What We Are Up Against
Scripture: Luke 4:1-13
Rev. Richard H. Thompson, January 17, 2010

Our relationship with Haiti began one night in the living room of two of our members, Ben and Sara Small in 1996. Ben's Aunt is Harriet Pritchard; she is the founder of the Alternative Gift Market, that is a national movement that raises millions of dollars a year for God's work around the world. As a part of the Alternative Gift Market, there is a national brochure that lists specially focused projects. That night at the Small's house, I was making a case to include two projects in Turkey in that national brochure. Harriet surprised me. Harriet said, "All right, here is the deal. I'll include the projects in Turkey in the national brochure if you agree to go to Haiti with Scott Sabin, the director of Floresta to see that work in Haiti." I said, "done." In 1997, Ben Small and I traveled to Haiti and met some of the people we have known ever since. God moves in interesting ways, doesn't He? Through interesting people, to do things we didn't see ourselves doing.

I tell you that story because I believe the Lord led us to Haiti. We have met amazing people and helped to play some role in the establishing an agro-forestry ministry, and a clinic, and to help support some schools. But I have always suspected that He has us there as well to show us something about what we're up against, out there, and "in here",

Dr. Paul Farmer's hospital in Cange, about three hours north of Port au Prince, I imagine, is a very busy place today. Dr. Farmer has lived in Haiti a long time. His wife is Haitian. Some years ago he wrote a book with an apt title, The Uses of Haiti to help the world understand this very poor land, and what these people are up against.

The island of Hispaniola was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus in 1492. His statue stands on the east coast in the Dominican Republic. The French colonized the west end of the island with an eye to its lush forests and fertile soil good for growing sugar cane and coffee. The French brought in Africans to cultivate the plantations. You can still see the ruins as you drive down the highway to where our projects are located in the mountains about 30 miles out of Port au Prince. That road takes you right over the top of the epicenter of the earthquake. By the late 1700's the slaves in Haiti outnumbered the French. A smart leader named Toussaint L'ouverture organized a rebellion that successfully threw out the colonists. It was an historic moment. Haiti was the first slave nation in the world to assert its independence from its masters, but did people all over the world celebrate? Hardly. Because just about every other developed country, including the United States, used slave labor. What if the word got out? What if the thousands of slaves in America got wind of what happened in Haiti?

So Haiti quickly became a pariah. It was embargoed, cut off from any possibility of trade with other countries. There are stories of European warships sailing into the harbor at Port au Prince, leveling their cannon on the palace, and then extorting large sums of money - which the Haitian government had no choice to pay. It's tough to develop anything lasting when you're cut off. And when an economy fails, eventually so does the possibility of healthy institutions. Hungry people take desperate measures. Like cutting trees for fuel, and to clear land to grow food for their families, and maybe a little more to sell. Corruption and exploitation are inevitable. It sounds all too familiar. This is not just a Haitian phenomenon. We have it here too. It is everywhere.

My point is that because of what Haiti has been up against ever since its beginning, it also shows us what we are up against, and that we are in this together.

It's important to be realistic about what we are up against. So that we not point fingers to blame, or mock, or dismiss. Those who work in our shelter on Wednesday night so often say, "A couple of wrong turns, a couple of reversals, and that could easily be me..." Haiti is not as far away as some might think.

God loves you, me, the Haitian people. This world. Very much. How? One way is by showing us what we are up against.

At Jesus' baptism we're told heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are My Son, the Beloved, with You I am well pleased..."

Here's a thought to ponder the rest of your life-that God loves you as God love Jesus. You... are His beloved too. So are all God's children.

Then this is what happened next, Luke 4:1-13:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, "One does not live by bread alone.'" 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." Jesus answered him, "It is written, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

How is God loving you, me, and all of us with this? Simply that God, in Jesus, is showing us what we are up against. Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness - a very poor place, where things get exposed, shown for what they really are. In places like that you find out what people are made of.

