimination between those who were in the “out group” as compared to the Divinely loved ones of the purity “in group.”  Just like today, there were back room deals and powerbrokers who made decisions for their own personal gain that affected the overall unsuspecting masses. Some things in human nature and behavior never change I suppose. And though human behavior and nature may not change, we come this Palm Sunday and are reminded that there is another way to live our lives in a mixed-up-muddled-up world. He calls us to be humble, revolutionary leaders for change and transformation in the world.

On Palm Sunday, we often come with over-sentimentalized notions of Jesus coming into Jerusalem for the final week of his life. This morning, I want to evolve our thinking a bit on this Palm Sunday event and see it from a different angle from what we are accustomed. If we listen to the text, we will discover how Jesus was ushering in a revolutionary alternative for living in community.

The first understanding we need to remember about Palm Sunday is that Jesus’ descent from Mount Olives is an overtly political declaration.  We see his procession as a parade like we view the Fourth of July or Veterans Day when in reality, his entrance into the city was more along the lines of the march through Selma.  It was not a parade remembering past glories; Jesus’ coming on a colt was an act of social, political, and religious disobedience in the eyes of his contemporaries. In today’s twelve verses, there are at least three clues as to Jesus’ political statement of purpose for the people.  There is the reference to the prophet Zephaniah, a psalm of victory over one’s enemies, and a reference from the prophet Habakkuk about how the very stones of the ground cannot maintain their silence in the presence of God’s anointed. The Jews always understood that the Messiah was to approach Jerusalem from the east coming down the Mt. Olives to reclaim Jerusalem.  The spreading of palm branches and cloaks were indicative of how the crowds perceived Jesus: He was the new king. He was the new leader.

Stephen Shoemaker cites biblical scholars who remark that on that Palm Sunday there were two processions into Jerusalem. He writes, “From the west came Pilate draped in the gaudy glory of imperial power: horses, chariots, and gleaming armor. He moved in with the Roman army at the beginning of Passover week to make sure nothing got out of hand. Insurrection was in the air with the memory of God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. From the east came another procession, a commoner’s procession: Jesus in ordinary robe riding on a young donkey. The careful preparations suggest that Jesus has planned a highly ritualized symbolic prophetic act (described in)…the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9–10, the coming of a new kind of king, a king of peace who will dismantle the weaponry of war.”[2]

Shoemaker then goes on to say that there are two choices in front of the people:  Pax Christior Pax Romana. He says, “Our challenge is to show how the gospel of the kingdom has political implications but transcends our everyday political loyalties.”[3]  In other words, Beloved, if we take  the gospel we actually profess and then actually live like it will make a difference in the world, our collective  Kingdom living can and will change the broken structures of our communities.

Today our nation is faced with the battles between Pax Republican or Pax Democrat.  More often than not, our politics shapes our faith rather than our faith really shaping our politics and collective civitas. Our Palm Sunday text reminds us that just as in Jesus’ time, we are still being called into the realm of a third way and that’s the way of Pax Christi.  Whatever our personal political loyalties are, we are still to live out our faith, literally enflesh our faith, as though it transcends political loyalties to one party or another. The church in the first through fourth centuries was a part of creating huge religious, cultural, and political changes in the world. In our own lifetimes, we have seen how the church was the revolutionary actor in claiming civil rights for our brothers and sisters of color.  In our own lifetime, we have witnessed how the underground church caused what’s been termed, “The Velvet Revolution,” which brought down oppressive political and military powers of the Cold War.  Jesus descending the mountain was his way of starting a revolutionary event of both present and eternal consequences.

Church, do we live with that same passionate spirit for transformation or have we grown too comfortable with the status quo? What is driving our culture and behavior at the moment?  Are our loyalties tied to economic, military, or nationalistic gains of one party or another or our decisions being influenced by the cultural, spiritual, economic declaration that we serve one Lord, Jesus the Christ? It does not matter how you and I vote in any election if we have not first expressed our cultural concerns as citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom in our world right now.

