Jeremiah 31:31-34
John 12:20-33
Among our most basic understandings, before we could reason, before language, even before we knew what it was to be taught, our most basic understanding arises from our family system. More than a value system or Morality of absolute Right and Wrong, we act on the basis of what we know. Whether we are male or female, an only child, the eldest or youngest, whether our parents were military, if they were divorced, their politics, their economics, at what age and how our parents die, at what age and under what circumstance we have children, attitudes toward those who are different, ALL have shaped the system we fight against or attempt to preserve, and the assumptions we make without realization. Greater understanding of what was hidden, is the reason we research family genealogies, the reason behind psycho-therapy and counseling, the basis for a mature relationship with God and with one another. The more we can know what is assumed and what is hidden, the more we can choose if what we do is our intent, or simply following the system we know without question, without free will.
When these Greeks who have come to Jerusalem for Passover, come to Phillip of Bethsaida, and Phillip brings them to Andrew (the disciple of John the Baptist who had brought Simon Peter to Jesus), and together Phillip and Andrew bring them to Jesus, their quest is not the same as the crowd or the Pharisees wondering “How Jesus fulfills the Law, or by what authority he challenges the Law.” The presence of this group of Greeks wishing to See Jesus represents all those of other cultures, other systems, the Nations of the World being willing to question all they have assumed in order to follow Christ to God!
Their wish to See Jesus, is the wish of all humanity, that God not be intangible, ubiquitous and omnipresent, but that like Doubting Thomas we could see and touch and know that God is real, that Jesus is real and legitimate and true!
“We Wish to See Jesus,” is the same proclamation as the Father of the epileptic boy crying out “I Believe, Help My UnBelief,” the affirmation of the Roman Centurion at the Cross “Surely this is the Son of God,” the awe struck tearful response of Mary at the tomb responding to Jesus calling her by name saying “Rabonni.” “We Wish to See Jesus” is a rejection of everything we thought we knew, because we now choose to live in a different reality, a reality no longer governed by the old system.
Most of us recall the Prophet Jeremiah as a prophet of Doom and Gloom, who before he was born was destined to serve as a prophet calling the Nation to Repent. Over and over again, all throughout his life, Jeremiah attempts to do the will of God, by Calling the people who will not listen. Finally, after 30 chapters of preaching repentance, when the temple of Solomon has been destroyed, when the King has been taken off in bondage to exile, when Jeremiah sits in prison, suddenly Jeremiah becomes a prophet of hope unlike any other. This is perhaps Jeremiah's most important prophecy: that when all is lost, when we finally realize the brokenness of our lives, the brokenness of our relationship with God, and all the brokenness of our lives, when we come to the reality that the Covenant is broken, our idea of God and our trust is broken, that the Law can never be fulfilled, then there is hope of a new covenant, a relationship with God without sin.
We just said a lot very quickly. The Covenant of Israel with God had been based on three things:
Their occupying the Land promised to Abraham...
Their worship of God according to the Law of Moses...
That for ever, God would be present with the people through a King, the lineage of David.
Beaten in battle, the people were carried off in bondage from the Promised Land, some to Babylon, others dispersed and lost throughout the world as the Diaspora the scattering, the dissolution.
The place of sacrifice, the only legitimate place to atone for one's sins and to pray was in the Temple. When suddenly the Temple was destroyed.
King Zedekiah, the lineage of David, not only their Monarch and Ruler, but the promise of God to be faithful and trustworthy, was carried off in chains.
Previously Jeremiah had demonstrated in the marketplace Israel's subjugation to foreign economies and powers by wearing a yoke around his neck. Jeremiah had gone to the Potter's shed to witness how when clay was spoilt the artist routinely cut it off to be smashed and squashed and set aside, later to be reformed and begun again. Yet they would not listen. Now not only have they lost in battle, not only is their kingdom destroyed, they have lost trust in God and in the Covenant.
The problem with a System of Laws is that it presupposes breaking the Laws. With a Covenant of Law one must assume the occurrence of Sins. Jeremiah prophesies a new and different Covenant from God, a New Covenant not based on teaching, not based on The Law, not based on peoples' sins. A new covenant of the conscience, a covenant relationship written in every person's heart. Talk about UTOPIA this is proclamation of a world without Sin, where everyone knows God and acts in relation to God. Now that is a different starting point, a different world system.
The Gospel of John shares Jeremiah's vision. Jesus' death on the Cross is not, according to John, an atonement for human sins. Jesus crucifixion is not a sacrifice of pure good for the evils of this world. John's Gospel begins at Creation, with the Creation of God being taken over as The Cosmos of Human Ordering. Humanity was given Free Will, and instead of living in right relationship with God, chose that as we were created in the image of God we could recreate Creation as we desired without God. We created systems of domination, systems of violence, systems based on winning and losing. This is why, when Jesus stands before Pilate and is asked if he is a King, Jesus responds, “My kingdom is not of this world.” According to John's Gospel, the crucifixion is not about atonement for Sin with a capital S or the accumulation of all human sins but is an exorcism of the powers and forces and systems we created.
We have created myths for ourselves to perpetuate our Systems.
A Myth of Consumerism, that we can create and create, driven by human desires without regard for the costs. Many of us, particularly living here besides the pristine waters of the Lake have fought against hydro-fracking, but still we desire all the products driven by energy. Until we curtail our desire for power and natural gas, there will continue to be challenges to these resources.
There is the Myth of Redemptive Violence, that the righteous will always have greater power to beat terrorists, to fight wars, to stop bullies. For nearly a hundred years, we have had Popeye cartoons, teaching that if we eat our vegetables, the good-guy can always beat up the Blutos. Horribly, in recent weeks we have witnessed around the world, that violence takes its toll and can cost innocent lives. We quickly dismiss the Ghandis and Martin Luther Kings as being exceptions, but the story I am continually struck by happened in 2006 when a gunman went to an Amish Community in Massachusetts and killed five children, and that evening the leaders of the community went from home to home asking for forgiveness for the one who had done this, because anger and violence at him would not bring their children back and could do even greater harm to their parents.
Matthew, Mark and Luke describe this voice from Heaven at the Baptism of Jesus, and at the Transfiguration. John's Gospel records a voice from heaven only here, which is described as not speaking to Jesus, but for all who would hear to listen. We have developed this Myth of Christmas as being about joy and hope and expectation. While in Lent we reflect and mourn knowing that Christ dies. Would that in this season of Lent, we could wish for what truly matters, that rather than for a new bike or Video game, we could wish for a world where everyone saw God and knew God, and lived without trying to hide from one another or from God.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
"Bearing Witness" March 18, 2012
Numbers 21:4-9
John 3:14-21
For God So Loved The World, God Gave God's Only Begotten Son
Whosoever Believes in Him Shall not Perish But Have Ever Lasting Life
The passage is so familiar, that any who grew up going to Church, any whoever went to Sunday School, if you have ever watched a Football or Basketball game, or driven through a major city, you have seen John 3:16. This has become a cliché of the Christian Faith, that makes many on the west side of the church begin to yawn.
However, Our sermon this morning begins with the question, Which IS IT?
Do we believe in Universalist Love of The Creator, or that only those who believe will be saved?
All around us are manifestations of the Unconditional Love of God, especially this year when the crocuses are not buried under snow, when in March the birds are singing, and we happen to live beside one of the most glorious of natural treasures.
And yet, it happened to me again yesterday. I do not know what it is about being a pastor, but invariably, I am greeted by strangers who confess, “I tried to read the Bible once, but it was too long and too involved and had too many names.” The Bible is not a book of easy and ready answers.
The Gospel of John alone, includes the verb of “Believing” more than any other in the New Testament, yet not even once uses the noun Faith. For John, it not about having Faith, but the activity of believing.
Rather than a book of comfort and consolation, the Bible requires us to look at our fears. Believing shifts our attention from looking at what we most desire, to seeing through what we most fear, to question our actions and words and to decide: Do I want to believe, or Not? It is that simple.
