Companions for the Journey
Scripture: Deuteronomy 26:1–11 Luke 4:1–13
Preached by the Reverend Kathy Peters
February 21, 2010

Moses asks the people to remember the story…remember how God was with us through our 40 years of wandering, remember how God cared for us and saved us from the terror of slavery, remember how God kept God’s promise and led us to our new home, remember and trust that God will be with you in all the places and circumstances of your life. And in celebration of the fact that God has been and will always be your companion, you are to serve as companions as well, sharing what you have been given with those in need. This is our story too and in our remembering we participate in it as well. Adam Thomas writes: “Around and within each of our own (life) stories, the great story weaves, the story of God’s relationship with creation……….we are members of the story and discover our own place in it when God re-members or reconnects us…. Remembering the story tells us who we are.” (Christian Century 2/9/10 p. 19) And in remembering all of us today can say: Yep that’s me. I am part of that great nation that God led through difficult times. God hears my voice as well and leads me where I need to go and in gratitude I will sing God’s praises and make an offering to God with thanksgiving from all the blessings that I have received.
 As Jesus faces the devil in his 40 days of fasting and prayer in the desert, he resists the devil by relying on the presence of God and the truth of the great story, as he answers each of the devil’s challenges with words from lessons in the book of Deuteronomy that he had learned as a boy: ‘One does not live by bread alone.’   ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ (from Luke 4 as Jesus quotes Deuteronomy). The story shaped Jesus and he was able with deep patience to resist temptation by remembering who and whose he was. Moses reminds the people that they have been shaped by the story and in memory and gratitude must share from their first fruits and serve one another. It is the story that will shape us if we take the time to remember it and tell it and tell it again and again. In these two scripture stories we are reminded that God companioned Jesus and the people of Israel on their journeys even through harsh wilderness times and that we can trust that God desires to “companion” us in all circumstances of our lives if we are open to the possibility.
So Lent begins as I said to those gathered on Ash Wednesday……a time for gratitude and caring, a time of awareness of God interactions in our lives and deep within our being, a time to be open to the holy in our midst and today I would add a time to remember the great story…our story.

Barbara Brown Taylor calls Lent a “kind of spring housecleaning for our souls, finding out what our "pacifiers" are: "the habits, substances, or surroundings [we] use to comfort [ourselves], to block out the pain and fear that are normal parts of being human.. . She challenges us to name our particular addictions, the things "we use to fill the empty place inside of us that belongs to God alone"; she exhorts us to give them up for forty days, and to "simply pay attention to how often your mind travels in that direction….Chances are you will hear a voice in your head that keeps warning you what will happen if you give up your pacifier" (from Home by Another Way as quoted in S.A.M.U.E.L ucc.org 2/21/10)

Diane Bergant writes:  Lent is "less a time for us to be doing religious 'things' than for us to be open to the transformative 'things' God wishes to do for us.” She goes on to highlight the importance not only of what we do but of how and why we do it, and who we think is in charge all the while.    While the goals of the temptations may be admirable she observes – feed the hungry, bring the world under the control of good, trust in God's power to protect us – we often choose to accomplish them in ways that are less than admirable. We try to perform the extraordinary so what we do reflects favorably on us. We use brute force in order to achieve control. We put God to the test rather than live peacefully with God's plan as it unfolds within and around us. We often seek to become the super-hero, the super-minister, the super-Christian, on our own."Lent is a time for us to remember , Bergant says, “that we are dust and not merely to wear it on our foreheads….we have Lent each year, so that again and again God can offer us the salvation that only God can give" (Preaching the New Lectionary C as quoted in S.A.M.U.E.L. ucc.org 2/21/10).

So give up something, a pacifier as Brown defines it or to speak in biblical terms, what the devil is tempting us with or take on something like cultivating an attitude of gratitude as Moses proposed or letting God in to transform your lives as Bergant suggests. Whatever your “thing” might be……..use Lent as a time to let God be your companion on the journey. In his translation of the Ash Wednesday scripture Eugene Peterson says do all these things….prayer, fasting, giving up something, taking on something so that you might  “better concentrate on God” (The Message Matthew 6: 16) 

The Lenten practice that I would offer to you this day is two fold…an opportunity to focus on gratitude rather than complaining and cultivating an attitude of caring and sharing because of that gratitude.
Maya Angelou is quoted as saying: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain!”
Gandi has said “Be the change you wish to see in the world”
In the spirit of those great folks we are going to try and become a more loving, caring, grateful and “complaint free” congregation.
Purple complaint free bracelets are available at the back of the church along with a brief “instruction” pamphlet.  It is simple: wear the bracelet.
Every time you complain, gossip or criticize move the bracelet to the other wrist. When you have gone 21 days (the time it takes to form a new habit!) without changing the bracelet…you have changed!!! Now don’t get all legalistic on me. How you personally handle this is up to you. The bracelet is a reminder that is intended to lead you to a kinder gentler way of dealing with the world.  I have worn mine since Wednesday……….I won’t tell you how many times I have needed to move it but I will tell you that it is making me think! I have begun praying for what or who I am complaining about…lots of praying going on!)
There is also a booklet called Love life live lent which we have used before that offer suggestions of ways that you might care for others and the world that we live in.  Also find some daily devotion and prayer resources. Dare to participate!

May our Lenten journey open us to the great story of God’s love for all of God’s creation and reconnect us to our relationship with God.  Amen.