SERMON FOR MARCH 1, 2020
TEMPTING
Text: Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7; Matthew 4: 1-11
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Satan is tempting Jesus:
Command these stones to become loaves of bread.
Jump off the pinnacle of the temple and God will send angels to catch you.
Worship me, and I will give you the kingdoms of this world.
Satan hopes to activate fear – fear of starvation, fear of physical limitations, fear of not having enough. Jesus does not waver. We are not Jesus. Sometimes we waver, and cower, and succumb to fear. What is tempting you these days? What do you fear?
Are you tempted to succumb to the fears being generated about the coronavirus? Fears about the impact on your health, finances, travel plans, and activities?
Historically, a global flu pandemic occurs about every one hundred years. The last big outbreak was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 during which an estimated 30 to 60 million people contracted the flu, about a third of the world’s population at that time. The mortality rate was somewhere between 10 to 20 percent, so if you do the math, that means between three million to twelve million people died from the Spanish flu. It happened at a time when penicillin, other antibiotics, and flu vaccines had not yet been invented. Basic public health strategies, like quarantining people, were not universally observed. It is hard to believe that only one hundred years ago people were still debating whether or not you could get sick from coming into contact with an infected person.
For your information, during the Spanish flu of 1918, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors and scientists were in the forefront with medical practices and public health policies, backed by science and research, to treat the infected and to contain the flu outbreak. At a time of national and global crisis, the medical community at Hopkins demonstrated fearless leadership and did not cower under pressure from government officials to change their stance. In our times, some public officials, like Governor Hogan, have shown exemplary leadership in public health policy and practices with respect to the coronavirus. In the State of Maryland, we are incredibly fortunate and blessed to have both Johns Hopkins Medicine and the National Institutes of Health in our backyard.
About twenty years ago, in many counties of this state, religious and secular community leaders were invited by officials from the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) and Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to attend training programs about emergency operations in anticipation of a flu pandemic. It was assumed that quarantine protocols would be in place: the closing of schools and a ban on public gatherings like sporting events, worship services, community meetings, conventions, and parades. While there would be an increasing demand on public services provided by the government, fewer people would be able to get to work: either because they were sick themselves, or lacked transportation, or feared contracting the flu from the public. It was feared that hospitals and treatment facilities would not be able to handle the numbers of people needing treatment and care. You may be wondering how churches could help if this scenario unfolded.
The physical facilities could serve as emergency operations centers – temporary outposts where people could go for medical treatment, supplies, and food – and if feasible – serve as temporary care facilities for the sick. In other words, church social halls and classrooms would be converted into temporary hospital rooms and wards with hospital beds to house the overflow of infected patients who could not be admitted to hospitals that were already at capacity. Until the pandemic was over, offering their facilities was one way that churches could help. Fortunately, for the past twenty years, there has not been a need for such emergency operations to be set into motion.
Fear not! is the refrain of angel messengers. Courage is the antidote to fear - whatever our fears may be: not having food and provisions, not having safety nets to catch us when we fall, not having enough wealth. It is tempting to turn away from God and to our own ways when confronted with news and messages about potential scarcity, vulnerability, and deprivation. Through long generations, God’s people have faced adversity – and survived. The evidence is clear that human beings are resilient and resourceful in the face of hardship, for if we were not, civilization would have died out a long time ago. Let us remember that as bad as the Spanish flu was, the vast majority survived of those infected were able to survive it.
Food and provisions, power to overcome human limitations, lavish wealth – it is tempting to crave such things.
Today we come to the Lord’s Table – to receive ordinary and extraordinary food – bread and wine – that embodies the most amazing meaning.
Before us we have the offer of bread that will feed us forevermore, the promise of God’s power to raise us from death to eternal life, and a wealth of blessings in Jesus Christ that no one and nothing can ever take from us. Have courage – and feast on what God has prepared for us to receive today. Amen.
Text: Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7; Matthew 4: 1-11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Satan is tempting Jesus:
Command these stones to become loaves of bread.
Jump off the pinnacle of the temple and God will send angels to catch you.
Worship me, and I will give you the kingdoms of this world.
Satan hopes to activate fear – fear of starvation, fear of physical limitations, fear of not having enough. Jesus does not waver. We are not Jesus. Sometimes we waver, and cower, and succumb to fear. What is tempting you these days? What do you fear?
Are you tempted to succumb to the fears being generated about the coronavirus? Fears about the impact on your health, finances, travel plans, and activities?
Historically, a global flu pandemic occurs about every one hundred years. The last big outbreak was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 during which an estimated 30 to 60 million people contracted the flu, about a third of the world’s population at that time. The mortality rate was somewhere between 10 to 20 percent, so if you do the math, that means between three million to twelve million people died from the Spanish flu. It happened at a time when penicillin, other antibiotics, and flu vaccines had not yet been invented. Basic public health strategies, like quarantining people, were not universally observed. It is hard to believe that only one hundred years ago people were still debating whether or not you could get sick from coming into contact with an infected person.
For your information, during the Spanish flu of 1918, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors and scientists were in the forefront with medical practices and public health policies, backed by science and research, to treat the infected and to contain the flu outbreak. At a time of national and global crisis, the medical community at Hopkins demonstrated fearless leadership and did not cower under pressure from government officials to change their stance. In our times, some public officials, like Governor Hogan, have shown exemplary leadership in public health policy and practices with respect to the coronavirus. In the State of Maryland, we are incredibly fortunate and blessed to have both Johns Hopkins Medicine and the National Institutes of Health in our backyard.
About twenty years ago, in many counties of this state, religious and secular community leaders were invited by officials from the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) and Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to attend training programs about emergency operations in anticipation of a flu pandemic. It was assumed that quarantine protocols would be in place: the closing of schools and a ban on public gatherings like sporting events, worship services, community meetings, conventions, and parades. While there would be an increasing demand on public services provided by the government, fewer people would be able to get to work: either because they were sick themselves, or lacked transportation, or feared contracting the flu from the public. It was feared that hospitals and treatment facilities would not be able to handle the numbers of people needing treatment and care. You may be wondering how churches could help if this scenario unfolded.
The physical facilities could serve as emergency operations centers – temporary outposts where people could go for medical treatment, supplies, and food – and if feasible – serve as temporary care facilities for the sick. In other words, church social halls and classrooms would be converted into temporary hospital rooms and wards with hospital beds to house the overflow of infected patients who could not be admitted to hospitals that were already at capacity. Until the pandemic was over, offering their facilities was one way that churches could help. Fortunately, for the past twenty years, there has not been a need for such emergency operations to be set into motion.
Fear not! is the refrain of angel messengers. Courage is the antidote to fear - whatever our fears may be: not having food and provisions, not having safety nets to catch us when we fall, not having enough wealth. It is tempting to turn away from God and to our own ways when confronted with news and messages about potential scarcity, vulnerability, and deprivation. Through long generations, God’s people have faced adversity – and survived. The evidence is clear that human beings are resilient and resourceful in the face of hardship, for if we were not, civilization would have died out a long time ago. Let us remember that as bad as the Spanish flu was, the vast majority survived of those infected were able to survive it.
Food and provisions, power to overcome human limitations, lavish wealth – it is tempting to crave such things.
Today we come to the Lord’s Table – to receive ordinary and extraordinary food – bread and wine – that embodies the most amazing meaning.
Before us we have the offer of bread that will feed us forevermore, the promise of God’s power to raise us from death to eternal life, and a wealth of blessings in Jesus Christ that no one and nothing can ever take from us. Have courage – and feast on what God has prepared for us to receive today. Amen.