The Book of Numbers is the story of a long journey, not only the 40 years in the wilderness with Moses searching for the Promised Land, but of a journey from being slaves to choosing to exercise Free Will.
On any long journey, be it across the country, or living with change, there are three different voices. There is the Moses, the leader, pursuing the dream, bringing others along, but following where they know they have to go. There are the Hurriers, WANTING TO GET LIFE OVER: Are We There Yet? How Long Until We Get There? When Will It Be Over? And there are the group that proclaim: “Let's Go Back” “We were better off before”. Ten different times, the LET'S GO BACK Committee has dominated. They were thirsty and God showed them a pool of water. They did not like the taste, so Moses threw something into the pool to make it sweet. Then they were hungry, and God appointed Manna for them from Heaven. They wanted Meat and God gave them a field full of quail, but they gorged themselves and developed food poisoning. They were again thirsty, and God commanded Moses to strike a rock, and water came out of solid rock. But still they complained and whined, no longer just against Moses and Aaron, but now began to complain against God.
The Bible has a wonderfully simple symmetry. In the Beginning of Genesis, Darkness, Chaos and Water covered the face of the Earth. The Covenant with Noah, was God witnessing how corrupt humanity had made itself and God allowing Chaos to go free, for the Water's to flood the earth. Then God choosing that this was too painful, loss too severe, and God hung up the Bow. In another of the beginning stories of Genesis, humanity's fear of snakes and serpents was explained. According to a recent Harris Poll (one that had nothing to do with the Presidential elections) nearly 40% of all adults fear snakes. In response to the wanderers complaining about God, seraphim come out of the rocks. We do not have a full description of what kind of snake these were. “Seraphim” are referred to by Isaiah as being a variety of angel, there are fat cherubic little babies, and there are 6 winged Fiery Serpents. We do not know if this is the origin of fire breathing dragons, or whether being described as fiery is about their coloring, or most likely the burning of their venom. At any event, these ankle-biters plague the people, because bitten they writhe in pain and die. Virtually instantaneous the LET'S GO BACK Committee repents. Confessing Faith instead of coveting their own desires, Moses makes a Bronze Serpent and places this upon a pole, and all those who have been bit, look on the symbol of their fear and suddenly they live.
This is a tricky passage, because it sounds an awful lot like making an idol to worship, particularly the very image of Pharaoh, a spitting Cobra Headdress. It also sounds a great deal like magic. But the nuance of the story is subtle. This is not a story of how to cure snake bite, nor the worship of a bronze serpent. Instead, Numbers 21 is the story of once healed, how can we be cured when we repent, how can we be saved? We have had many stories in each of our lives of narrowly escaping crisis, being found guilty and yet released, having tumors that go into remission, the point of Numbers is that the people needed to look into their fears to look passed the fiery serpents at what had brought all this about, to who God really is.
The reason the decision-makers put this passage from John with this story of the serpents is obvious. But all too often, we make the Cross, or the Holy Grail, an iconic image to worship, rather than seeing that to the people of the Roman Empire, The Cross was a long, brutal, public means of persecution and suffering, created as a means of inspiring FEAR in people, as those condemned writhed in pain. When I was a little boy, we spent summers at my grandparents' farm just north of here in Fulton. One of the mischieveous things little boys on farms do, is that we would put frogs on top of fenceposts. The reality is that frogs like damp, cool places away from the sun, and frogs are accustomed to being very near to the earth. So being placed atop a fence post, the frog must decide which is the more to be feared the heat of the sun, or a leap into the unknown from a great height. Which is where we all are, we have differing fears, but each require leaps into the unknown. And as we do, not simply healing from the illness, overcoming our doubt, but looking through these to what truly kills us, and what sets us free.
John 3:16 is like each of the Covenants we have discussed in recent weeks, God extends love to all, but we each have a choice of whether to accept and act believing, or to be limited by our fears, by our past, by Going Back to what is safe. The simplicity of this is that that is also the way through to eternal life. When our kids were deciding on Colleges, it was a fear-ful time for parents. Where will they go? Will they be happy? What will become of them? Can we Afford the tuition and costs? Regularly, we would check: “Have you filled out the application?” “Have you written the essay” And we would receive the teenagers' response “I'll get to it”. Until finally we came to realize that not making a choice was making a choice. Only when they were ready to choose, only when they wanted this school, or this option badly enough, were they motivated to act, and the choice was made. In John 3:16, to choose is to believe and have eternal life, to not choose, to remain stuck is a place of torment and indecision.
John 3:14-21
For God So Loved The World, God Gave God's Only Begotten Son
Whosoever Believes in Him Shall not Perish But Have Ever Lasting Life
The passage is so familiar, that any who grew up going to Church, any whoever went to Sunday School, if you have ever watched a Football or Basketball game, or driven through a major city, you have seen John 3:16. This has become a cliché of the Christian Faith, that makes many on the west side of the church begin to yawn.
However, Our sermon this morning begins with the question, Which IS IT?
Do we believe in Universalist Love of The Creator, or that only those who believe will be saved?
All around us are manifestations of the Unconditional Love of God, especially this year when the crocuses are not buried under snow, when in March the birds are singing, and we happen to live beside one of the most glorious of natural treasures.
And yet, it happened to me again yesterday. I do not know what it is about being a pastor, but invariably, I am greeted by strangers who confess, “I tried to read the Bible once, but it was too long and too involved and had too many names.” The Bible is not a book of easy and ready answers.
The Gospel of John alone, includes the verb of “Believing” more than any other in the New Testament, yet not even once uses the noun Faith. For John, it not about having Faith, but the activity of believing.
Rather than a book of comfort and consolation, the Bible requires us to look at our fears. Believing shifts our attention from looking at what we most desire, to seeing through what we most fear, to question our actions and words and to decide: Do I want to believe, or Not? It is that simple.
The Book of Numbers is the story of a long journey, not only the 40 years in the wilderness with Moses searching for the Promised Land, but of a journey from being slaves to choosing to exercise Free Will.
On any long journey, be it across the country, or living with change, there are three different voices. There is the Moses, the leader, pursuing the dream, bringing others along, but following where they know they have to go. There are the Hurriers, WANTING TO GET LIFE OVER: Are We There Yet? How Long Until We Get There? When Will It Be Over? And there are the group that proclaim: “Let's Go Back” “We were better off before”. Ten different times, the LET'S GO BACK Committee has dominated. They were thirsty and God showed them a pool of water. They did not like the taste, so Moses threw something into the pool to make it sweet. Then they were hungry, and God appointed Manna for them from Heaven. They wanted Meat and God gave them a field full of quail, but they gorged themselves and developed food poisoning. They were again thirsty, and God commanded Moses to strike a rock, and water came out of solid rock. But still they complained and whined, no longer just against Moses and Aaron, but now began to complain against God.
The Bible has a wonderfully simple symmetry. In the Beginning of Genesis, Darkness, Chaos and Water covered the face of the Earth. The Covenant with Noah, was God witnessing how corrupt humanity had made itself and God allowing Chaos to go free, for the Water's to flood the earth. Then God choosing that this was too painful, loss too severe, and God hung up the Bow. In another of the beginning stories of Genesis, humanity's fear of snakes and serpents was explained. According to a recent Harris Poll (one that had nothing to do with the Presidential elections) nearly 40% of all adults fear snakes. In response to the wanderers complaining about God, seraphim come out of the rocks. We do not have a full description of what kind of snake these were. “Seraphim” are referred to by Isaiah as being a variety of angel, there are fat cherubic little babies, and there are 6 winged Fiery Serpents. We do not know if this is the origin of fire breathing dragons, or whether being described as fiery is about their coloring, or most likely the burning of their venom. At any event, these ankle-biters plague the people, because bitten they writhe in pain and die. Virtually instantaneous the LET'S GO BACK Committee repents. Confessing Faith instead of coveting their own desires, Moses makes a Bronze Serpent and places this upon a pole, and all those who have been bit, look on the symbol of their fear and suddenly they live.
