This sermon would have been preached at St. Andrew's had there been a kinder windchill.

Today we begin again at the font and meet Jesus still dripping wet from his baptism moving away in the wilderness, into the wild-erness. Jesus has just heard a voice from heaven say “You are my Beloved Son”. Now I think we can easily imagine Jesus, who is fully 100% divine, respond to that, “Yes! Great! Son of God! Bring it on! But what I think we often have trouble with is Jesus who is paradoxically fully 100% human, wondering “Son of Who?#@!!! Jesus is going into the wild to figure out what it means to be called “Son of God.” What does it mean to choose the road he would travel? Out there in the wild Jesus hears a voice and it is the voice of temptation. Now the problem with temptation is that we like it. A great bishop of the church Augustine says in his confessions to God, “Give me  chastity and self-control, but not just yet. Don’t heal me too soon from my sick urges, because I like them."     Look at all the wonderful things Jesus is offered:
• Make these stones turn to bread and then nobody anywhere will ever experience physical hunger. Isn’t that what Jesus wants? ---But Jesus remained hungry.
• Jump off this cliff and you will know for certain what Son of God really means.
---But Jesus remained ambiguous about his identity.
• Take this power and free your people from the Roman Empire. Free all people from oppression. ---But Jesus remained weak.
Jesus was out there in the wild wrestling with the kind of God he was tempted to be.

And just for clarity, if I was drawing this story I would not draw Jesus at one end and some red-skinned person with horns and a pitchfork at the other end. I, myself (you would probably draw something completely different) would draw Jesus as the only person in the picture. There are others present but they can’t be seen. In my picture, Jesus is gazing on the biggest theological bookstore in the world. That’s what I would draw, Jesus with a big fat Jesus bookstore. Temptation is attractive.

J--- and J------ are going out into the wild next weekend in Neepawa. There they are taking the bus to the Youth Retreat there to find out what it means to be a Beloved Child of God learning how to live in relationship with our neighbors near and far. The theme of that wilderness is, “We’re all in this together”.  What it means to live out their faith as a Beloved Child of God who wears a cross on their foreheads made not with water but with fire and the Holy Spirit. To go out into the wilderness with that cross into the United Church that calls itself inclusive. What does “We’re all in this together” really mean? And the devil will be there too trying to spin disobedience so it sounds like goodness and faithfulness. There will be voices that tell these two young people things like “You can fix the hungry people in the world with magic bread and the hungry people will go away and you won’t have to worry about hunger anymore.” Now how good is that! Voices will speak out in that wild place, “Be whatever you wish. Your life belongs to only you. So long as you are happy and satisfied all is well.” Our prayers are with these two young people as they are led out into the wilderness. May they choose well. We hope they come back with good news of their life out in that wilderness.

Our church Is heading off into the wilderness, into a wild place right after this service to find what it means to be Beloved Children of God, called out to be the church. Now there’s a wild place if I’ve ever seen one. The church! There is a huge temptation to imagine ourselves not as the church called out by God, but to imagine ourselves as “The Church” called out by ourselves. There is a huge temptation to try to make ourselves to be more like God and less like the sinners Adam and Eve were. At the Annual Meeting there will be a voice that tries to tell the church that it can fix all that is wrong with the world and with this church and then we won’t have to worry about anybody anymore. We ourselves can make magic bread and conquer empires in a single motion of the Annual Meeting. Voices will tell us that we can’t afford to make any mistakes and so as long as we keep everything tightly attached to the budget we’ll never loose control and the church will stay open. Voices will tell us that we can know more, be more, and do more than is humanely possible here. To make a better, bigger and more improved church than the one God has created right here. We will be tempted to follow that voice because we like what it offers.

Matthew says that the devil left Jesus. Luke adds more and says the devil left Jesus but came back when Jesus’ defences were down. And we all know that was when he hung on a cross. “Save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”, said the voice. [Matthew 27:40]  ----But Jesus remained human.