In this morning's Gospel Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness, fasting and continuously tempted by the devil, in preparation for embarking on his earthly ministry. It's reminiscent of Israel's 40 years wandering in the wilderness in preparation for entering the land of milk and honey. The church has taken these 40 days in the wilderness as a model for our own 40 weekdays of Lent. For us it is a time of self-reflection and preparation for receiving the good news at Easter.

Both Luke and Matthew highlight three temptations in particular to share with us. Each of the challenges posed by the devil represent something attractive, something that a Messiah would want. Jesus demonstrates his insight, ability, and commitment by reading the fine print. He understands that the devil's offers are defective. He refutes them with quotations of scripture from the 6^th through 8^th chapters of Deuteronomy.

The temptations are temptations in the realm of food, focus, and faith. They were temptations to Jesus and they are temptations to us.

The first temptation is about food.

Friday night I was a guest at the annual banquet of a major Howard County organization. There was an unusual amount of speeches and greetings and welcomes for over an hour before the food finally arrived. I kept drinking water-it was all that was there. I was hungry. A loaf of bread-even a dinner roll-would have been wonderful.

"If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." My food was just an hour late; Jesus was forty days out in the wilderness without food. But Jesus, even consumed by the terrible hunger one must face after days without food, knew there is food even more important than food for our bodies. "One does not live by bread alone", he answered. In the St. John's Gospel, Jesus is more explicit: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." (John 4:34)

Have you ever tried to eat when you're terribly anxious and worried about something, or you've just received terrible news and you're facing with loss and grieving? What you get into your stomach at all seems to just sit there like you've eaten rocks.

Yes we need these stones miraculously transformed into bread, but it's not the bread that will do it, it's the healing presence of God and those God has sent to share his love that will turn those rocks into bread.

In early September this past year I was invited to the 100^th anniversary celebration of a little church called Oak Dale out in Western Maryland and up a dirt road into Pennsylvania. 30 years ago I was in seminary and I was their pastor. They were much more conservative than I. I like things written out, but out of a typical Sunday evening attendance of 7, 4 of them couldn't read. They taught me flexibility, consideration and friendship. Somewhere along the way we became good friends and coming back was like coming home. I had been a part of their lives for a season. I was important to them and, I knew that morning in September, they were important to me as well.

After the anniversary service we had a great covered dish meal, but clearly the most important nourishment was the presence of everyone there. I think God gave me that taste of what's really important, because it was just a couple of weeks after that when our District Superintendent called to ask if I would join Bob Totty-Kublawi as interim co-pastor here at St. James. I think God gave me that wonderful experience at Oak Dale to make sure I would say yes to St. James.

The first communion services of the early church were like the seder meal that was Jesus' last supper. There was food to nourish the body and ritual about the bread of heaven and cup of salvation to nourish the soul. If you read St. Paul, you'll see that many early Christians didn't get the point Jesus made in the wilderness. They thought the point of the meal was to nourish their bodies, and they fought each other to get more food than their neighbor. So they took the meal out of the communion service.

This Maundy Thursday we're planning to have a seder meal like the seder that was Jesus' last supper and put the meal back in. We will share in the ancient Jewish ritual that Jesus shared in, and then have a real meal, and then conclude with more ritual, like Jesus did. We will share in both earthly bread and the bread of heaven. I hope we will all be able to read the fine print and say, with Jesus, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4)

The second temptation seems to be about power, but I really think it's about focus. In this temptation, the devil takes Jesus and shows him "in an instant all the kingdoms of the world." In Luke, the devil then says, "to you I will give their glory and all this authority...if you, then will worship me, it will all be yours." I remembered another phrase and found it in the King James version of the Matthew account: "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

The existential philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once titled a book, "Purity of Heart is to will one thing." That is a focused life. But in the King James language, what the devil offers Jesus is "all these things."

I can identify with that, and so can you. Our lives are crowded with all these things, and the more things we have, the more attention they require. I came home Friday and discovered my computer's monitor had burned out. Thirty years ago I could live without a computer monitor, but no more. I set my other plans aside and went out and replaced the monitor. We own things, and then, before we know it, they own us.

Jesus' answer, again from Deuteronomy, is clear. "Worship the Lord your god, and serve only him."

