Deliver us from evil....

During this Lenten season, my congregation has been taking a closer look at the Lord's Prayer. It is a comfortable prayer, one that most of us can say by rote without thinking about what the words really mean. We occasionally shake things up by going to the new fangled version, or switching back to the traditional words after a few weeks of the contemporary verbiage. Either way, too often the prayer itself is barely thought about as we recite the familiar words, thinking in the back of our minds about what to have for dinner or when church will be over.

We have, as a congregation, taken the prayer one passage at a time, broken it down and considered it all more carefully. We have looked at how the words apply to our lives, how our world is changed by their deeper meaning, what Jesus was telling us when he taught us to pray this way.

For Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we looked at Matthew 6:13, which reads,

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

These are powerful words for the Christian, following the path Jesus set out for us.  As we struggle to figure out God's will for our lives, evil constantly surrounds and tempts us to wander into the worldly wilderness of secular pleasures and temporal delights.  It can be difficult in the face of all the temptations to discern where God is leading us, especially when the human spirit seeks the easy path.

I read a quote awhile back, I do not know the author, which struck me in its deeper truth. It went something like,

"Jesus suffered and died on a cross. Why should we expect our lives to be easy if we choose to follow him?"

The life of a Christian holds no promise to be simple. We were not guaranteed a life of ease. People of faith are targeted by Satan as he seeks to disrupt our connection with our God. Satan knows our human weaknesses and frailties, and he is aware of how easily we can be led astray. We are simple creatures, enslaved by our human natures to want what we want, instead of what is best for us.

Walking in God's chosen path for our lives is trial and error. Even when we truly seek to walk in God's will, every fork in the road is an opportunity for another mistake to be made. I have tried, in my own life, to take those mistakes and learn from them, to use them to help others on their life journey, to travel the path that Jesus illuminated through his death and resurrection, triumphing over the evil which had separated him from his Father in heaven.

Hell is the separation of my soul from God.  There is no greater death to our spirit than to be separated from the eternal love and grace of our Father in heaven who created us.  That is the true victory for Satan, one which I strive each and every day to deny him.  Satan does not want me because he loves and cares about me.  He wants my allegiance to triumph in a heavenly battle in which I am a mere statistical casualty.  That is all he offers me.  It is not enough.

It is God, my Creator and Redeemer, to whom I, the least of his children, matter.  It is God who knows my heart and soul, and who wants my allegiance so that He can work his will in my life, to bring me a more perfect peace available only through him.  It is God who can see the door in the wall while I am blind to its existence.  It is God who can illuminate the path and hold my hand as I struggle to seek his will for my life.

God's plan for my life has been difficult to determine.  The path has become twisted, as I listened to my own will and followed my own way.  Like everyone, I have messed up and made mistakes and spent years doing the wrong things because I couldn't discern what I was supposed to do.  And yet, the promise of the resurrection holds true for me today as much as it did the day I was born.  Each morning I have the opportunity to make a new choice to follow God's will where he leads me, to open my hardened heart to the life he wants me to have.

On Good Friday, we observed the liturgical dancers portray the evil surrounding Jesus on the cross, which led to them pulling him down and covering him completely.  It was stark and laid visually bare the reality of what Jesus experienced as he descended to hell.  Satan thought he had won, his victory was complete, and it was striking how clearly that was made apparent as we watched the dancers cover the figure portraying Jesus.  Even the small child behind me, who was mesmerized by the vision, understood the dark evil that was surrounding Jesus and cutting him off from God.  As the dancers dramatically dropped to the floor, I heard the little voice behind me whispering,

"Daddy, what are the bad guys doing to Jesus?"

It was a stark reminder, brought with the innocence of a child's eye, that we are the bad guys when we choose to walk Satan's path.  When we turn away from the God who has our best interests in mind, and follow our own willful desires, we are allowing the evil of Satan to cut us off from our God.

Dear God, this week allow me to hear your words, and to have the courage to follow your designated path, even when it leads me somewhere unexpected. Open my heart and my mind to whatever opportunities you provide, even when I thought those doors were locked tight, or I never realized there was a door there at all. Give me the courage that my faith imbues to follow your will. Alter my expectations for my life to bend to your desires, and allow me to open my heart in such a way that I will find the richness you desire for me. Help me to find the promise of the resurrection even as I battle my own earthly will, and to know your grace and peace that is available for the asking to each and every person you have created. All this, I ask by the blood of the Lamb who died and rose for me on Easter morning, and each day in my heart. Amen.