Living Between the Already and the Not Yet - Luke 4 - Lent 1C

Living between the already and the not yet

Tony Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 4: 1-13, Psalm 91, Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

Opening prayer (Ps. 19)

Luke’s lesson is a familiar text. The “testing of Jesus” where the devil tests and torments Jesus for 40 days. 

Jesus succeeds where others fail: empty images of sustenance, false promises of power, and testing God.

Anyone who shifts to low-calorie diets will tell you, losing weight has plenty of tests.

Wouldn’t it be nice to lose weight or even eat bread at a finger-snap? We know that is not how it works, but we are willing to judge others for not doing enough to get what they need.

People have egos and pride. Power is seductive and being in crowds of people makes us think we have power there and that we have extended family there, but do we ask, who are we following and why? 

Maybe, we are outside, looking at a crowd seeming to go wrong ways. What to do ?

Are people following money, materials, broken political leaders? Assuredly, these will fail.

We, Christians, ought to lean into our baptismal vows to reject broken (or evil) ways and to follow God’s call to us.

Yet, people want others to take care of the vulnerable rather than I being that caretaker because it takes time, money and energy to do these things. 

Isn’t that just pretense to “I don’t want to.” (More broken world speaking.)

Even that isn’t what we mean, when we find ourselves in the wrong crowd or following wrong ideas, are we willing to change paths? Are we willing to return to God’s work that takes time and energy instead of lavishing in quick empty “fixes”? 

Or it is a transaction - a test, “I will do this, God, if you do that for me.” Telling God instead of trusting God.

That screams, “I don’t need God in my life.” As we read in Matthew 6, they will surely receive their reward. 

Observe the last verse, that devil “departed from him until an opportune time.”

This lesson goes beyond tests but to consider, “living between the already and the not yet.” (Jacobsen, 2025)

Sounds poetic or a basis of some hero epic. 

Yet, the question remains, What do we do between the times we succeed (or fail) and the next time we are tested, tempted or otherwise?

Consider: does a devil lurk around the corner like a cartoon character to cause us trip and fall? Or, do we have some agency in our actions?

If we do submit incorrectly or just fail, what then? Do we keep on living in our own minds? Do we shrug off - “not my monkey not my circus”? 

Or do we take a moment to understand, to adjust? 

Perhaps then we might remember to trust God?

Perhaps, circumstances were inviting; perhaps, we had few (if any) choices; or perhaps, we knew exactly what we were doing and chose not the good way but something or someone else.

This is beyond eating chocolates when we said we wouldnt, but much more.

Things don’t just happen but it is how one responds to what happens that determines whether to learn, to do good or to fail and keep failing or worse.

We could continue being alone in doubts or self-righteousness by forgetting (or rejecting) and not trusting God.

Deuteronomy says we are to remember that we were once aliens, and that someone gave to us. That someone gave us fruit after years of not having any. Be grateful.

“You who live in the shelter of Lord, who abide in the shadow of God…”

What is your response to the fruit given to you? Are you skeptical, even cynical, or are you thankful and listening to the Spirit?

Our response to God’s favor in our life, a life that today has grace, a life today that still has troubles, but we have some hope. 

Our response should be like that of Jesus in Luke. 

Who do I trust? who do I worship?

Especially when you are facing torments and pain in your life now, 

The answer should always be God. 

I have my own stories of pain and torment that I could share. People have wrote books and epics about their struggles, and from them, we can learn how we might work through our own. They only teach us so much.

With God, there is much more.

What Jesus does in Luke and what we see in Deuteronomy is to not give up on or test God but instead, to realize the possibility and the abundance we have because of God. God is there to save us in the”already”, deliver us in the ”not yet” and teach us in between.

“When we were aliens, the Lord heard us and delivered us from our pain and torment with great majesty and awe.”

Let that word alien(s) sink and stir us a minute. That term is used today to invoke hostility instead of neighborly.

“…together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that God has given.”

We do that in the “between” because there is enough food and there is family with God when we trust in that work.

The Psalmist says they, who welcome and who take refuge (to trust) in God, will be delivered because they, together, call and God answers. 

Even in despair and questions, in between the already and yet to be, there is learning. There are neighbors. There is hope. There is a bright horizon. There is the Promise.

Despite trials behind us or tests to come, when we embody trust like Jesus, there is God for us.

Thus, be grateful and we say, 

Thanks be to God.