{"id":1251,"date":"2011-03-29T16:27:06","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T16:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=707"},"modified":"2017-08-26T15:26:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T19:26:29","slug":"shaped-by-new-birth-marilyn-zehr-mar-20-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1251","title":{"rendered":"Shaped by Testing – Marilyn Zehr – Mar. 13, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shaped by Testing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our theme for Lent this year is Becoming Human:\u00a0 Called and Shaped by Jesus.<\/strong>\u00a0 And then the title for our first Sunday as given to us by our Leader materials, the resources we are using to guide our worship planning, is \u201cShaped by Testing,\u201d Please note the top of your bulletin.
Shaped by Jesus?\u00a0 Shaped by Testing?
This lack of alignment between Shaped by Jesus and shaped by testing caused me to wonder, \u201cis being shaped by testing and being shaped by Jesus the same or different or what might be the relationship between those two sources of shaping?<\/p>\n

Many things shape us, of course:\u00a0 our gender, our culture, our history, our parents, our location of birth, our sibling birth order, our education, our economic status, our experiences, our DNA and our relationship with God.\u00a0 All these things shape us.<\/p>\n

Today as we consider the gospel story, of Jesus\u2019 experience of testing in the wilderness and the story of the testing of Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden we consider what it means to be shaped by testing.
What is the source of the testing, what is the purpose of the test, and ultimately, how did the experience of testing shape Eve, Adam and Jesus?
How does the experience of testing shape us?<\/em><\/p>\n

Shaped by many things, both internal and external to us, testing is one of those shapers that comes from without.\u00a0 Like a stiff wind that threatens to blow away our umbrella, or our scarf and\/or snatches at our coat \u2013 most testing is not pleasant.
And yet, the first verse of our gospel text as shared with us by Ariane and Siena, reveals to us that the Spirit<\/strong> led Jesus into the wilderness. After being led there by the Spirit<\/strong> Jesus was tested for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