This is a tricky passage, because it sounds an awful lot like making an idol to worship, particularly the very image of Pharaoh, a spitting Cobra Headdress. It also sounds a great deal like magic. But the nuance of the story is subtle. This is not a story of how to cure snake bite, nor the worship of a bronze serpent. Instead, Numbers 21 is the story of once healed, how can we be cured when we repent, how can we be saved? We have had many stories in each of our lives of narrowly escaping crisis, being found guilty and yet released, having tumors that go into remission, the point of Numbers is that the people needed to look into their fears to look passed the fiery serpents at what had brought all this about, to who God really is.
The reason the decision-makers put this passage from John with this story of the serpents is obvious. But all too often, we make the Cross, or the Holy Grail, an iconic image to worship, rather than seeing that to the people of the Roman Empire, The Cross was a long, brutal, public means of persecution and suffering, created as a means of inspiring FEAR in people, as those condemned writhed in pain. When I was a little boy, we spent summers at my grandparents' farm just north of here in Fulton. One of the mischieveous things little boys on farms do, is that we would put frogs on top of fenceposts. The reality is that frogs like damp, cool places away from the sun, and frogs are accustomed to being very near to the earth. So being placed atop a fence post, the frog must decide which is the more to be feared the heat of the sun, or a leap into the unknown from a great height. Which is where we all are, we have differing fears, but each require leaps into the unknown. And as we do, not simply healing from the illness, overcoming our doubt, but looking through these to what truly kills us, and what sets us free.
John 3:16 is like each of the Covenants we have discussed in recent weeks, God extends love to all, but we each have a choice of whether to accept and act believing, or to be limited by our fears, by our past, by Going Back to what is safe. The simplicity of this is that that is also the way through to eternal life. When our kids were deciding on Colleges, it was a fear-ful time for parents. Where will they go? Will they be happy? What will become of them? Can we Afford the tuition and costs? Regularly, we would check: “Have you filled out the application?” “Have you written the essay” And we would receive the teenagers' response “I'll get to it”. Until finally we came to realize that not making a choice was making a choice. Only when they were ready to choose, only when they wanted this school, or this option badly enough, were they motivated to act, and the choice was made. In John 3:16, to choose is to believe and have eternal life, to not choose, to remain stuck is a place of torment and indecision.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
"Wholly Divine" March 11, 2012
Exodus 20:1-17
John 2: 13-22
I wish I could recall all the sermons that I have preached, even more I wish you had listened to them. But I do remember the first sermon I preached in this Sanctuary, one part of which highlighted that in the Reformation the Church declared Jesus to be “Wholly Human and Wholly Divine”, which is to say that you cannot attribute to Jesus powers a human being could not have, not diminish the reality that he is God. I recall a throwaway line in that sermon that I fear in the 20th Century we have emphasized the humanity of Jesus too much, searching for the historic Jesus, psychologizing his teachings, scientifically explaining how the miracles could have happened, that we have emphasized the Humanity of Jesus at the exclusion of his being WHOLLY DIVINE. What does it mean to us that this one who wept, who had compassion, who suffered pain for us, who was born and died and rose again, was God among us?
What would it mean to take seriously that the Scriptures are God's holy Word to us... That the Church is sacred, that marriage is sacred, that this life is a gift from God for us?
John's Gospel is different. John's Gospel begins, where Matthew, mark and Luke end. According to Matthew Mark and Luke, in the last week of his mortal life, as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday before the Crucifixion, he cleanses the Temple. According to John's Gospel, Jesus was Baptized by John, and the first miracle he performed was changing water into Abundant Wine, and here within the same chapter, Jesus entered the Temple driving out the Money Changers and Cleansing the Temple. According to Mark, Jesus' entire life was a search for what it meant to be The Christ, the Son of God. According to John, we know who Jesus is, that he was the Messiah from God at the very beginning, and in John we also know that that means he would die and rise again offering us resurrection. NOW knowing, what does turning water into Abundance, and his overturning the Tables in the Temple mean?
The problem with our passages this morning is that they are so very familiar to us. We know Jesus, who welcomed children, healed the sick, and fed the hungry, was so indignant about God's House that he took a whip of chords and drove out those profaning the Sanctuary. We know the 10 Commandments, that they were inscribed on two stone tablets, and placed in the Ark of the Covenant. But what the Commandments were and what they mean, and what difference that is supposed to make for us, those are a different matter, afterall these were laws for people in Israel 6,000 years ago.
The 10 Commandments are not 5 Laws of Thou Shalt and 5 Thou Shalt Nots. The 10 Commandments are not simply the rules God judges and punishes us by. Neither are the Commandments a moral code for finger wagging or hand-slapping. According to John Calvin, the Commandments serve three purposes for us: They cut through our self-deception that we are Good people to name sin.
For us as a community, the Commandments serve like our Constitution, defining what we stand for.
But most, like a lamp to our feet, the Commandments are a guide to living spiritually as God's people.
Does it really matter if we go into the office for an hour on the Sunday? Actually we reward hard work. What harm in a little coveting what we do not have? The advertising industry is based on this. And both Billy Graham and Jimmy Carter have publicly admitted to lust in their hearts. The point of the Commandments is not to establish another set of Laws, especially morality laws that people will want to get away with, but instead to demonstrate a different way of life, a life that leads to different goals. The 10 Commandments are like the lines on the Basketball Court which let the players know what is in and what is truly out of bounds.
Again, as we described last week, these are not rules and punishments suddenly imposed from on high. The 10 Commandments represent a Covenant, With Noah God decided it was too painful to destroy and not forgive, so God hung up the bow. Offering the abundance of creation, expecting nothing. With Abram, God promised land and children and a great name. God invited that if Abram and Sarai and their household would want to be part of this, they must choose to be set apart by circumcision. Here, with Moses, God entered in providing the 10 Plagues on Egypt, Passing Over Israel and through the Red Sea offering freedom, God rained manna from heaven to feed them. After all this, God invited if you want to be God's people, here are the ways of living a sacred life.Why 10, I have always thought it was because we had 10 fingers, so we could remind ourselves of how to live.
So if the 10 Commandments are not about punishments and Laws, but about a plan for living, how do we read of Jesus cleansing the Temple? First, realize that the temple of Solomon had been destroyed. King Herod the Great, puppet king of the Romans, despised by the people, sought to win their respect by rebuilding the Temple. Herod's temple had taken 46 years to build, when Jesus entered, and it was not complete. In addition to all that had been present in Solomon's Temple there was an area for Gentiles. As the Temple Tax needed to be paid in Roman coin, there were tax collectors present. As the law required offerings be animals without blemish, instead of bringing an ox or lamb from miles away and perhaps having it scarred or lame by the time you arrived, animals were raised for sale there in the Temple. While taxes needed to be paid in Roman Coin, Offerings to God could not be bought with coins bearing the image of a Roman Caesar, so you needed to exchange currency. Imagine the sound of Cattle mooing. The sounds of sheep and goats. The sounds of workmen hammering and chiseling stone. The sounds of people haggling over money, all this inside the House of Prayer.
Second, recognize that we read the Bible not as Anti-Semitism, about how terrible those people were, but rather what this instructs us about ourselves. What the Temple leaders had done was to accommodate the needs of the people, making it easier and more convenient to worship. But at what point have we accommodated so much as to lose what is sacred. I would admit to you this morning, this is a hard passage for me, because as a pastor I try to respond to everyone's needs and desires making the church as available and accommodating as people desire. We have become an exceeding open church, performing weddings and funerals and baptisms for people regardless of whether they are members of the church, or any church. But there comes a point, particularly during Lent of questioning how we go deeper in our faith commitment? How does the Church goes deeper? In our earliest identity as a church in this place, we were the Religious Society, accepting responsibility as the Baptized Professing Christians in this place to care for and minister to the needs of others. So what would it mean for us to accept anew the that responsibility for the community?
