Sermon
So,
has anyone here ever done anything they were told not to?
When
I was in high school, once I took my stepfathers’ red Mazda Miata convertible out
for a spin. It was with good intentions!
One afternoon, friends and I stayed after school for some activity and
everyone missed their transportation home.
I, being a licensed driver that lived close to school – and expecting
our minivan to be sitting in the garage – told them I could take them home if
they wanted to walk to my house. Well,
they both did, but when I got home I found, instead of the minivan, Dale’s
shiny Miata. Now, I had never been
invited to drive Dale’s Miata. But since
I had friends there already, I felt like I couldn’t just tell them to walk
home, so… I carefully gave
each of them an individual ride home in my stepfather’s 2-seater Sportscar (and
enjoyed it.) And I almost got away with
it, except it’s pretty difficult to get the seat right back in the perfect
position…
It
was too tempting to let the opportunity pass by…
Jesus
goes to the Wilderness to fast, and we get a story about temptation. I have a confession; I’ve never been able to
make much sense of this story. I mean, I
get that after 40 days of fasting, Jesus was probably hungry – that’s easy
enough to understand. But throw yourself
from the temple? Possess all the
kingdoms of the land? These things
seemed like abstractions to me… irrelevant to my life as a Christian. And not really anything I could relate to
anyways…
But
the elements being offered up to Jesus by Diablo here in the story are
seductions. The overall seduction, first
and foremost, is for Jesus to claim his birthright as the Beloved Son of
God. Prove it, the Devil is saying. Show everyone your true nature, your true divinity.
That, in itself, would probably feel incredible! Who doesn’t want to tell off our critics, and
do it with a little flair too! It feels
like every scene in every movie when the browbeaten hero gets to make a speech
of how they are great, and always were great, and don’t you forget it!
But,
truly that would be mostly self-serving.
It certainly would have made his time on earth go more smoothly…
What Pharisee or Scribe would dare challenge his preaching and message
if he had summoned angels to buttress his descent from the height of the temple
to the rocky ground below? His hometown
of Nazareth would have to respect him then!
And heaven help the ruler who was tasked with delivering his punishment…
But
Jesus is steadfast, and stays the course.
Since it was Jesus, he probably didn’t even contemplate the Devil’s
offers. But I wonder if he did… if he considered each offer carefully,
weighed the options in his mind, batted it around a little. What do you think was the deciding factor
that would make him say no? Perhaps he
was weighing the unintended consequences.
We
know, because we know the rest of Jesus’ life, that it would have been nothing
for him to create bread from stones.
Later in his life, he’ll take 5 loaves and feed 5000 people, and changes
water into wine. But, had he taken the
Devil’s bait, it would singlehandedly wipe out the difficult part of the
fast. Unlike when the Israelites
wandered for 40 years in the desert and lamented about their hunger, Jesus
refuses to give into his hunger, therefore getting closer to God through an empty
stomach. To shortcut that process would
be to give up the sacrifice that makes it meaningful; the emptying of your
stomach!
The
temptation of satisfying our hunger for food, or let’s say, creature
comforts. What could be the unintended consequences
of that? We’ve all seen that movie,
right? It’s been parodied in almost
every movie about the devil, from the Devil’s Advocate to one of my favorites -
Oh God, You Devil with George Burns. The
seduction of plentiful creature comforts leads to excess. As we talked about last Wednesday in our
program on Just Eating, today our food is plentiful and abundant – and wrapped
in all kinds of colorful, convenient packages to make our consumption quick and
easy. And we see the consequences of
that in our lifestyles, and our habits, and our health…and in our trash! Not only do we waste
40% of food, but the remains of these packages can be seen everywhere. I was walking in Heartwell Park last night,
and the evidence of our food packaging was collected all along the canal. The spoils of excess are all around us.
And
then the devil entices Jesus to throw himself onto the hands of angels that
will surely rise up to meet him. The
lure of safety and easy security is everywhere around us – bought, sold and
commercialized, and of course on film. ADT promises to keep our homes safe from
would-be break-ins. Insurance promises
to safeguard our lives against every risk. Every election, we are lured by
promises of guaranteed security and safety for our loved ones. And the movie plot line about what can go
wrong when you think you are safe never gets old. Anyone here see the movie Panic Room? Safe House?