Three things are exposed out there in the wilderness.

First, we get a look at the devil. The Greek is DIABOLOS, which means to "divide" or separate, misrepresent, or lie. The Bible is clear that we are all up against strong Opposition. We have been ever since the beginning in the Garden. All of this makes us pretty uncomfortable and so we tend to make jokes.

Did you hear the one about the woman who brings home a very expensive dress. Her husband asks, "You know money's tight. Why did you buy this?" She says, "Well, honey, the devil made me do it. I was trying it on and he said to me, 'I've never seen you look more gorgeous than you do in that dress!' Her husband said, "Well, why didn't you say what Jesus said, 'Get behind me Satan!'" "I did", was the answer. ''And then he said, 'It looks great from behind too'. "

But the Opposer is no joke. It's looking for any opening to drive a wedge between God and God's children. And here's Jesus, God's Beloved Son, weak with hunger, after 40 days without food. A person can live 40 days without food if they can get a little water. I know this because I read about it. It is an interesting abstract fact to me. There are many in this world for whom this is not an "abstract fact". Jesus in his weakened state is an irresistible target for the Opposer. It's what evil always does, the way "evil" is the word "live" spelled backwards. Usually the Adversary works below the radar, out of sight. But the Opposer cannot resist the "temptation" that comes with Jesus' suffering. So there he is in full view, exposed. What the Haitian people are up against. What we are all up against.

The second thing that gets exposed is how the Opposition works. We get a look at its strategy, its tactics. We are like a football team studying film on the opponent, looking at the key moves it likes to make, the trick plays, the deceptions. We're getting ready for what we will face out there. It seems there are three key plays the Opposer likes to use.

One, use desperate human need and suffering to drive a wedge, in Jesus' case-between the Son and the Father. This is subtle. What's wrong with turning stones into bread? It would be a good thing, wouldn't it? To put an end to all human suffering by using whatever means, whatever works. It could be tempting to make this Jesus' mission in life.

God knows there are a lot of stones in Haiti. And right now for many their mission is to get food. Whatever it takes. In Haiti some have been reduced to eating "dirt cookies". It is the stuff of food riots. Dog eat dog.

Jesus' response is amazing, "One does not live by bread alone.

Because he, and we, and the Haitian people, are not just a stomach. They, we, a people in the image of God. We are God's beloved. We need bread for our stomachs, but we also need food for our souls. We need both.

The farmers we have met in the mountains above Port au Prince organize themselves in cooperatives to encourage each other. They also hold each other accountable for paying off micro loans, and share labor when it's time to cut contours and to pull stones out of fields to make room to grow plants that produce harvests, from which to make... bread. They learn together about grafting orange trees, or settling up tree nurseries. Every cooperative has a volunteer chaplain who opens and closes their meetings with prayer. It turns out the community of faith helps grow the crops that feed families. You really can't live just by bread alone. God knows we are more complicated than that. God knows where bread really comes from.

A second play in the the Opposition's play book is take Jesus "up", way up, "high", to show him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. A breath-taking experience, to see out over it all, to take it all in at once, the global view, sort of like an astronaut gazing down upon this blue ball and then a thought comes from somewhere, "It's mine to give you, all this power, to do as you please, whatever you want, to do good, or whatever... It can all be yours. Trust me..."

Heady stuff, power. To have it over everyone else. To take it if you want it. Like Africans plucked from their homes and shipped half way around the world to tend crops in the field. Like gun ships in the Port au Prince harbor. Nietzsche understood this better than most: If there is no God, or if God does not matter, if God, as he put it, is "dead", then it really is, in fact, at the end of the day, all about power.

At least this is what the devil believes. That it's his to give. Either it's a lie, or the authority he's talking about is the power of fear and of death. That kind of power really works when there is little to eat, where natural disasters strike, where the land is 98% deforested. It's a powerful force out in the wilderness. All Jesus had to do to have this power was to bend the knee to the Opposer. I wonder, if it were WE, what we would do?

