The Hope in Failure
The Rev. Robert P. Travis
1st Sunday Lent Sermon - Episcopal Church of the Ascension 8 and 10:30am
Scripture Text: Luke 4:1-13
Sermon Text:
The exercise of fasting, in my experience
has been an exercise in failure.
That stands in special contrast for me today,
with the fast that we read about Jesus doing
in the wilderness.
What Jesus accomplished is certainly unusual,
some would even say supernatural.
To fast completely from food for forty days
is extraordinary,
and even more amazing is that he did it successfully.
Whenever I try to give up something for Lent,
or even take on a fast,
what I mostly remember is how often I fail at it.
And so I repent, say I'm sorry,
accept God's free forgiveness and return to trying.
But I'm never fully successful at it,
so that's how it's an exercise in failure.
And I've come to understand that,
exercises in failure may be a good thing,
and certainly go against what the world tempts us to do.
Some of you might be aware,
that Jackie and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary.
As I was lying in bed thinking about this passage,
the other night,
I was drawn back to that time 10 years ago,
when at this very moment we were on our honeymoon.
At first I didn't see a connection,
and was going to berate myself for daydreaming,
but then I realized there really is something there.
You see, we went for the first, and only time
to one of those all-inclusive resorts.
I had saved up quite a bit to do it,
and my parents chipped in as well,
and so I was proud that I could take my new bride,
to a spa resort in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico.
From the moment we got there,
Jackie and I were struck by how strange,
and unreal this place was.
Of course, it was attractive,
we had thought it would be nice to be pampered,
and they lavish it on at those kind of places.
It's kind of the opposite of fasting.
If you've never been to one,
I'll save you the expense, by telling you about it.
They have all these restaurants,
and you can order as much as you want,
because you've paid for it all in advance.
There are bars everywhere,
even a fully stocked bar in the room,
so you can drink all you want.
Rather than encourage people to be comfortable
I find that it encourages over-indulgence.
I felt like I needed to get my money's worth,
so much like an all-you-can eat buffet,
I over did it at every meal, and in between.
I think I gained 5 pounds that week.
Jackie was amused that whenever we turned on the TV,
there was this resort channel,
that talked about all the amenities one could use.
Every sentence began with “You!”
“You deserve pampering,”
“You should feel great while you're here.”
“You must take advantage of what we're offering You.”
“You, you, you, you, you, you, you!”
It all left us with a sort of empty,
and even nagging feeling in our spirits,
that what we were doing really wasn't good for us,
in spite of all the attention to our own needs.
The thing that really took the cake for me,
was when I found out that they had a labyrinth,
I found out about this on that tv channel of course,
the resort was trying to appeal to that trendy
sense of spirituality without religion
that is so common in wealthy countries these days.
“You should find spiritual wholeness,
you need to seek peace.
You'll find peace in your soul if you walk our beautiful garden labyrinth.”
Well, I already knew that labyrinth walking was
a good spiritual practice,
as I had experienced it before,
and I insisted to Jackie that we try it.
I thought, “maybe that will make me feel better.”
So we went together to this lovely garden
in between the buildings,
and found the entrance to the labyrinth.
From the start I thought it sort of looked odd.
If you've ever been up to our labyrinth
on the hill over the parking lot,
you'll see what is typical,
that most of them are rather circular,
and while the path turns different ways,
one is guided into the center of a circle,
unlike a maze there are no false turns or dead ends,
and the idea is that one prepares one's heart
on the way in,
finds God and peace in the center,
and then walks back out by the same way,
carrying that peace into the world.
This labyrinth at the resort
was long and narrow,
and at first I did not realize what was wrong with it.
We walked from beginning to end,
and while there were no false turns or dead ends,
we went in one side and out the other.
I realized about half way through,
that there was no center.
The designer had taken a traditional labyrinth form,
and cut it in half,
placing one side next to the other,
so there was no center.
A light bulb sort of went off at that point in my head.
“There's no center!” I thought,
“When it's all about you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
there's no center, and we can't find God,
we end up empty and soulless,
prone to over-indulgence and waste.
I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to such a resort,
but even with that learning experience,
I have to admit, it's tempting sometimes.
Notice what the devil does in the story,
of Jesus in the wilderness.
“If you are the son of God,
command this stone to become a loaf of bread. . .
To you I will give their glory and all this authority. . .