Air Force One? Guaranteed security
is an illusion, but the unintended consequences of our repeated attempts to heighten
security measures can be great. Just ask
the Palestinian civilians who live under Israeli rule… or kids who attend schools with armed
security guards… or African Americans
who live under the heavy thumb of the Chicago police department in Chicago’s
neighborhoods of color…or the recent stories of non-criminal immigrants getting
caught up in this deportation frenzy we are engaged in. Enhanced security always comes with a human
cost.
Finally,
the Devil promises Jesus all the power and prestige he could ask for. Who doesn’t find this seductive? Who hasn’t said, “if only I was in charge, I
could take care of all these problems.” Now’s
the time to confess because you know we have our Annual Meeting after service… I mean, I know I have… and I’m sure I would be just and fair
and never hurt anyone! Except, that’s impossible, because I’m not perfect. And again, movies abound with depictions of
lust for power. But what comes to mind
for me is Lord of the Rings, and the One Ring to Rule Them All. How many ways do we see J.R.R. Tolkien
present the scenario of what happens when good and evil collide with the
potential for absolute power? There’s
Bilbo, and Gollum, and King Boromir… My favorite, though,
is when Frodo offers the One Ring that will Rule them All to Galadriel, the
Elvish Queen. “I do not deny that my
heart has greatly desired this,” she says.
And then in the next horrifying frame in the film, we see her image turn
dark and radioactive while her amplified voice perfectly illustrates the temptation
of absolute power: “In the place of the Dark Lord you shall have a Queen…. All shall love me and despair.” I’ve never seen a better visual depiction of
the lust for power.
Many
times in our inherited history, we’ve learned the dangers of holding too much
political power and prestige. From the kings of Israel, to Medieval Kings, to
the dictators of the 20th Century; the old saying holds – absolute
power corrupts absolutely. And the
church has also learned this lesson over our 2000-year history. When Christianity became the religion of the
Constantinian Empire, it altered the nature of the church. With the power of Empire came the power to
denounce, excommunicate or forcibly convert, violently persecute and even kill
those who didn’t hold certain beliefs.
It’s the story of the Christian Crusades, and our Congregational history
of seeking freedom here from other Christians who had the power to make the
rules. And then we turned around and did
it ourselves in the colonies with the Salem Witch Trials, and now with
religious tests for immigrants coming into the country. When one religion is married with political
power, it has more often than not become a threat – not only to those of
different religions, but to those within it’s own religion.
(Now,
I am not trying to say that faithful people shouldn’t be involved in politics… But power is best in balance with
others.)
Materialism,
Security, Power and Prestige… the temptations that Jesus faced were parallel to the
temptations Israel faced in their history, and seductions that we still face
every day in our own lives. The failures
of Israel – asking for food in the desert, testing God, worshipping idols and
turning over power to kings; these were the places where Israel had failed, and
Jesus succeeds. Jesus is the perfect
culmination of Israel’s history remembered.
But we, not being perfect, fall prey to these temptations all the time,
because not being perfect, we can’t see the unintended consequences.
If
Adam and Eve had known the consequences of eating the apple – that they would
be expelled from the garden and not able to dwell near God’s presence, and made
to till the earth and labor in childbirth, do you think they would have still
eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge?
The story of the Garden of Eden is often nicknamed ‘the Fall of Man’ –
and of course, that implies that the woman is to blame for it! Sometimes the actions of Adam and Eve are
highlighted as why humanity needed saving – because this original couple
brought sin onto the human race. But
while it’s a story about disobedience and consequences, it’s also a story about
the pursuit of knowledge. In the story,
Eve is simply curious. She’s been
enticed by a wise being – the snake – that to eat of the tree of knowledge will
make her and Adam like God.
How
many times, as children, did we disobey rules that were barring us from being
like our parents? Whether it’s a child
getting into her mother’s makeup, or a kid taking out dad’s sportscar, or
staying out late and trying something we’re not supposed to? And in each of these instances, as kids, we
learn. Our curiosity, perhaps our desire
to be like adults, allow us to see the unintended consequences of our actions,
and become learning experiences for adulthood.
And
the good news is, when Adam and Eve eat the apple, they don’t die. God doesn’t cut off contact. God’s unconditional love remains for his
creation. Because we are not perfect, we
often succumb to temptation. But when we
do, God forgives us, just as we forgive each other. Lets spend these 40 days of Lent contemplating
the places where temptation has led us down a path unintended, and ask God for
the opportunity to show we’ve learned from our unintended consequences. Amen.
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