This is one of the hard passages of the Bible. One where we imagine ourselves with Jesus, overturning every table and driving out those who have made the church a profane marketplace. This is a hard passage because we must question if Jesus would be driving us out, for being too accommodating, making faith too easy and too human.
John 2: 13-22
I wish I could recall all the sermons that I have preached, even more I wish you had listened to them. But I do remember the first sermon I preached in this Sanctuary, one part of which highlighted that in the Reformation the Church declared Jesus to be “Wholly Human and Wholly Divine”, which is to say that you cannot attribute to Jesus powers a human being could not have, not diminish the reality that he is God. I recall a throwaway line in that sermon that I fear in the 20th Century we have emphasized the humanity of Jesus too much, searching for the historic Jesus, psychologizing his teachings, scientifically explaining how the miracles could have happened, that we have emphasized the Humanity of Jesus at the exclusion of his being WHOLLY DIVINE. What does it mean to us that this one who wept, who had compassion, who suffered pain for us, who was born and died and rose again, was God among us?
What would it mean to take seriously that the Scriptures are God's holy Word to us... That the Church is sacred, that marriage is sacred, that this life is a gift from God for us?
John's Gospel is different. John's Gospel begins, where Matthew, mark and Luke end. According to Matthew Mark and Luke, in the last week of his mortal life, as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday before the Crucifixion, he cleanses the Temple. According to John's Gospel, Jesus was Baptized by John, and the first miracle he performed was changing water into Abundant Wine, and here within the same chapter, Jesus entered the Temple driving out the Money Changers and Cleansing the Temple. According to Mark, Jesus' entire life was a search for what it meant to be The Christ, the Son of God. According to John, we know who Jesus is, that he was the Messiah from God at the very beginning, and in John we also know that that means he would die and rise again offering us resurrection. NOW knowing, what does turning water into Abundance, and his overturning the Tables in the Temple mean?
The problem with our passages this morning is that they are so very familiar to us. We know Jesus, who welcomed children, healed the sick, and fed the hungry, was so indignant about God's House that he took a whip of chords and drove out those profaning the Sanctuary. We know the 10 Commandments, that they were inscribed on two stone tablets, and placed in the Ark of the Covenant. But what the Commandments were and what they mean, and what difference that is supposed to make for us, those are a different matter, afterall these were laws for people in Israel 6,000 years ago.
The 10 Commandments are not 5 Laws of Thou Shalt and 5 Thou Shalt Nots. The 10 Commandments are not simply the rules God judges and punishes us by. Neither are the Commandments a moral code for finger wagging or hand-slapping. According to John Calvin, the Commandments serve three purposes for us: They cut through our self-deception that we are Good people to name sin.
For us as a community, the Commandments serve like our Constitution, defining what we stand for.
But most, like a lamp to our feet, the Commandments are a guide to living spiritually as God's people.
Does it really matter if we go into the office for an hour on the Sunday? Actually we reward hard work. What harm in a little coveting what we do not have? The advertising industry is based on this. And both Billy Graham and Jimmy Carter have publicly admitted to lust in their hearts. The point of the Commandments is not to establish another set of Laws, especially morality laws that people will want to get away with, but instead to demonstrate a different way of life, a life that leads to different goals. The 10 Commandments are like the lines on the Basketball Court which let the players know what is in and what is truly out of bounds.
Again, as we described last week, these are not rules and punishments suddenly imposed from on high. The 10 Commandments represent a Covenant, With Noah God decided it was too painful to destroy and not forgive, so God hung up the bow. Offering the abundance of creation, expecting nothing. With Abram, God promised land and children and a great name. God invited that if Abram and Sarai and their household would want to be part of this, they must choose to be set apart by circumcision. Here, with Moses, God entered in providing the 10 Plagues on Egypt, Passing Over Israel and through the Red Sea offering freedom, God rained manna from heaven to feed them. After all this, God invited if you want to be God's people, here are the ways of living a sacred life.Why 10, I have always thought it was because we had 10 fingers, so we could remind ourselves of how to live.
So if the 10 Commandments are not about punishments and Laws, but about a plan for living, how do we read of Jesus cleansing the Temple? First, realize that the temple of Solomon had been destroyed. King Herod the Great, puppet king of the Romans, despised by the people, sought to win their respect by rebuilding the Temple. Herod's temple had taken 46 years to build, when Jesus entered, and it was not complete. In addition to all that had been present in Solomon's Temple there was an area for Gentiles. As the Temple Tax needed to be paid in Roman coin, there were tax collectors present. As the law required offerings be animals without blemish, instead of bringing an ox or lamb from miles away and perhaps having it scarred or lame by the time you arrived, animals were raised for sale there in the Temple. While taxes needed to be paid in Roman Coin, Offerings to God could not be bought with coins bearing the image of a Roman Caesar, so you needed to exchange currency. Imagine the sound of Cattle mooing. The sounds of sheep and goats. The sounds of workmen hammering and chiseling stone. The sounds of people haggling over money, all this inside the House of Prayer.
Second, recognize that we read the Bible not as Anti-Semitism, about how terrible those people were, but rather what this instructs us about ourselves. What the Temple leaders had done was to accommodate the needs of the people, making it easier and more convenient to worship. But at what point have we accommodated so much as to lose what is sacred. I would admit to you this morning, this is a hard passage for me, because as a pastor I try to respond to everyone's needs and desires making the church as available and accommodating as people desire. We have become an exceeding open church, performing weddings and funerals and baptisms for people regardless of whether they are members of the church, or any church. But there comes a point, particularly during Lent of questioning how we go deeper in our faith commitment? How does the Church goes deeper? In our earliest identity as a church in this place, we were the Religious Society, accepting responsibility as the Baptized Professing Christians in this place to care for and minister to the needs of others. So what would it mean for us to accept anew the that responsibility for the community?
This is one of the hard passages of the Bible. One where we imagine ourselves with Jesus, overturning every table and driving out those who have made the church a profane marketplace. This is a hard passage because we must question if Jesus would be driving us out, for being too accommodating, making faith too easy and too human.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Genesis 17:1-16
Mark 8:31-38
In preparation for Christmas, we rushed from Thanksgiving to Christmas, trying to get everything we had to accomplish done. All, while at the same time, balancing the lighting of candles for Faith, Hope, Love and Joy, that the child of God, the Savior, the Messiah prophesied for seven centuries, was entering into the world. Young Mary's pregnancy went from 40 weeks, to Advent being only four weeks of anticipation. In contrast, Lent is a much slower seven weeks, forty days plus the Sundays. Rather than following a girl far too young giving birth to a child, we follow Abram and Sarai, a couple much slower and more reflective about life. God called Abram to leave home and family at 75 years of age following where God would lead, with promise of a child and land and fortunes and esteem. Eleven long years went by, as they wandered the Earth, Abram got to be 86, and no proof, no accomplishment of all God had promised. So Abram and Sarai took her servant Hagar, to make a child for God. Ishmael is born and thirteen more years transpire. Almost 25 years have been accomplished since they were called to leave everything for God, Abram is now over 99 years of age, when God announces a new relationship of faith.
In the Scriptures, relationships of faith require a Covenant and create new identities, not only for the subject of the covenant/ the individual believer, but for everyone. Abram, whose name meant “ancestor” “ancient one” becomes “ancestor of many nations” Abraham. Sarai, who was “princess” becomes Sarah “mother of nations”. God who up until this point in Genesis had been known as the Creator, now is also identified as El Shaddai, “God Almighty”, “the Almighty”, literally God of the mountains, which I like to understand as God of the ends of the Earth. Like the Covenant of the Rainbow with Noah, in which God decided it has been too painful to war against humanity with chaos, God decides to be the God not only of Abraham but of all his future generations. Abram had not accomplished anything, this Covenant was a free act of God, committing that for all future generations God can be trusted to be with us.
