"The Temptation of Self-Sufficiency" March 9, 2014

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 Matthew 4:1-11 The greatest temptation for a preacher, is to assume common knowledge and understanding of these texts. For we each come from differing backgrounds and circumstance, and these are the foundational stories of our faith. The great irony is that in the first chapters of Genesis, commonly accepted as telling of “The Fall of Adam,” “the Sin of all Humanity,” the words Sin, Fall and Sex never actually are used. Sin, Fall, Corruption, are theological identifications, ethical understandings given of these passages by the Apostle Paul, Timothy, St. Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin. This morning, we need to listen with fresh ears and read without the blinders of others' interpretations of what the Bible says, allowing God's Word to speak. Genesis 1, 2 and 3, tell the story of Creation entirely differently, from different perspectives, for different reasons. As Abram, Isaac and Jacob wandered the Promised Land, as Joshua led the people into the Land, and eventually, Saul, David and Solomon became Kings of Israel, God's people were surrounded by a Canaanite culture. According to Canaanite worship of the Baal's, the universe, this world, we, were all created by mistake, as the by-products of a great and terrible war between the Gods. The forces of the universe collided in a Big Bang, wherein the Oceans were subdued and dominated by the Land, and Humanity was abandoned here without purpose or identity, and humanity created for itself the worship of Baal. In response, the Hebrew story of Genesis 1, is that the Universe was not a mistake, humanity was not an accidental by-product, but instead, the All powerful God, who could command life into being with a word, formed and created all of life in balance and order, with limits to define each element, light from dark, land from water, heavens from earth, and God's greatest achievement was humanity. Genesis 2 is yet a different story, where the reference point is not an all powerful Immortal, Invisible God, but instead the intimate details of God forming, fashioning, creating us. According to Genesis 2, God got down and dirty by making us out of the dirt of the earth, creating us out of the substance of creation. God created us in God's own hands, by Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation God breathed life into our being. Similar to Genesis 1, and in opposition to the Canaanite Baal myth, The God is exceedingly generous but there are limitations, and God is intentional. We are not God we are created of Creation, and yet our purpose is to guard and nourish Creation, our identity is in relation to God we are to till and keep the ground. As in the beginning there was only one human for God, God put that one in a limited part of all Creation, in the Garden. We are given opportunity to eat as much as we desire of any of all the trees in the garden except one, there has to be limitation for balance and order. Recognize that that limitation provides balance not only All the Fruit except One, but also God allows while limiting. God recognized that as this child was created to be in relationship with God and Creation this child needed a companion and God formed every different creature, but none was a fit companion. The point here is not which rib God formed woman out of, or woman being formed second to man, but rather that out of the substance of the first child of God, the first human, God made a partner, a companion, with all the knowledge of what has taken place, the same purpose and agenda for life, but also that they would share intimate relationship with God, share companionship and trust and love. Notice that in description of the serpent, in Genesis 3, the snake is not identified as evil, not even as bad, not as Satan or the Devil, but simply as more subtle, more crafty than all the other creatures. As more subtle and more crafty, the serpent asks about the generosity of God, in reverse. The serpent does not ask “Did God allow you to have whatever you want?” or even “Did God allow you to eat from all the garden?” But instead focusing upon the negative “Did God say there was anything you could not eat?” Taking the bait, the human creature responded creating greater restriction, “There is one tree in the center of the garden, of which we cannot eat, we cannot even touch, else we die.” Instead of describing God as generous and trustworthy, as an intimate companion, the serpent describes God as other cultures have, that God is jealous and restrictive, emphasizing limits for creatures. While the human does not actually die, their/our relationship of intimate trust dies with the fruit. Instantly there is blame of one another, there is even blame of God “the woman you gave me,” there is shame where they are now no more naked than they were before. By choosing to violate God's trust, by choosing to touch the fire Mom said was Hot, by hiding our desire for what was not ours to take, not only did we know we were naked, we knew we were outside the garden, and the Ground from which we were created, the Ground which we were to guard and nourish has become hard to us. So also with the beginning of Jesus Christ. Immediately after his Baptism, Jesus is taken by the Spirit to the Wilderness. Here the comparison is not with Adam and eve in the Garden of Eden, but the Wilderness references Moses and Israel in their forty years. The complaints of the people are for food and water and land. The Nation of Israel's identity began with Moses on the Mountain, again was named in the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, and now was as a force in comparison to all the Empires and Kingdoms of the World, so Jesus is taken to a Mountain, to the Pinnacle of the Temple, to a view of all the Nations, and asked IF he is the Son of God, exactly what God had just professed at Jesus' Baptism, IF he is the Son of God what is he going to be and to do with that? There is a theological question here, of does God command angels to protect Jesus, protect any of us, from being harmed, or does God send angels to minister to us when we are harmed? Throughout, at every temptation, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy, first when the people have been without food for 40 days and God provides Manna; second when having received Manna from heaven they find fault and complain at Massa and Marabah; third asked whether he would worship Satan, and Jesus responds be Gone. Few if any of us will ever endure a forty day fast. We will not stand atop the Empire State, World trade Center or skyscraper in Dubai wondering if we fell who would catch us. We will never rule the world. But we are tempted every day by vanity, by fears for survival and unemployment, by decision-making that effects others' lives. The point of the Gospel is that the complaining and fault finding of the Wilderness, just like the failures of the Garden of Eden, were based on distrust and Self-Sufficiency, which here were answered by Jesus. We have a different model, a pattern of trusting God and trusting one another. That is what Communion is all about. This is not calling Jesus to come down out of Heaven, this is not magic where we close a curtain say an incantation in Latin and elements change substance, No. Instead, by this sacrament, we are each changed. We forgive one another, and are forgiven, allowing us to finally forgive ourselves. Through forgiveness, serving one another, we are all changed, brought closer into union, and into more perfect relationship with God. Communion is an act in defiance of Self-suficiency, where we intentionally choose to trust, rather than being tempted.