Gen. 2:15-17;3:1-7
Mt. 4:1-11

Okay--here's a test for you; who can tell me what the sin was that was committed by Adam and Eve? What was their sin. Anyone? That's right. It wasn't eating a piece of fruit. It was disobedience to God. God had set boundaries for them. A very clear boundary in fact. Don't eat that! Why? For their own good--to give them a healthier, safer, more peaceful life--there in the garden of Eden--never having to worry about what was good or bad.

But no-- like our kids, perhaps, when we tell them, "Don't eat that!" . . the temptation was too strong for Adam and Eve--they didn't want any boundaries. Wouldn't accept boundaries. In fact isn't that a very modern sin? A modern problem? One of the biggest problems we face in our world today? The fact that far too often, we don't want any boundaries? We want, in our freedom, we say, to be able to do whatever we want. But the irony is, unless we accept some boundaries to our behavior, we lose our freedom--for then we only hurt ourselves, and wind up facing all kinds of problems that restrict our freedom. If we obey God, on the other hand--who just incidentally created this world--then we find ourselves feeling much more free. For guess what? When we obey God, we become the people God made us to be and act with others in the way God made us to act best--with love, and justice and care. So therefore we are happiest--and feel free, when we obey God and respect God's boundaries.

Today we begin the season of Lent together. And Lent very much is a season that has to do with rediscovering the healthy boundaries God has given us for our lives. My friend and colleague, Mark Goad recently had a great definition of Lent. He said, "Lent is our wilderness journey with Jesus, which leads to the Cross and beyond." The word " Lent", he said, actually refers to Springtime. So Lent is the "spring-like return to life in Christ, from the cold winter of our sins."

Lent then is a season that's about rediscovering the boundaries of our lives, that ironically are freeing--without boundaries we get a cold winter from our sins--with boundaries, we're freed from our sins--our misbehaviors and wrong turns in life.
Boundaries free us to become the fulfilled human beings God made us to be.

So what then are those boundaries which Jesus calls us to rediscover in this holy season? First, today we look at boundaries that heal. There are quite a few of those kinds of boundaries in our lives are there not? Boundaries that most of us know we should respect--and yet too often we cross the line--so instead of being healed or healthy, we find ourselves not so healthy--even sick. We could tick them off couldn't we--our boundaries for healthy living: don't eat too much (oh but ice cream is goood!); don't spend so much time sitting--whether at a desk, on the couch, or wherever-- get up and exercise (oh but it's so much easier to let that slide--and it seems like work!). And we could talk about eating the right foods (even Adam and Eve got that one wrong); or there's the need to get the right amount of sleep (oh but I have so much to do!)

Those of course are some of the obvious kinds of boundaries for our bodily health. And though they may not seem serious, from the standpoint of our faith--yet, when we cross those boundaries--just a little here, and a little there--are we not wasting a precious gift--this miraculous body of ours, that God created for us? And then of course we could mention even more serious ones affecting our bodily as well as spiritual health--adultery, for example--that is sexual activity with those other than the one who is our covenantal partner. That kind of activity It's not only morally wrong, but dangerous for our bodies--with the threat of AIDS and other diseases today--not to mention what it does to the health of our families and our marriages. And what about the way we are so fond of spoiling our environment in just little ways here and there. Oh, just one little extra drive to town, one little hazardous waste item thrown out in the wrong place, and so forth. Doesn't seem like much, but cumulatively---think what that does not only to our world, but therefore, to our own health.
So often you see, when we cross the healthy boundaries our world tries to set for us--we only hurt ourselves and spoil our own health.
Speaking of boundaries that protect our personal health, just a couple of years ago-- believe it or not, I was about 45 pounds overweight. I'm a big guy, so I'd weigh a lot anyway, but I actually got up to around 255 pounds or more--so I decided I really needed to watch my boundaries in this instance, and went on a diet--the South Beach variety. Which really worked for me. I got down to around 210--a loss of 45 pounds, over a period of several months. Now since that time however, while I've managed to keep some of it off, it's amazing isn't it, how one little cheat here (love that ice cream), and one overindulgence there, ("just wait'll after the holidays!"), and one extra bite or two there ( I can't leave all those french fries on the plate at the restaurant--that would be wasteful!), and before you know it, well, I'm back to almost 230 again.

And I think my experience is a lot like that of many of us in our particular society --is it not so? We may respect some of the really serious boundaries in our lives, but this little cheat here and this little cheat there, and before you know it--we've really crossed the line, even though we'd never admit it to ourselves.

Which is why I think it's vital for us to recognize how important setting and keeping some boundaries for our lives are. And the most important ones of all are those that God has set for our lives. We were made, after all, to be children of God--and we are happiest, therefore, and most healthy when we are obedient to God. You might even say we aren't really being ourselves, don't feel at home with ourselves, unless we're being the loving creature God made us to be--in right relationship with God. And clearly when we cross the boundaries we know God has set for our lives, that messes up our relationship with the very one who made us who we are. No wonder we get in trouble with ourselves, as well as our world, when we cross the healthy boundaries God set for our lives.

And that is so, not just with our personal, individual behavior, but also with regard to our behavior--our actions as a people. God after all made us to be whole and healthy not only when we're in right relationship with God, but also when we're in right relationship with others. According to the Genesis story, when Adam and Eve sinned, it affected the whole Garden, and indeed the whole world. Jesus, who, unlike Adam and Eve, knew the boundaries he shouldn't cross, when Satan tempted him--Jesus, clearly said no to those temptations that would have negatively affected a whole world--he rejected some of the very temptations that cause so much trouble today-- not only for us as individuals but as whole societies of people--the temptations of taking much more than our share of food, wanting power for oneself, and worshipping things other than God--like power and wealth.