As an aside, you may be wondering what has become of the word temptation found in most translations of this text.\u00a0 First, the Greek may be translated here, either temptation or testing.\u00a0 The difference is subtle.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We understand temptation<\/em><\/strong> to mean something that seems desirable but that we know we should probably avoid for our own good or the good of others.\u00a0 Whether we do so or not is another matter.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To be tested<\/strong><\/em> is to be presented with questions or choices that depending on our answer will give some evidence of our knowledge or character.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Old Testament is full of examples of testing.\u00a0 Eve and Adam in the Genesis text are tested (the word temptation is never used in that text \u2013 the word temptation is only used in the history of common Christian interpretations of this text .\u00a0 In another familiar story God tests Abraham when God asks him to sacrifice his son Isaac. In the book of Job, the Satan or the Accuser, presents himself before God with the other heavenly beings and suggests to God that Job is only righteous because of his many blessings and so devises a test to see if Job will remain faithful if everything he has is taken away.\u00a0 In this story, God allows the test.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The story of the temptation or testing of Jesus falls in line with these stories. The Holy Spirit both fills Jesus and drives him into the wilderness where he may be tested or tempted for 40 days and nights.\u00a0 Notice as well that the test comes to him while he is in a ritually weakened state – exposed to the hot dry wind of the Judean wilderness, alone and fasting.\u00a0 He is famished.\u00a0 Jesus probably hungers on many different levels.\u00a0 He may be feeling desperate for food and for company and most importantly \u2013 fresh from his baptism and the assurance by the Spirit that he is Beloved son of God, he may deeply desire to know what that identity means.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Enter the devil \u2013 the agent of the test\u00a0 (animated intriguingly for us by Siena)
I will include here a quick note about the devil.\u00a0 It is only in later medieval Christianity that this character becomes personified with horns and tail and a red jumpsuit.\u00a0 The idea that there was or is a cosmically evil opponent of God on equal terms to God (a personified dualism between good and evil), this idea is not Biblical in either Hebrew or early Christian writing.\u00a0 In the story of Adam and Eve, the agent of that first test is the crafty serpent \u2013 part of God\u2019s creation, and in the story of Job, the satan or the accuser (both equally appropriate translations) is really just a job title for one of the heavenly beings that gathers in the court of God.\u00a0 Granted this is still a strange scene in the story for all kinds of reasons, but sticking to our current point, the job of the devil is to investigate, inspect or accuse.\u00a0 One commentator I read compares the role of the devil to that of a \u201ccosmic \u2018building inspector.\u2019 [As the cosmic building inspector] he is the person appointed by God to inspect the structure of creation and of human lives.\u00a0 If there is shoddy construction, it is his job to point it out.\u201d i\u00a0 Between the stories of the satan in Job and the devil in the wilderness with Jesus story, the role of the cosmic building inspector has become more malicious.\u00a0 In Greek, the word for the devil in the Jesus story means slanderer.\u00a0 However his role is still the same, he is testing Jesus to check and see whether Jesus and his newly understood and owned identity as Beloved Son of God is as solid as it seems to be.\u00a0 After all, if according to the prophetic predictions the Messiah is about to turn the world upside down then we would all hope that he has been truly and well tested for the job.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the context of deep hunger (appetite and aspiration we might say) \u2013 not only hunger for food, but also hunger for proof of his identity as Son of God \u2013 The devil offers Jesus easy solutions.\u00a0 He could turn stones to bread \u2013 to feed himself and others. (He would be so popular).\u00a0 He could rule the world in order to satiate that hunger (oh yes, if he would first commit idolatry by worshiping the devil) and he could prove his invincibility by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple.\u00a0 In this three-fold\u00a0 test, Jesus refuses three times to take his eyes off God.\u00a0 And by so doing submits his appetite and aspirations to God. He names as priorities first, that we do not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u00a0 Second, he says, it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him and finally \u201cdo not put the Lord your God to the test.\u201d\u00a0 And the devil leaves him alone until an opportune time.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 choices make clear that God is God and God alone.
Jesus was shaped by this test.\u00a0 Ironically after this test part of his ministry includes providing bread for the people, – the bread made by grain and the bread of his body.\u00a0 Second, his ministry directly challenges the power of the empire and third, his human body is not invincible to hunger, the pain of grief and the pain of his impending crucifixion, but the power of God raises him to everlasting Life.\u00a0 Jesus is fully human, but the test and the results of the test shaped the type of human life he lived and the way God was involved in working through his life.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What about the test of Eve and Adam?\u00a0 Interestingly their desire was born not in scarcity or a time of ritual weakness in a wilderness like Jesus, where he was buffeted by hot dry winds but rather their testing came to them during a time of overwhelming abundance. They dwelt in the Garden of Eden where they had
\n plenty to eat, they were comfortable with their bodies, naked though they were, and they walked in the cool evening breezes in the Garden with their God.\u00a0 Into this incredible wholeness, the test of these newly created human beings (nephesh charah \u2013 desiring beings) reveals a potential problem.\u00a0 Humans want to be like God.\u00a0 Our God-given divine image-likeness, animated by the very breath of God, instills in us as human beings appetites and aspirations and on top of that the free will to choose to follow those inclinations sometimes in the direction of good and sometimes in the direction of evil.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Hebrew inclinations for good are called yetzer hatov<\/em> and inclinations for evil or bad are called yetzer hara<\/em>.\u00a0 Eve and Adam gave in to the yetzer hara<\/em> in this test and the results for them were as God predicted.\u00a0 Desire for knowledge of Good and evil leads to death. This story names for us that being wise to the difference between good and evil and having the power to choose become the trickiest parts of being human. This test and Eve and Adam\u2019s response shaped the type of human lives they lived. Hardship, pain and eventually death followed.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And we will continue to be tested and shaped thereby.\u00a0 God allows the tests, even if God doesn\u2019t necessarily devise them.\u00a0 The tests inspect the soundness of the structure of our lives and our responses gives shape to the types of human lives we will live.<\/strong> In times of scarcity or abundance we are not immune to testing.\u00a0 In times of scarcity or desperation we may long to bend or break the \u201crules\u201d to have our basic needs met.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But most of us I expect like Eve and Adam are tested in the midst of abundance.\u00a0 What are those tests like?\u00a0 And how will we respond?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the midst of abundance (all the bread and more than we can eat)
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and security (knowing we\u2019re not likely to dash our foot against a stone because our retirement savings will prevent that),
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and power (by virtue of our birth or life in Canada and opportunity for education), abundance and security and power – basic realities for most of us;
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 will our greatest tests be in those areas?\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What about situations where we are called to give up something of our abundance or security or power so that the global human community might become more equal?\u00a0 Are we ever faced with tests like these? And if we are how are we called to respond?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eve chose to reach for the stars.\u00a0 She desired more than simple abundance and as I\u2019ve said that \u201cmore\u201d led to hardship, pain and eventually death \u2013 all parts of what we know it means to be human.\u00a0 And Jesus, in contrast, he chose to limit himself, submitting his God-given appetites and aspirations to God, acknowledging God as God and God alone.\u00a0 The human life he led still included hardship, and pain and death, but to him was granted resurrection life and through him that offer of life extends to all of us. The one who refused to turn stones into bread became the Bread of Life for us all.\u00a0 Hence we are shaped both by testing and by Jesus; the one whose life and choices redeem our lives and our choices.
To conclude I want to share with you an image that came to me as I contemplated how testing shapes our lives and how Jesus shapes our lives. The image that came to me was Tom Thomson\u2019s painting entitled West Wind.\u00a0 Are you familiar with that painting?\u00a0 The shape of the Jack Pines in this painting give evidence that they have grown amid constant battering from the cold and powerful West Wind.\u00a0 There is no question that this testing by the wind has had significant impact on the shape of the trees. They are permanently bent away from the wind and somewhat stunted on the side where the wind strikes them most directly.\u00a0 But this wind is not all that shapes them.\u00a0 Their God-instilled internal imperative to grow and reach for the sky shapes them and the way their roots foundationally embrace rocks and soil and water also shape them.\u00a0 That internal imperative to grow and reach for the stars in us is the reality of our creation in the divine image. With Jesus as our guide and Redeemer we are called to submit this internal imperative, our appetites and aspirations to God.\u00a0 If we are able to do so our human lives will be shaped beyond our wildest imagining. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

i Richard Swanson, Provoking the Gospel of Matthew<\/em>. (the Pilgrim Press: Cleveland, Ohio)<\/p>\n

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View Archived Sermons\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Shaped by Testing Our theme for Lent this year is Becoming Human:\u00a0 Called and Shaped by Jesus.\u00a0 And then the title for our first Sunday as given to us by our Leader materials, the resources we are using to guide our worship planning, is \u201cShaped by Testing,\u201d Please note the top of your bulletin.Shaped by Jesus?\u00a0 Shaped by Testing? This lack of alignment between Shaped by Jesus and shaped by testing caused me to wonder, \u201cis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3976,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions\/3976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}