Genesis 2

Matthew 4.1-11

the line runs straight through the heart

I like Lent. I know that’s weird.

In the general public mind, Lent is mostly about finding some way to punish yourself just enough to be aware and feel appropriately guilty about what a lout you really are down inside. Which, of course, if you really are a lout, that is probably a good thing, certainly for those who have to live with you. Many people assume Lent is about giving up chocolates, promising not to cuss out loud, or at least in front of the children, and not eating red meat on Friday, the sad, but good day that Jesus died. That’s too bad. Not that Jesus died, well, that’s bad too but bad in a way that leads to good for the whole creation – but we’ll get to that later.

I mean it’s too bad that there is such misunderstanding about this gift called Lent.

It’s just a structured time for people to engage in self-examination, study, fasting, prayer and acts of charity. Since charity is a word that has fallen out of common use, if not practice, you might substitute any of the following: generosity, compassion, love, mercy or kindness. Any will do. Just do it.

When you think about it, don’t you agree that it’s astonishing that millions of people across the world have this opportunity for 40 days to engage in such things as self-examination, prayer, acting kindly toward others, and fasting for a while from things we can do without. Only we don’t know we can live without them until we actually live without them. I just think that is really very cool – a season for compassion, for uncluttered simplicity and mindfulness. I myself will be taking an online course with the writer Thomas Moore who says, "Care of the soul requires craft — skill, attention, and art. To live with a high degree of artfulness means to attend to the small things that keep the soul engaged in whatever good work we are doing.” I’d be delighted to join in conversation with others doing this course.

Check it out here: http://www.SpiritualityandPractice.com/

The intent of Lent all along has been to prepare a people to understand fully the depths of God’s love for us that moved through the deepest suffering that all creation might experience healing. That is why I like Lent. We do this in worship by attending to the ancient stories in scripture, listening for the Word that will teach us how to live as God’s beloved people.

II

The narrow road begins with two ancient texts, both of which have testing and temptation at the center of the drama, one in Genesis, the other in Matthew. One could say the story of humanity begins this way: “in the beginning was the test.” As Genesis tells it, here is the primal story of humanity – Adam and Eve – frolicking in paradise with God and all the animals. It’s the Garden of Eden where all is bliss and happiness in harmony with each other, living happily ever after. This is where you hear a loud SCREECH FINGERNAILS ON THE CHALKBOARD. Because this story which seeks to describe the origins of humanity – doesn’t end with a luau music, sunset and happily ever after. SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENS, and, of course, that something else is what seems to be embedded in the human condition. Alas, all attempts to explain the something else have lead mostly to confusion, especially the one that locates our predicament in the very act of procreation, as if the deepest intimacies of human life were doomed from the start.

All this primal story says in that humanity was given the goodness of creation to enjoy, with only one limit – here is the test – live this way and not the other. Enjoy everything here, but go not there. Alas, they chose to go there, not content to live with a single limit, they stepped away from truthfulness toward deception and deceit in pursuit of all knowledge and the result was an infinite blame game. “It was her fault, she made me do it.” “But, he tempted me.” And so on, and so on. You know the drill.

There are, of course, others stories that seek to explain our origins and the persistent inclination for humanity to crush one another, but I don’t think they are any better than this one. In the beginning, was the test and we flunked. The rest is history. Literally.

You’ll note that I have scrupulously avoid using a word the Christian tradition uses to describes this mess we are in. Like its opposite, charity, this word has pretty much fallen out of fashion, too. Barbara Brown Taylor says we have for the most part abandoned the language of sin in favor of nearly exclusive use of positive words like grace and forgiveness. She contends that in our time we go straight for the grace – skipping all the in-between ugliness – as if by abandoning the old guilt producing word – sin – could release us of our clutches.

The truth is that abandoning the word doesn’t remove the reality it once described well – the deep and persistent tendency to harm ourselves and our neighbors by walking away from the love of God’s way and living in harmony with all creation.

Whenever we deny the reality that the old word described – alienation, deception and deformation – we lose sight of the power of forgiveness and mercy. If all is really okay, except for a few mistakes now and then, and an occasional misunderstanding – then what’s the purpose of reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy? I think Carl Jung was right – all the old primitive sins are not dead, they are crouching in our modern hearts. In 1969, Joni Mitchell said, we have to get back to the garden. But, no one had much of a clue about how to get there, nor took seriously how deep the roots of evil are entangled in what it is to be human.

III

The good news is that God took seriously our predicament. And that leads us to the second test that takes place not in a idyllic garden but in the deep wilderness where the ancient Tempter confronts Jesus. Just as Israel faced its own wilderness trial, so now does Jesus. It’s the New Adam and against the old Serpent, and the challenges are not all that unfamiliar to anyone paying attention. The big three: be relevant, be powerful, be clever. We should note that Jesus didn’t get to the place of temptation by accident or as a result of taking a wrong turn on the way to dinner with the guys in Jerusalem. Matthew makes it clear that the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness.

What is at stake is the same as before in the garden and in the wilderness. Will you love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength? Will you say no to all that would deter you from the path of joyful obedience to God?

Will you live not as God, but as a human being - dependent upon God at the center of your life?

These are the choices that Jesus faced in confrontation with the Tempter. While I have no doubt that his were more severe, I don’t think they were all that different from what you and I face when you break it down simply. It’s too bad that temptation is associated with an alluring perfume or a box of chocolates. Because that little stuff – morality games - is much easier than the deeper choices that faced Jesus and that face you and me.

As CS. Lewis said if the evil always wore a dandy red suit and carried a pitch fork, it would be easy. The reality is more like the commercial – “life comes at you fast” –the temptation to do harm always, always comes disguised as something good. How else would it be temptation? In the end the heart of every temptation is to substitute something alluring that will take your eyes off the prize which is to be a ordinary human being living simply with God at the center.

This is the test given to Jesus. He passed he refused to be relevant – if you are the Son of God make these rocks into bread. He refused to be spectacular – If you trust God, jump off this pinnacle. He refused to be powerful – if you follow me, you can rule over the whole land.

Instead, he chose a life with God at the center.

I think we do well to follow him. Don’t you?