Sermon Lent 1, 2011

Sermon

Text: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Matthew 4:1-11

As I mentioned briefly last week during announcements I give up TV during Lent, both on my TV and also online on my Computer. I don't watch a massive amount of TV, but I do use it for background noise. The first thing I often do when I get home is turn the TV on or start a show on my computer for sound. Generally the first week of Lent is the hardest part. After that I get into a routine that does not include TV. I do give myself two outs. One, if I am watching with a group of people, then it is not TV, but a social function. The second is when exercising, because frankly, otherwise I would not exercise during Lent. Which since we are talking about temptation is a temptation of itself. But the temptation to watch TV at other times is always there.

I find myself thinking of other ways that I could “get” around my self-imposed ban. Well, what about at dinner time? Could I watch then? I can't read very easily while eating, and silence is really boring. How do DVD's count? Video games? Etc....

I don't think I'm alone in this kind of thinking, not specifically about TV, but about trying to find loopholes for ourselves. We come up with many, many ways of getting around doing what we attempt to do, or getting around doing what we say we are not going to do. Well, It's been a long day and it's late, I don't need to... I just don't feel like doing …. What harm could it do?

And these are somewhat light versions of temptation.

We get two stories of temptation in our texts for today.

We find Jesus right after his Baptism, he is lead by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where he fasts for 40 days and nights, echoing the 40 years in the wilderness by the Israelites, and also by fasting showing himself as a obedient Jew. The tempter, also referred to as the Devil, and named as Satan, appears and offers Jesus three temptations. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you,' and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.' " and finally, showing Jesus lands stretching for forever, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” And Jesus masterfully responds and overcomes these temptations.

In our text from Genesis we hear sections from the second creation story with Adam and Eve. Adam is placed in the Garden to care for it, he is told he must not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We then skip a bit ahead, during which Eve is created from a rib of Adam's. Returning to the scene with the introduction of the serpent, which many have connected with Satan, but there is no mention of that either direction. And that distracts us from the real point of this story. Adam and Eve are awakened to the temptation of this fruit. It does not matter who the serpent is, it matters that Adam and Eve responded. So, Eve eats the fruit, gives it to Adam, and Adam like a good husband eats it without saying anything. They both eat, and their eyes are opened, and they know they are naked, sew fig leaves together, and make loincloths for themselves. They are overcome by their temptation.

We have two responses to temptation here. One, Christ who overcomes, and Adam and Eve, who succumb.

Who do you think we are more like?

I wish that this would be one of those times when the answer is always Jesus. But, I am afraid it is not.

It returns us to the temptations themselves. What are the temptations we find ourselves, well, tempted by? In both our stories the temptations are the same. They come in different manners, and different examples, but, they are the same. My temptation to turn on the TV is the same as well. They are temptations to identify ourselves through things other than God. Jesus is asked before two of his temptations, If you are the Son of God, prove it, not through the words God has said, but through your own actions. You have to do something in order to prove it. And Jesus trusts. David Lose puts it this way.

“Jesus responds by refusing to establish his own worth and identity on his own terms but instead remains dependent on God. Jesus knows who he is, that is, by remembering whose he is.”

Our problem is that we forget whose we are. We forget we are God's Children. And so when the question of defining ourselves, of finding a solution to the emptiness we sometimes feel, we fill it not with God, but with material things. With Fruit, with TV, with Sports, with Movies, with how good of people we are, with our Jobs, how well we did on the last test, and everything else you can think of. Our temptation is to fill the need we feel with things other than God, to turn away, to become sinners.

And we take the bait every time.

But.

Next the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil is the Tree of Life. It is hard to see sometimes. The branches of the Tree of Knowledge, the tree of temptation, distract us, attempting to show us importance. But, you can find it. Its branches are not the graceful manicured, blossom filled ones we would expect. It is rough hewn, and dark stained with the Blood of the one who can overcome the temptations of this world.

This week I heard a song by a singer named Emmy Rossum entitled “Slow me Down.” The refrain goes:

Somebody take my hand,

and lead me

Slow me down

Don't let love pass me by

Just show me how

'Cause I'm ready to fall

Slow me down

Don't let me live a lie

Before my life flies by

I need you to slow me down.

We move too fast sometimes. We work to establish who we are on our own, instead of seeing that through God we have already been marked, been named. During Lent we are invited to slow down. To slow down, breathe, remember God, and know that what defines is not the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the Tree of Life, the Cross.

Hymn of the Day: Beneath the Cross of Jesus ELW 338/LBW 107