Too often we take for granted, seeing a rainbow in the heavens, we imagine “How pretty” or “I wonder if there is a pot of gold at the end?” When what God stated at the cutting of the Covenant, because that is the origin of the ancient root word for Covenant is to “Cut”, was that this C Section in the heavens, this ethereal bow of light is God hanging up Weapons of War. We have known great and terrible wars, we have within recent years deposed dictators, witnessed revolutions for democracy, but when God witnessed the devastation of war, after the battle was over, God hung up the Bow forever. In this new Covenant with Abram becoming Abraham, we react to Circumcision the cutting of our most intimate flesh, we respond to kosher laws of being set apart by our diet, instead of considering, these come in response to God's Covenant to be Trusted, that God would be faithful for all generations. How do we demonstrate being “trustworthy?” In business, what we protect more than anything else is our product's reputation. Thirty years ago, Johnson and Johnson set the industry standard, that when it appeared Tylenol had been tampered with, they pulled all of their product off of the shelves everywhere, until they could come up with a new packaging to ensure their product was trustworthy. In relationships, how do we demonstrate we are trustworthy? The reality is that often we do not fulfill one another's expectations, as spouses and partners, as parents to our children, as employees to our supervisors, as owners of companies to our employees, as peers and neighbors, one of the most heart-breaking for me is that as pastor to those who are dying, as much as we try, we cannot meet all the expectations of one another. We try, we do not betray or abuse that trust, but regardless at times we fail and trust is broken. Beginning during the Superbowl this year, a series of commercials appeared. America's auto industries went bankrupt. The CEOs of the auto industry flew private jets to appear before Congress to ask for money, and were embarrassed for what they had done. Yet, what the commercials now describe is their redemption, having failed, they have come back.
God's Covenant with Abraham, is that no matter what God will still be faithful. We may become angry we God, we may not approve of life, but God is still God and can be counted upon to still be with us, even when for 25 years fulfillment has not happened. In response, Abraham falls on his face and laughs. It could be any number of different responses: Disbelief? Laughing that at 100 years old, I am now going to be a father? That my wife at 80 will be a mother? That God wants me to take a sharp rock and do what to my what? This seems ridiculous! This seems impossible! To go forward means to believe, not just in what is hard, what is expensive, what is impractical, but in the impossible. After 25 years of wandering, that at age 100, that there could still be joy?
Lent involves following as Jesus goes from his own temptation in the wilderness, to the temptation of winning without cost, ever closer to the confrontation of life and death at the cross. Simon Peter thought he had Jesus figured out. When asked “Who do you think Jesus is?” Peter replied without thinking: Jesus was the Messiah, the charismatic leader who would change people's lives. But then Jesus began talking about the costs, what real change would involve, what sacrifice is all about. Confronted with the temptation of power and accomplishments without confronting danger, Jesus says “no.” He stands up to peer pressure, to the expectations of those who follow him, stands up against a life measured in accomplishments, to say “no.”
Martin Luther in the Heidelberg Confession described the distinction between a Theology (a faith in God) based on Glory and a Theology based on the Cross. A Theology based on Glory only sees the accomplishments, without struggle, without hardship, without failure, a theology in which the church conquers the world is a deception, because the point is not the power of the church, the power of God in this world. The only Theology that maters is a theology of the CROSS, the struggle, the hardship, the failures and still believing in God. Every Church Sanctuary you enter, anywhere in the world, will have the symbol of The Cross. It may be understated and implicitly portrayed within the ceiling and doors, the cross may be in the Stained glass windows, or behind the pulpit. But the tragedy, the great travesty, is that for many the cross has become like the rainbow, something pretty that we do not understand, or like circumcision something we laugh about with embarrassment not really wanting to consider.
Taking up your cross is not accepting responsibility for a parent or spouse or child who is ill. Bearing your cross is not having to live with a difficult circumstance. Taking up the Cross, bearing your cross, is embracing life, with all the hardships and impossibilities, and still believing God will be trusted to be God. Where are the places in life, where it seems there is no logical answer, no way to win, nothing to accomplish, and all we can do, the only thing we can do is to try even though it may mean we are going to fail but we will keep trying? Each of us somewhere have a cross, what would be truly amazing, would be for everyone to carry that cross with them in life throughout Lent, and then to bring their cross to Christ's sanctuary. Not that we have a gold cross on the shelf, but that as we have walked through life, cognizant that we have carried the cross through all we have experienced, we now turn over that symbol of death and persecution and hopeless struggle believing in the resurrection.
Mark 8:31-38
In preparation for Christmas, we rushed from Thanksgiving to Christmas, trying to get everything we had to accomplish done. All, while at the same time, balancing the lighting of candles for Faith, Hope, Love and Joy, that the child of God, the Savior, the Messiah prophesied for seven centuries, was entering into the world. Young Mary's pregnancy went from 40 weeks, to Advent being only four weeks of anticipation. In contrast, Lent is a much slower seven weeks, forty days plus the Sundays. Rather than following a girl far too young giving birth to a child, we follow Abram and Sarai, a couple much slower and more reflective about life. God called Abram to leave home and family at 75 years of age following where God would lead, with promise of a child and land and fortunes and esteem. Eleven long years went by, as they wandered the Earth, Abram got to be 86, and no proof, no accomplishment of all God had promised. So Abram and Sarai took her servant Hagar, to make a child for God. Ishmael is born and thirteen more years transpire. Almost 25 years have been accomplished since they were called to leave everything for God, Abram is now over 99 years of age, when God announces a new relationship of faith.
In the Scriptures, relationships of faith require a Covenant and create new identities, not only for the subject of the covenant/ the individual believer, but for everyone. Abram, whose name meant “ancestor” “ancient one” becomes “ancestor of many nations” Abraham. Sarai, who was “princess” becomes Sarah “mother of nations”. God who up until this point in Genesis had been known as the Creator, now is also identified as El Shaddai, “God Almighty”, “the Almighty”, literally God of the mountains, which I like to understand as God of the ends of the Earth. Like the Covenant of the Rainbow with Noah, in which God decided it has been too painful to war against humanity with chaos, God decides to be the God not only of Abraham but of all his future generations. Abram had not accomplished anything, this Covenant was a free act of God, committing that for all future generations God can be trusted to be with us.
Too often we take for granted, seeing a rainbow in the heavens, we imagine “How pretty” or “I wonder if there is a pot of gold at the end?” When what God stated at the cutting of the Covenant, because that is the origin of the ancient root word for Covenant is to “Cut”, was that this C Section in the heavens, this ethereal bow of light is God hanging up Weapons of War. We have known great and terrible wars, we have within recent years deposed dictators, witnessed revolutions for democracy, but when God witnessed the devastation of war, after the battle was over, God hung up the Bow forever. In this new Covenant with Abram becoming Abraham, we react to Circumcision the cutting of our most intimate flesh, we respond to kosher laws of being set apart by our diet, instead of considering, these come in response to God's Covenant to be Trusted, that God would be faithful for all generations. How do we demonstrate being “trustworthy?” In business, what we protect more than anything else is our product's reputation. Thirty years ago, Johnson and Johnson set the industry standard, that when it appeared Tylenol had been tampered with, they pulled all of their product off of the shelves everywhere, until they could come up with a new packaging to ensure their product was trustworthy. In relationships, how do we demonstrate we are trustworthy? The reality is that often we do not fulfill one another's expectations, as spouses and partners, as parents to our children, as employees to our supervisors, as owners of companies to our employees, as peers and neighbors, one of the most heart-breaking for me is that as pastor to those who are dying, as much as we try, we cannot meet all the expectations of one another. We try, we do not betray or abuse that trust, but regardless at times we fail and trust is broken. Beginning during the Superbowl this year, a series of commercials appeared. America's auto industries went bankrupt. The CEOs of the auto industry flew private jets to appear before Congress to ask for money, and were embarrassed for what they had done. Yet, what the commercials now describe is their redemption, having failed, they have come back.
