A Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent
Johanna Morrigan
Genesis 2:4b-9,15-17,25--3:7
Psalm 51
Romans 5:12-21
Matthew 4:1-11
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
What was the Spirit up to? Why would the Spirit lead Jesus into a barren wilderness that contains no sustenance, as we understand it, so that Jesus could be tempted? This is the same God who placed Eve and Adam in the midst of the Garden of Life, but then seemed to say, you shall not have wisdom. This shall be denied to you. What was our God up to?
In the wilderness, the wisdom to resist the tempter was available, but not the necessary things to sustain life - food, water, shelter. In the garden, God provided everything one could possibly need or desire, but seems to be denying the very wisdom necessary to resist the tempter.
Who is this God - the Great I AM, the Lord God Jehovah, deliverer and redeemer? This God just doesn't sound too God-like to me.
Why is God into all of this tempting business anyway? What does temptation mean? In our culture, the meaning of the word "temptation" is certainly less than positive. It means to entice a person to do something wrong, to seduce someone into sin, to lead someone astray. Is this what our God is about? Tempting us into sin? Driving us away from Godself - for that is the fundamental meaning of sin - separation from God.
When I was a child and heard these stories in Sunday school, I got pretty confused - and ultimately pretty aggravated. I often recall one of my earliest memories. I was probably about 5 or 6 years old, and I remember lying in bed at night feeling small, frightened, and pretty resentful of a God, who in my youthful eyes seemed to take great pleasure in taking all the credit for anything I did that turned out well (you know, remember to thank God for making it turn out so well) and blaming me whenever I messed up (remember to tell God how sorry you are what you did). With a picture of God like that, little wonder it took me so long to come back to God's church.
So let's try looking at all of this again. Might there be something that a confused 5 year old and her Sunday School teachers may have missed? Just what does the phrase "to tempt" really mean? The Greek word is paraoxon. And in the Greek, "to tempt" has a much different element in its meaning. It means "to test."
Well - that's a relief! That makes everything much better! We are just taking tests. That's no big deal; we take tests all the time. We'll be fine............as long as we keep passing them. But what if we fail? What if we have test anxiety, or we didn't have time to study, or ............what if we fail? Well then, I guess we just didn't make the grade. We didn't measure up. You know, some people have it - and some just don't. Isn't it a shame.
Somehow this is not very reassuring to that confused 5 year old that I once was so very long ago. In fact I can almost hear her saying - "so I s'pose if I pass the test, God gets all the credit; and if I flunk, it's gonna be all my fault again. Nope, I don't think I like this God much. I don't think I'll take this test - thanks anyway but no thanks!" Okay - let's try and look at it one more time. Surely we are missing something. The Jews have a saying that goes something like this:
The Holy One, blessed be his name, does not elevate a person to dignity until the Holy One has first tried and searched that person."Tried and searched" ? God is searching? That might be a new twist. Searching for what?
Might God allow us to be tested because it is a way God searches for us and brings us closer to God? In God's view are the tests in this life really about passing and failing? Does God really intend for them to separate God's children from Godself when we can't make the grade?
That is what I had learned by the time I was 5 years old. I thought that God was not much interested in my getting close to God; and God certainly didn't seem too keen on getting close to me - because I already knew that I couldn't make the grade. Thanks be to God, I no longer believe that. And I don't believe that is what God intended for me to learn so many years ago.
Is it just possible that the whole point of God's tests is that we simply step out on faith and take them? That we take risks - that we try - that we are willing to respond to God's call, whether it be to the wilderness or to the garden - and that when we fail (which we so often will), that we trust in the word's of today's psalmist:
"A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."As I read today's lessons and was working on this sermon, I found myself thinking about Peter. Peter has always been my favorite apostle - probably because he too failed so often. Peter seemed to fail just about every test that God sent his way.
So then, if Peter failed, how come he was advanced to the head of the class? Jesus chose Peter to be the rock upon which the very foundation of his Church was built. No, I don't think that God's tests are about passing and failing.
God does search us, God does allow us to be tested. But God does not do this to separate us from Godself. God does this to bring us to God's infinite love and mercy.
What is God searching for? He is searching for us, for our willingness to step out in faith, no matter what the landscape might be, and TAKE THE TEST, trusting that in God's infinite love and compassion, God will find us worthy.
Amen.