Children's time:
Look at these pictures? What are they pictures of? Yes, that's right, these are aliens. Look, these two are aliens from my friend Gary's movie Lifted. He's nominated for an Oscar tonight for directing the movie. Yes, we are very excited about it. We're not going to answer the phone during the Oscars. Do you think these green aliens are real or pretend? Yes, that's right, they're pretend.
The Bible talks about real aliens. Not green or from outer space. Can you guess what an alien is? That's right, someone from another place, a stranger who looks different from the local people. The Bible tells the story of the Hebrew people, who were once aliens, strangers in a strange land. God wanted people to remember that, so when they meet strangers who have come to live nearby, they will be kind to them.
Our old testament reading is from Deuteronomy. Moses instructs the covenant people what to do at the spring harvest of grains and cereals. The harvest is evidence of God's continuing care for the people in their land. The ‘wandering Aramean' is a nickname for Jacob; he came from the land of Aram before it was called Israel; Jacob was renamed Israel; and his family found refuge in Egypt until trouble came, and then his family, by now the twelve tribes of Israel, wandered in the wilderness. Every year they are to bring a portion to God, and repeat the history of the exodus. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Deuteronomy 26:1-11
26:1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.
3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us."
4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.
6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me."
You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
This ends our reading from Deuteronomy. Why did they refer to Jacob as a wandering Aramean? Why didn't they just call him Jacob, or even Israel? This is a history, and they wanted to go back to their beginning as a people, when God made the covenant with Jacob to give his people a land.
This story emphasizes the importance of memory and generosity. This is a story of deliverance and salvation, not domination. When they presented their offerings, they had to say how God claims them. In response to God's gift, the descendants of the wandering Aramean bring food to the Levites (who have no land to farm) and to the aliens, or strangers among them. The food is part of a celebration in response to God's salvation.
In our gospel reading, the devil encourages Jesus to go for domination. Jesus remembers the salvation stories he was taught, and quotes from those stories using words from Deuteronomy. We'll be reading from my translation. 1 You may follow along on page 61. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Luke 4:1-13.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert. Forty days he was being tempted by the devil. And he did not eat anything during these days, and when they were completed, he was hungry.
And the devil said to him, “Since 2 you are the Son of God, speak to this stone in order that it might become bread.”
Jesus answered him, “It is written that a person does not live by bread alone.” 3
And he led him up and showed him all of the realms of the world in an instant of time.
And the devil said to him, “To you I will give the authority of all these and their glory, because to me it is delivered over, and I give it to anyone I wish 4. Therefore, if you worship 5 me, it will all be yours.”
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘the Lord your God you shall worship and God alone you shall serve.” 6
And he led him into Jerusalem and he stood upon the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, that he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you and on hands they will lift you up, lest you might strike your foot against the stone.” 7
And Jesus answered him, “It has been said, ‘you shall not tempt the Lord your God.'” 8
And after the devil had completed every temptation, he departed until the appointed time.
This ends our reading from the gospel. Worship is the time and place to learn and to be formed by God's reality. It's the time when the story of God's salvation gets rehearsed and remembered, 9 so we can recognize the false promises of domination the world makes. Let us listen to the choir interpret the season of Lent for us.
Anthem
This week I read about some interesting research at the U of O. Jennifer Freyd has been studying why 86% of child sexual abuse isn't reported to the authorities. Many of us know of instances of false accusations – in my experience as a pastor, I have known of two. But I know many, many more instances where the accusations were true and the perpetrator was not prosecuted.
In a recent study, nearly 400 college students “heard short vignettes in which a male or female described an incident that occurred at age 9 involving an adult figure.” The results showed that women generally believe the allegation. So do men who had been abused as children. But men who had not ever been betrayed by an adult, who had not experienced that sort of trauma, generally did not believe the child. There are two ways these men don't believe the child: they say it didn't happen or that if it did happen, it didn't harm the child. I think it's because if you grow up feeling powerful, knowing that you can defend yourself against most harm, it's natural to think everyone is like that.
Freyd said the findings suggest that educational efforts may need to be more heavily focused toward men to help them understand that such acts do occur and that the abuse often can contribute to a number of societal ills. Among the problems, she noted, are mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, victimization and criminality in adulthood. This was an important study. 10 About 20% of women and 10% of men have experienced some form of sexual abuse as children. That's a scary statistic, and it would be easy for us not to believe it. But our disbelief doesn't help the children.
As I read about that study, I thought about the 30 hour famine 11. We live in a privileged country; if we want to ignore the needs of the world, we can. It is possible to live here without seeing poverty and hunger. But when we worship God regularly, when we remember the stories of God's people by hearing them aloud, it is impossible to ignore the world's needs.
The Hebrews rehearsed their history at festivals and on the Sabbath. They knew their history, they knew oppression happens. We, who have been adopted into that history, tell those stories too. We talk about sin and domination and oppression not to feel guilt or get depressed, but to be aware. So when we do have choices to make, we can choose the way of salvation, not domination.
Today, some of our youth present part of their journey of awareness and hope. I am grateful they choose the way of hope and salvation.
