“Of Strategies and Priorities"
First Congregational Church -- Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
First Sunday in Lent – February 21, 2010
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[Texts: Deuteronomy 26:1-11/Romans 10:8b-13/Luke 4:1-13]

If you have had a chance to watch any of the Winter Olympics I think that you have seen priorities and strategies exemplified in the athletes. The priority for these people is to be the best that they can possibly be at the chosen sport and they work out of that priority developing the strategies required to attain the ultimate goal – the gold. Did you see the lengths Shaun White went to – building his own half-pipe practice run in a spot conveniently accessible only by helicopter – in order to get that second gold medal in a row? That he swept the field easily in his first run and then in his “victory lap” beat himself speaks volumes. Closer to home, two-time speed skater Shani Davis discussed his priorities and strategies on television not long ago. I found it quite remarkable that he is virtually self-coached. His determination and hard work have paid off and even his once frosty public image is thawing a bit – perhaps another priority and strategy coming into play. I chose to stay away from the political scene, where priorities and strategies abound, because the games seem far more wholesome.

We see priorities and strategies at work in all three of our Scripture lessons for this first Sunday in Lent, It’s important for us to remember that our spiritual lives really are connected to our every day lives and, as such, involves our developing priorities and strategies to develop, grow and live as followers of Jesus Christ.

God told the people of Israel that they were to be a people of memory. They were to remember where they had been, what they had been, and how God's gracious action delivered them from bondage. This recalling of history, the Greek word for it is anamnesis, is in itself a profession of faith in God. However, it is not just something that is located in the past and not to be forgotten. Rather, this re-membering makes us contemporaries with the events that are recalled; that history is also our history, it brings the parts together again, we re-member who we are and from where we came. To remember what God has done for Israel is to be part of the action because it encompasses the past, speaks to our own liberation today, and assumes the future. Why? Because God, who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever," is the One who acts. And God "who is, who was, and who is to come" is the One who gives this gift. Thus, for the Christian, T. S. Eliot's words in his Four Quartets take on new significance, "Time present and time past/Are both perhaps present in time future."

Every time the people of Israel remembered their history, the deliverance they had experienced became real again. This is the case for us, as well. When Jesus had his encounter with evil in the desert, it was to bring full-circle the experience of humanity, with a chance to make the right answers to temptation, instead of giving in. What we heard in Luke's Gospel was only one part of what would eventually be 'recapitulated' through the Cross and the Resurrection. Irenaeus of Lyons, writing in the third century, said this is why Luke laid out the generations back to Adam and the Lord did what he did. It was not for him, it was for us, because the whole of humanity was, is, and will be recapitulated in Jesus Christ.

Each time we recall our deliverance, recall God's gracious action toward us, we are re-membering the Body of Christ. That is, we are being brought more and more into union with the Lord. If you ever wonder why we pray that long "Great Thanksgiving" each time we celebrate the Lord's Supper, well, now you know. Our action in breaking open the Word together, and then sharing the bread broken and the cup poured out makes tangible what God has done for us in Christ. It does for us what recalling the "wandering Aramean" and the offering of first fruits did for Israel. That is why I believe that the best definition of Christian worship is, "gather the folks, tell the story, break the bread;” to which I add, go forth to serve. In those simple actions we re-member the Body of Christ and understand what our priority is – to be what we say we are as a follower of Jesus Christ and to live accordingly.

Our strategy is, as Paul says elsewhere, “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” and “. . . whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise think about these things.” [Phil. 2.5/4.8-9]. A strategy is simply a “careful plan or method” and we see how employing our memories of who we are help us to become the people God intends for us to be and to act in harmony with that manner.

Now I think you're also, perhaps, getting why I try to bring so many people from our past, folks long-dead, into sermons: because they're not really dead. They are alive with Christ in God and they have powerful thoughts, experiences, and ideas to share with us. Their priorities and strategies serve to teach us and help us to follow through with our growth and development as Christians. A.M. Allchin, a contemporary English author, describes what I mean in his book The Living Presence of the Past: The Dynamics of the Christian Tradition. Allchin recounts a visit to one of the Greek Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos. The abbot of the community took him for a tour of the library, listen to what he experienced:

