“Distracted But Not Defeated”
Text: Mark 1:9-13
First Sunday in Lent
Elpis Christian Church
February 26, 2012
Daniel Evan Weiss shares some interesting facts about what people do or don’t do these days – and what they frequently have on their minds. In fairness, the percentages may be a bit dated – the book was written a number of years ago. But they still illustrate an important point I want to raise today. According to Weiss, public polls once showed that:
- Only 1% of Americans said that they read the Bible more than once a day
- 15% of American married men said they did most of the cooking in the household
- 30% of Americans smoked cigarettes (happily, today that number has dropped closer to 19%)
- 42% of Americans couldn’t name a country near the Pacific Ocean
- 60% of Americans reportedly did not spend a lot of time on their personal appearance (that’s actually a percentage I would dispute – I think people spend a lot more time on it than they admit.)
- 67& of Americans believed secret files were being kept on them for unknown reasons
- 74% said that if they had their life to live over again, they’d continue with their formal education (they needed to if 42% couldn’t name a country near the Pacific Ocean!)
- 84% of Americans believed heaven exits (I wonder how many believed in the other place?)
- 94% of American men reported they would change something about their looks if they could
- 99% of American women reported they would change something about their looks if they could
- 96% of American children could identify Ronald McDonald (who was second only to Santa Claus.)
I find statistics like that interesting. They shed a little light onto the values and the worries and the beliefs of our people in this nation. But, for today’s purposes, they do something more. They set the stage for a discussion about how easily we can be distracted – tempted if you will – from matters of real importance. Just look at those last three stats I mentioned – the ones about how 94 and 99% - worry about their looks and would actually change them if they could. Or the one about the 96% of children who could easily point out Ronald McDonald. In the grand scheme of things, the clown who wants you to have a happy meal for lunch – and what you will look like when you do – that’s not very important stuff, is it. Yet it occupies important space in our brains and therefore in our lives.
Now contrast that with the image of Jesus wrestling with the devil in the wilderness; being tested as to his resolve so that he can fulfill his spiritual destiny; and how humanity’s fate rests in the balance in some great, mystical way. That’s quite a contrast isn’t it? As this Lenten season begins it’s all about such contrasts. It’s about our being willing to engage in a serious, personal reflection – and a serious, personal conversation with God – about how we need to overcome the temptation to dwell on self, and self-centered matters – and answer the call to kingdom life and ministry in God’s service.
The other night Elizabeth and I went out to dinner. And, it being Shrove Tuesday, or “Fat Tuesday,” as the French would say, we decided to go to the Cracker Barrel restaurant and get a big plate of pancakes. Boy, they were good. But isn’t it funny that the night before Lent we, as a society, decide that’s a great opportunity for a big, old self-indulgent party. Oh, we rationalize that we are clearing the cabinets of all the stuff that will spoil if left sitting there during our Lenten time of fasting. But how many of us are really about to engage in a time of spiritual fasting? I don’t think Cracker Barrel needed Elizabeth and I to help them get rid of pancake batter. We just wanted pancakes. Boy, they WERE good.
But, all kidding aside, this is the time for us to clear the way of distractions and temptations and all that would keep us from being more Christ-like. This is the time to say loud and clear, “We may be distracted but we are not defeated!” We may be tempted but we, with God’s help, with stay the course of true discipleship. Because we know that is the way to life in all its fullness. It is the way to victory.
What a difference it would make in our perspective on life and what is really important if, for example, we were to join the 1% of Americans who look at their Bible more than once a day. Lent is a good time to test that theory. What a difference it would make in our lives if, being part of that 84% of Americans who believe in heaven, we went a little further in our exploration of what it is like. Or, even better, if we – having admitted our belief in the afterlife – we asked a deeper question: “What difference does that make in how I should live in the here and now, today?” Lent is a good time to ask that question and then do something about it.
We are not Roman Catholic. And so, we are not likely to spend the next forty days engaged in some ritual of confession or walking the “stations of the cross,” at church. But we are called to spend this time of preparation wisely and reverently. How will we do it?
There is so much to distract us; so much to tempt us; so much to pre-occupy us. But Jesus points the way for us to follow, with his own forty days in the wilderness.
Today’s passage doesn’t give us a lot of detail. Mark was more interested in keeping the pace going – just giving us the bare bones facts that right on the heels of Jesus’ being called the beloved son of God, he is driven into his own dark night of the soul. No sooner are the heavens opened in praise; hell rears its ugly head. But the other gospel writers add some helpful detail to the story. It is there that we find the specific temptations Jesus must confront: to worry about his own physical comfort and using his power to turn stones to bread; to test God’s promise to protect him by hurling himself down from the temple mount; to give into his desires and follow Satan into a self-serving claiming of the world’s wealth for himself. These, no doubt, are not the only temptations Jesus might have wrestled with during those days of preparation. What about the one to avoid his calling itself and so avoid a horrible, fearful death on a cross? No, the gospel writers just want to give us a hint of how easy it is to be pulled aside from God’s will and way for us.
But time and again Jesus proves he is up to the task. He proves not just to the devil, but to us, that he is worthy of the name Savior and Lord and Master. And he reminds us that in following his way we will be able to, in the long run, overcome what might well destroy us, in the short time.
It’s all a matter of what we keep our mind on and what we learn to avoid.
You know, our own Clarence LeSueur, worked for years as a guard at the Federal Reserve. When I learned that I had to wonder how good old Clarence kept himself from temptation all those years – I mean surrounded by all that money – more than he could ever earn in a hundred careers as a guard. Now, I know Clarence is a good guy – we all know that. So it was largely about his character, I am sure. But I also read about something else that was at work there, keeping Clarence on the straight and narrow.
According to an attorney who worked with the Federal Reserve – it has a lot to do with your thinking about what you are doing. Pastor Chuck Swindoll, who knows the attorney, explains:
He says,
“One afternoon he invited me to go with him (to visit the Reserve.) As we walked in together, we were checked all over, and at the end of a narrow hallway we were checked again. And, of course, television cameras were everywhere. Behind a bulletproof glass in the secured room are people who do nothing but count.”
“I said, ‘How can the workers resist the temptation to steal some of the money?’ My attorney friend answered, ‘Everything is fine until they begin to realize what they are doing and then we have problems. As long as they’re just counting slips of paper, that’s fine. But when they suddenly realize, ‘Hey, this is a hundred dollar bill I have in my hand,’ then we have problems.’ “
You see – it’s all in how you look at life – and what’s important. Clarence, apparently, was able to always keep in perspective that all those stacks were just slips of paper, at least as far as he was concerned. Spiritually speaking, the metaphor is clear. We are called, as disciples of Christ, to look at all the twinkling distractions of this world, and realize they are just that – distractions – from what really matters.
It isn’t easy to do. Lots of people fail at it. And when they do, confession is good for the soul. But – not everyone fails. This Lenten season, think of those who are able to keep their faith perspective in all they do. Think of Christ’s own example as he steadfastly overcame his temptation and followed His destiny. Think of how God has great things in mind for you and for what you can do in His name. Think on those things and temptations of all kind will be put in proper perspective.
We are distracted but not defeated. We are tempted but not destroyed. We are God’s own beloved children. Let’s spend this Lent doing great things for Him.
AMEN.