Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached Sunday, 3/1/20 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The gospel was Matthew 4:1-11.  Do you remember the comedy of Flip Wilson? One of his frequent characters was Geraldine Jones. Her excuse for anything she shouldn’t have done was, “The devil made me do it.” The things the devil “made” Geraldine do were not inherently evil like buying a new dress. In today’s gospel, in Jesus’ encounter with Satan, the devil tempts him to do three different things, none of which are innately evil in and of themselves. As I said in my e-ministry reflection, this was a setup. Right on the heels of Jesus’ baptism, with the reassuring voice of his Father calling him the beloved Son. Then pow, God’s Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Why would the Spirit do this? There are three temptations: the temptation to attempt the miraculous, the temptation to spectacle and the temptation to political power. The three temptations stand for pride, power ...

Here are some thoughts on Sunday's gospel. Let's talk about it. Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11 1 Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.  3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”   5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,  6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”   8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all...