Cookies

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

March 10, 2019

1 Lent C

          Kairos is an ecumenical prison ministry designed to bring the love and forgiveness of Jesus to incarcerated men and women.  A Kairos team made up of carefully trained people from a variety of churches goes into a prison to lead a three and a half day retreat that creates Christian community through worship, prayer, and small group discussions.  The goal, put simply, is to help the men and women in prison begin to see themselves as beloved children of God.

          One of the ways the Kairos team communicates the love of God to the men or women, depending on the prison, is through homemade cookies.  Each person on the Kairos team is responsible for providing 100 dozen cookies.  If a team is 15 people, that’s about 18,000 homemade cookies going into a prison over three days.  An abundance of cookies is used in the prisons to convey the abundant love of God.  Cookies are available for the participants all day.  They are given bags of cookies to give to people they need to ask forgiveness from or people they need to forgive.  Cookies are given to the staff.  Cookies are used to permeate the prison with God’s love.

          I have never been on a Kairos team myself, but parishioners in parishes I have served have been on such teams.  Many times, I have stood before a congregation and said “In two weeks, Noel is going into the prison in Lima or London or Chillicothe, and we need 100 dozen cookies by next Saturday.”  And, without fail, everyone knew that for our church to reach such an audacious goal, everyone had to help.  No one could think someone else would make cookies, or their cookies would not matter, or that they didn’t have time to make cookies. 

          This morning, and on the First Sunday of Lent every year, we hear the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  What, you might reasonably wonder, could Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness have to do with 18,000 cookies, especially when we are told that Jesus had nothing to eat whatsoever during his time in the wilderness?

          Jesus goes into the wilderness, filled with the Holy Spirit, having just been baptized in the Jordan River where he heard the voice of God say “You are my Son, the Beloved.  With you I am well pleased.”  I believe that Jesus goes into the wilderness to understand his identity as the beloved Son of God.  Jesus is tempted with special power, when the devil says to him “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”  The famished Jesus replies with a verse from Deuteronomy “One does not live by bread alone.”  We know that Jesus has the ability to turn a small bit of bread and fish into food for a crowd.  We know that Jesus has the ability to heal people of all sorts of illnesses and ailments.  But Jesus will not use that power to satisfy his own hunger.  He will use that power to benefit others.

          Then Jesus is tempted with special privilege.  The devil offers Jesus glory and authority over the world.  Jesus declines with more words from Deuteronomy “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”  Jesus does have power and authority, but Jesus’ power and authority will save the world, not himself. 

          Lastly, the devil tempts Jesus with special protection.  “Throw yourself down from here and call on the angels to protect you.”  Again, Jesus declines with words from Deuteronomy “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Jesus will not claim special protection even from the cross.  In Luke’s gospel, Jesus will say from the cross “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” 

          Jesus enters the wilderness to understand his identity as the beloved Son of God and what that identity means is not that he has special power, privilege or protection.  What that identity means is that he is to be the love of God for the world so that the world will know what it means to be beloved children of God.  We go into the wilderness of Lent, where we, too, discover what is meant by our identity as beloved children of God, and we find out that our identity does not give us special power, privilege or protection either.  We go into the wilderness to turn away from that which keeps us from understanding ourselves as beloved children of God.  We go into the wilderness to better understand how we are called to be God’s abundant love for the world. 

          We talk a lot about what we do as individuals for Lent-what we give up or take on.  But we also go into the wilderness together as a parish, where we are tempted as Jesus was.  What temptations keep us from understanding that being beloved children of God means being God’s abundant love for the world?

          I believe the first temptation is this: “My little contribution won’t make a difference.”  Whether we are talking about singing in the choir, making a meal for an outreach ministry, bringing food for the food pantry, or making a financial pledge, the minute we think that what we have to offer does not matter, the powers of evil have won because if we all think that way, nothing ever gets done.

          The second temptation is this: “Someone else will do it.”   When a request goes out for cookies, or Sunday School teachers, or people to work at a Habitat work day, or help with a community ministry like First Serve, the temptation is to think that someone else will do that.  Our ability to show the world God’s love is diminished every time someone thinks “someone else will do that” because if we all think that way, our ministry grinds to a halt. 

          The third, but probably not last temptation is this: “I don’t have time.”  There are countless good reasons why we don’t have time to worship, or to serve, or give.  The powers of evil count on people not having time to be the power of love in the world. 

          What we learn from Jesus’ time in the wilderness is that being the beloved Son of God was not about power, protection, and privilege for himself, but about having the power, privilege and protection to be the love of God for the world.  We learn the same thing about ourselves in the wilderness of Lent.  In the Lenten wilderness, as individuals and as a church, we turn from the temptations that call us away from being the abundant love of God for the world and claim the power to use our lives, and our equivalent of 18,000 cookies, to be that love.  The world is a wilderness where people are starving to experience the abundant love of God.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Amen.