Tag Archives: recovery

Into the Wilderness

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“Into the Wilderness”

Matthew 4:1-11 (4:1) – February 26, 2023

            The program of recovery has a great deal of wisdom in it, including the wisdom of how addiction happens in the first place. Addiction and its close companions craving, habit, dependence and desire depend on “more.” If one is good, eight or ten is much better! One more, just one more. Does this sound familiar? One more, just one more. One more time. One more cookie. One more tv show. Does anyone here have that craving and that problem?

            Let’s take a closer look at today’s Scripture reading. Here, Satan, the devil, the Tempter tests our Lord Jesus immediately after John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. Matthew tells us specifically “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

            This is not comedy or a stand-up joke, like Flip Wilson used to say in the 1970’s, “The devil made me do it!” He would regularly get belly laughs and applause from the audience as a result of this ”hilarious” joke. No, the devil and his ways and wiles are sneaky and persuasive and seductive. The devil came to Jesus in the wilderness on purpose, for this exact reason.

            We can listen to lectures, lessons, speeches and even sermons. So often, all they are is words. Words, words, words streaming over us, without anything to hang them on. However, if you really want to make an impact on your audience, tell them a story. Why do you think the Rabbi Jesus used parables and stories so often? He wanted His audience to remember!

Our Scripture passage for today tells us about the early part of that greatest story ever told. This is one of the first major conflicts recorded in the New Testament. The temptation of our Lord is a really significant event that happened to Jesus. It’s huge in His life experience. And, we can gather lots of spiritual principles and several excellent biblical examples for our hearts and lives. This temptation is a heckuva story! 

            One on one, in the wilderness, these two characters from the Bible are involved in one of the classic exchanges in the whole Biblical record. It’s happening right here, right now. Jesus is fasting, all alone, sent out into a wild, semi-arid place some distance from the place where He was baptized. This story has tension, drama, conflict! And, this story has a resolution, too. But more about that, later.

            Let us consider that after the baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness. Imagine, being in the wilderness all alone. I am not sure whether a lot of people today could survive in the wilderness, especially if they grew up in an urban area like Chicago. Perhaps Jesus was especially hardy or good at basic survival skills. We are not told much else, except that He was out there for a good long time. At some point, Jesus was tempted by Satan, the adversary. And all of us, like Jesus, have to deal with difficult times and wandering in the wilderness.

I have a really important thing to bring up, though. What about our internal difficulties? Approximately one in four Americans suffer from some sort of mental illness or mental difficulty like depression, anxiety, or some sort of compulsion, if not the more severe kinds of affliction like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. That’s a lot of people. And, those people often feel like they are all alone. All by themselves. These people are in a great deal of internal pain.

These times of sadness, anxiety, fearfulness, even downright despair sometimes threaten to overwhelm us. These are truly times of wandering in the wilderness. 

            In the Lord’s Prayer, we specifically pray “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” One of the newer translations of this same petition is “save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.” The key thing is that we often know very well what temptation is, and how seductive and persuasive and even sneaky temptation can be. How have you experienced temptation? Has it come back, again and again, and have you had difficulty facing it?

What did our Lord Jesus do, when He was tempted? For each of these three temptations that the devil mentioned, Jesus answered each one with a pointed quote from Scripture to answer the specific temptation that Satan brings up. Giving us a good example, Jesus shows us an effective way right here, in our Scripture reading.

We can also get familiar with the Word of God. We can read it on a regular basis, and get so well acquainted with it that we will also be able to answer the little and not-so-little temptations that come up each and every day. To quote from Psalm 119:11, “Your Word I have hid in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” Plus, reading God’s Word, the Bible, is a wonderful way of building a close relationship with our Lord. This is another tool that God gives to us, to help us along the wilderness way.

Different temptations appeal to (and tempt) different people. However, when people in recovery tell their personal stories, there is something about those stories of falling, hitting bottom, and recovery that resonate. They stick, deep down, and people can relate.

I suggest that you (and I) consider a spiritual practice for Lent, like bible reading or prayer. We can participate in prayer walks, works of service or acts of kindness. What might you do in Lent, the next 40 days plus six Sundays, to prepare for a deeper experience of the reality of Good Friday and a more joyous celebration of the truth of Easter?

            Notice, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Sustainer who remains with Jesus throughout His time in the wilderness. Just so, the Holy Spirit can be with all of us through our times in the wilderness. Indeed, God can be at work both for us and through us during our wilderness wanderings and difficult times.

  Certainly, we all have our own stories. Each is a day-by-day story, one day at a time. The best part is that Jesus is always by our side. That’s a promise, too. Even though life continues to happen, even though tough times continue to come, Jesus travels with us. As our personal stories continue, that’s a promise we all can trust.. Amen, and amen.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

(Thanks to Carolyn Brown and her website Worshiping with Children for the 1st Sunday in Lent, http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2014/02/year-first-sunday-in-lent-march-13-2011.html . And thanks as well to Mark Roberts and his devotion from the series Life for Leaders, “The Dustiness of Lent,” https://depree.org/life-for-leaders/?mc_cid=37497859c9&mc_eid=6effffadbb )

Were Not Ten Made Clean?

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“Were Not Ten Made Clean?”

Luke 17-18 rembrandt

Luke 17:11-19 – October 13, 2019

Sometimes, I talk with people in recovery—alcoholics and addicts who are not drinking or using substances, one day at a time. I used to do this more often, when I was regularly facilitating a weekly spirituality group at an inpatient drug and alcohol rehab unit at a nearby hospital. One of the suggestions for staying clean and sober one day at a time is to keep a gratitude journal. You know, a running list of things we are grateful for.