God's Covenant with Abraham, is that no matter what God will still be faithful. We may become angry we God, we may not approve of life, but God is still God and can be counted upon to still be with us, even when for 25 years fulfillment has not happened. In response, Abraham falls on his face and laughs. It could be any number of different responses: Disbelief? Laughing that at 100 years old, I am now going to be a father? That my wife at 80 will be a mother? That God wants me to take a sharp rock and do what to my what? This seems ridiculous! This seems impossible! To go forward means to believe, not just in what is hard, what is expensive, what is impractical, but in the impossible. After 25 years of wandering, that at age 100, that there could still be joy?
Lent involves following as Jesus goes from his own temptation in the wilderness, to the temptation of winning without cost, ever closer to the confrontation of life and death at the cross. Simon Peter thought he had Jesus figured out. When asked “Who do you think Jesus is?” Peter replied without thinking: Jesus was the Messiah, the charismatic leader who would change people's lives. But then Jesus began talking about the costs, what real change would involve, what sacrifice is all about. Confronted with the temptation of power and accomplishments without confronting danger, Jesus says “no.” He stands up to peer pressure, to the expectations of those who follow him, stands up against a life measured in accomplishments, to say “no.”
Martin Luther in the Heidelberg Confession described the distinction between a Theology (a faith in God) based on Glory and a Theology based on the Cross. A Theology based on Glory only sees the accomplishments, without struggle, without hardship, without failure, a theology in which the church conquers the world is a deception, because the point is not the power of the church, the power of God in this world. The only Theology that maters is a theology of the CROSS, the struggle, the hardship, the failures and still believing in God. Every Church Sanctuary you enter, anywhere in the world, will have the symbol of The Cross. It may be understated and implicitly portrayed within the ceiling and doors, the cross may be in the Stained glass windows, or behind the pulpit. But the tragedy, the great travesty, is that for many the cross has become like the rainbow, something pretty that we do not understand, or like circumcision something we laugh about with embarrassment not really wanting to consider.
Taking up your cross is not accepting responsibility for a parent or spouse or child who is ill. Bearing your cross is not having to live with a difficult circumstance. Taking up the Cross, bearing your cross, is embracing life, with all the hardships and impossibilities, and still believing God will be trusted to be God. Where are the places in life, where it seems there is no logical answer, no way to win, nothing to accomplish, and all we can do, the only thing we can do is to try even though it may mean we are going to fail but we will keep trying? Each of us somewhere have a cross, what would be truly amazing, would be for everyone to carry that cross with them in life throughout Lent, and then to bring their cross to Christ's sanctuary. Not that we have a gold cross on the shelf, but that as we have walked through life, cognizant that we have carried the cross through all we have experienced, we now turn over that symbol of death and persecution and hopeless struggle believing in the resurrection.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Larry Weiss' Sermon February 26, 2012
THE SOURCES OF TEMPTATION AND SIN
This is the first Sunday of Lent. Today's scripture reading tells the parable of Jesus being tested, or tempted, by the Devil in the desert immediately after Jesus baptism by his cousin John. We are told that Jesus fasted for forty days and nights and after a time in the desert was tested and tempted by the Devil. We are called as Christians to live as Christ as we work towards becoming representatives of Christ. Therefore we fast during Lent in imitation of Jesus’ experience. Or, we "give up" some pleasures or consciously do extra acts of charity, or we commit to Lenten prayer practices.
For forty days Jesus fasted. Forty is a significant number in the Hebrew scriptures. Noah was deluged for forty days and nights. Moses fasted for forty days before he received the ten commandments. The Jews wandered in the desert for forty years. So forty signifies the fullness of time, in a sense. And that is why we, like Jesus, experience the forty days of penitence of Lent, preparing for the saving mystery of Easter.
Jesus was not just hungry during this period. Matthew and Luke both report three specific temptations that Jesus suffered at the hands of the Devil. He was hungry, and was tempted to turn stones into bread. He was probably feeling weak and lonely as he fasted in the hot desert wasteland and the Devil tempted him with great power and acclaim; and during those forty lonely days Jesus, human as well as divine, may have questioned who he was and the validity of his call, his mission. The Devil tempted him with doing away with himself to force God to prove that he was who he thought he was.
Jesus did not sin during these forty days. He was tempted, but resisted. To be tempted is very different from sinning. To sin is to give in to temptation. We pray every day to be led away from temptation, and to be protected from the powerful urges and tricks the Devil uses on us, as he did on Jesus.
Since this is Lent, we are in a penitent frame of mind, are we not? Aren’t we calling to mind the sins we have committed over the past year, and resolving to resist each temptation this year? If we aren’t there yet, let’s take a look at both the temptations we are likely to encounter during Lent - and during the rest of the year – and, let’s take a look at what the results are, the sins we will commit if we yield to these temptations.
Temptation and Sin. Between the Bible and modern psychology we understand there are three great temptations common to all humans, and seven deadly sins we commit if we yield to these three temptations. First the sins. We are all familiar with seven deadly sins, seven mortal sins, seven cardinal sins. Whatever name they are given, there is generally agreement on what they are, and that they poison our souls and hinder our spiritual development.
Here are the seven sins of yielding to temptation:
Pride. The Latin word for this sin is Superbia. We think we are superb. In modern parlance, cool, successful, terrific people, popular, admired and admirable, a tribute to our species, race, town and family. Superior to most, second to none.
Envy. Invidia. Invidious burning because others are getting what we, in our pride, believe we deserve, or just want anyway. That's mine; how dare they?
Lust. The Latin word is Luxuria, luxury, extravagance. Lust is not just - or even mostly - sexual. It is a desire to be pleased, to have our senses gratified. Whether the eye in beauty, the stomach in the best foods or the finest and newest houses, cars, clothes, toys or tools.
Anger. Ira. This is also known as Wrath. This is how we feel and the violence we express when we are thwarted at what we want, or crossed, or insulted or not treated with all the respect and deference our pride demands.
Gluttony. Gula. Enough is never enough. Gluttony is not just with food. We want what we want and lots of it. Gimme’, gimme’, gimme’. Ceaseless, insatiable demands for anything are signs gluttony is working its dark magic on your soul.
Greed. Avaritia. I want what you have because I don’t want anyone else to have it. I will corner the market and control the flow. It’s mine to hold and keep and grow. How much money is enough? There is no amount enough as long as someone else has more.
Sloth. The Latin is Acedia, which is a better word to describe this seventh deadly sin. Sloth is just laziness. Acedia is not caring. Being lukewarm about things. Lacking zeal, energy, commitment. Having no desire to perfect your soul, no desire to cope with the daily struggles and reach the goal of a well-lived life.
These are the sins, the fruits of temptation. But, what are the three temptations that lead to these sins? Jesus suffered three temptations at the hand of the Devil. Modern science has not improved on the Bible in identifying these three common and destructive temptations, but we are possibly more familiar with the modern vocabulary. The temptations are not evil in themselves. It's when we yield to the temptation that we sin.
The three great temptations are (1) excessive demand for physical safety and security, (2) excessive demand for power and control, and (3) excessive demand for pleasure, affection, belonging. It’s worth repeating: (1) excessive demand for physical safety and security, (2) excessive demand for power and control, and (3) excessive demand for pleasure, affection, belonging.
The three needs themselves are normal human needs, common to everyone. These needs are necessary, healthy - normal. But, when the needs are magnified to excess they are the temptation to sin. And that is the insidious nature of temptation. It is a distortion of the normal and necessary. We all need some degree of personal safety and security. We all need some measure of independence and freedom from oppression by others, and we all have reasonable needs for pleasant experiences and social acceptance. Too little of any of these, and we suffer – without attention to safety we can fall off a cliff. Without any pleasure in food or art, we can become sterile or barren. Without any love or esteem, we can become withdrawn or crabby hermits.
