Pentecost 26

Pentecost 26 (Luke 21:5-19)

“Beware that you are not led astray.”

There are three means by which we can be led astray. They are the world, the flesh and the devil. There are three standards of authority that can help us avoid being led astray. These are reason, tradition and scripture. There is one, and only one, person who can protect us from being led astray. That person is Jesus Christ.

To be lead astray is to be deceived. As we are deceived our lives become more narrow, confined and restricted. We lose the blessing God has designed into the universe and our souls. We experience increasing levels of frustration, fear, anxiety and anger. The world, the flesh and the devil seek to define our possibilities and potential in a way that diminishes us and controls us.

The world is our surrounding culture. It is an exterior form of temptation through distortion. The key word is distortion. Much of the temptation that comes from the world is not in and of itself bad or evil. Most of the pressure the world brings to bear on our minds, hearts and wills come from the distortion of where we set our priorities and how we spend our time.

Moses and the prophets are very clear. God, more specifically the worship of God on the Sabbath Day, is the first priority God designed into our souls. Compassionate service to other people is our second priority. Personal transformation through prayer, Bible study and self-discipline is our third priority. Consider what does not even appear on this list of God’s priorities for our lives. It doesn’t mean these other things are not important or have no place. It does mean they should not take the place of God’s priorities. If they do subvert God’s priorities they become idols- false gods of culture, society and peer pressure.

Be wary of the pressure that comes from our culture to place God last in our lives. Be wary of the voice that says: “everybody is doing it.”

The second avenue of temptation that will lead us astray is the flesh. When the Bible speaks of the flesh it addresses our legitimate needs and desires as they are distorted by the pain of Original Separation and produce sin.

How does this work? Every sin is a distorted virtue that God designed into our souls for our benefit. Pride is a distortion of humility. Fear is a distortion of faith. Gluttony is a distortion of appetite. Sloth is a distortion of rest. Every aspect of our being when distorted by the pain of Original Separation leads to sin.

The distortion of our needs and desires deceives us about the way God has designed us. The voice of the flesh says: “how can it be so bad when it feels so good.” Be wary of how the flesh will deceive us to reject God’s perfect plan for our lives for a moment of transient pleasure.

Of the list of three means by which we are led astray the devil is the least obvious, the least powerful but the most deadly. Satan crafts a set of lies specific to each generation in every culture. The power of Satan is in misdirection and confusion. The world and the flesh do the rest.

We see the pattern Satan employs in Genesis where Satan tempts Eve by seeking to confuse her about God’s Word, God’s Nature and God’s Plan for humanity. Satan cannot force you to do anything. He will seduce you away from an active dynamic faith into a rigid inflexible set of beliefs. He doesn’t care if you are religious or secular. He does care if you follow the Way, the Truth and the Life of God as revealed in Jesus Christ even if you have not yet made a profession of faith in Christ.

The way we avoid being led astray is through Scripture, Tradition and Reason. Scripture is fundamental. Scripture combines the observations of dozens of people over the course of hundreds of years and in many cultures with God’s perspective. It is vitally important that we read, study and memorize Scripture. Jesus frequently quoted scripture to correct misunderstandings the religious leadership of his day had about God’s Word, God’s Nature and God’s Plan for humanity.

Tradition does not mean “the way we’ve always done things”. Tradition means the Apostolic teaching about the Plan of Salvation. The standard of Tradition is the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The summary of Tradition is the Nicene Creed.

Reason simply means that the Truth is not counterfactual. Truth emerges from observation, analysis and synthesis. Our secular culture has largely abandoned faith in the name of reason. We have also abandoned religion in the name of spirituality. The result has not been the enlightened self-actualized individual the secular world promises. The result is massive levels of fear, anxiety, anger, addictions, conflict, violence, distrust superstition and isolation. Above all else reason is most effective when united to the virtue of humility.

The key to all of this is Jesus Christ. When someone asserts that Jesus never claimed to be God ask yourself: What does scripture reveal about Jesus? What does the Apostolic Tradition teach in the Nicene Creed? Is it reasonable that God would create us only to abandon us?

In this passage, Jesus addresses the issue of the consummation of the age. Most people interpret this to mean the end of the world. Jesus invited the people who heard him and he invites us to consider what this means. Jesus uses scripture, tradition and reason to warn, reassure and comfort.

The warning is: do not be led astray. Do not be led astray by false teachers, your cultural norms, or you own desires.

The reassurance is: nothing has to happen before the Consummation of All Things. Life goes on. Life continues. People act in much the same way they have always acted.

The comfort is that Jesus is the one who brings human history to a conclusion. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is not about war, famine, pestilence and death. Those are the things human choice influenced by the world, the flesh and the devil bring to us.

Jesus came the first time to bring life. He will return to complete what he started. He will bring a new and abundant life to a lost and broken world.

Do not be led astray. Test the priorities of our culture, the demands of our desires and the seductive deceits of Satan against the one pure and perfect standard of Creation. That one pure and perfect standard is Jesus Christ.