Beloved, Jesus demonstrated to us on Palm Sunday how we are to live in our world today.  We are to base our civics and express our personal and collective civitas, not with the planks of the Republican or Democratic platforms but on the ethics and planks that make up our Christ-Following platform found in Matthew 5-7 in what we call the Beatitudes! Christ’s revolution for establishing the reign of God begins when we live and actually believe –

…blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

…blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

…blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

…blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, for they will be filled.

…blessed are the merciful, the they will receive mercy.

…blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

…blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

…blessed are those who are persecuted for doing the right thing for God, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

…blessed are you who are persecuted and reviled for standing up for what Jesus believes in and stands up for because your reward is great in the kingdom of heaven.

Beloved, are you ready to be a revolutionary like Jesus was and turn the world upside down for God? Shall you live under Pax Christior Pax Americana? Let’s start a movement, shall we? Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15^thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2]Bartlett, David L.; Barbara Brown Bartlett (2009-10-12). Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide (Kindle Locations 5617-5622). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[3]Bartlett, David L.; Barbara Brown Bartlett (2009-10-12). Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide (Kindle Locations 5631-5632). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

Sermon:        Lessons from the Wilderness – We Must Overcome Our Inability to
Adapt
Scripture:     Joshua 5.9-12
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:             March 31, 2019

            Turn in your Bible to Joshua 5.9-12.  It is a text about crucial transitions in the life of the community. At first blush, the text comes across as very benign and it might even raise the question on our part as to why the lectionary even includes this reading in the Season of Lent. It doesn’t seem very Lentonish. Let me provide the context of our reading.

Moses has spent an entire generation, forty long years, cat-herding the Hebrews through the wilderness.  The Hebrews were feeling the pain of their Egyptian task masters and God spoke to Moses from the burning bush to tell of his plans.  This loosely affiliated group of ragamuffins were being forged into a people who leaned on and worshipped the One true God.  Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Joshua 5: 9-12

⁹ The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgalto this day.

¹⁰ While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the Passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹² The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.[1]

Why is our text included in the lectionary readings for this Sunday in Lent? It’s because it describes the story of starting over.  It’s a story for taking what the people have learned in the wilderness and applying those learnings into a new way of life and being in community. So, what has changed for the Hebrews?

First, Moses is dead, and they have a new leader named Joshua. For an entire generation this one man served as God’s leader in the peoples’ midst. Moses has had an entire generation to prove the metal of his relationship with God and that of the various Hebrew tribes. It was a relationship forged out of the blood, sweat and tears of their mutual life together in the wilderness.  Now a new leader was lifted up for the people named Joshua.  Moses and Joshua were the same in that they were chosen by God to lead the people.  Moses and Joshua were different, however, in the way they led their people. They had different sets of gifts and graces to draw upon to lead the people in the way they should go.

Second, they have shifted their way of life. They are no longer nomads who wander in the desert. For an entire generation the people have wandered about the wilderness moving from place to place wherever the resources were abundant enough to support the entire group. It’s not a very settled life. But something has changed. Now that they have crossed the river and have taken possession of the land, they are no longer nomads drifting from place to place; on the contrary, they are settlers. Nomads and settlers have very different ways of living and behaving. They have moved from being nomads to agrarians or farmers; their provision has adjusted from having God give them Manna to eat every morning to learning how to become farmers who grow their own sustainable source of food in their new home. Their way of life has shifted; their culture changed.

Third, we see a very subtle change for the people. It’s what they are called.  We almost miss this if we are not careful. They are no longer called Hebrews but now are called Israelites. No longer are they a loose group of wandering tribes and clans being led by Moses; on the contrary, their forty-year journey has forged them into a unified nation who follow the same leader and God.  No longer vagabonds, they are now a nation whose people have shared ties, experiences and stories with each other. They have become the nation of Israel and God is their King! Once they were slaves and nobodies; now they are the nation of Israel.

Friends, our Story today shows us how a community’s life and transitions shape their identity. When a community shares certain experiences together, they are forged into a tighter community because of those shared experiences. It’s a Story that reminds us that change is inevitable and transitions in life occur and if we don’t adapt to those changes and transitions, the community will not grow but will slip into a slide of slow death through the swirling whirlpool of stale status quo. Changes in circumstances, environment, leadership, membership in the community shapes who and what that community becomes in the future.