A writer for the Hazelden/Betty Ford Clinic, Michael G., tells us “The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius famously said that our lives are what our thoughts make them. In other words, by simply changing the way we think and our focus, we can change our lives. Bearing this in mind, choosing gratitude can have a huge impact on your life.” [1]

What on earth does a gratitude journal have to do with our Gospel reading today from Luke 17? To better understand that, we need to look at the background of the situation. Jesus and His disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. The time is growing nearer for Jesus to enter into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday—very near, now. While on the road on the border between Samaria and Galilee, Jesus is met by ten lepers—ten people with various sorts of skin deformity.

Can you see this scene? On the road at the outskirts of a town, Jesus and His disciples are walking. Perhaps, entering the town, hungry, thirsty, wanting a place to rest. When all of a sudden, ten lepers interrupt Jesus while He is on His journey. They stand some distance away, but they still make themselves heard—“Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Have you ever had the unexpected opportunity to meet someone special, someone important, perhaps interrupting them on their journey? That is exactly what happened.

These ten men, the men with serious skin conditions, were living a very lonely existence. They could not have any direct physical contact with any healthy or “clean” person, for fear of transmitting their skin condition or illness. Even touching a person who had leprosy or touching something they touched might be dangerous—might get someone infected.

Whenever someone developed a serious skin condition centuries ago, they had to be separated, and go live outside of their community. In the Law of Moses, the book of Leviticus devotes a whole chapter (chapter 13) to that situation, and is quite specific. ““Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.”

How horrible! Imagine never being able to hug your children, spouse, parents, or brothers and sisters again. Imagine never being able to enter the market or the house of worship you regularly attended, much less being banished from your home. This was life, in an ongoing and sad reality for these ten lepers. How incredibly lonely!

Especially to an observant Jew, the religious and spiritual separation must have been awful. As Dr. David Lose tells us, “That disease made them ritually unclean, which meant that they couldn’t participate in the Temple services and rituals at the center of their faith. And not able to practice their faith, these men stood on the outside of their community as well, likely feeling alone, abandoned, and desperate.” [2]             But, there is unexpected hope. I don’t know which of these lepers hears that the Rabbi Jesus is in town, but Jesus had been healing people throughout Israel and Galilee for about three years by this time. Wouldn’t you ask for healing, if you unexpected met the Rabbi Jesus?

As I considered this reading during the week, I wondered how addicts and alcoholics felt. Are they considered “Unclean!” and ostracized? Shunted aside? Ignored? Does their disease of alcoholism or addiction cause them increasingly to live alone and isolated, in poorer and poorer health?  These two situations from Luke 17 and the condition of addicts today do not line up completely, but there are some close parallels between our Gospel reading and the sad, lonely, debilitating condition of countless people who are afflicted by the disease of addiction.

I want us to begin to understand the hopeless, helpless sense of these ten lepers, ostracized and isolated, suddenly and unexpectedly getting hope for the first time in a very long time. “The Rabbi Jesus! Coming to our town? I’ve heard about Him! Isn’t He the Rabbi who heals the blind and lame? And, didn’t He raise that widow’s son from the dead? And—and—that Rabbi has healed some lepers. I know, I heard the stories. Maybe—He might heal me!”

Hoping against hope, you know what happens. Jesus does stop, and He does talk to them. He says, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” That’s puzzling, at first hearing. But, not if you are someone living by the Law of Moses. When a person was healed from illness, they were routinely supposed to go to the Temple or to the priest and show themselves. In today’s terms, the priests were similar to physicians’ assistants in the role of certifying people’s return to good health. Jesus told the lepers to go even before they were healed. And as they were obedient and started on their way, a miracle happened. They were healed, cleansed, and their skin conditions were totally gone. Imagine how excited and delighted those former lepers were!

Here’s where the problem is: ten were healed, but how many came back with thanks to Jesus? How many were truly grateful? Yes, ten lepers left Jesus, and along the way to the priests became clean, healthy, and whole. Only one ex-leper truly recognized the incredible healing and gave thanks to the Rabbi Jesus. In giving thanks, he became what God had intended all along.

That is the answer. That is the secret to life: gratitude. “Noticing grace, seeing goodness, paying attention to healing, stopping to take in blessing, and then giving thanks for the ordinary and extraordinary graces of our life together. This is the secret to a good life and the heart of saving faith.” [3]

I started off this sermon quoting from an article on recovery. I’ll end it the same way. Michael G. says, “When I first came into recovery more than 30 years ago, my sponsor told me to buy a notebook and write down 10 things I was grateful for, and then add three things to that list every day. I stopped numbering my list when I got to 5,000 items.

“Why did I write a gratitude list? Because I didn’t want to be miserable, and if being grateful was the solution, then that’s what I would do. And importantly, a grateful heart doesn’t drink. I learned very quickly that the struggle stops when gratitude begins.” [4]

I don’t often end with a challenge, but I am today. This is for me as well as for you. What practices ought we undertake, with what stories might we surround ourselves, with what rituals might we allow ourselves to be shaped, so that we might respond to God with gratitude and joy?

Dear Lord Jesus, help all of us to search for the answers to these sincere questions, and follow Your way in our daily lives, perhaps even writing a daily gratitude list.

Alleluia, amen.

 

[1] https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/sober-dad/gratitude-early-recovery

[2] http://www.davidlose.net/2019/10/pentecost-18-c-the-secret/

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/sober-dad/gratitude-early-recovery

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my regular blog for 2019: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and my other blog,  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!