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Sermon for Sunday, February 10, 2008

First Sunday of Lent
“A Lenten Encounter - Satan”
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

There have been thousands of sermons preached on temptation. Most of them have come from Jesus encounter in the wilderness. “Do like Jesus did it” the sermons would say, “yield not to temptation for yielding is sin” says the old hymn.

And yet we do, don’t we? All the time – the temptations to be less than God made us show up in our work, our family life, our school life, our personal morality. And we find ourselves being tempted to cheat on our taxes (Uncle Sam gets his share any way), get involved with someone who is not our husband or wife (they weren’t paying me any attention anyway), get some help on an exam through text messaging, internet, looking on someone else’s paper --- (everybody does it and colleges do look at good grades). No one will know if I watch that movie in my hotel room. And then is that special temptation that you have tucked away in the dark side of your life. I don’t know what the devil is really like to you, but I do know that temptation lurks around every corner. Whether you call him devil, Satan, Lucifer or the Force or whatever, it’s power is at work.

We fall prey to our immediate desires sometimes without regard to the consequences it might bring. Our concern is only to satisfy that itch and so we yield. Excuses fill our minds why it is okay to do whatever we may know is wrong.

C.S. Lewis in “The Screwtape Letters” has a senior devil advising a junior devil to keep a person’s mind off the true and false nature of the temptation with such expressions as “it was phase,” “I’ve been through all that” and don’t forget the blessed word, “adolescent.” (Lewis, pg. 52) We are all too familiar with our many excuses for choosing the wrong over the right.

The attraction of temptation really is everywhere. Temptations do not always come rushing into our lives with a devil or witch’s mask. They may strut in with high heels in the form of a beautiful woman or may approach us in the guise of a smooth, handsome man. They may summon us when no one is looking or we think we can cheat and get by with it or steal and no one will know. The call of temptation may come on a bright and beautiful day and not on a stormy night, though either is possible.

A temptation may come in a weak moment or in an area of our greatest weakness or beckon to us in what we may think is our greatest strength. No one young or old is immune to temptation.

Its’ voice may appeal to us to forget about shame and think of an alibi or some rationalization to make it all right. It may tell us that everybody does it and that is okay or no one will know or care. We may even tell ourselves that when we yield to it, that God is in the forgiving business (and He is, but at that point it is just a way to give ourselves permission to yield to the temptation.)

Still wet from his baptism in the Jordan, Matthew says, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” And Jesus struggles in the wilderness against temptation. But please know, even if you have never known it before, Jesus’ temptation is not a sign of his weakness, but rather a sign of his strength. We usually associate temptation with our human, all too human slip ups and weaknesses. The temptation with which Jesus struggled is tied tightly to the passage in Genesis where Adam and Eve also face temptation. The same dynamic is at play – the temptation to be like God. When you unfold all the layers found in both passages, there’s the common denominator.

The world was trying to turn Jesus into somebody other than who God made him to be. That was the temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness and it was Adam and Eve’s temptation as well. God made Adam and Eve to be human. The temptation that lured them to eat from the tree was the suggestion that they could be like God. Not a bad idea. Who doesn’t want to be like God, but we are not created to be like God. There is only one God.

As you read the Genesis encounter of that temptation you will discover that Adam and Eve chose to live in ways other than the way God meant for them to live. The consequences were immediate and severe; they became afraid and ashamed. They were alienated from God; they felt bad about what they had done. They tried to hide from each other, behind leaves and from God, behind trees. At its heart, it is a story about resisting the temptation to be someone other than who God created us to be. It is a story about how much hinges on whether we say “yes” or “no” in the moment of temptation.

Jesus is dealing with the same issue, but responds so very differently. To Satan’s offers of economic, political and spiritual powers, he says ‘no.’ The great tempter offers Jesus three possibilities – turn stones into bread, take political power and perform spectacular spiritual feast. And these are good, worthy ends sought by most of us. It is a good thing to feed hungry people. It is a good thing to attempt to do good for others through political action. It would be wonderful to witness a miracle so great that struggling believers would be able to believe. Jesus rejects all of these offers. He says ‘no.’

And yet he is not tempted because he has departed from God’s will. Jesus is in the desert because he was led by the Spirit. What we see happen is an understanding of what faithfulness is all about. You see, it is usually the obedient and not the disobedient that are struggling, being opposed, and tested. And that is true isn’t it? It is when you and I are working to be obedient to God that the temptations become a struggle. Some of you will remember our friend, Bud Karmazyn. Bud died a number of years ago. He came into our church family as a new Christian. We had many conversations together about his struggle of following Christ. He told me one day, “before I followed Jesus, the Devil never bothered me, but since I became a believer, he pounds me on every side.” I told him, that’s right. Satan, evil, the Devil whatever you choose to call him/her/it, is also vying for your allegiance. Obedience is going to call for a struggle.

Then there is what temptation does to us --- to become less than God created us to be. When we do yield to a temptation, we are sacrificing who God created us to be.

So, how do we pull all this together? We haven’t been in the Garden of Eden and we haven’t had the Jesus temptations. We’ve never been tempted to turn stones into bread, never been tempted to jump off the church steeple and never been shown all the nations of the world and promised them if we would worship the devil. So what’s it got to do with me?

How do we face up to the temptations that will come our way – daily? Chuck Poole wrote of a conversation between Henri Nouwen and Mother Teresa. Nouwen asked Mother Teresa a similar question: ‘How can I do the right thing and be the kind of person God wants me to be?” What she answered was this: “Henri, spend an hour a day alone with your Lord and never do anything that you know in your heart is wrong.”

That’s it? That’s all? Two spiritual giants in a conversation about how to live life the way God means him to live it and all she says is, “Spend a hour a day alone with God and never do anything you know in your heart is wrong?” That kind of simplicity can grate our nerves can’t it? We need more. It has to be more complicated than that. And while millions will look for the more appropriate complicated, many other people will, day after day, say “no” to temptation and “yes” to the way of God, because in some way, shape or form, they prepared themselves, every day, for the unknown temptations that they might face. They spend time alone with God (maybe not a Mother Teresa hour), but they spend time alone with God. They center themselves on the love and goodness of God and they decide all over again, that God being their helper, they will not do anything they know in their heart is wrong, because they love God, they love the people who love them and they understand that the consequences of wrong choices are not worth it, plain and simple.

Last Sunday I invited you on a Lenten journey of reading the gospels through during this season. I have been so pleased with those of you who have begun that pilgrimage. Let me now add another leg to the journey. Follow the word of Mother Teresa – spend an hour a day alone with God and never do anything you know in your heart is wrong. I know it sounds simplistic and I know it really isn’t that plain and that simple, but if we don’t start somewhere, we’ll never start anywhere.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Every morning, just before daybreak, God looks over at the sun and says, ‘alright old Sun, get up and do it again.’ That is exactly the way you get ready to face temptation. You get up every day and you do it all over again.

When I was a teenager and leaving home to go out with friends or a date, the word would come from home, “remember who you are!” I knew what was being said. It was a reminder to live by the standards that I was being taught – morals and faith. As followers of Christ, we are called to remember who we are and to draw on the inner presence of Christ to resist the temptations that come our way. We always have the choice to make. We have to choose to whom we will give our allegiance. So much that was beautiful and happy has died for people because of poor choices lived outside the way God means for life to be lived. How do you choose to live?

Prayer

— Robert Thompson
Pastor
First Baptist Church, Ashland

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