Jesus answers with Scripture, "It is written", let me add, "written DOWN, ON THE PAGE, WHERE YOU CAN READ WORDS." Sometimes Scripture has a way of taking us down, out of our heads, out of the clouds, off our high horses, back to earth, to remind us what's real, of who's in charge, and who we are and who we are not.

Thank God for the Gideons putting those Bibles in hotel rooms where we can be tempted to sort of... drift off... and lose touch with our commitments.

Jesus is showing us what we are up against. God is loving us with a wise example. Keep God's word close by. Now you can get it on your phone! Now we can read it anywhere, any time we fee like we're starting to sort of float away.

What does God's "written down" word say to the temptation to power? " Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him." Jesus quotes from a passage set in a time when the Hebrews had lot's of options for where to bend the knee. Just like we do.

Okay, back to the studying the film. The first play is use our human frailty as a way to cause us to give up on God. The second play is to use power because it gets things done. It feels good to be in control ..

Here's the third play. Make God prove Godself! Threaten God with, "If you really cared then catch your beloved Son on his way down from the pinnacle of the temple 450 feet above the Kidron Valley floor. Jesus has just said, "Worship God and serve Him only."The Opponent's idea is the exact opposite, "Make God serve you!" Force God's hand. And here's the really tricky thing about this third move, use religion to make God do it. Find a scripture that justifies what you want, cite it at God, do the rituals, go through all the right motions, make God owe you!

On my first trip through Port au Prince I rode shotgun next to Pere Albert, the Episcopal priest who had begun so many schools and churches in the mountains where our projects are located. I was struck by the scriptures and prayers painted on buildings, buses, trucks, on signs and walls. They said, in Creole, "God bless us!", "God be praised!" God be merciful!", "Praise Jesus!", "Praise the Lord!" I asked Father Albert about this. He surprised me. With a wave of his hand he said, "It doesn't mean anything--it's just words." I guess he meant these words were used like charms, just in case there might be some protection if you have them written everywhere. Because you just never know. And life is fragile in Haiti. You need all the help you can get.

But this is magical thinking. It's a good play because we are all susceptible, especially in a dangerous world where stuff happens. The devil quotes Psalm 91 which seems to promise perfect protection. But the Opposer knows that expectation is a set up for disillusionment. That using religion to make God do what we want leads to resentment toward God, because this world has tectonic plates that move that cause earthquakes. This world has oceans that surge. It also is filled with sinful humanity, and injustice, corruption, ignorance and poverty that leads to shabbily built buildings and denuded hillsides, and disease. And we are sorely tempted to accuse God of a shabby creation, of not caring and not controlling bad choices. Let's make God prove God cares. We will be the judge.

Jesus' answer is short. "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." No explanation. No discussion. That's it.

Well, that's almost it.

I said three things are exposed out in the wilderness. One is the Opposition, the devil. Two is the Adversary's key plays. And third, Jesus is exposed! I mean, we see what Jesus is made of. We see his "metal!". And who God is. That God knows what we are up against. Gad knows what our neighbors 600 miles off the tip of Miami are up against today.

That God in Jesus calls you, and me to come follow him, sometimes in surprising ways, to surprising places to be a part of what God is doing in the world.

After our first trip to Haiti in 1997, people would ask us, "Why Haiti?" Our answer then was perhaps a little flip. We would say, "Why not Haiti?"

But today, in the midst of such unspeakable suffering, with so very much to do for a long time to come, I have to wonder, by God's wisdom, His strength and grace, if only now do we really begin to understand, "Why... Haiti."

Would you pray with me?

Lord God, you are awesome and powerful, and You things we cannot see and sometimes do not want to see. And you move in ways that are beyond our comprehension, but it's all because of your powerful grace and truth and what you are doing in this world. Lord God we thank you for your word and how you prepare us. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen

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Questions for Reflection.