I wonder if there were people who crossed the Jordan River with Joshua to attain the Promised Land who grumbled about it. They were tired and liked being nomads; they did not want to learn how to do new things and express themselves in new ways.  They complained about having to get wet in the water as they crossed.  Their new type of life would require them to draw upon new insights and skills they hadn’t had before, and it was going to be hard to learn how to adapt.  They grumbled to Joshua, “Moses never did it that way; why do you want to go shake things up?”

Beloved, our text today is perfect for our wilderness preparation in that it reminds you and me, this group of people called First Pres, that change is real and is not a bad thing.  It reminds us that change and adaption occur, not because the old way was bad and the new way is good; rather, it’s because the circumstances and environment demands new ways of doing things. The wilderness challenge is that it confronts us with the fact we don’t like to change and find it much easier and simpler to remain as we are and not venture to what God is calling us to be. Part of our struggle as Christians is that we don’t like to change and resist it, sometimes violently. Lent is a time for us to identify those ‘sacred cows’ in our relationship with the Church that we need to butcher and let go of so we can become a new people. What has worked for this church in the past may not necessarily work for us now.  What we took for granted in the past, all that manna from God, is gone and we have to learn to fend for ourselves with the resources we have.  What worked as a nomad will not work as a settler. Friends, Broward County and metropolitan Fort Lauderdale is not the same as it was15 to 30 years ago. The ministry we did in the Beninger, Neumann and Cromey years may not be the same as it is will be in the Wrisley, Merchant and Masten years. Why? Is it because our way is ‘better?’ No! It’s because this church is in a new missional country and land that we are being asked to claim for the Kingdom of God today. What made sense as nomads no longer works for settlers.

Beloved, this year First Pres has a new leadership team of Wrisley, Merchant and Masten (sounds like a law firm!) that God has called to walk with you as together we come and claim this mission field for Christ. As we move into this new missional field and reality, it will require all of us to adapt to a new way of life and doing things. It means leaving some old ways of doing things and tools behind that will not serve us well in the new land God is giving us. It means discovering our new identity as a community of faith and as a people of God known as First Pres.

This past Thursday at our Session meeting, the elders agreed to begin the process of looking at our identity as a church. We are no longer Hebrews wandering about; we are what exactly in this new era? Your elders are committing to go on a spiritual advance in April to get away and begin this process of discernment. Your lay leadership realizes our missional country has changed and so we need to retreat for a few days of praying, planning, and discerning where and what we are to do and where we are to go. It’s an exciting time!

But it requires your prayers.

It requires your ability to say no to old ways and being able to say yes to new ideas and methods.

It requires all of us to get wet as we cross the river.

It will require some of you to step up into called leadership as elders and deacons when the call is put out.

It requires us to relinquish our sacred cows in the church and as Bill Esaum says, make them into gourmet spiritual hamburgers! Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15^thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 3330

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Sermon Series: Wilderness – It’s Not a Good Thing to Assume What God is Doing
Scripture: Luke 13.1-9
Preacher: Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location: First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date: March 24, 2019

Turn in your Bible to Luke 13. We are going to read a Story that only appears in Luke’s Gospel. It addresses an issue that has a fancy .50 cent name to it; the word for the day is theodicy. As you listen, you will note two stories and a parable. Listen and see how they go together! Hear the Word of the Lord!

Luke 13:1-9

13.1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Several years ago there was a popular book written by Rabbi Harold Kushner that dealt with the issues of bad things that seemingly happen to good people. Its title was often misquoted which was a problem because if you change the title of the book, the focus of the book changes entirely. People referred to the book by the title, “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.” It’s not a bad title and it would be an interesting book to read, however, it was not the title of the famous Rebbe’s book. The book is actually called, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Can you hear the difference in the questions each title asks?

On one hand, if you ask, “Why bad things happen to good people,” you will get mired in the questions of, “Why did this happen to me? Why would God allow this to happen to them? Why, if there is a loving God, would people have to endure the pain of treatment for their disease?” Why questions force you to ponder and think. Why questions have the tendency to place the one asking the questions in a defensive posture with regard to the one who can answer the question. Asking why is speculative.

