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The Devil Made Me Do It

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Samuel Fanous

Matthew 4:1-11

As we start losing motivation to sustain our spiritual goals, an important reminder is the story of Christ’s temptation from the devil after He had fasted 40 days and nights.

Christ was baptised in the Jordan immediately before this encounter. A voice came from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). This was the glory that proceeded this passage. After the glory, immediately, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

In any spiritual life, progress is typically accompanied by temptation and difficulties. The devil looks upon our progress and ensures we are stopped us in our tracks.

All too commonly with those on the cusp of their spiritual life, as they are about to make a commitment to Christ, things begin to fall apart. Everything goes wrong. How can someone be making a lifelong commitment before Christ and then see everything around them falling apart?

God allows this to happen for our benefit if we overcome. If we don’t make it through, then we are not worthy of the prize. If we do get through, then it demonstrates our zeal for the prize and this is how we achieve it.

We can expect life to become harder if we are trying our hardest spiritually during lent. The typical temptations faced by humanity are the same in which the devil tempted Christ with.

After fasting for 40 days, we can expect Christ to be hungry. The devil comes to Him, tempting Him with food. He says, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

In Lent, that can mean breaking our fast. It can mean concluding that fasting is too hard with so many commitments. We can also break the fast in other ways despite maintaining the right food. We can live life to satisfy the pleasures of the body. We can live life for the lust of the flesh. Temptation during this time comes from things that I thought were long dead are revived in me when I try to engage in my spiritual life.

If we give in to these pleasures, our spiritual progress is halted. Now is the time to increase our fasting, our abstinence. Fasting is not abstinence from food only, but from the life of the flesh and the pleasures of the flesh.

Now is the time to reduce the amount of television I watch, to reduce my time spent on Netflix, on social media. We can unwind my watching television, or we can unwind by spending quiet time with the Lord. I can give what little free time I have on something mindless, or I can attempt to make use of it spiritually.

We all have thousands of excuses to demand me-time. This can develop into a pattern over years and becomes difficult to break. During Lent, we can devote me-time to time with God. Me-time can be prayer time.

The second temptation involves power. The devil takes Christ upon a very high mountain and says, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

You can have it all, if you just sell your soul to the devil. The modern day translation would be, you can have it all, if you sacrifice your Sundays, or you can have it all, if you work hard enough, sacrificing your time in prayer. Forgot all your spiritual goals, because you cannot do both. You cannot achieve everything spiritually while achieving the status you want on earth. You can have all the money you want, if you lie and cheat and steal your way there. You have to sell your soul to the world to achieve what you want. This is a never-ending temptation and so, the question we must ask ourselves is, “What am I giving up to achieve the things I want in this life?”

If we devout our entire lives to anything of this world, what will we have to show for it in the end times? Jesus asks a similar question when He tells His disciples of the second coming; “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:36-37).

For us, we need to be careful not go along with the flow of life. Lent is a good time to take note of my goals in life? Good family, good house, good status? Sometimes we don’t even know our goals. Think of a normal day in the last week, how much of your mental and physical time were spent on things of the world? Maybe 10-12 hours. Think on that same day, did I spend thinking about God, the Bible, my spiritual life? Maybe 10-12 minutes if we’re lucky.

If this is the truth, then this is our answer. If we spend all day in the world, and one minute is given to God throughout the day, you know where your goals lie. If you are forced to spend most of your time at work, contemplate on Him while you are there. Find a church in your lunch break, pray there. If you spend your time looking after young children, find God while your feeding, bathing, playing. Whatever you’re doing, take God with you. Your goal will still be God and spiritual things.

The final temptation is the one where I do not need God. I don’t need God to be a good person, I don’t need to go to church for that. If I convince myself that I am a good person, that is all I need. If I throw myself down from a pinnacle then I will be saved by my good deeds. This is the hardest thing to breakthrough – the awareness of my own sinfulness. The one that confesses of murder has a much greater chance of going to heaven then the one that confesses that they are a good person.

The lack of insight into ourselves is the biggest problem, and this is nothing short of pride. The woman caught in adultery was not condemned by Christ, but the Pharisees who never did anything wrong were condemned; they were called snakes and brood of vipers! They did not understand themselves.

Think to yourself- have you ever shed tears of repentance? Have you ever felt remorse for your sins? Have you ever felt joy at the undeserved grace on the Cross? If this does not mean anything, then it makes the heart further from Christ than the worst of all sinners. Only by contrasting myself with the glory of God will I know who I am.

In the presence of God, you will know who you are. Only in the presence of God that we can describe ourselves as St Paul does as, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15), but also, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).

Let us remain steadfast and work harder that in all tribulation we are glorified in Christ.

A Lent Like No Other

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Elijah Iskander

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Passage: Matthew 6:1-18

As Lent approaches, we generally have one of three reactions. Sometimes it is excitement, at the opportunity to wake up from my spiritual sleep. Sometimes, it is nothing, we are indifferent toward the fasting period. Sometimes, it is resentment – it is going to be long, it is going to be hard, I’m going to spend my time looking through ingredients. On the eve of Lent, it is good to reflect upon which of those three categories I fall into.