Too much of any of these and we sin. And that is the course we need to steer as spiritually growing humans. Too little security, love or independence and we suffer and wither and fail as humans; too much fearfulness, luxury-seeking or domination of others and we sin. Just the right amount and we are following the strait and narrow path Jesus described as the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us look at the first. Jesus was hungry. He wanted to satisfy his sensate desire for the taste, fullness and blood sugar lift of food after his long fast. The Devil temped Jesus to satisfy this craving by using his divine powers for personal sensory satisfaction. Jesus response; Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He armored himself against yielding to sensory temptation by reference to scripture.
Then too, Jesus was alone in the desert. The Devil tempted Jesus by showing him all the cities and kingdoms of the world spread out before him. He whispered to Jesus that all power over the world had been given him, the Devil, and he could give this power to whomever he chose. All Jesus had to do was agree to worship the Devil rather than God – and power, acclaim, honor, control would be his. No longer alone and vulnerable. Jesus response again was from scripture – You shall worship the Lord your God and him alone.
Finally, as Jesus was weakened from lack of food and drink, maybe approaching delirium, the Devil worked him over again. In the spirit he took Jesus to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem. “Are you really who you think you are? Are you really in God’s hands doing his work? Here’s how to really prove it to yourself. Throw yourself off this tower and he will send his angels to save you. “After all,” said the Devil, this time quoting Psalm 91, remember, the Devil knows scripture, too, For He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so you will not strike your foot upon a stone. Jesus resisted that temptation by responding again from scripture – You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
We’ve seen Jesus respond to these temptations by looking inside for the right scriptural answer. One of the fruits of Bible study are these ready responses to specific temptations – but, we also need the will to apply them. There is another tool to resist temptation. As you pray, the Spirit responds with what are called fruits of the Spirit. These are mentioned in several places in the New Testament. I want to just name a few of these fruits of the Spirit – just seven. For each of the seven deadly sins there is a corresponding grace-given virtue. These seven virtues are spiritual armor and the antidote to commission of the seven sins.
The sin of Pride is defeated by the virtue of Humility.
Envy is opposed by extending the virtue of human Kindness.
Lust is opposed by chastity, a pure simplicity which defeats extravagance.
Anger is dissolved by the virtue of Patience, which reveals how stupid sustained wrath is.
Gluttony is resolved by the virtue of Temperance, which doesn’t require abstinence, but asks us to measure consumption against need.
Greed is conquered by the virtue of Charity, which causes us to want to give for the sake of others rather than take away what they have.
Sloth is turned into energized spiritual zeal by the virtue of Diligence, which reminds us we are put on the earth with a job to do. And that job, for each of us, is with perseverance, to diligently pursue our calling.
So folks, here we are at the beginning of Lent. Temptations will come. Whether or not we fast, one way or another temptations will come. We’ll be tempted by fears for our family’s security, health or well-being, we’ll be tempted by not feeling in control of events or our kids or parent’s behavior towards us, or our superiors at work making unreasonable demands, or we’ll be tempted by foods we shouldn’t eat, buying things we don’t need, overdoing, overindulging. Each of us knows where our weaknesses are. And be assured, the Devil knows that too – even better than we do. And especially during Lent, when we pay special attention to our need to turn our face in a better direction, to repent and focus on doing better. That is the moment the Devil is most afraid of losing his hold on us and will come to us in a beautiful, attractive disguise and whisper in our ear exactly what he knows we want to hear. That’s what he did to Jesus in the desert, and that’s what he does to us.
We will experience temptations during Lent as we do all year. During Lent, we heighten the likelihood of temptation by deliberately focusing on our spiritual health by resolving to give up, to not eat, to refrain from, to stop. In each of these practices we are rehearsing our resistance to temptation, strengthening our ability to turn away from the Devil's enticements. Each of these small temptations we resist during Lent works to remind us of the bigger temptations we faced last year and the temptations to come; the temptations we need to resist - if we are to avoid the mortal, deadly sins, the sins that lead to despondency and depression, the sins of envy, of greed, of gluttony, of pride, of lust, of anger – of sloth.
As we close, we need to answer, “How do we deal with these temptations?” First by recognizing the temptation is not powered from outside, it tickles a responsive chord within us. These triggering events may come from outside us, but they hit us square in our primal needs. Those rich desserts on the table trigger exaggerated needs for pleasure, rumors and news trigger exaggerated needs for security, people in authority over us making unreasonable demands triggers exaggerated need for control. Excessive, irrational exaggeration of these three primal needs for pleasure, security and control are what lead us to commit the seven deadly sins. But, if we follow the gospel, armed with the scriptural virtues of patience, temperance, humility, kindness, chastity, diligence and charity, we can take the secure middle road. The middle road is not denying or exaggerating our needs for pleasure and affection, our needs for security or our needs for control. The middle road, the gospel way is asking ourselves, “Is this too little, is this too much, or is this just enough?”
Think of Lent as a warm-up practice of perseverance, of resistance to the more subtle temptations of the Devil. Because certainly we will face the real thing. Pray that when temptation comes we will resist the Devil as did Jesus. But, we have to decide to put on Christ’s spiritual armor. Remember when the enemy stabs you – and the Devil will – Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, and as long as we are in the fight, the healing medicine of repentance restores us – we are loved, and we are forgiven.
This is the first Sunday of Lent. Today's scripture reading tells the parable of Jesus being tested, or tempted, by the Devil in the desert immediately after Jesus baptism by his cousin John. We are told that Jesus fasted for forty days and nights and after a time in the desert was tested and tempted by the Devil. We are called as Christians to live as Christ as we work towards becoming representatives of Christ. Therefore we fast during Lent in imitation of Jesus’ experience. Or, we "give up" some pleasures or consciously do extra acts of charity, or we commit to Lenten prayer practices.
For forty days Jesus fasted. Forty is a significant number in the Hebrew scriptures. Noah was deluged for forty days and nights. Moses fasted for forty days before he received the ten commandments. The Jews wandered in the desert for forty years. So forty signifies the fullness of time, in a sense. And that is why we, like Jesus, experience the forty days of penitence of Lent, preparing for the saving mystery of Easter.
Jesus was not just hungry during this period. Matthew and Luke both report three specific temptations that Jesus suffered at the hands of the Devil. He was hungry, and was tempted to turn stones into bread. He was probably feeling weak and lonely as he fasted in the hot desert wasteland and the Devil tempted him with great power and acclaim; and during those forty lonely days Jesus, human as well as divine, may have questioned who he was and the validity of his call, his mission. The Devil tempted him with doing away with himself to force God to prove that he was who he thought he was.
Jesus did not sin during these forty days. He was tempted, but resisted. To be tempted is very different from sinning. To sin is to give in to temptation. We pray every day to be led away from temptation, and to be protected from the powerful urges and tricks the Devil uses on us, as he did on Jesus.
Since this is Lent, we are in a penitent frame of mind, are we not? Aren’t we calling to mind the sins we have committed over the past year, and resolving to resist each temptation this year? If we aren’t there yet, let’s take a look at both the temptations we are likely to encounter during Lent - and during the rest of the year – and, let’s take a look at what the results are, the sins we will commit if we yield to these temptations.
Temptation and Sin. Between the Bible and modern psychology we understand there are three great temptations common to all humans, and seven deadly sins we commit if we yield to these three temptations. First the sins. We are all familiar with seven deadly sins, seven mortal sins, seven cardinal sins. Whatever name they are given, there is generally agreement on what they are, and that they poison our souls and hinder our spiritual development.
