2025 03 09 LENT 1C
Deuteronomy 26.1-11
- Psalm 91.1-2, 9-16 - Romans
10.4-13 - Luke 4.1-15
Importance of confessing…
There is
something vital about speaking words out loud.
The old story that we often hear is of marriages that break down
because, “I love you,” is never said. It
isn’t just marriages that suffer, but also, children who never hear a parent
say those words suffer also. People will
often say that they show their love by their actions and shouldn’t have to say,
“I love you”.
Some years
ago a book gained a huge following. It
was called the 5 love languages, by Gary Chapman. I confess that I inherited the book and
haven’t read it. So I apologize in
advance to those who have read it and like it, but the reason I really don’t
want to read it is that I don’t agree with the concept. That concept is that every one has a primary
love language and it is only through that particular language that a person
will perceive that they are loved. The
five love languages are; words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch,
receiving gifts, and acts of service. It
is true that we use these aspects to communicate love, but I think it is the
same argument that the Bible uses about faith…. Some say they have faith and
others have works. But then the
scriptures tell us that we show or prove our faith by our works. I believe the same is true with love. The five love languages are actually the work
of love, but more than anything it is important that we confess with our
mouths… out loud, that we love.
In our first
reading the Israelites are told that they should take the first fruits of their
harvest and then declare, in the presence of the priest, the reality of their
life. They were to declare who they
were, where they came from, the story of their existence before God rescued
them and then how God rescued them. Why
did they have to do this? Surely it was
common knowledge. They would retell the
story every Passover. They taught it to
their children. It was their reality and
the essence of their being, so why the need to confess? It seems that there is some kind of power in
speaking the word out loud.
Do you
remember Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones?
He could have offered silent prayer for those bones, but God told him to
prophesy. What that means is that Ezekiel was to speak out loud and declare that flesh would cover the bones etc… and
speak the life in those bones into existence.
There is power in speaking the word of God out loud.
The first
words from the Gospel of John tell us, “In the beginning was the WORD”. In the beginning when God created, he could
have just made light… but he didn’t.
Instead, our scriptures tell us that God spoke… He said, “let there be
light”. He spoke and it came to be. Psalm 33 tells us; “by the word of the Lord
the heavens were made…For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it
stood firm.” There is power in speaking
the word of God out loud.
In the
letter to the Romans we read; “"The word is near you, in your mouth and in
your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim),because if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Now just to be sure, we should turn to the person sitting beside us that
say, “Jesus is Lord and I believe that God raised him from the dead.”
Now that
we’ve all confessed, what is the out come?
We can be sure that we are saved!
Do we realize this Good News?
Every now and then a wonderful church going person will say to me, “I
hope that God accepts me when I die”…. And I get a little sad and concerned
that we don’t know what God tells us about the subject. Uhmmm
let’s see, what does the scripture tell us about it? If we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe
in our heart that God raised him from the dead…. We might be saved? We could be saved? We hope that we will be saved? NO, it says we WILL be saved. We can be assured that we are loved, accepted
and treasured by God. BUT this thing
about confessing with our mouth is important and there is power in speaking the
word out loud.
Each time we
come to church and recite the creed, we have the opportunity to do as the Israelites,
declaring their story in the presence of God, confirming and remembering who we
were, who we are, and all that God has done for us. There is power in speaking the word out loud.
The first
Sunday in Lent we remember that Jesus was tempted in the desert. The Holy Spirit had led Jesus into the
wilderness where he fasted for forty days (Forty being the number that
symbolizes preparation). Understandably
Jesus was famished and weak, and the devil comes and tempts him. Firstly, he tempts him with food – a
temptation of the flesh. Then he tempts him with offering him the kingdoms of
the world, which is power over others… and then he tempts him with throwing
himself down of the high place, because scripture says that God would rescue
him – such as we read in our psalm. This
is a temptation of supernatural power that would make him like God. (kind of crazy in retrospect because his is
God the son…. However, while on earth he took on human flesh and operated in
those confines).
