It’s a good thing for us that Psalm 91 is part of a collection of Psalms and not the only prayer we have to go on. It’s kind of like the wide variety of Christian theology found in the Presbyterian Book of Confessions that includes in it the creeds and historical documents that have guided the church since the 4th century. The prayers in the Psalms are not uniform. This one in particular promises the reliability of God’s protection for the faithful, but in other places, the psalms lament, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The collection seems to have a prayer for every season, both praise of God’s bounty and despair at what seems to be God’s unfair blows. Jesus could have been tricked by this clever twist of a scripture verse to a totally different ending for his life. It was the most alluring temptation of all – security.

But Jesus was not a “security-maker;” he was a peacemaker. Security is the lure of safety we feel by not going too far out of our comfort zones. It’s what keeps people in jobs that they hate. It’s what makes us complacent in our relationships with one another. It gives us a false sense of happiness because acting safe may reduce the amount of conflict in our lives, even if it only brings a temporary fix. We can trick ourselves into thinking that it is what the devil claims it is - God’s protection for the righteous. Hard-core traditionalists thrive on that position. If we love things the way they are, then God must love things the way they are too. We decide not to change the world because changing the world requires far too much effort.

Jesus rejected this temptation as putting God to the test, which is exactly what banking on that security will do for us. It goes something like this in theology-land. If you are a good person, you will be rewarded; the angels will protect you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. If something bad happens, then it must be because you missed something important and fell out of God’s grace. Or even better, if something bad happens to somebody else, you can feel quite justified in saying that the moron deserved it. This is not an uncommon view, but it is an “un-Christ-like” view.

Jesus rejects an “easy gospel.” As I heard from the Rt. Rev. Ken Newell at the February meetings of Maryville College this past week, “If living in Christ’s way were easy and promised happiness, we could fill all our churches.” Rev. Newell has been for the past 25 years or more, a pastor and peacemaker in Belfast, Ireland. It’s hard to describe the incredible impact he had on the people who gathered to hear him speak, myself included. It’s also hard to maintain that you have unbearable conflict here in our church or even more believably in the Presbytery when here is someone who has lived through the surreal life of bombings and gun-toting Christians spewing violence and hate in every direction. But the miracle is: Belfast is no longer in the news all the time. The sides of this conflict are getting closer. Fences are being mended, but it wasn’t without the hard work of many people living out their faith inch by inch, minute by minute, day by day.

Rev. Newell began both of the talks that I heard with the statement, “Peacemaking is not for the fainthearted. Peacemakers have extra muscle in their hearts.” And in the first lecture, he followed that up by saying, “If you want to be happy, do something else.” Powerful, powerful words from a man who also chose to live beyond the temptation of security! He could have chosen not to come back to Belfast several times over, but found himself in the difficult place of having to face God choosing him for this work. His first lecture explored the anxiety of that decision to grow where he had been planted and was titled appropriately, “Here I am Lord, send someone else!”

In the face of the hard gospel of Jesus Christ, many of us would rather have God send someone else. But ultimately it is the example of Jesus that is to be the example for us. Rev. Newell also gave me an idea for our observance of Lent. He said that in his first few years in Belfast, he preached Jesus, the stories, the words, the person. If they were going to start living in hope rather than in fear, in the open rather than in the dark, they would need the light of Christ to guide them. Even for those of us who live a mundane and uneventful existence by comparison, we need Jesus. So Lent this year will be all about discovering him anew as we look at his story together.

The only way to really describe hearing Rev. Newell speak was to say that I felt “converted” after just a couple days of reflecting on what he’d said. Through hearing the Jesus story through Irish eyes, I could sense my own faith come fresh again. But it’s really not about Ken Newell’s story as much as it is about hearing yet another facet of Jesus’ story.

Jesus comes to bring us peace. That peace comes at a cost. It means that we must give up on the idea of feeling safe and protected. The protection comes from God surely and reliably as the Psalmist’s prayer, and yet, it comes only in God’s own time. Newell reminded me that if transformation comes only ½ a centimeter a year, that’s incredible progress! And now, by God’s grace working in many people, he can see a new Ireland and be amazed by the little steps that have brought Catholics and Protestants into conversation with each other.

Following the Jesus story is about having the willingness to be transformed, to let go of our old prejudices and to refuse the same temptations that the devil makes to us in our own wilderness places – that we could be comfortable, powerful, and safe. Newell used a wonderful word picture to describe this transformation. He said, “Jesus doesn’t come in and transform our lives without rearranging the furniture.” By that he meant that Jesus always makes a seat for someone we didn’t expect. He sets the table so that everyone can find a place. He dusts off those cobwebs of neglect. And he shows us a new way of being.

The devil can take scripture that we trust and use it to twist us up. Scripture has been used with great frequency to uphold the status quo, and we find it hard to argue when someone quotes verses that pointedly tell us what we should or shouldn’t do. But Jesus takes on scripture with scripture. He won’t allow the devil to sell an easy gospel to an uninformed public. Jesus lets us know that the road is not safe for him or for anyone who will follow him. He won’t test God by asking for everything to go his way.

Reading the Bible, especially reading about Jesus in the gospels, is a radical thing to do. If you really pay attention, you begin to see how Jesus does earn his disfavor with the church and with the authorities of his day. We’ll be reading this story in Lent. I hope you’ll choose to do some reading of your own, to welcome Jesus into your life during this season of reflection, and I’ll also challenge you with the same challenge put to Maryville college students, faculty, and their Board of Church Visitors this week. Find someone who challenges your perceptions and prejudices and invite him or her to lunch. Learn something new about a different part of the world. Be open to the possibility that through Jesus’ eyes, we are all beloved, even if we aren’t safe. It may change the way you see things. It may change how you read the truth of scripture. It may invite Jesus into your rooms to shuffle the furniture around a bit. Lent is a time of letting go. You can decide to let go of chocolate or meat on Fridays, or you can let go of the baggage that you can’t take to heaven with you anyway. Choose to let go of security and welcome God’s great gift of peace that penetrates even the most heinous long term human conflicts.

Amen.