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It was only eight weeks ago that we sang “Silent Night…” and here we are in Lent.

The 40 days that the church has set aside to follow the story of Jesus from his Baptism to the Cross.

Tell me a story, we used to say, and my dad would tease us into helping him get to the one we wanted him to tell us… the one about how Opa used to make us believe he could pull all of his teeth out and put them back again.

Or about when hid in a barn while the French soldiers were looking for him… stories shape us and give us an identity.

Tell us a story the youngest would say and the father would start “A wandering Aramean was your ancestor…

In chapters 1 and 2 Luke tells us the story about a birth announcement and the nativity in Bethlehem, a circumcision and the holy family’s return to Nazareth.

Chapter 3 tells the family tree and Jesus' baptism by John and a celestial affirmation

“You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased… and here we are,

where Jesus finds himself in the wilderness being tested by the devil.

The story continues. . .

We hear how Satan asks for proof that Jesus is God’s son... “if you are the Son of God…” quoting from the Psalms, the devil taunts Jesus -- prove it.

Jesus was hungry… when was the last time you went 40 days without food?

Turn these stones into bread.

The first test dealt with satisfying bodily needs… like hunger.

Jesus quotes from Deut. 8.3. It is written one does not live by bread alone... we could add but neither does one live long without it, but Jesus is always talking about more than meets the eye or the ear.

The second test is an offer to give Jesus the political advantage by letting him rule all the kingdoms of the world… again Jesus quotes from Deut. “It is written, worship the Lord your God serve only him”.

It comes from Moses while his caravan is trekking in the Sinai wilderness.

Taking him to the top of the Temple Satan tells Jesus, OK, Divinity can defy the law of gravity… so play superman and show us how to fly… and quoting from Ps. 91 Satan adds “he will command his angels concerning you to protect you.” And “on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

Jesus quotes another OT passage “do not put the Lord your God to the test…”

40 Days of Lent

40 Days in the Wilderness

40 Years the Israelites wander in the desert

40 Days Moses was on Mount Sinai as God gave him the 10 Commandments so long that his flock gave up on him…

40 Days Elijah was on the run after he and Jezebel had a confrontation and she lost…

Tell me a story… and Luke gives us the story of how God again, in the shadow of Israel’s greatest hero Moses, gave the world another hero – not like Moses who, like his band of vagabonds, too often did not live up to the test – this hero or better anti-hero takes the test and passes with flying colors and we are told (Satan) departed from him until an opportune time.

Jesus passes – “this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” Temptations are a sign of strength not weakness. We are not tempted to do what we cannot do… but what we know we can. The greater the strength the greater the temptation…

This Satan is no cartoon character with a pitchfork, horns, and a pointed tail.

It was not a grotesque monster who Jesus addressed when he said “get thee behind me Satan … it was Peter one of his closest friends.

Both Jesus and Satan quote scripture… the difference is that Jesus knows the difference between the context and Satan does not… Shakespeare “There is no error so egregious but that some sober brow will bless it with a proper text.”

That is what happens when those with “ sober brow” will take today’s reading from Romans and use it as a proof text to beat others over the head about who goes to heaven and who does not.

In this Gospel Luke reminds us that what is at stake is more than quoting scripture … what is at stake is life and death, heaven and hell, principalities and powers…

By the way, when Jesus was asked what must we do to inherit eternal life in another portion of Lk. 10.25-28 he says nothing about a confession of lips and feeling of the heart… rather he asks the question “What is written in the law of God?” And the questioner answers with the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might, and your neighbor as yourself.”

The connection between Israel’s testing and our own is summed up in the prayer of the day:

            O Lord God, you led your people through the wilderness and brought them to the             Promised Land. Guide us now, so that, following your Son, we may walk safely             through the wilderness of this world toward the life you alone can give, through             Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

As we begin our Lenten journey, we are reminded that there is a battle going on.

I don’t like to use military metaphors, but in essence that is what our story is about. A battle between good and evil, right and wrong, principalities and powers as the Apostle Paul would say… It runs through the whole story… ends with the last book we called the Apocalypse of John or better know as the Book of Revelation.

Next Sunday the story continues. It is your story and my story; it is the story of God’s love, our failings and his not giving up on us… Amen.