3-6-19 - Who Will We Worship (Wx4)

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

They say in advertising it’s very important to know your audience, especially their vulnerabilities. You’d think the Tempter would have done better market research on Jesus before he tried to sway him by offering him adulation and authority. Jesus showed very little interest in such things.

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

This is like trying to sell a priceless work of art to the one who created it. Did the devil not know that Jesus had had all authority in heaven and earth, that he had voluntarily given it up in order to enter into human nature and submit himself to our circumstances? That he wasn’t into that kind of glory, especially not at the price of worshipping the devil?
Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

So, when we stray away from the presence of God, when we go against God’s will to choose our own gratification, are we worshiping the devil? I don’t think so – that needs to be an actual intention. But it does mean we have turned our worship away from the Living God. As that theologian Bob Dylan sang, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody; it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” (2018 rendition here.)

Whatever it is that is tempting us away from the Lord – a behavior, a commodity, a feeling running riot in us – in that moment it becomes the object of our worship. We don’t think of it as worship, but that’s what it is. We have placed that thing or person or condition at the center of our life and oriented ourselves around it. If it’s a really big temptation, that’s all we can see.

Thanks be to God, it’s not difficult to turn back. We need only become aware that we’ve directed our attention to an unworthy object, and turn our gaze back toward the God who loves us. An ancient word for repentance is metanoia, which suggests turning, turning away from what is less than life-giving and turning back to the Source of our life. You might ask, "WWWW?" or "Who Will We Worship?" (Wx4!)

If you go to church today for the Liturgy for Ash Wednesday, you will be invited into a lengthy and thorough confession of sin. I don’t believe any of us can avoid being snagged by at least one part of that litany. So let’s go through it aware of how we have turned toward some of these things we confess, and how they have become central.

And then let’s enact our repentance with joyful hearts, for God delights in seeing us turn back toward him, which we do, over, and over, and over again, until at last we are Home and there is no more turning to be done, for we are in God.

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