Wellspring UMC; First Sunday in Lent; February 10, 2008: “Through One Man...”:

-Matthew 4: 1-11; Romans 5: 12-19

Today’s scriptures are two power-packed passages! Volumes have been written on both. Jesus’ Temptation, the traditional scripture for this first Sunday in Lent, is filled with all kinds of theological nuggets. Christ resisting the temptation to take the easy road, resisting the urge to be powerful but instead being a servant Messiah, and Christ standing strong in the face of the invitation to be the most powerful person in the world. The hungry, tired, newly baptized Christ stands for what is right, thus establishing his reign in a unique and amazing way.

Then from Paul’s letter to the Romans we hear this eloquent, rich theological banter about the role of Adam – the one by whom the world fell to sin – versus the role of Jesus – the one by whom the world was saved. Paul creates an almost black and white picture of the world, that through Adam all died to sin, but through Christ, all are alive. That because of one man, the suffering of this world began, but that through one man’s suffering, a new world began.

In placing them side by side, we see that the one tempted but held strong, was the very one who, because he held strong to these and so many other temptations, made a way for salvation to be realized. In looking at them together, we see that Christ’s love for us was so strong that he resisted seizing power and taking the world on himself, but instead he lived out God’s destiny for Him and in doing so made a way for us to live out God’s destiny for us.

I sang for 5 years in the Duke Chapel choir, and every year we’d sing Handel’s Messiah, a powerful piece which moves me whenever I hear it. One of my favorite choruses comes in the final section. Handel puts Paul’s words to music, “Since by man came death. By man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die. Even so in Christ, may all be made alive.”

Handel’s brilliance shines, for when death and Adam are referenced the music is slow and a bit eery, but then quickly with the references to Christ, the Man who makes all things new, the pace and volume picks up. The contrast of death to life is stark, and Handel captures the essence of Paul’s theology and God’s reality.

We were once down, but now through Christ we are up. We were once dead but now alive. We were once lost but now found. We were once slaves, but now we are free. We were once on our own, but now we are with Christ who makes a way for sin and death to be relinquished.

At the core of our lessons today, is that there was one man, Jesus Christ, the resistor of temptation and means for our salvation, and that one man, turned upside down what another man, Adam, did at the beginning of time.

Central to this whole discussion is the concept of sin. As I was preparing for today I came across an article written by the great 20^th century theologian Paul Tillich, in which he wrestles with the meaning of sin, and as he picks up on the term “grace.”

He argues that sin and grace are both words that can become overused and nebulous. They can become “church” words, which go in one ear and out the other. But in God’s vocabulary, they are central, for they reveal core principles by which God works.

As such Tillich takes the liberty of substituting the word “separation” for sin, and “reunion” for grace. That is, central to the concept of sin is separation. Separation from God, from others, even from ourselves. That we detach in order to live into the myth that we can control our own destiny. To live for self, so that no one can tell us what to do or how to live or make demands on us. To be separated is not God’s intention for us, instead, God intends that we turn toward God and one another.

Antithetically, grace implies a reunion of the soul to the maker. Grace leads us toward the other, and invites us to bring back together that which was God’s original intent. Reunion – the uniting again of what was once separated. By God’s grace we are united with the very one we turn from. By God’s grace we unite with brothers and sisters in Christ, some of whom we have a very hard time being in relationship with. By God’s grace the world is invited to unite as one to seek the good will of the One who created us.

Separation versus Reunion. As in Adam, all die...all are separated. But by Christ came resurrection and new life...by Jesus comes reunion. That which is broken is made whole. That which is torn is mended. That which is shattered is put back together again.

Whether the rift is found in relationships or in response to the harshness of life, separation to reunion. When the pieces of our own lives seem scattered to the wind, the winds of the Spirit bring us back together. When the world groans for the Great Reunion, the Christ, the One man, brings it all together, and says, “I love you. I heal you. I need you. Come to me.”

Every Christmas Day my mother’s side of the family gets together in Washington DC to carry on a 70+ year old tradition started by my great-grandfather, whom the family called Papoo. The tradition began when Papoo decided to have a progressive dinner, whereby all of his grown children, who subsequently lived within walking distance to the family home, would eating one course at a time in each home with the dinner culminating at his home. Once there they shared in many desserts, and there always stood a cedar tree, filled with $10 bills, one for each of the children and grandchildren who were in attendance.

Not only was this a time when Papoo gave this special gift (image receiving $10 in 1934), but it was, and is, also a time when the children and families shared their musical talents – children playing piano, violin or trumpet, and families singing together. (As I kid I played the piano, trumpet, and even Baritone before the crowd of 70-100 family members.) Added to this sharing was always the singing of Christmas Carols and hearing the Christmas Story.

My great-grandfather believed in his family, and as such, established this tradition, where they’d gather year after year to celebrate together the birth of the Savior. It worked. Even though it’s moved from a progressive dinner, to individual homes, a church, and now a nursing home it continues. Same basic format, and all the kids in attendance still receive $10.

The time in sharing is important and fun, but what is most important and unique is that it is a reunion...a reuniting of a family which is separated throughout the year. Some of us are strangers to one another because we don’t see each other except at Christmas, but in joining together we recognize that we are part of something greater than ourselves. We are reunited by the memories of our grandparents and the love of our parents, but what is most unique and powerful to me, is that the reunion began because one man, my great grandfather, wanted us to be united in Christ...in the celebration of Christ’s birth, which signaled God’s ultimate gift to the world.

In the same way, God desires that His children be united in Christ, the One who gave the gift of salvation. We gather for worship each week to be reunited with God, to come back together after being away for a week, to witness to others that God is found in the midst of community and the Body of Christ is that through which God is working to transform the world. The grace of God is found in our union, and in living into that grace, separation and sin is pushed away in order for Christ and us to truly live.

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, and during those services we focused on the separation of life. Folks came forward, knelt and had ashes placed on their foreheads, hearing, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. But live in faith.” It’s a raw, uncomfortable service of worship, and yet every year it places before us the reality of life. That death is a separation and that we will die.

However, the other side of that service is that we do not fall to the temptation of despair, but instead we ‘live in faith.’ We publically enter a season where we turn from those things which separate us from God and one another, and instead turn toward God and one another, proclaiming the ultimate Truth of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ. That by man came death but through one man came life!

We go through this Lenten season focusing on our lives. Naming the ways we separate ourselves from God, one another, and our true selves, but then turning toward the One who reunites us, brings together the pieces, and draws us into the love and grace of God.

Through one man all of life was changed for the worse, but through another, all of life was changed for the best. One brought separation. One brought reunion. As we journey to the cross, it is to the saving One that we look, for He is the One who takes our pain and brings relief. He is the One who guides our steps and walks us back toward God. He is the one who takes our separation and knits us together again.

He is the One. We are His, and because of Him, all is made new. Thanks be to God. Amen.