February 21, 2010 ~ Lent 1
Luke 4:1-13
“Testing, Testing, 1 – 2 – 3”
Franklin Circle Christian Church
Rev. Allen V. Harris
 

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Testing and temptation, two essential qualities of being human, and two of the classic struggles of any wilderness and any significant engagement in the season of Lent.

What tempts you? When were you last tested? Those of us who call ourselves, “Progressive” tend to avoid talking about issues of temptation because they lead to conversations about sin. And while I as a progressive do not have any problem understanding sin as a real and persistent force in for humanity, in general, and me, in particular, I do believe most conversations about it tend to be superficial and easily manipulated – usually to the advantage of the one doing the finger-pointing.

But if there is any season to talk about sin, then Lent is that season – for it is sin that is what makes temptation have its “umph!” and makes our testing so de-testable!

One of the slippery slopes of talking about temptation and testing is that we so often hold out before ourselves those big whopper-sins, the real doozies, the headline-grabbing, twitter-titillating, gossip-grabbing sort of sins. Murder! Extortion! Drugs! Prostitution! Robbery! Kidnapping! Well, it’s easy… at least for me, to have kind-of a feel good attitude about temptation when the target is so large! It’s a great relief to look at such huge sins and then feel good about not doing them. Gets me off the hook real fast.

Of course, I ought to be careful. If these sins were so big, and so out of reach for people like me, why are there so many people who are doing such horrible things daily, and not too far from where we live, and work, and play, and worship… Sure, murder and kidnapping sound like “out there” sort of sins… until “out there” is next door to you, say, on Imperial Avenue!

And as we think about temptations, we begin to think of lists of sins, and one list above all else comes to mind. You know, the big 7, the seven deadly sins, or seven Capital Vices or seven Cardinal Sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Now, just to set the record straight, this list does not exist in this fashion in the Bible. The closest lists come in either Proverbs 6:16–19 and Galatians 5:19-21. These bring sin and the temptation to sin just a little closer to home, for anger, lust, and eating too much are possible for me every day of my life.

Likewise, many of us think of the Ten Commandments, and the lists known as the Ten Commandments are given in passages in two books of the Bible: Exodus 20:2–17 and Exodus 34:11–27 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. Not exactly the same lists, but close enough. This sin-list makes resisting temptation harder and sinning even easier. After all, honoring your mother and your father, not worshiping idols, and not coveting your neighbor’s stuff are all actions of the heart and mind as much as, if not more than, the hands of feet. Then Jesus goes and makes thinking the act as sinful as doing the act (Matt. 5:27-28) and makes it almost impossible not to sin! How can you call it “testing” if there’s absolutely no ability to keep yourself from sin!

There we go… from murder to thinking bad thoughts in two minutes or less! Wham! Temptation wins.

So… How’d he do it? How’d Jesus, who was completely human as much as he was completely divine according to the First Great Ecumenical Council of Nicea, withstand temptation? And not simply any ol’ temptation, but three of them at the hand of none other than the Devil himself? Well?

What’s fascinating about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is that, on the surface, none of the temptations the devil offers to Jesus are, in and of themselves, bad. The Rev. Kate Huey writes, “After all, why shouldn't Jesus satisfy his hunger with a little bread, and wouldn't it be great if Jesus ruled the world (instead of the hated Romans), and how impressive would it be if Jesus flung himself off the temple roof and a thousand angels came to rescue him?” (1) This acknowledges that 1.) Jesus is more than capable of doing what is being asked and, what is being asked of him in certain contexts would be good and worthy and true. To feed people… for God-in-Christ to have authority over all people… and to trust in God to save you. All valuable assets and worthy goals. But what’s important to realize is not that Jesus CAN do these things, nor the soundness of doing these particular things, but who is asking one to do them and why one would do them!

So, one helpful learning about temptation is that they wouldn’t be tempting if we couldn’t do them. If walking in space without a space suit is a sin, then I’ve got that one in the bag! Nyet! Not a temptation if you can’t do it. But further, not all temptations are bad, in and of themselves. Their “badness” lies in when, where, how, why, and for whom do you do them. “The devil is in the details, they say, and that’s the truth.