Boundaries, you see, are critical for the health of our world, as well. Why? Because God made us to live, not in isolation from, but in relationship to others. And when any relationships-- at home, in our nation, in our world are broken, because we've crossed the line in one way or another in our behavior that affects others negatively, it also affects our own health, our own well being. We don't feel like a healthy people, if our relationships are not right.

A few years ago, I studied people with disabilities in our churches. In the process, I looked at many previous studies, and also talked with numerous people with disabilities. What I heard over and over from them was how much it meant to them when people in the church would just take the time to talk to them, to go visit them to hear about their world, otherwise, they said, over and over, while they knew the church seemed to love them, yet the church often didn't understand their pain as people with disabilities, or the struggles they had to go through. But when the people did come to visit and listen, and to include them in activities and worship--oh how much better those folk with disabilities felt. In fact, not just mine, but several of the other studies I looked at, showed a very positive correlation between people's health and being loved.

When I was in junior high school, I had my tonsils removed. As luck would have it, because of throat problems I'd been having and the doctor's schedule, they had to schedule my surgery just a few days before my family was going with some friends from my father's work on an outing to Martha's Vineyard by boat.

Needless to say, I felt bad enough as it was, coming home with a very sore throat and still quite groggy and a little sick from the anesthesia, but then to add to that, being separated from my family when they were going off to have such a good time--that really made me feel sick. So I'll never forget, the good things that my family did for me to make up for "suffering" on that occasion. Number one-- they knew I loved ice cream; (oops there's that ice cream again) but in this case it was a kind of healing thing, as knowing how much I liked it, they made a point of letting me know ahead of time that after the surgery one thing I could have plenty of, right away was ice, cream--because it would soothe my throat. But not only that , they realized how sad I felt about missing the trip, so a family member stayed behind with me, to tend to my needs, and most important-- so I would know I was not alone. Now , I was a bit groggy, so I couldn't tell you now even who that family member was, or what they did to help me, I just recall feeling so much better, and safer knowing a loved one was always nearby even though the rest of the family was deserting me in my need. Then of course I was buoyed even more on their return, when they all made a point of coming into my room to kind of relive the trip for me, and let me know of their concern about how I was feeling. So it was that my tonsillectomy turned out to be not such a painful experience after all--because of their love and caring for me.

Now if a loving family can do that for one person, think what it does to our world of relationships if we as a people, do things that are loving, instead of acting in ways that seem to the world to be unloving. What if we spent as much money on food for the hungry around the world, as we do on armaments--armaments which rather than bringing peace ultimately, seem only to create more terrorists in the world and to perpetuate the idea that only the only effective solutions to the worlds problems are violent solutions. And speaking of healthy boundaries then, think how much pain the reliance on violence and weapons brings to people around the globe, when we continually cross God's boundaries that tell us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and oh yes, that other boundary -- you shall not kill?

You see, our health, as individuals, and as a world is directly related to having healthy boundaries and not crossing them--and specifically the healthy boundaries that God has set for you and me. For in the end we feel most healthy, most human, most alive, you and I when in fact we are in right relationship to God. If we're not--if we've separated ourselves from God, by crossing the healthy boundaries-- to the evil side, then no wonder we find ourselves cut off from God--and no wonder then we don't feel healthy. We've cut ourselves off from God, the One and only One who can truly help us be the person we were created us to be. So in the end the healthiest boundaries are those that help our relationship with God. We're only fully alive when that relationship with God is healthy. To be healthy, then, we need to ask how have we cut ourselves off from God, by not having boundaries of spiritual discipline--that give us a daily, healthy connection with God.

The great mystic and writer on the spiritual disciplines, Henri Nouwen, in his book Bread for the Journey, once said the following: "Trees that grow tall have deep roots. Great height without great depth is dangerous. The great leaders of this world, like St. Francis, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., were all people who could live with public notoriety, influence and power in a humble way, because of their deep spiritual rootedness.

"Without deep roots," he says (and yes therefore the boundaries, the disciplines we follow in our lives to establish a deep-rooted relationship with God),"without deep roots," says Nouwen, "we easily let others determine who we are. But as we cling to our popularity, we may lose our true sense of self. Our clinging to the opinion of others reveals how superficial we are. We have little to stand on. We have to be kept alive by adulation and praise. [On the other hand, he says] Those who are deeply rooted in the love of God can enjoy human praise without being attached to it."

So how strong are our healthy boundaries today. Do we keep out enough of the world's diversions to give us time to develop a deep-rooted relationship with God, through prayer, scripture reading, worship and listening and looking for God's guidance in our lives, or have we let our boundaries down so much, we let the world lead us away from that relationship with God. And what about our boundaries of personal or social behavior, and our boundaries of behavior in relationship to our world in need. Are those boundaries so weak we sometimes become something other than the healthy human beings God made us to be? In the end, with healthy boundaries we actually feel freer than we do without them, for without them, we only hurt ourselves. That's a hard lesson for us to learn, but a vital one, if we're ever to feel truly healthy again--a people in harmony with ourselves, with others, with our world . . and most importantly with the one who made us . . .our Loving God. Amen.