CEC service schedule and Father Riley's homily from March 1, 2020 at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph

CEC Service Schedule :

…Father Jefferson will lead us in Holy Eucharist March 8.

…Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist March 22, 2020.

…March 15 and 29 services are scheduled to be Morning Prayer led by Mrs. Jane Barnett, 10am as usual.

Father Riley's homily:

LENT I - A - 20                               MATTHEW 4. 1-11

The gospel reading for the first Sunday in Lent is a familiar one. Jesus is in the wilderness following his baptism by John in the Jordan. The Spirit of God has led him to this place. He is preparing himself by fasting for the mission and ministry he has been sent by God to perform, that is, the redemption of Israel and the world through suffering and death on the cross.

Jesus is the divine Son of God, but as the author of Hebrews writes in another place, (Heb.4.15) he was tempted in everyway as we are yet did not sin. The temptations in the wilderness come after he has sensed God’s calling which was confirmed at his baptism.

Now he has to face a “whispering voice” as N.T. Wright calls it, and recognize it for what it is. Satan’s attempt to derail Christ’ mission was his way of distorting Christ’ true vocation: the vocation to be truly human, to be God’s person, to be the servant to the world.

The first two temptations play on the very strength he has just received, “You are my beloved Son…” God had said to him. Satan uses the optimum word “if” to challenge Jesus’ identity and to place doubt in his mind. “If” you are God’s son feed yourself use your divine powers do what the world would expect you to do.

“If” you are God’s son, Satan tries a second time, do something spectacular show the world who you really are. Finally, the enemy comes out boldly: and suggest that Jesus forget his allegiance to God. Worship me, Satan tells him, and I will give you power like no one else has.

For his sake and for ours, Jesus does not fall for it. He uses God and God’s word to thwart Satan’s efforts to turn him away from his true vocation. This will not be the last time Satan will tempt him, but for now, Jesus has defeated him.

When Jesus refused to go the way of the tempter, he was choosing the way of the cross. The whispering of Satan was designed to distract him from the road to which his baptism had committed him, the path of servant hood that would lead to suffering and death. The whole of the gospel is about the alternative path, the way of Jesus, the way of the cross.

The temptations we all face, day by day and at critical moments of decision and vocation in our lives, may be very different from those of Jesus, but they have exactly the same point. They are not simply trying to entice us into this or that sin. They are trying to distract us, to turn us aside, from the path of servant hood to which our baptism has commissioned us.

The enemy will do everything possible to distract us and thwart God’s purpose. Think about the times when you went into your prayer closet to be alone with God. There may have been something weighing heavily on your mind and heart, something that you needed to tell God.

You wanted to hear God speak more than anything. However, you were unable to focus. Your thoughts led you elsewhere. There were a thousand things you needed to be doing and all of a sudden, you couldn’t think of anything else. Your communion with God was gone.

Was it a whispering voice that distracted you? What caused you to turn from God and to your own thoughts if not the enemy? The same applies to worship. We come to church needing to hear the word of God, needing to participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. That is our intent.

However, when we arrive, we are not silent in preparing ourselves to worship. We openly talk to our neighbor keeping them from preparing for worship. We fail to acknowledge the altar when we enter the church. We fail to recognize the Real Presence of Jesus in the Reserved Sacrament.

We lose focus during the homily and take the blessed sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for granted. What happened to our intent to offer ourselves to God in worship? Was it a whispering voice? Why did we get distracted from true worship if it was not the enemy who led us astray?

The same is true when it comes to our service to others. And what about our Lenten discipline? The thing you were going to give up for Lent and the thing you were going to add to aid you in your spiritual journey are you still committed to that? Or have you turned aside?

If we have heard God’s voice welcoming us as his children we will also hear the whispering suggestions of the enemy tempting us to turn away from God and be and do whatever we wish. We too are tempted to do the right things in the wrong way, or for the wrong reasons. However, as God’s children, we are entitled to us the same defense as the Son of God himself.

Store scripture in your heart and know how to use it. Keep your eyes on God and trust him for everything. Remember your calling to bring God’s light into the world. Stand firm in your faith. Say “no” to the whisper that tries to lure you back into the darkness.

The point of listening to both the first reading about the sin of Adam and Eve from Genesis and the gospel reading about Jesus’ temptations is to recognize in them the great reversal. Adam and Eve got taken in by the whispering of Satan who tempted them to disobey God.

The tempter whispered the same thing to Jesus as he was preparing for his mission to save mankind. “Forget God,” Satan said to Jesus, “bow down to me.” How does Christ respond?

He responds to the temptations by refusing to subordinate his humanity in favor of his divinity.  He chose to be one of us in order to show us the way to maintain our human nature that would glorify God. He saw through the temptations and refused them.

Satan is always knocking at the door of self. The devil’s challenge to Jesus was to act independently and to detach himself from the will of God. Christ conquered all of Satan’s temptations with the divine Word of God. In this, he has given us the power to conquer the enemy as well.

Part of the discipline of Lent, and of life itself for that matter, is about being able to recognize the whispering voices, for what they are, and to have the scriptural filled courage to resist following the example of our Lord.

To resist enables us to continue with the path of servant hood to which our baptism has commissioned us, the alternative path, the way of Jesus, the way of the cross, and to be truly human in ways that glorify God, not only in our service to Him but in our service to others in His name. AMEN+