Fr Bishoy Kamel writes about the Journey of Lent;

“The forty days of fasting is a gift from our Lord who fasted for us, and a gift from the Church to her children that they may struggle and become liberated from bitter slavery – the slavery of hatred and grudges; the slavery of worldly desires, idleness in prayer and obedience of the commandments. The Great Lent is a time of rejoicing for the children of the Church, to pass over the weakness of the soul, particularly very difficult matters which we cannot solve. Our Lord, who is fasting with us, will over with the Cross to His church and show the glory and the power of His Resurrection.”

Lent is a gift, a time of liberation, a time for the unsolvable to be solved, for our Lord is fasting with us and for us. If we were to ask Fr Bishoy how he felt about Lent, we have his answer here.

He also adds that fasting is not a prison to the senses, but a soaring without hinderance toward contemplation about the Lord. This is a time for all of us, as a church, to soar, without hinderance, in contemplation of the Lord. It is a gift, it is a liberation, it is a time for the unsolvable to become solvable.

When I consider Fr Bishoy’s thoughts of Lent, I feel like I have been fasting wrong my whole life. How many Lents in my life have come and gone and I don’t experience any of this? We are assured that we aren’t the first to think in this way. The people of Israel also thought the same. They questioned Isaiah in chapter 58, on the famous chapter on fasting.

Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?

Isaiah 58:3

Why have so many Lents come and gone, and I do not even know in the slightest what Fr Bishoy is talking about?

The Gospel on the Sunday before Lent gives us a number of clues. We are instructed to do charitable deeds, to fasts and to pray. There are two phrases that are repeated and emphasised by the Lord.

Regarding charitable deeds, the Lord says, “do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” – Matthew 6:3

He goes on to tell us how we should perform charitable deeds. “But when do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” – Matthew 6:4

He tells us not to be like the hypocrites; “For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” – Matthew 6:5

But we do not pray in this manner. “You, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” – Matthew 6:6

Again with fasting, He tells us, “do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” – Matthew 6:16

If we want to fast properly, the Lord tells us, “anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” – Matthew 6:17-18.

He uses the exact same two phrases throughout. When I fast, when I pray, when I do charitable deeds, I need to determine which of the two categories I fall into – will I have my reward from the praise of men, or will my Father who sees in secret reward me openly?

St John Chrysostom says very simply, “because the Lord is invisible, He would like your prayers to be the same.”

Can this Lent be a time where I taste that this is a gift from the Lord? That I taste that this is a time of liberation? That this is a time for the unsolvable to be solved? That this is a time where I can complete unhindered?

One of the keys is that I must pray, I must fast and I must do my charitable deeds in secret. Can I perform my charitable deeds not looking for praise? For if I am praised, then that is my reward.

The church is very active during Lent, when I attend church services, am I attentive? Do I pray more frequently at home, where no one can see?

What am I doing with my fasting in secret that is different? It could be abstaining for a period of time, giving up other things that I enjoy. Whatever hinders my soul from contemplating on the Lord are things that I consider putting aside for the period of Lent.

The promises of an acceptable fast from Isaiah 58 are something that we can all strive for;

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

Isaiah 58:7-9

I will fast, I will pray, I will endeavour to do my charitable deeds in secret so that the Lord may reward me openly. May we beg the Lord that this Lent does not just pass us by, that this time is different. This time we see the joy, we see the liberation, we see the solution of the unsolvable, we contemplate on the Lord, and I focus on building my spirit in the secret place so that in the secret place I may cry out to the Lord and He responds, “Here I am.”

Full Sermon

Renewed in Love

An anonymous poem

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As we walk through life’s valley in the shadow of death,
We look around seeking light to penetrate into its depth,
As we struggle, persevere, lift our eyes to the cleft,
Seeking hope, life, deliverance that’s impervious to theft

When we find ourselves consumed by our daily trouble,
As life’s happenings build up to burst our fragile bubble,
We try to grit our teeth, pushing through our struggle,
Ignoring the only One able to deliver us from this self-made muddle

Neglecting Him we try to resort to our own efforts and means,
Thinking of strategies and ways our minds earnest and keen,
Forgetting His mighty hand and workings that are hidden, unseen,
Working this trouble all for good from behind the visible scenes

Believing all is for good can be doubted, misunderstood,
Crossing our mind a natural question often humbly could,
And so we turn to His word as our source of nourishing food,
Where we will feast on holy examples which the Bible gracefully exudes

When we look at Abraham, his life’s efforts and toil,
Called to leave his country home and familiar soil,
His faith tested through fire, simmered up to the boil,
And yet God rewarded him because he was loyal

Next up we have Isaac who was always obedient,
Who thought not bringing a ram was quite inconvenient,
Who humbly submitted himself, although not expedient,
And so God blessed in a way that he had not seen yet

Now in Jacob we have one who seems awfully real,
One who wrestled with God and experienced his feel,
Although challenges abounded late in Jacob’s ordeal,
God was working all for good for his children to meal

Three examples we see of the patriarchs of old,
Whose experiences with God give hope to the fold,
That God can deliver all who draw near Him and hold,
Working all things for good to those love Him bold