POWER AND  CONTROL 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Power and Control.”

Today is the First Sunday of Lent and I would assume that Lent is a time to do some deep thinking about some of the great issues of life: time, purpose, people, relationships, family, communication, power, control, "Is there a God?',  the past, the future, the here and now, the me that’s me and the you that’s you.

That's a brief list of some great issues in life. 

I was wondering: is there a list somewhere or does everyone come up with their own list?

Does it depend on what we’re going through and experiencing at the time?  Is Lent a good time to make a list and look at it and ask how we’re doing?

TODAY’S READINGS

When I read today’s readings - especially today’s gospel - the issue of power and control hit me.  I said, “Those are two biggies: Power and Control."

What else should I look at? 

I then said to myself, “Stick with power and control. Hey, sermons are supposed to be 10 minutes or under. So how are we doing with those two issues? Let's look at them this Sunday morning - especially as we begin Lent."

That’s the genesis of this sermon and where I’m coming from this morning.

The Gospel is about the Devil tempting Jesus in 3 ways. It’s from Luke 4: 1-13. We’re in the year of Luke.

Luke begins by telling us about Jesus' roots in Nazareth - then being born in Bethlehem - then going back to Nazareth to grow up with Mary and Joseph the Carpenter. 

We hear Luke telling us that Jesus - as he is growing in wisdom and age and grace - has one ear and one foot in Jerusalem and the other foot and ear in Nazareth. That’s Chapter One and Two of Luke.  

Next comes the adult Jesus in Chapter Three with stories of John the Baptist - and Jesus’ baptism.  

Today we come to Chapter 4. Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.

Luke is going to use the Devil - and his temptations - to try to tell us how Jesus was going to do life. I’ll tell you now: it’s not going to be the way we would want Jesus to be.

Nobody was there with Jesus in the desert, so what we’re getting is from Jesus filtered through Luke and others. Matthew and Mark give other takes on the order of the temptations and the issues involved in the temptations.

In this homily I’m sensing that the devil is using the issue of power and control to discover who this Jesus is and how he works.

Control?  How one uses control? How one use one’s powers to do life?

I’m sure when Pope Francis was elected Pope, different people in different jobs in the Church, wondered, “Who is this Francis and how does he work? How is going to try to run and control things? How will he use his powers? Skills? Tricks? Methods? How will he be different than the last two popes: Benedict and JP II?”  

Perhaps, without knowing it, we all sort of think about the question of power and control when it comes to jobs, church, organizations, bosses, remarriages, what have you.

The kid wonders how this new step-daddy my mom just married will be when it comes to what I can do and can't do in our home?

So how does this Jesus use his powers?

Let's look at the three temptations Christ faced in today's gospel story from Luke.

As I was preparing this homily I realized that I need more time to decipher and make these 3 temptations more real - more clear - to get a better grip on them - as well as how the devil used them to figure out Jesus.

Bottom line: What I got from today's gospel is this: Jesus does different.

FIRST TEMPTATION

The first temptation Jesus faces is: should I turn all these stones I see around here into bread? Hey there are lots of rocks and lots of hungry people!

Jesus doesn't snap a finger or pick up a rock and say, "You're bread!"

Jesus doesn't choose to take the easy way out. It takes work to come up with our daily bread.

One has to farm the earth, remove the rocks, plant the seeds, water the earth, then wait, wait some more, then cut down the wheat, crush the wheat, make the flour, make and bake the bread and then enjoy and break bread and drink good wine sitting down together in communion.

Most of us are not farmers. To give us our daily bread,  most have to go through the long process of going through school, get a job, get a  pay check, shop, cook, fix the table, and then sit down to enjoy eating our daily bread together.

SECOND TEMPTATION

The second temptation is to save people from having to face the temptations of the devil by bowing down and worshiping him.

Nope, daily temptations can sharpen our wit and our skills and our respect for what others are going through.

It takes a lot of living, a lot of mistakes, a log of living in the darkness before it dawns on us that Jesus came to be the light of our world.

It takes a lot of living and dying to self to discover that life is not about wanting to gain power and  glory - recognition and rewards - but to be the servant of us all - without looking for power and glory.

THIRD TEMPTATION

The third temptation is for Jesus to gain instant notoriety by standing up on one of the ledges at the top of the temple in Jerusalem and jump off and let the Lord our God send angels to catch him. That will wow everyone and you'll have the people eating out of your hand.

There is a world of difference too seeing life as show and splash  - "Hey world look at me!" - compared to staying low - and simply seeing life as serving one another.

THE CHOICE: BEING HERE FOR OTHERS NOT SELF

In this homily I'm trying to say: take a good look at how we are doing life - but surely we can do better.

How do we operate? How do we life?  How do we use our powers to control or deal with control issues in life?

That's the theme and question of this homily.

Everyone of us have some powers. Everyone of us has some things we can control.

However, one of life's biggest learnings is that we are basically powerless and there are a lot of things out of our control.

Sorry.

Question: When does a human being discover she or he is not in control?

Up to that moment, the baby thinks by simply screaming mom and dad will come running. But this time, nobody came running - and the poor baby stopped screaming, finally feel asleep, and woke up okay at 7:38 AM.

Up to that moment, the beautiful teenage girl who ensnared the handsome teenage boy - thought she had everything going perfectly. Then her whole world came tumbling down, when she sees him walking for another girl.

Up to that moment, the healthy, 6 figure salary MBA, thought all was in control, till the doctor said, “It’s cancer.”

Make a list, your list, when you discovered, you were not in control.

I realize it 10 times a day now.  I'm in the rectory - I’m telling my story - they heard it before - someone cuts me off, yawns, looks at their watch - and walks away. And I stand there with my story untold.

I’m not in control. Woo. Sometimes that hurts.

Here's another one. This is a real biggie. 

Somewhere along the line I heard someone say, “God is not in control.”

At first I said, “Wrong. Who the heck is controlling this universe - like clockwork?”

Of course, but then I realized God has given us total control to walk away. Hey Adam and Eve did it. Hey the Devil did it. Hey, turkey you’ve done it a thousand times - and God didn’t throw the clock at you.

The gift of freedom is key issue in all this.

It's central to any discussion of power and control.

Of course, freedom of choice is what makes love and attention and Valentine’s Day so special.

If the "I love you" is not real, if it's not free, then there is no impact.

If the other doesn't yawn, if the other looks us in the eye, if the other speaks from the heart, then love, the intention and attention of love,
can overwhelm us - on Valentine's Day and everyday of our life.

If the other has to give the card, if the other has to say, "Happy Valentine's Day" or "I love you",  it's  a balloon without any air or helium in it. 

It's the difference between have to and want to.

So too,  God must love it, when he meets so many people in daily prayer and attention, because they choose to do so - freely.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily was, “Power and Control.”

How well do we do with each?  Lent is a good time to reflect upon key life issues.

Control?

Power?

For starters it's nice when we are aware of our powers and we use them well. It's nice to have some things in life that we can control.

It's tough when we run into moments that are out of our control and we feel powerless about everything.

It’s also nice to know when it's loving and we give up the power and the control - the steering wheel and the clicker - and give full attention to others.

Let me end by trying to use all the 3 temptations Jesus faced in the desert. 

It's in moments of temptation and struggle, that the rock called our heart, turns to bread. It's then that the power and the glory we could have is handed over to another. It's then that others - being in our presence, feel that can fly.