On the other hand, if you approach the issues of evil and misfortune, not so much with a question but with a statement of certainty, your answers change. When you and I remove the speculation that bad things will happen to seemingly good people, we move from raising our fist at God and begin to walk alongside God in order to discover the meaning in the mess. You see, it’s not a question if bad things will happen to good people; it’s a question of when they will.

For the longest time Christ-followers have had this Pollyannaish attitude that once you start following Jesus, life is going to be all peaches and cream. Your kids will be smarter and better looking, your business will be successful, you’re naturally liked and loved by all those you meet, and your health is stellar. This is the challenge many Prosperity Gospel preachers proclaim; they say that if you love Jesus, live a good life and pay your tithe to the church, then you will be materially blessed as proof that God loves you. Frankly, this is what Jesus was dealing with in the first century in our Story as well.

First century Judaism had its own form of prosperity gospel of sorts. People during Jesus’ day believed that if you lived a good life, followed the Law, treated people fairly, paid your religious dues, and was a good member of the Jewish community then God would physically or materially bless you. However, if you sinned, then God would punish you and give you destitution and a bleeding ulcer or some other ailment. One’s moral conduct was equated with how smooth your life was sailing. If life is going well, I’m in God’s favor; if life really is stinking to high heaven, then God is punishing me. This leads back to the speculative question of “Why bad things happen to good people.” The problem is, Jesus is not having or buying any of that nonsense. He is telling his disciples to move from speculative questions to making declarative statements. He is asking the people to move from asking “why” to declaring that life is difficult and is hard at times!

People were scrambling to ask, “Jesus, you’re from Galilee. You heard about those Galileans that Pontus Pilate had killed and mixed their blood in Roman sacrifices…do you think they were worse sinners than others?”

Jesus didn’t take the bait. He replies, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.” And then Jesus ups the ante. Jesus tells them, “Let me do you one better: What about those people here in Jerusalem who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Were they worse offenders of the Law and sinners than all the rest of the people in Jerusalem?” Once again, Jesus answers the question himself. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will perish as they did.”

In other words, bad stuff happens to seemingly good and decent people. It’s the world we live in and it has been that way since our first parents broke relationship with God back in Genesis. Then Jesus shares a Story.

Once upon a time, a man went out into his vineyard looking for some fruit to eat. Sadly, he did not find any. He did find the caretaker and told them, “Look here, for three years I have been coming out looking for something to eat on this fig tree and for three years it has produced nothing! Cut the thing down as it’s wasting both the soil its planted in and the water that is poured upon it.” The caretaker replied, “How about this: let’s leave it alone one more year. What I will do is to work in fertilizer all around the tree and make sure it is getting enough water. Let’s see if it can still bear figs. If not, we will cut the thing down.”

This is an interesting rebuttal Jesus gives the people. They ask a deep theological question about why there is evil in the world and whether its tied to their behavior and he talks about something else entirely. The people want to talk about “Why bad things happen to good people” and Jesus shifts direction. He does not want to talk about speculative questions; rather, Jesus tells a parable about how one day, each and every one of us will have to one day deal with the “When” question of when we die, when the tower falls on those we know, when we get a horrible diagnosis, when we get the call no parent ever wants to receive…

Beloved, Jesus is asking us to move from meaningless speculation as to why and urges us to prepare for the inevitable when misfortune comes or our time on this planet is over. You see, when we prepare for the when, we attain what the Bible calls, Peace. Have you ever heard of the Latin phrase, “Memento Mori”? It’s a saying that means, “Remember, one day you will die.” This is Jesus’ way of telling you and me, Memento Mori. Jesus is reminding us that we can ask God all the speculative questions we want but unless we turn back around (the meaning of the word, repent) and embrace the relationship God wants with us, then our lives immediately lose their meaning and we live the rest of our days bitter at best and lonely and isolated at worst; we will die emotionally and spiritually alone.