Three years ago Christ United Methodist Church in Columbia considered becoming a Reconciling Congregation - a congregation that has studied issues of homosexuality and made a special point of welcoming our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and children fully into the life of the congregation. We spent over a year studying the issues involved and the different concerns people brought up. We cherished the little children who gathered around the pastor each Sunday morning for the children's sermon, and though we didn't know how or why it happens, we knew from statistics that one or two out of each twenty children discovers themselves to be gay or lesbian as they grow up. We knew that teenage years are difficult, and the suicide rate for teenagers who are gay or lesbian is three times as high as for teenagers who are not. And in the end, we focused on one issue: what could we teach those children in front of us each Sunday morning about the love of God which would be so powerful nothing at all could take it away from them, the love of God which would help them during those difficult years and in the rest of their lives? And when we focused on that issue, many other concerns fell away, and we voted to become a Reconciling Congregation.

Jesus looked at what the devil was offering - power over kingdoms, the praise of the multitudes, all these things - and saw the fine print: All these things will tear you apart if you haven't got a focus at the center of it all.

One issue St. James will face is the matter of church growth. In this area where new homes are being built daily, St. James is going to grow. That's a matter of some concern when you value the closeness, the warmth, the supportive and loving community that is here. It's easy to fear it might go away in a church twice or three times St. James' current size. As you discuss these things, many concerns will be raised. But I would suggest that the same focus on the love of God will set many concerns aside. Surely there are people in these huge homes being built around us who have invested their lives in "all these things" and who cry out for someone who will show them the love of God. And if we are not here for that purpose, then what are we here for?

In the bread and wine of communion, we celebrate the life and sacrifice and continued nurture of one whose life was totally focused.

The third temptation is about faith. The devil echoes the Psalm we read and says, "if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for the scriptures say God's angels will bear you up." Shakespeare referred to this when he has Antonio say, in the Merchant of Venice, "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." (Act 1, Scene 3)

The devil seems to be asking Jesus to prove his relationship with God, but the fine print is that this sort of test is not about proving a relationship but about doubting it. Sometimes in our world someone hires a private investigator to check up on a spouse. There's no faith in that relationship, only doubt! If you can read the fine print, you know if you feel you have to do something like that, your marriage is already in serious trouble!

Faith is first and foremost not about beliefs, but about our relationship with God. Rather than weaken this relationship with tests, we need to be strengthening it this Lenten season. It occurred to me that perhaps some of the suggestions people make to restore tired marriages could be adapted to help us restore a tired relationship with God this Lent. So I took some thoughts about marriages and substituted God. See if these work for you:

** Be open to newness. Expect to be surprised by God. After all, God said, "Behold, I make all things new." Approach God as someone who has new things to reveal to us. People who talk very little to the most important person in their lives will have an animated conversation with a stranger in the next seat on an airplane - because they expect to hear something they haven't heard before from the stranger.

** Re-explore common interests. Are you sure you know what God's interests are? When was the last time you sat down and were open to finding out? There may be some comfort in thinking you know all about someone, and it can be a bit scary to realize you don't. If God is interested in something you're not interested in, does that put the relationship in danger? Count on it - God has a lot of interests you don't know about, and some that you may not share, but if you spend time talking, you'll discover common interests as well.

** Get conflicts out in the open. When you and God have a disagreement, do you just bury it, or do you talk things out? Things that aren't dealt with can fester and poison the relationship. When was the last time you felt God let you down, and did you talk about it? When was the last time you let God down, and did you let God talk about it?

** Do things together. When was the last time you and God did something together? Relationships are strengthened if you do things together and weakened if you never do anything together. Shouldn't that apply to our relationship with God as well? And if there's a degree of mutuality and participation, it's not just a matter of taking God places, like we'd take a baby in a carriage - ask where God would like to go, what God would like to do!

Perhaps thinking about God in that fashion doesn't work for you-I don't expect it will work for everyone. The important thing is to find a way to develop your own relationship with God that includes respect, sharing, excitement, and trust.

In each of the three temptations Jesus faced, the temptation masqueraded as the possibility of getting something good. Jesus could see the fine print -- saying yes to the devil represented a chance to get something maybe nice but not really important, and for sure to lose things that were important indeed. Jesus went for the food of doing God's will that will nourish forever. He went for the focus that puts God and God's Kingdom first, and lets everything else to be added in God's time. And he went for the faith that is a real relationship that will endure and sustain. I pray we may do as well this Lenten season!