There is
nothing new here in these temptations.
Back in the garden of Eden the serpent’s temptation to Adam and Eve, was
the same. Adam and Eve were tempted with
fruit. It was something to eat/ stuff
desired to satisfy the flesh. When Eve
explained that they were not to eat of just that one tree, the serpent
responded to them that they wouldn’t die – much like the devil tempting Jesus
to throw himself down and he wouldn’t be harmed. Next the serpent explains that Adam and Eve
would have the power to know good and evil and be like God. The temptation is the same… it is just gift
wrapped differently.
It was
important that Jesus prove to the devil and all the spiritual powers, that he,
operating as fully human, would continue to be the son of God and not give in
to temptation like every other human has done.
In each temptation Jesus rejects the temptation by quoting
scripture. To do this Jesus speaks
scripture and he confesses it out loud.
It was
important for Jesus, and it is important for each of us to confess… to
profess our faith in God and to praise him. The temptations were three-fold, and we make
a threefold confession – 1- We confess
that we haven’t obeyed God. The first
area of this is trusting God for our needs.
Have we gone beyond God’s commands not trusting that God gives us what
is best and that His boundaries are to give us our best life?
2. We confess that we have desired control. When we become a Christian we ask God to
be in control of our lives – He is Lord.
3. We confess that we desired to be our own
God. We thought we knew better than
God. After all, some would say, all
this stuff is a bit out of date isn’t it?
But we know God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
we confess our sin and our need for God, we
profess our belief in God, and we thank and praise God.
Over the
years I have witnessed some Christians who have turned away from the faith,
which I find difficult to comprehend. I
can only suspect that they forget who they are and the story of their life and
God’s part in that story. They forget
to DWELL in the shelter of the Lord, as we hear about in our Psalm. To dwell in this sense, is to permanently
take up residence in in God’s presence.
When the devil quoted part of Psalm 91 to Jesus, he did the same as in
the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve; he told them part of the truth. Jesus knew better than to take the text out
of context.
The
Israelites, as we see in our Old Testament reading, needed to confess their
reality every harvest time, when they celebrated the first fruits. It takes an effort on our part to dwell in
the shadow of the Lord. We need to
ensure that we don’t forget God’s word and fall into the same trap where we,
like Adam and Eve, doubt the authenticity of God’s promise to us. Therefore, we
find scriptures in the New Testament urging the early Christians not to give up
meeting together. We need to be
encouraged by each other. We need each
other to keep us in check that we are not believing an error or half truth,
such as caused the demise of all mankind… but like Jesus, be able to live in
victory, being reminded of the truth.
Which also means we need to continue studying the scriptures.
At each
service we will stand together and confess our belief in God. This safeguards us from error. There is a spiritual power in confessing our
belief in God, which we often fail to recognise. I guarantee, when the devil or his minions
are trying to attack the people of God, and we confess not just our belief in God,
but our allegiance and trust in him, demons will flee. To quote the words of a song by the band The
Imperials,
“When you're
up against a struggle
That shatters all your dreams
And your hopes have been cruelly crushed
By Satan's manifested schemes
And you feel the urge within you
To submit to earthly fears
Don't let the faith you're standing in
Seem to disappear
Praise the Lord
He can work through those
Who praise Him
Praise the Lord
For our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord
For the chains that seems to bind you
Serve only to remind you
That they drop powerless behind you
When you praise Him
Now Satan is a liar
And he wants to make us think
That we are paupers
When he knows himself
We're children of the King
So lift up the mighty shield of faith
For the battle must be won
We know that Jesus Christ has risen
So the work's already done
Why is there
power when we confess out loud? God is
the only one who is omnipotent and omnipresent… etc… Only God can hear our thoughts, but when we
confess our faith out loud, we speak a powerful weapon into the spiritual
realm. Let’s not live the rest of our
lives being quiet about our faith. It is
important that we confess, profess and praise God out loud…. And pray for each
other out loud. There is power when we speak
the word of God out loud.
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