Our culture does not like the word ‘repent.’ It sounds so, so churchey and for us Presbyterians, it sounds just a little too baptisty for us. But here it is right smack in the middle of our Lenten wilderness journey in today’s text. Jesus is calling for an end of our speculative questions to God as to why and instead make a declarative change in our life by turning back around to God through repentance. You see, another way to understand repentance is to think of it as falling back into the arms of someone who loves your dearly. When you fall into their arms, the questions melt away and you just want to be lovingly held by your beloved.

In the act of repentance, in the act of falling back into the outstretched arms of God, we will see life’s pains, mishaps, and tragedies for what they are: sad but expected actions of life in our fallen, created realm. The difference, however, is we no longer see God as some Divine Killjoy or a mean heavenly Judge; we no longer see events in our life as bad karma and payback to us for not being good enough. No, we begin to understand that what we have experienced happens to the upright ones as well as to the broken ones. The lesson is not so much “Why did God let this happen to me?” as it is where is God with me in all of this pain, disease, and ill-fortune? The promise is that if we use this season of Lent and preparation to repent, i.e. turn back around and falling into the loving arms of God, we will experience that God is not “out there somewhere” but is actually embracing us even now. God is right here.

So as we close, humor me a moment; repeat after me: Bad things happen to good people like me…And it stinks!

Now say: I repent and fall into the waiting arms of God. Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

Sermon:        Series #1: Lessons from the Wilderness: What are the lessons we are to
learn?
Scripture:     Luke 4: 1-13
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:             March 10, 2019, The First Sunday in Lent, Year C

It has taken three chapters for Luke to build up to today’s launching of Jesus.  All the birth narratives are behind us as is Jesus’ baptism and family genealogy.  The first three chapters have duly announced the coming Messiah and now in Chapter 4, he is launched.

Our text comes from Luke 4: 1-13 and is often referred to as “the temptations of Jesus”.  Jesus is returning from the relatively lush Jordan river valley and as he heads up the long dirt path, the Spirit of Baptism compels Jesus to go bushwhacking; in other words, the Spirit has Jesus leave the obvious road and head off into the wilderness.  The wilderness in Judea is not like the lush wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains; think instead of the timeless Black Hills of South Dakota. Think of the red, rocky Martian landscapes the Curiosity Rover sends back of the Red Planet.  We are talking remove, rough, wild and exposed.  This is where the Spirit leads Jesus.  Listen to the Word of the Lord from Luke 4: 1-13:

Luke 4: 1-13

^4.1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ²where 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. ³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” ⁴Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” ⁵Then the devilled him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And the devilsaid 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. ⁷If 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.’” ⁹Then the devil ^c] 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, ¹⁰for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ ¹¹and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,  so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ¹²Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.[1]

            Jesus’ ‘first act’ of Messiah was to take his spiritual LSAT and Bar Exam; i.e., he had to pass the Jewish law exam.  If he was going to inaugurate a new kingdom, he had to demonstrate to his Heavenly Father that he was up to the task.  Jesus was confronted with the same evil in the world you and I have to face each and every day; yet the stakes were much higher for the Messiah.  The late Catholic priest/author, Henri Nouwen spoke about these temptations in his thoughtful book entitled, In the Name of Jesus:  Reflections on Christian Leadership[2]. Nouwen believes that Jesus was given three tests to determine the mettle of his spiritual depth. 

By turning stones into loaves of bread was the temptation be become relevant.

By forsaking God to rule the world was the temptation to have power.

By throwing himself off the Temple’s pinnacle was fighting the temptation to be spectacular.  Nouwen is absolutely correct in that leaders have to fend off those temptations to be relevant, to be powerful, and to be spectacular.  The reality is, as Luke’s story continues to unfold in the Luke-Acts narratives, we will see Jesus confront earthly leaders who have succumbed to the exact temptations he overcame in our story today.  Whether Roman officials or members of the religious and social leadership of Jesus’ day, each of them failed – from Pilate to Caiaphas – and fell victim to the temptations to be relevant, powerful, and spectacular.  It was imperative for Jesus to get this right before he began to do and execute God’s work in earnest.  It was vital that Jesus follow the path to and through the wilderness as his ancestors did.  The wilderness exposes you and your weaknesses.  The wilderness pushes you to reach down into yourself and find the true essence of who you are.  The wilderness is the place you and I get to road-test our faith in very real ways.

