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Time for a Check Up with Your Priest

The Very Reverend Sam G. Candler
The Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, GA
21 February 2010
The First Sunday of Lent
Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted….  –Luke 4:1-2

You do not have to follow medical insurance in particular to realize that health care is a prime topic for our daily news shows. Health care has become a political issue, an election issue, and so it is a regular feature of our media anxiety.

Have no fear. On this First Sunday of Lent, I will not add my own feeble thoughts on the political issues of health care. But I do want to ask two particular questions about health care this morning.

How many of you actually have a doctor, a primary physician, who knows something about you? And the second question is this: if you do have a doctor, when was the last time you visited him or her?

A few years ago, I found myself without a regular doctor. The doctor I was using, who I actually did not know very well, had retired. My name was simply assigned to someone else. It was up to me either to use that new assignment or to go and present myself to another physician.

Well, it took me a little while to make all that happen. There was just too much else going on in my life, as there always is.

It was a doctor in this parish who finally instigated my action. She told me that she was not going to be my doctor, but that I sure better find one. And so I did. I am glad to inform all of you this morning, that, for the past several years, I have had all my physicals and I am in relatively good physical health.

The first step, of course, was to have the physical exam. It was good to have a check-up and to take all the tests.

Today, of course, we are in church. Today, we have just begun the season of Lent.  Four days ago, Ash Wednesday, many of you heard the priest say, “I invite you to the observance of a Holy Lent, by self-examination.” Today, I want to make the same case for priests that my friend made for doctors.

Today, I ask you: Do you have a priest? If so, when was the last time you checked in with him or her?

There is such a thing as physical health, for sure; and there is also such a thing as spiritual health. If you make arrangements to care for your physical health, please make arrangements to care for your spiritual health.

My invitation today, my Lenten invitation, is for you to check in with a priest some time in the next forty days. If you do not have a priest who knows you, find one you would like to know. Check in, even if only for a few minutes, or for longer. Make a telephone call. Send an e-mail. Make an appointment. Use Lent to check in with your priest like you would check in with a physician. Some people might require only a few minutes. Others will require more.

To every new parishioner who enters the Cathedral, I say a similar thing; and I try to say it to everyone from time to time: Make sure that at least one of the canons of the Cathedral knows who you are! The Cathedral of St. Philip has many priests, and many different sorts of priests. Our Canon for Music functions as a pastoral leader, too. Some of us are not very cool, and some of us are very cool! Make sure that at least one of the canons of the Cathedral knows who you are! It is as simple as that.

All of us need occasions for examination. All of us could use a few tests.

Ah, but we don’t like tests, do we? We grew up not liking tests in school. Then, we had to visit the doctor’s offices, and their medical tests were quite uncomfortable, and sometimes painful. Now, as adults, we find some of our medical tests to be even more uncomfortable and intrusive.

But those tests can save us.

Maybe it helps to know today that Jesus himself submitted to testing. Here, in Luke’s gospel (Luke 4:1-13), we hear again of Jesus being led out into the wilderness. Indeed, the Gospel of Luke says that Jesus “was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.” The Holy Spirit had something to do with Jesus being led out into the wilderness! There, in the wilderness, for a period of forty days, Jesus was tempted.

But, the word for “tempt” is much the same as the word for “test.”  In fact, in Greek, it is the very same word. The beginning of the story of Jesus in the wilderness, in English, says that Jesus “was tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:2); and the end of the story, in English, says that “the devil had finished every test” (Luke 4:13). But, in both cases, the word for “tempt” and the word for “test,” are the same word (peirasmos).

The temptations that Jesus encountered in the wilderness, then, were really the tests that made sure he was healthy enough to begin his ministry. They were not comfortable for him, but, through them his faith was tested like steel. His faith was seasoned like iron.

The English word for “test’ comes from the small earthen vessel that was used in the Middle Ages to evaluate precious metals (“testum” means “earthen pot" in Latin).  To test metal is to evaluate its strength and health.

When Jesus submitted to his own tests, when he faced the temptations of the devil, he was actually growing healthier in faith. For us, physically, the tests in our lives are uncomfortable. The tests in our lives can be just as uncomfortable as the temptations. But they also mean we are growing in spiritual health.

So it is that a priest, or some other spiritual director, may ask you hard questions, uncomfortable questions. Her conversation with you might even seem intrusive; those conversations might reveal places where you are vulnerable. They are like doctor’s examinations, and we pray that they are just as fruitful.

Of course, we always hope that we are not led to the test. We pray daily to God, “lead us not into temptation,” or “save us from the time of trial,” or “do not put us to the test.” But, in the paradoxical path of God, we do submit to the testing – not the negative sort which leads to our downfall or which reveals illness—but we submit to the testing which reveals the path to health and fortitude.

Lent begins, then, with our commitment to spiritual examination and health.

Do you have a person where you can check in? Do you have a priest? Do you have someone committed to your spiritual health and salvation? Do you have a doctor? Someone in charge of the cure of souls?

I hope so. Find one. I invite you, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent.

AMEN.

The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip

Comments? Contact Dean Candler at: SCandler@stphilipscathedral.org

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