A Divine Appointment

Last weekend, our pastor and some of our youth were at a retreat with people from a number of other area Lutheran churches. There is a shortage of supply pastors, and despite diligent efforts, we weren't able to obtain one to come to our church. Consequently, our Music Director, Ginger Minneman, vounteered to lead our worship services for the weekend. (We normally have communion at all weekend service, but we did not have communion at these services in accordance with ELCA policy.)

Ginger delivered an excellent sermon entitled "A Divine Appointment." The Gospel reading was Luke 4:1-13. In this passage, Jesus is led by the Spirit in the wilderness and is tempted by the devil for forty days. In her sermon, Ginger talked about what happens - or can happen - when we are led to the wilderness, when we "are out of our comfort zones and stripped of the things we grasp most tightly."

Ginger started out by talking about Lent: "During our Lenten journey we too are invited to go to the desert, to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. It is a time of self examination. A time to take stock of our lives and make changes if necessary. A time of repentence, of turning away from the distractions of life and turning to God. Remembering that in our baptism we have been called not to live a self-centered life, but a God-centered life that is sustained by grace."

Ginger went on to say that while the Lenten journey is a planned one, "most of our visits to the desert are journeys that we have not planned on taking." She talked about the time, years ago, when she was hit by a drunk driver and spent weeks in a body cast in a hospital an hour from home. For the first time, she was separated from her small children, and she had few visitors because of the distance. "I had a lot of time alone in bed to think." She worried about who was going to do all of the things she was supposed to do during those weeks. "The short answer was that it wasn't going to be me. I had to let go, surrender and trust God."

Ginger went on to talk about when "the desert is in our mind and the testing comes from within. Those inner demons are particularly nasty. They can attack us at any time and in any place." They tell us things like "you are not worthy," and "you're not good enough." The truth, however, is that "you are God's child. You were worth dying for."

What good can come of our experiences in the desert? "When we are in the desert, if we are to emerge from the experience victorious, we must know the truth about who we are. We must have a sense of divine purpose in our lives and we must be committed to living out that purpose regardless of the cost." The opposite is to become "impotent victims, which is exactly what the devil wanted for Jesus and wants for us."

Ginger ended with these words: "May we learn to embrace the desert as a place of growth and transformation. May we learn to surrender to the loving hand of God. May we know the truth with every fiber of our being that it might set us free. May we recognize the time of testing as a fork in the road, a defining moment, a divine appointment. Amen."