. . . . It was not a large collection of books. There were a lot of elderly well-used volumes of the Fathers. "Here" said the abbot, "is a book which you give to beginners." "This is a work which is useful for someone who is depressed." "Here is a book which will give very clear instructions about the Jesus Prayer." Any Westerner showing you round this collection of books, even someone to whom they were of practical use, would have said: "Here is an interesting sixth century text." "This writer shows influences from the Syrian tradition." "Here is a work important in the later development of Hesychasm." We look at books chronologically and classify them in terms of influences and development. To the abbot they all had a simultaneous existence and composed a simultaneous order. Their authors were fathers and teachers who had become friends, to whom one spoke in church and at other times; it was of little importance whether they had lived six hundred, twelve hundred or fifty years ago. He showed me the library rather in the way in which an expert gardener might show you his collection of books on gardening, or a cook a collection of cookery books. These help you on your way. They are not an end in themselves. [p. 28]

Scripture, too, is not an end in itself. We need to remember that Scripture is the memory of the faith community written down, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It serves to remind us of what our priorities are to be and provides us with the strategic means for accomplishing them. This is one the things that Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, points out so beautifully in Why Study the Past? We can’t always assume that things are going to be the same, so we write history, we organize our memories and out of that comes the Scripture, the memory of Israel and the early Church on how God dealt with them and worked among them. When Jesus had his encounter with Satan, "the accuser" tried to take Scripture and use it to justify giving in to temptation. Each time Jesus countered this abuse by putting the Scripture back into its proper context. He called upon the memory of God's activity and turned aside the arguments to do wrong.

Here is an example for each of us. Jesus confronted temptations that are common to all of us, like the need for sustenance and the desire for power and control. When we are tempted with these things, sometimes even backed-up with quotations from the Scripture, we can see through them when we tap into the collective memory of our faith, the Christian tradition if you will. It is not enough to appeal to the Bible if it is out of the context of God's love and our response in faithfulness. For example, we cannot use the Bible to promote hate. We need to see everything weighed in the balance of the living Word in the living community of faith. As the late Russian theologian, Georges Florovsky wrote, "tradition in the church is not merely the continuity of human memory or the permanence of rites and habits. Ultimately, 'tradition' is the continuity of divine assistance, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit . . . It is primarily an appeal to persons, to holy witnesses." Our Lord gave us an example in his appeal to the "holy witnesses" of Scripture within the context of God's gracious activity.

Thus, Paul can tell us that deliverance comes among us when we "call upon the Name of the Lord." It is not just by believing in the heart, but also by the manner in which we live it out that makes the difference. After all, we're told in the Scriptures, "the demons believe and tremble." Belief is only the starting point, confessing the faith involves living out our covenant relationship with God and with one another. If you have not taken the time to review the Church covenant lately, I would urge it upon you as a good Lenten discipline. Meditate for a bit on what we say we are and if the actions aren't there to match the intellectual assent, the believing, then there's a project to be worked on.

You know there are over eight hundred people who have owned the covenant of this church. Many of them we rarely see and I think that tells us where their priority is and it, obviously, is not fitting with the covenant commitment to “share in the worship and service of God.” Likewise, those who don’t honor the commitment “to return to God a portion of God’s gifts” are letting God know just where their priorities lay. The "first fruits" that we can offer to God are lives lived in accord with God's will and God's love. Our priority is supposed to be being a child of God, a follower of Jesus Christ and living it out every day.

Some people think the Christian faith doesn’t have a great deal to do with the contemporary world. Thoughts like that tell me that those folks have not seriously engaged the Scripture or the tradition of Christianity. What we saw in the Scripture readings today, especially the Gospel, is the putting forward of priorities, the placing of values that are then to provide the framework for how we enter into relationships, do business, simply conduct ourselves day-in and day-out. Remember that the word ‘satan’ means “accuser” and that’s the real devil we encounter. As storyteller and theologian John Shea says, “The devil did his best to seduce Jesus into using strategies that looked like they might further his ambitions. But Jesus saw them for what they were – betrayals of his identity – and he refused them. It remains to be seen if we can do the same.”

There you have it. We set priorities and develop strategies all the time. When the Olympians do this, they seek to be consistent with their goals and with their identities as expert athletes. We’re challenged to remember who we are and whose we are and to set priorities and use strategies consistent with that identity of “Christian.” Think of Lent as a training opportunity, the race is before us daily, and the prize is life with God. So, what are your priorities and what are your strategies?