Wilderness has always been important in the lives of God’s people. Ironically, it’s often in the most god-forsaken places and times the resplendent light of God shines most brightly!

It was wandering in the wilderness Abraham and Sarah were given the promise of a great nation.

It was in the isolated wilderness Jacob wrestled with God and saw angels descend and ascent to and from heaven.

It was only after the Hebrews left the safety of what they knew in Egypt and entered the inhospitable environment of the desert did they learn about God, learn about sin and waywardness, and learn about trust and obedience.  It was in their wilderness time their character as the people of God was formed and expressed.  It was in the hardship of wilderness where they received the beautiful Torah of God, the Law of God.  It was in the wilderness they were uniquely shaped as God’s chosen people.  This is why Jesus had to go to the wilderness.  God shapes his people, his children, in the wilderness!  It was the time Jesus could demonstrate his fealty to God.  It was the time he could prove he wasn’t on some Messianic power trip. It was a time he demonstrated that he completely trusted God would do what God promised.

Friends, this past Wednesday, we began the season of Lent – the forty-day spiritual gymnasium whereby we, just like Jesus, head into the wilderness and determine how spiritually “fit” we are.  We are invited to walk into the wilderness and risk becoming exposed to the elements at best, and the fears and temptations of evil at worst.  Lent is the time we become vulnerable to God and let it all hang out with what we struggle to believe in.  Spiritual wilderness, beloved, is barren but it doesn’t have to be scary.  Remember, Jesus did not go into the spiritual wilderness alone as he was lovingly led by the Holy Spirit.  The evil one may trick us into thinking we are abandoned by God and left all alone, but let’s remember our story:  The Spirit led Jesus there and didn’t abandon him.  What a wonderful reminder for each of us!  The very wild, remote wilderness is the place God journeys into with us!

Poet/Mystic, Thomas Merton once wrote, “The desert becomes a paradise when it is accepted as a desert.  The desert can never be anything more than a desert if we are trying to escape. But,” Merton says, “once we fully accept it in union with the passion of Christ, it becomes a paradise.”[3]    In other words, my friends, even in the midst of our spiritual deserts and wilderness experiences, the embryo of God’s Spirit and presence is there!

For those of you who don’t know, I suffer from chemical depression induced by PTSD.  I personally know what emotional, spiritual deserts and wildernesses feel like.  I also know that the wilderness is the best University of the Holy Spirit there is to matriculate in as well.  You see, in the depth of my pain in my emotional, spiritual wasteland, at the place I felt most abandoned by God, the Spirit revealed to me something beautiful.  It taught me that in the midst of my darkness and gloom, I was actually being given a gift. You see, I learned form the Spirit in my desert that in my deepest pain, I could feel the very tears of God that God felt when Jesus was tried, beaten and killed.  Feeling the tears of God in the midst of pain, my desert had been transformed into paradise – the place of Eden where God dwells.

My sweet church, let the Spirit lead you into the wilderness where you spiritual roots can be stressed and yet strengthened.  The wilderness has as lot to teach us, bestow upon us, share with us if we accept the wilderness for what it is:  A place to walk with God.  A place to affirm what Jesus himself affirmed:  Jesus affirmed that God will meet my particular needs.  In the wilderness, Jesus affirmed there is no God but One – the Lord Most Holy.  In the wilderness, Jesus demonstrated that we don’t have to test God but to simply be aware of the Most High’s companionship on the path that feels like it’s leading to the Valley of Shadow and Death.

Are you willing to head off the routine way and be led into the wilderness this Lent and learn, discover more about God and yourself than you have before? Then come on! You’re not going alone!

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version.

[2]Please see availability on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Name-Jesus-Reflections-Christian-Leadership/dp/0824512596/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=In+the+Name+of+Jesus%3A+Reflections+on+Christian+Leadership&qid=1552417411&s=gateway&sr=8-1

[3]This quote was written in a notebook.  I cannot attest from which of Merton’s works this came from to accurately cite it.