Sermon: February 25, 2007

"The Road of Truth"
Luke 4:1-13


[Begin sermon with an image of question marks for all to see (flip chart, screen etc.)]

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a time of the church year when we confess that our life is a human journey. It has a beginning and an ending, a birth and a death. Duritn Lent we confess that our faith cannot and will not enable us to escape from this reality. As people of God, however, we face our mortality with a promise from God of immortality beyond the grave. While life is a journey from birth to death. As people of faith, life is a journey toward God that goes through death. God’s ending stands beyond the great boundaries of our understanding of life. So, we are on a journey together. It is a journey toward God. Yet, at the same time, the great mysterious paradox of our faith is that while we are journeying toward God, we are also journeying with God. With faith every turn we take, every decision we make is with God’s guidance heard through the Word and sacrament.

Therefore, during this season of Lent I am preaching a series of messages on the various crossroads we encounter along this journey we are taking with God. On Ash Wednesday the series began with The Road of Humility, and today it is The Road of Truth.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
I chose the road less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference.
—Robert Frost

Using Robert Frost’s timeless poem, the road of faith is always the road less traveled, the one that makes all the difference.

Today’s message begins with a brief discussion of questions. Ever since we were children we have been asking questions. Some questions are very helpful. They purely seek information. Since we were little we have been asking these questions. Where do the stars come from? How does the washing machine work? As we mature questions like these graduate and take on much more sophistication and pursue deeper more complex answers. Questions can be used to gather information. Today we live in the age of information. Now, finding answers to the most difficult of questions can be as easy as the click of a button on your computer.

Twenty years ago our world enjoyed this new game called Trivial Pursuit. This game captivated a generation of information seekers. But, today, that game is a bit obsolete. We can find the answers with palm held computers faster than the usual allotment of time your opponent would give you to answer. Today, if you have a question you just “Google” it, or you go to “Wikipedia” or if those don’t work you just “Ask Jeeves”. For those of us still in a state of internet denial, these are web sites where a person can find the answers to questions about anything. We are in an age when questions and answers are everywhere.

The pursuit of answers or mere information is the road most traveled by in our world. It is a big misunderstanding when we trust information to save us instead of the truth; when we believe that the pursuit of answers is the same as the pursuit of truth.

Today, it seems we are people with the answers to any question. We are so much more intelligent than previous generations. Children, these days, are learning levels of math and science in grade school that most of us didn’t even have an opportunity to learn until high school. There’s a new TV game show that accentuates this phenomena by challenging adults to answer questions that come from 5th grade text books. But, in a culture where intelligence is creating new bell curves, we seem to lack wisdom. Our teens are graduating from school with more information than ever, yet, employers have begun to recognize that young people lack even the most basic skills of problem solving, communication, and ambition. As a result, employers are finding it more beneficial to hire from the older generation instead of the younger people, or, in some cases offering incentives to keep those employees who are nearing retirement from doing so. It seems that the road most traveled, the road of information does not lead us to where we had hoped. Somewhere along this road, we traded truth for information. Now, we are very well informed, but lacking the ability to relate to one another through problem solving, communication, and ambition.

Some other questions that we hear in our world today are of a different nature. These are questions that are not meant to seek information, but are asked merely to create doubt. These are the questions that Jesus faced in his 40 days of Temptation. Notice the similarity of these questions. Three times the devil questions Jesus, and all three times the format of the question was the same. If…...Then…. If you are the Son of God, then turn this stone into bread. Temptation, or the most often traveled road of doubt, can be recognized by the form of the question. If...then… If you are a Christian, then why are you feeling so guilty? If you are Christian, then why do you continue to mess up your life? These are the age-old questions. In the end they are the same as the great theodicy question, If God is good, then why do bad things happen to good people? The road of doubt is paved with questions like these. When we turn this question inside out, we get another question that we must all recognize from journeying down this road. It’s the question, Why me?.

There was a couple I once counseled who came to me with this question. I had married them about year prior. They were a wonderful couple. They had a kind of faithfulness and maturity about their relationship that made me believe that they were going to make it. Unfortunately, I have married a number of couples without such hopefulness. But not them. About a year later, the couple became pregnant. This news was celebrated by the whole congregation along with them. As the pregnancy progressed, the joy continued to build until one day near the due date when they learned of an abnormality. The child she was carrying had Downs Syndrome. Upon this news, the couple became distraught. Fear welled up, and gave way to doubt. The doubt came to me in the form of this question, “Pastor, why us?” This question, this doubt, was so powerful that it was eroding and threatening everything. The couple’s relationship was strained. Their love for this child was strained. Their faith in God was waning. In this world, where we are quicker to choose the road of doubt than the road of faith, we can easily become lost. But, when lost along the road of doubt, there’s nothing like the truth to stop us in our tracks and retrace our steps back to find the correct road again. That truth began to surface as we talked together about God’s blessings. The truth was that God had blessed this couple with more than they needed to raise this child. It turned out that Grandma’s brother had Downs, so there was already a person in the family who was a valuable resource for understanding Downs. The mother of the child was nurse, and her mother was a nurse. And, the couple was actively involved in a congregation of people who would genuinely welcome and love this child with a network of help through the years. Once the truth was revealed, something very powerful became self-evident. If, this side of the second coming, a child with Downs was going to be borne into this world, could there be any other family more equipped, more blessed, than this one to raise that child? The answer was an obvious NO. With the truth very evident now before them, the couple’s “Pastor, why us?” turned to a declaration of purpose and hope, “Lord, why not us?”

In our gospel text for today, Jesus withstands the questions of temptations with declarations of God’s promised blessedness. With Jesus, our questions along the most traveled road of doubt, turn to exclamations of faith along the road of Truth.
[Change the picture of question marks to a picture of exclamation points]
In a world where diverging roads lead to doubt, the road less traveled is the truth of the gospel promised at baptism, proclaimed in scripture, sermon, and song, and received at the table in bread and wine: “I will be your God, and you will be my people, and I will remember your sins no more.”

Jesus shows us that the pursuit of Truth is not the same as the pursuit of information. Mere information cannot save us. Mere information confuses us, confounds us, and leaves us bound by fear of the future. But, the Truth sets us free. The Truth frees us from the temptation all around us. With Christ, we are free to change the road we are on, to the road that God calls us upon—the road with God toward God. The road less traveled is the road of Truth. And that road makes all the difference.

Let us pray.
Lord, thank you for freeing us from the tempter's threatening questions. Lead us along your path of Truth. Open our eyes to see you in the goodness of life that transcends our world’s pursuit of mere information.
Amen.