(The youth went to the pulpit and shared excerpts from their journals and spoke extemporaneously. I have tried to reconstruct what they said.)
“It is Saturday morning. We already had a juice break and it was delicious. We just finished a tribe game and my team won again! I learned that child soldiers have to suffer greatly. They are beaten and they are never happy. It surprised me that the Lord's Resistance Army lied to the children that if they were captured by the government they would be killed. This game just made me realize how lucky I was and still am. I don't think that I can imagine what it would be like. Absolutely horrible. I would hate to have someone close to me taken away. I couldn't stand knowing that they were going through something so horrible.”
“I definitely have gained a new respect for countries who don't' recruit children under 18 for war. As a child, you're still developing. If you grew up in terror and trauma, you'd carry that with you for the rest of your life. I look at some of my friends around 13 or 14 years old. It hurt to know that in even 4 or 5 years, they could be part of a war. I would have to have that number shrink to a month or two.”
“Friday 11:27 p.m. We just played a hide and seek game to represent how rebels recruit children to turn against their tribes in acts of violence. I can't imagine spending my life in fear of being abducted, always hiding corm the enemies. Having grown up in a small community, there has always been a certain sense of security in my life that I have taken for granted. I suppose that sums up this whole experience. I have always taken for granted the security that food and water and shelter and school and movies and MySpace will always be there. Even now as I'm beginning the fast, I know that there will be cereal waiting for me when I wake up on Sunday morning. Will the famine give me a taste of hunger I will never know what it's really like to live a day in the life of these children.
“Already I'm out of breath and I've only went up and don the stairs once. Luckily I've found a walking device to help me move, but it's no easy task dragging it up the stairs. So far I have not fallen. Hopefully it will stay that way.”
“This year, Ginger and Ally set up a prayer room for us. The room was dark and completely silent, but when you entered you could light candles and turn on music sung by a music group from a monastery in Russia. This room was a room for prayer and reflection, where we could come in our free time and just sit and pray in peace. There was a sheet of paper where we could write down prayers, and our prayer net form CROP walk a few years ago that we've been dedicated to fill. On the floor there was a labyrinth; a tangled walkway we could stroll through until reaching the center. Reaching the center took concentration and focus. In all my 3 trips to the prayer room, I walked through the labyrinth and sat in the center with the monks chanting and the soft flicker of candles. I could relax. I remembered back a few years ago to my 4H camper when I was in a relaxation class. I stretched out, closed my eyes, and just breathed, slowly and deeply. It was incredibly peaceful. I imagine that to anyone who saw me in the pose, I looked pretty goofy, but I don't care; the prayer room was great new addition to this year's famine. You can see the pictures of kids we prayed for, our prayer net, and our written prayers in the fellowship hall. You can even listen to the Russian monks if you want to.”
“I can't imagine how hard it would really be to plant crops with only one leg. All the hard work going towards nothing, I can't say I've ever experienced that.”
“I felt that this year was harder than years before. Maybe it was because of recent tragedies. I was perpetually tired this time; more than previous years. The group was smaller for the famine this year. It felt like we got closer than last year. Over all this year was much more moving. “The famine is over. My stomach is filled with cereal and cake. Unfortunately there are millions of people who will not have cheerios waiting when they wake up. This famine means a lot because we are helping so many children. Yet there are still thousands of children who die every day.”
“I felt a little bit unlucky in comparison with one person in my group. I like being able to talk but my disability doesn't allow me to.”
“Everyone has to cooperate. If two halves of the circle are working on different problems the big problem is never solved. Everyone must work together or nothing great can ever be accomplished. I believe people don't do things God's way and so things go astray.”
“The Famine is over. We did it, but children in third world countries don't know when they're going to eat next. That's why we did it, so those kids can eat.”
“This is my first year at the 30 hour famine. I learned so much more than I thought I would. Many children die each day from hunger. If they don't die, they probably join the LRA by force after being captured. Then the LRA forces them to attack friends and family. As I look back over the 30 hour famine, I feel like a different person. I feel more driven to help people who suffer each day from hunger and loss. Now I have felt their pain.”
One of the youth read Matthew 25:34-40 as one adult leader held up paper dolls one by one and burned them to show how many people die of hunger each minute .
34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'
37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'
40 And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
Amen.
1 Actually, a Lutheran pastor named John VanSant and I worked on this translation together.
2 Harper Collins Study Bible note
3Deuteronomy 8:3. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
4 Literally and to whomever I am wishing I give it.
5 Literally, worship before me
6 Deuteronomy 6: 13. The LORD your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.
7 The Devil is quoting Psalm 91:11-12. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
8 Deuteronomy 6:16. Do not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.
9 Kershner, Shannon Johnson, “Preaching the Lenten Texts”, Journal for Preachers, Lent 2007, p. 3.
10 /www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/uoo-mwh021207.php
11 The 30 hour famine is a youth activity where youth study the Bible, learn about world hunger, and go without eating for 30 hours. They are divided into tribes and given a new identity and a medical condition or disability. The play games as a tribe.
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First Presbyterian Church