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S. Lent 1.25 Luke 4:-13

And Jesus answered him: it is written…

Don’t negotiate with terrorists. It is a maxim in statecraft for kings, presidents, prime ministers, and unelected dictators, time out of mind: “don’t negotiate with terrorists”. Because, as Paul Simon says “negotiations and love songs are often mistaken for one and the same.”* Also negotiations treat terrorists as equals (of sorts 😉 and once any “bad man with a gun” gets something for pushing you around, you will never do anything else but get pushed around by bad guys, constantly.

You will look weak. You will become weak. And no one wants a weak leader.

But… when it is your ox that’s getting gored, your wife or daughter the terrorists are holding for ransom, your precious earth elements that are going to get mined by some foreign rival, everyone wants the King to cut a deal, just this once, and then, OK; back to common sense!

So, in practice, what passes for “statecraft” looks like a love song, like some never-ending negotiation with terrorists of all stripes. It’s the world we live in. We call it “realism” and dismiss the non-negotiators as crazy idealists, yet can’t fathom why our life’s so chaotic… 😉

It’ll bother us then, this Gospel reading, if we actually listen to what is said, it’ll bother us. Jesus is the King of Kings, but comes disguised as some Strider, some beatnik Ranger of Rohan. And while we all say we don’t want our King negotiating with terrorists, not so much as giving them the time of day, when we are the hostages being rescued, whose lives are at stake, we show our hypocrisy pretty swiftly and are outraged he’s not at the negotiating table, swapping favors, making deals to get us rescued—and quick-like!

It always surprises me, a little, at the gulf we so often create—especially when reading scriptures—between “says” and “means”. I was contemplating it, Wednesday night, listening to the Gospel reading: “when you fast… wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret.” Then looking at your faces with the smudgy crosses, I could see what the gulf between says and means looks like!

I was impressed at how artfully the vicar wrestled with this conundrum. I’ve heard all the glosses: “Church isn’t a public place, but private!”—like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Or, “wash it right off on your way out, and it’ll be fine,”—like if it’s under an hour, hypocrisy doesn’t count. Or, “it’s a traditional Catholic devotional practice,”—like hypocrisy is fine if we’ve all been doing it for centuries. The vicar had a very clever take on the problem, distinguishing between inward and outward righteousness. It was very moving.

But… you know it took him all day to write that sermon? He said it was a really hard text! I just agreed, smiled 😉 Thursday morning, I told him how my teacher Paul Holmer taught me a simple lesson: “when it’s Jesus talking, kids, the only space in the gap between “says” and “means” should be an equals sign.”

I don’t know why Holmer made us read so much Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard (neither of whom I much care for, and OK, a lot of which I skimmed—I can skim with best of ‘em 😉 to circle around this somewhat obvious point? Why couldn’t Holmer just say that, straight, Day One? He said it was because he believed (as we all should 😉 in “indirect communication”. I thought it was just because he’d be out of a job if he said it simple like that. Maybe I was actually more cynical at 21 than 61? I guess Mr. Holmer thought the struggle was good for us.

Which is why I let the vicar struggle, why I stand up there with my Mona Lisa smile, smudging your faces. Luther says sardonically in the small catechism that “fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training for coming to the Lord’s Supper, but…FAITH is the only thing that makes you worthy and well-prepared!” Most of the church still doesn’t get the joke and a joke explained is just ruined, so we let you keep smudging your faces, confessing, genuflecting, until you get it. You can lead a horse to water… 😉

Hey, I gave a sermon—like my first Ash Wednesday at OSLC? how if Jesus says “wash your face, so no one but the Father sees you sad” it’s driving a wedge between says and means if you all get the ash cross. That just made everyone mad. Pr. Costello stirred up the elders who insisted on continuing the practice—which I judge a Roman rather than a catholic practice. But, learning to distinguish those kind of things is something everyone has to figure out for themselves. Better to let you wrestle with it, until you’re worn out and ready to let says and means cuddle up on the couch. 😉

I have a dream, that one day, I’ll stand up here on Ash Wednesday with a little bowl of ashes in my hands, and no one will budge. I’ll shrug my shoulders, we’ll all smile; and my work here will be… done 😉

But… back to negotiating with terrorists. If we are mildly hypocritical on Ash Wednesday (and who isn’t mildly hypocritical, then, right? 😉 we’re strongly hypocritical about our insistence the King not negotiate with terrorists!—when we are the hostages the terrorists are holding 😉

Doesn’t it bug you—how laconic Jesus is with the devil?!?? I mean, it’s the DEVIL! Jesus!Can’t you just take him out? Do you not have SEAL teams for this?! And if you can’t take him out, well—can’t you CUT A DEAL, for Christ’s sake!?

Do you think those 52 US embassy staffers in Iran 1979 were glad Jimmy Carter stuck to his high-minded principles and didn’t negotiate with the Iranian terrorists who held them captive? Uh-huh. “No atheists in fox-holes” (I, personally, doubt that’s true 😉 and “we’re all hypocrites, from Day One, when we’re the hostages” (I’m pretty sure that one’s true 😉

See how uncomfortable it gets when says and means cuddle up?

But the happy reunion of says and means is how Jesus rolls and how we roll with him. Each temptation is answered not with NEGOTIATIONS, nor with violence, but with an insouciant “It is written…” Jesus does not come to negotiate with terrorists, not even for his own children’s release (!) nor does he come to vaporize his enemies with a show of force.

No. He comes to follow the Script, the Word that he is, that is written for us in holy SCRIPTyours 😉

And here’s how that Story goes: it is written, in the first chapters of Genesis, that Eve’s seed, God’s Son, would crush the devil’s head by letting the devil bite his heel! Jesus offers himself, a spotless lamb on whom the devil can release all his anger. The devil bites on that, thinking he’ll destroy Jesus, only to discover: Christ’s death destroys death, setting everybody… free.

Let says=means, and you will be as free and breezy as Jesus, too; as faith in the Word grants Peace, surpassing all understanding, guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YUEziX25DQ