I think this is part of the reason people abstain from certain things during Lent that are otherwise okay for you, as a reminder that really anything can get in the way of your relationship with God, or being healthy – which is much the same thing in my book. I know the Chocolate Industry is ecstatic that their product gets top billing at this time. Who could ask for better press than an entire 40-day season where people are trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to NOT eat what you have to offer? And then to have a holiday at the end where chocolate bunnies and eggs are abundant like rain in the Amazon!

But other folks have abstained from other things and found that really anything can come between them and God. I have a friend who gave up watching television for Lent… she still doesn’t watch TV now five years later! Doesn’t even own one anymore. Someone else is giving up negative self-talk for Lent, and I really commend her for doing so. One year I gave up using masculine images of God – in my personal and public prayer life. Again, not that masculine images of God are bad – they aren’t! But letting go of them for a time period allowed me to see how I had become lax with my God-talk, comfortable with my images of God, and it challenged me to be more intentional when I pray.

So, if temptation is related to things you really are capable of doing, saying, and thinking, and is focused on things that, in other circumstances might not be sins at all… then the emphasis has to shift away from the thing, the action, the thought… to the details around it! Who is asking me to lie? From where am I taking this item? How am I walking away from my loved one? Why do I think I deserve this pleasure? What are the consequences of doing, or saying, or thinking this here and now and in this manner?

This isn’t “situational ethics” as some have called it. It is learning a deeper intentionality about our behaviors, our words, and our thoughts. When we are children, we think like children, and we need to have our lists of sins simple and uncomplicated. But as we mature, we must let go of childish things and realize that merely abiding by a list doesn’t capture what God intended for what we thinking, feeling, dynamic creatures can and should do in life. We’ve got to realize that as maturing people of faith, the devil’s in the details! Yes, I want a list, and we’ll use the lists as best we can, but if Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is to mean anything, then it is calling us to less reliance on the lists – even the devil can quote scripture – and more and more reliance upon the skills of discernment that God so carefully placed within us.

The great preacher and social activist, Tony Campolo, tells a story on himself about being in Las Vegas, Nevada to speak at a Baptist church…

The devil was certainly in the details for Tony! Putting a quarter in a slot machine may or may not have been sin, and it certainly wasn’t in Rev. Campolo’s mind, but when he did it, and for what purpose he did it, and in light of his new relationship with the Baptist pastor made that simple act sin!

And the best place to learn these skills of discernment is in a healthy, caring, and honest community of faith. Here, in this sacred place, is where we need to be tempted most – or at least be honest about our temptations! Here, in this sacred place, we need to be tested the most – or most certainly confront our testing head-on! You see, the wilderness – or desert in some translations (eremos in Greek) is not a bad place in and of itself. I grew up in a desert. It can be uninhabited, lonely, even desolate… but deserts are also holy places. There is much to be learned in lonely holy places. Thus here, in this sacred place, we must be both tempted, and called out of our temptations.

In the least, here in this sacred place we need to find places for honest dialogue about our struggles with sin – obvious and subtle – and help one another mature in faith. We do this not by acting self-righteous as if we don’t sin nor struggle with sin. Judging one another as if we were judge, jury, and executioner does no one any good – especially ourselves! Nor should we blather on and on about our sinning like a tabloid headline. We shouldn’t expect the congregation or pastor to be our unpaid therapist, hearing our every woe and failing so we can leave and feel good about doing it/them again and again. Here in this place we simply need to be honest with one another about the struggles of life as often and as candidly as we can be. And we learn and perfect the fine arts of listening with great care, challenging one another when appropriate, and forgiving. Mostly, we can practice the fine art of forgiving one another – and ourselves.

This Lent, let us learn from Jesus’ experience in the wilderness. Let us be responsible to the lists of sins that the Bible and our faith tradition has given us. They embody great truths. But rather than swallow them unthinkingly – condemning ourselves and one another to eternal hell – let us rather be ever more mindful of the details of our decisions: the who’s, what’s, when’s, why’s, and wherefore’s. For as surely as the “devil’s in the details” so may be the “divinity in the details.” Let it be so!

Amen.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
(2) Tony Campolo, “Let Me Tell You A Story” pp. 211-212


 

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2010 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096