If you then will worship me,
it will all be yours. . .
If you are the son of God,
throw yourself down from here,
for it is written '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.'”
You, you, you, you, you, you, you!
The enemy used the same way to tempt Jesus,
that is still used to tempt us today.
And look how Jesus responded,
successfully I might add,
“One does not live by bread alone. . .
Worship the Lord and serve only him. . .
do not put the Lord to the test.”
Jesus turns the temptation away from himself,
and puts the focus in the right place.
Temptation is all about serving ourselves,
or letting others serve us.
Righteousness,
the way to live and find life,
is about serving the Lord,
and others,
and taking the attention away from ourselves.
It's a simple lesson,
but so hard for us to learn,
and Lent is a season of practicing it.
And practice, means accepting that failure will come.
In a way, failure and persistence,
are the greatest lessons in Lent.
Because if we pick some discipline to do,
whether fasting,
or giving something up,
or helping someone out and doing something positive.
If we pick something for Lent
at which we know we can succeed,
Then we have a deeper failure,
a failure to learn and to grow into deeper dependance on God.
A failure to depend on God,
who is the one we are to serve,
and not ourselves.
If we succeed all the time,
as our society encourages us to do,
then we will gradually become more and more isolated,
especially from the one
who desires the deepest relationship with us,
from God.
I have this card on my desk to remind me of this truth,
it says “God calls us not to be successful,
but faithful.”
This season calls us to self-examination
and repentance.
That is hard to do, and is sometimes sad,
but 2 Corinthians 7 tells us:
“Godly sorry brings repentance,
that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.”
Our society invites us to try to be happy
and self-indulgent all the time.
When we fail at pleasing ourselves,
which we will inevitably do as well,
the consequences are much more dire,
that same verse in 2 Corinthians finishes by saying,
“but worldly sorrow brings death.”
God invites us to life, abundant life,
but that abundant life is found in Him,
not in ourselves.
Jesus successfully defeated the enemy
by reminding him we are
to “worship the Lord our God
and serve only Him.”
This lenten season is a time to try,
and fail at that,
so that as we do,
we ultimately can throw ourselves,
into the mercy of a God who loves us
and wants us to depend on Him.
Try failing at something good this Lent,
we may not like it much,
but I'm sure it's worth it.
Amen
The exercise of fasting, in my experience
has been an exercise in failure.
That stands in special contrast for me today,
with the fast that we read about Jesus doing
in the wilderness.
What Jesus accomplished is certainly unusual,
some would even say supernatural.
To fast completely from food for forty days
is extraordinary,
and even more amazing is that he did it successfully.
Whenever I try to give up something for Lent,
or even take on a fast,
what I mostly remember is how often I fail at it.
And so I repent, say I'm sorry,
accept God's free forgiveness and return to trying.
But I'm never fully successful at it,
so that's how it's an exercise in failure.
And I've come to understand that,
exercises in failure may be a good thing,
and certainly go against what the world tempts us to do.
Some of you might be aware,
that Jackie and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary.
As I was lying in bed thinking about this passage,
the other night,
I was drawn back to that time 10 years ago,
when at this very moment we were on our honeymoon.
At first I didn't see a connection,
and was going to berate myself for daydreaming,
but then I realized there really is something there.
You see, we went for the first, and only time
to one of those all-inclusive resorts.
I had saved up quite a bit to do it,
and my parents chipped in as well,
and so I was proud that I could take my new bride,
to a spa resort in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico.
From the moment we got there,
Jackie and I were struck by how strange,
and unreal this place was.
Of course, it was attractive,
we had thought it would be nice to be pampered,
and they lavish it on at those kind of places.
It's kind of the opposite of fasting.
If you've never been to one,
I'll save you the expense, by telling you about it.
They have all these restaurants,
and you can order as much as you want,
because you've paid for it all in advance.
There are bars everywhere,
even a fully stocked bar in the room,
so you can drink all you want.
Rather than encourage people to be comfortable
I find that it encourages over-indulgence.
I felt like I needed to get my money's worth,
so much like an all-you-can eat buffet,
I over did it at every meal, and in between.
I think I gained 5 pounds that week.
Jackie was amused that whenever we turned on the TV,
there was this resort channel,
that talked about all the amenities one could use.
Every sentence began with “You!”
“You deserve pampering,”
“You should feel great while you're here.”
