NEW LIFE IN CHRIST
March 8, 2014
Westmount Park United Church

Today we heard readings from the first book of the Old Testament (Genesis) and from the first book of the New Testament (Matthew). Each reading describes a crisis moment, a time when extremely important decisions had to be made about what direction the lives of the people in those stories would take. The stories represent what happens to us when we face crisis moments and have to make difficult decisions that will profoundly affect our very existence. The two stories are in direct contrast with each other in their descriptions of how we human beings handle those crisis times when we are faced with the necessity of making foundational decisions. The crisis moment decisions which Adam and Eve made on the one hand, and which Jesus made on the other hand, stand as the ultimate examples of what happens when a person makes the wrong choice and what happens when a person makes the right choice in a life defining, crisis moment.
We know that crisis moments in the life of an individual (or of a family, or a church, or a community, or a nation) cannot be programmed or scheduled. Times for life defining decisions will be thrust upon us by circumstances which we do not control. Nonetheless, in the course of the year we do set aside certain times and seasons for taking stock of our lives and challenging ourselves with making decisions and choices that define who we are in relationship to one another and to God. Every year in the six weeks preceding our celebration of Easter we observe the season of Lent, a time for reflection, a time for prayer, a time for repentance. It’s a good thing that we have a season designated as “penitential” otherwise we might not bother to think about making significant changes in our lives. If we don’t programme in specific times of year for taking good hard looks at where we are going then we might not think to challenge ourselves with the possibility that we need to make some fundamental, life defining decisions, particularly if we don’t have a crisis moment necessity for doing so.
The word repentance in the Bible, in both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, means literally to turn around or turn back. So whether the moment which calls for repentance be a programmed one or a spontaneous one what is needed is a decision to change direction. Whether or not this is a crisis moment in our lives let us seize hold of this penitential season of the church year as a time for taking stock of who we are, of what direction we are heading in, of the motivations and patterns of living we have which may be in need of change. Maybe it’s time for redefining and remaking who we are in relationship to one another and to God. Maybe it’s time for making important decisions that set us off in new directions. Maybe it’s time to set a course for our lives, for our families, for our church community, that will find us rejecting the temptations of comfort and expediency and choosing instead the way of trust in God and commitment to serving God. This season of Lent, just now begun, could be a time for rediscovering new life in Christ, and to find that new life in Christ we may need to shift course, change direction from running away from God or ignoring God (like Adam and Eve), to accepting God and being committed to God’s ways (like Jesus).
It happens that the year 2014 finds us, in a very real and intentional way, taking stock of who we are at Westmount Park United Church and what our mission could or should be as we move towards a significant transition time in the life of this congregation, precipitated by the fact that I will be retiring at the end of June. So we have a valuable, timely opportunity for assessing the direction in which we have been going and considering possibilities for making course corrections. A Joint Needs Assessment Committee is being formed, with representatives from both our congregation and the presbytery, whose task is to look at the resources we have and the challenges and opportunities we face, as we consider what sort of leadership we would like to have to help us fulfill our calling as a people of God who are engaged in worship and fellowship together and in work and witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is only a small committee charged with writing up a report for approval by both the congregation and the presbytery, but to do its work wisely and well it will need the participation of the whole congregation in providing input, sharing thoughts and concerns, and above all giving the support of our prayers as we face this important juncture in the life of our church. As we contemplate our mission as a Christian congregation, and as we give serious and prayerful consideration to who we are and where we are going, our hope and prayer is that we will be led, in these changing times, to experience new life in Christ.
Both the story of Adam and Eve succumbing to the temptation of the serpent in the garden of Eden and the story of Jesus not giving in to the temptations of the devil in the wilderness are rather contrived and simplistic in the way they are told. As we look in on the two dramas the difference between making the right choice and making the wrong choice is clear. The stories of Adam and Eve in the garden and Jesus in the wilderness are melodramas where right and wrong are obvious. The temptations which are placed in the way of Adam and Eve and of Jesus come from the devil. We know it’s the devil. We know that the devil presents the wrong choice. We know that Adam and Eve make the wrong choice and that Jesus makes the right choice. And we also know that the choices they make are extremely important, that they profoundly affect not only their own lives but the lives of others. But real life is not melodrama. In real life we don’t know with the clear certainty of a melodrama who the devil is and which choices are the right ones and which are the wrong ones. The story of Jesus’ temptation is told in a few short verses, but it begins by saying that Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, forty days and nights of wrestling with what he should be doing to be a faithful servant of God. New life in Christ may begin by making decisions to start off in new directions with our lives, but perhaps we’re trying to jump too quickly to the end of the forty days and nights and the moment when the choices are finally made. The season of Lent has been designed to give us the same length of time as Jesus had in the wilderness to assess our lives and ponder our choices. I guess maybe I’m jumping the gun to suggest that we can rush to some conclusions right away in the first week of Lent about starting off in new directions that give us new life in Christ. The choices we face as individuals and as a congregation are not melodramatically obvious and what we need to dedicate ourselves to, as we begin the season of Lent 2014, is the thinking and the praying and the struggling with who we are and what we are meant to be as God’s people.
May the coming season of Lent be a time for all of us in which we do serious thinking and hard praying about the direction we are going and the decisions we need to make so that we can be led by God to experience new life in Christ.