Church of the Redeemer | Iglesia del Redentor

GOD OR HOME DEPOT?

(Not a formal text for a sermon, mostly notes to myself, preached at St. George's Astoria, Lent 1 2008)

Theme of hunger is important, The French revolution was produced in part by hunger, we do not rebel against the government among other things because we are overfed, much of the instability of the world depends on the question of hunger

40 days/nights connect Jesus with the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt to Palestine. The Jews spent 40 years wandering in the desert where they were fed by God with manna and quails. Jesus is suffering hunger at the end of his 40 days

Jesus himself is in a wandering process but within himself and places himself in the extreme that the founding myth of the people of Israel was, he goes back to the historical source and is presented with the question who is going to feed you?

The devil gives him three options yourself, things or people

If the voice and the dove of Jesus' baptism tell us that he is the Son of God (a fact that the devil knows well) the temptations in the desert is his test as a human …….he was famished it is very important because Jesus as a model is not beyond reach for any of us, that is the core of his mission, allowing people to come closer to God and God becoming closer to people so the hunger question here is very important, because puts him within reach of our own experience

The desert experience can gives pointers in developing skills for living

WITH A SIX-GUN ON HIS hip and a Winchester pump-gun in his hands, the young cowpuncher faced another claim-jumper. They had reached the ground together, blustered the second man. He demanded an even split of the lush grassy quarter-section on which they stood, he to get the larger parcel, the youngster, of course, to have the smaller.

The boy stood his ground. "A hundred and sixty acres or six feet," he said, "and I don't give a damn which it is..." The boy--and his Winchester--made his point, and the kid held his own piece of the new Eden in the wildest, the biggest, rush for new land in U.S. history. It began April 22, 1889

I saw a movie how colonist will be build a what is knows as a soddie or house build with strips of sod to winter one of those Oklahoma winters

Why is home depot such a mammoth company? Is not because they have smart, slick reckless executives, that play a part but there are other reasons, some of which the bedrock foundation of the American republic

Do it yourself is a cultural icon in this country is representative of the American spirit that turn this nation into a collection of rogues, new rich and immigrants in the economic powerhouse is today

But the temptation of doing it yourself is not unique to the American spirit or even to our era, it is as ancient as Jesus' own time

The devils appeals to Jesus desperation to use his power for himself, the reality of his hunger

If you search the Gospels there is no one miracle which Jesus did it for either himself or his immediate family

Jesus answers draws form the book of Deuteronomy which is part of the Jewish people considered the most sacred text of all of the Scriptures called also Torah or the Law

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