“You must take advantage of what we're offering You.”
“You, you, you, you, you, you, you!”
It all left us with a sort of empty,
and even nagging feeling in our spirits,
that what we were doing really wasn't good for us,
in spite of all the attention to our own needs.
The thing that really took the cake for me,
was when I found out that they had a labyrinth,
I found out about this on that tv channel of course,
the resort was trying to appeal to that trendy
sense of spirituality without religion
that is so common in wealthy countries these days.
“You should find spiritual wholeness,
you need to seek peace.
You'll find peace in your soul if you walk our beautiful garden labyrinth.”
Well, I already knew that labyrinth walking was
a good spiritual practice,
as I had experienced it before,
and I insisted to Jackie that we try it.
I thought, “maybe that will make me feel better.”
So we went together to this lovely garden
in between the buildings,
and found the entrance to the labyrinth.
From the start I thought it sort of looked odd.
If you've ever been up to our labyrinth
on the hill over the parking lot,
you'll see what is typical,
that most of them are rather circular,
and while the path turns different ways,
one is guided into the center of a circle,
unlike a maze there are no false turns or dead ends,
and the idea is that one prepares one's heart
on the way in,
finds God and peace in the center,
and then walks back out by the same way,
carrying that peace into the world.
This labyrinth at the resort
was long and narrow,
and at first I did not realize what was wrong with it.
We walked from beginning to end,
and while there were no false turns or dead ends,
we went in one side and out the other.
I realized about half way through,
that there was no center.
The designer had taken a traditional labyrinth form,
and cut it in half,
placing one side next to the other,
so there was no center.
A light bulb sort of went off at that point in my head.
“There's no center!” I thought,
“When it's all about you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
there's no center, and we can't find God,
we end up empty and soulless,
prone to over-indulgence and waste.
I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to such a resort,
but even with that learning experience,
I have to admit, it's tempting sometimes.
Notice what the devil does in the story,
of Jesus in the wilderness.
“If you are the son of God,
command this stone to become a loaf of bread. . .
To you I will give their glory and all this authority. . .
If you then will worship me,
it will all be yours. . .
If you are the son of God,
throw yourself down from here,
for it is written '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.'”
You, you, you, you, you, you, you!
The enemy used the same way to tempt Jesus,
that is still used to tempt us today.
And look how Jesus responded,
successfully I might add,
“One does not live by bread alone. . .
Worship the Lord and serve only him. . .
do not put the Lord to the test.”
Jesus turns the temptation away from himself,
and puts the focus in the right place.
Temptation is all about serving ourselves,
or letting others serve us.
Righteousness,
the way to live and find life,
is about serving the Lord,
and others,
and taking the attention away from ourselves.
It's a simple lesson,
but so hard for us to learn,
and Lent is a season of practicing it.
And practice, means accepting that failure will come.
In a way, failure and persistence,
are the greatest lessons in Lent.
Because if we pick some discipline to do,
whether fasting,
or giving something up,
or helping someone out and doing something positive.
If we pick something for Lent
at which we know we can succeed,
Then we have a deeper failure,
a failure to learn and to grow into deeper dependance on God.
A failure to depend on God,
who is the one we are to serve,
and not ourselves.
If we succeed all the time,
as our society encourages us to do,
then we will gradually become more and more isolated,
especially from the one
who desires the deepest relationship with us,
from God.
I have this card on my desk to remind me of this truth,
it says “God calls us not to be successful,
but faithful.”
This season calls us to self-examination
and repentance.
That is hard to do, and is sometimes sad,
but 2 Corinthians 7 tells us:
“Godly sorry brings repentance,
that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.”
Our society invites us to try to be happy
and self-indulgent all the time.
When we fail at pleasing ourselves,
which we will inevitably do as well,
the consequences are much more dire,
that same verse in 2 Corinthians finishes by saying,
“but worldly sorrow brings death.”
God invites us to life, abundant life,
but that abundant life is found in Him,
not in ourselves.
Jesus successfully defeated the enemy
by reminding him we are
to “worship the Lord our God
and serve only Him.”
This lenten season is a time to try,
and fail at that,
so that as we do,
we ultimately can throw ourselves,
into the mercy of a God who loves us
and wants us to depend on Him.
Try failing at something good this Lent,
we may not like it much,
but I'm sure it's worth it.
Amen
Comments
Post a Comment