Here are the seven sins of yielding to temptation:
Pride. The Latin word for this sin is Superbia. We think we are superb. In modern parlance, cool, successful, terrific people, popular, admired and admirable, a tribute to our species, race, town and family. Superior to most, second to none.
Envy. Invidia. Invidious burning because others are getting what we, in our pride, believe we deserve, or just want anyway. That's mine; how dare they?
Lust. The Latin word is Luxuria, luxury, extravagance. Lust is not just - or even mostly - sexual. It is a desire to be pleased, to have our senses gratified. Whether the eye in beauty, the stomach in the best foods or the finest and newest houses, cars, clothes, toys or tools.
Anger. Ira. This is also known as Wrath. This is how we feel and the violence we express when we are thwarted at what we want, or crossed, or insulted or not treated with all the respect and deference our pride demands.
Gluttony. Gula. Enough is never enough. Gluttony is not just with food. We want what we want and lots of it. Gimme’, gimme’, gimme’. Ceaseless, insatiable demands for anything are signs gluttony is working its dark magic on your soul.
Greed. Avaritia. I want what you have because I don’t want anyone else to have it. I will corner the market and control the flow. It’s mine to hold and keep and grow. How much money is enough? There is no amount enough as long as someone else has more.
Sloth. The Latin is Acedia, which is a better word to describe this seventh deadly sin. Sloth is just laziness. Acedia is not caring. Being lukewarm about things. Lacking zeal, energy, commitment. Having no desire to perfect your soul, no desire to cope with the daily struggles and reach the goal of a well-lived life.
These are the sins, the fruits of temptation. But, what are the three temptations that lead to these sins? Jesus suffered three temptations at the hand of the Devil. Modern science has not improved on the Bible in identifying these three common and destructive temptations, but we are possibly more familiar with the modern vocabulary. The temptations are not evil in themselves. It's when we yield to the temptation that we sin.
The three great temptations are (1) excessive demand for physical safety and security, (2) excessive demand for power and control, and (3) excessive demand for pleasure, affection, belonging. It’s worth repeating: (1) excessive demand for physical safety and security, (2) excessive demand for power and control, and (3) excessive demand for pleasure, affection, belonging.
The three needs themselves are normal human needs, common to everyone. These needs are necessary, healthy - normal. But, when the needs are magnified to excess they are the temptation to sin. And that is the insidious nature of temptation. It is a distortion of the normal and necessary. We all need some degree of personal safety and security. We all need some measure of independence and freedom from oppression by others, and we all have reasonable needs for pleasant experiences and social acceptance. Too little of any of these, and we suffer – without attention to safety we can fall off a cliff. Without any pleasure in food or art, we can become sterile or barren. Without any love or esteem, we can become withdrawn or crabby hermits.
Too much of any of these and we sin. And that is the course we need to steer as spiritually growing humans. Too little security, love or independence and we suffer and wither and fail as humans; too much fearfulness, luxury-seeking or domination of others and we sin. Just the right amount and we are following the strait and narrow path Jesus described as the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us look at the first. Jesus was hungry. He wanted to satisfy his sensate desire for the taste, fullness and blood sugar lift of food after his long fast. The Devil temped Jesus to satisfy this craving by using his divine powers for personal sensory satisfaction. Jesus response; Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He armored himself against yielding to sensory temptation by reference to scripture.
Then too, Jesus was alone in the desert. The Devil tempted Jesus by showing him all the cities and kingdoms of the world spread out before him. He whispered to Jesus that all power over the world had been given him, the Devil, and he could give this power to whomever he chose. All Jesus had to do was agree to worship the Devil rather than God – and power, acclaim, honor, control would be his. No longer alone and vulnerable. Jesus response again was from scripture – You shall worship the Lord your God and him alone.
Finally, as Jesus was weakened from lack of food and drink, maybe approaching delirium, the Devil worked him over again. In the spirit he took Jesus to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem. “Are you really who you think you are? Are you really in God’s hands doing his work? Here’s how to really prove it to yourself. Throw yourself off this tower and he will send his angels to save you. “After all,” said the Devil, this time quoting Psalm 91, remember, the Devil knows scripture, too, For He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so you will not strike your foot upon a stone. Jesus resisted that temptation by responding again from scripture – You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
We’ve seen Jesus respond to these temptations by looking inside for the right scriptural answer. One of the fruits of Bible study are these ready responses to specific temptations – but, we also need the will to apply them. There is another tool to resist temptation. As you pray, the Spirit responds with what are called fruits of the Spirit. These are mentioned in several places in the New Testament. I want to just name a few of these fruits of the Spirit – just seven. For each of the seven deadly sins there is a corresponding grace-given virtue. These seven virtues are spiritual armor and the antidote to commission of the seven sins.
The sin of Pride is defeated by the virtue of Humility.
Envy is opposed by extending the virtue of human Kindness.
Lust is opposed by chastity, a pure simplicity which defeats extravagance.
Anger is dissolved by the virtue of Patience, which reveals how stupid sustained wrath is.
Gluttony is resolved by the virtue of Temperance, which doesn’t require abstinence, but asks us to measure consumption against need.
Greed is conquered by the virtue of Charity, which causes us to want to give for the sake of others rather than take away what they have.
Sloth is turned into energized spiritual zeal by the virtue of Diligence, which reminds us we are put on the earth with a job to do. And that job, for each of us, is with perseverance, to diligently pursue our calling.
So folks, here we are at the beginning of Lent. Temptations will come. Whether or not we fast, one way or another temptations will come. We’ll be tempted by fears for our family’s security, health or well-being, we’ll be tempted by not feeling in control of events or our kids or parent’s behavior towards us, or our superiors at work making unreasonable demands, or we’ll be tempted by foods we shouldn’t eat, buying things we don’t need, overdoing, overindulging. Each of us knows where our weaknesses are. And be assured, the Devil knows that too – even better than we do. And especially during Lent, when we pay special attention to our need to turn our face in a better direction, to repent and focus on doing better. That is the moment the Devil is most afraid of losing his hold on us and will come to us in a beautiful, attractive disguise and whisper in our ear exactly what he knows we want to hear. That’s what he did to Jesus in the desert, and that’s what he does to us.
We will experience temptations during Lent as we do all year. During Lent, we heighten the likelihood of temptation by deliberately focusing on our spiritual health by resolving to give up, to not eat, to refrain from, to stop. In each of these practices we are rehearsing our resistance to temptation, strengthening our ability to turn away from the Devil's enticements. Each of these small temptations we resist during Lent works to remind us of the bigger temptations we faced last year and the temptations to come; the temptations we need to resist - if we are to avoid the mortal, deadly sins, the sins that lead to despondency and depression, the sins of envy, of greed, of gluttony, of pride, of lust, of anger – of sloth.
As we close, we need to answer, “How do we deal with these temptations?” First by recognizing the temptation is not powered from outside, it tickles a responsive chord within us. These triggering events may come from outside us, but they hit us square in our primal needs. Those rich desserts on the table trigger exaggerated needs for pleasure, rumors and news trigger exaggerated needs for security, people in authority over us making unreasonable demands triggers exaggerated need for control. Excessive, irrational exaggeration of these three primal needs for pleasure, security and control are what lead us to commit the seven deadly sins. But, if we follow the gospel, armed with the scriptural virtues of patience, temperance, humility, kindness, chastity, diligence and charity, we can take the secure middle road. The middle road is not denying or exaggerating our needs for pleasure and affection, our needs for security or our needs for control. The middle road, the gospel way is asking ourselves, “Is this too little, is this too much, or is this just enough?”
Think of Lent as a warm-up practice of perseverance, of resistance to the more subtle temptations of the Devil. Because certainly we will face the real thing. Pray that when temptation comes we will resist the Devil as did Jesus. But, we have to decide to put on Christ’s spiritual armor. Remember when the enemy stabs you – and the Devil will – Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, and as long as we are in the fight, the healing medicine of repentance restores us – we are loved, and we are forgiven.
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