Lent 1 3.1.20

The reading from Genesis The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it you shall die.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, Did God say, You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?

The woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.

But God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took up its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made loinclaws for themselves.

The word of the Lord.

As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because of who have sinned.

Sin was indeed in the world before the law.

But sin is not reckoned when there is no law.

Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like transgressions of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if the many die through one man's trespass, they much more surely have the grace of God, and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

And the free gift is not like the effect of one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.

But the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.

If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in the life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.

For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

The word of the Lord.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

The tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus answered, it is written, One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, 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 you will not dash your foot against a stone.

Jesus said to him, Again it is written, Do not put your Lord God to the test.

Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, and he said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

The gospel of the Lord.

Amen.

Please be seated.

This great quote by C.S.

Lewis says, we cannot go backward and change the beginning, but we can start where we are and change the ending.

And I want to suggest to you that is what I think our readings are trying to get us to think about today.

And maybe it's helpful to say that we come to these texts with so much history that is not in them, but it is maybe good to start where they are and then see how we can start where we are.

So we hear words like tempter, devil, and Satan, and we think of this red-skinned, horned, spate-tailed, pitchfork guy.

When we hear the story about the snake and Eve, it's really hard for us not to think of that red-skinned, horned, spade-tail, pitchfork guy in the form of a snake.

But the Bible had no concept of those things.

This is really, really important.

The words we hear today didn't mean proper names.

The word Satan wasn't a specific personality.

Satan means in Hebrew, accuser.

The word devil does not mean the devil, it means slanderer.

So this is interesting to think.

Jesus has just been baptized, and God has said, This is my beloved child with whom I'm well pleased.

He goes out to the wilderness, and what shows up?

Accusation and slander.

We've decided, and I think probably rightly so, that the forces of accusation and slander are so strong, so powerful, that they're almost superhuman, and we've personified them in the red guy.

But we need to dial back.

In Genesis, the thing talking, it's a snake.

How do snakes talk?

The author of Genesis didn't care, they just did.

It's not the devil, it's a talking snake.

And this is an interesting thing.

Sometimes I think we go over the edge when we read these things so far that they're no longer relevant to us.

I mean, consider: if this is a battle between Jesus and God, that's already been decided.

So what's the point for you?

On the other hand, if this is Jesus, a human being like us in every way, having to be tempted by accusation and slander, I gotta tell you, I have to deal with accusation and slander all the time.

I don't mean in my job where people say you're a scumbag, very people say that, very few people say that to me, to my face.

I have to deal with accusation and slander in almost every part of my life.

Like you're a bad father.

If you were a better parent, your kids would blank.

You're not a great husband because great husbands do this.

You exercise, but you're not a real athlete.

You're like a recreational athlete.

Real athletes do this.

You cook, but real cooks, their food tastes like that.

You did that nice thing, but you just did it for what you'd get out of it.

I don't know if you identify with any of those accusations or slander, but I want to tell you I have to deal with that more than a redskinned, horned, ponytailed thing.

And those forces are so strong in my life that they can alienate me from being God's beloved child, from living into what happens at baptism where God says, I am well pleased with you.

And when we put all of that together, I want to suggest to you that I don't think that we're always facing a difference between black and white, right and wrong, good and evil.

I think sometimes we're choosing between what we're willing to live with.

And what's really, really interesting is you can get so accustomed to pain that you just live with it a long time.

You can read these stories about people who had nails in their head for years, and finally they go to the doctor, and the doctor's like, no wonder you have a headache.

You've got a nail in your head.

When did you get that?

I don't know, four or five years ago, and they didn't even realize that.

Have you heard these kinds of stories?

We get used to living with that stuff so much.

We get used to settling for certain things that we forget we actually have opportunities to live into something greater than what we sometimes settle for.

Now, our Jewish brothers and sisters to this day do not believe in a red-skinned, pointy-tailed, horned thing.

They don't believe in that.

Our Jewish brothers and sisters read this story and they call this the spirit of chaos.

The snake embodies the spirit of chaos because it offers a real compelling temptation.

And our Jewish brothers and sisters say that spirit actually works for God.

Not against God, works for God.

The spirit of temptation is the one that says, you can be done.

You can't solve that.

Who are you to think you can change anything?

Our Jewish brothers and sisters believe that spirit gives us the opportunity to say, well, you're partially right.

I'm just one person, but let's see what we can't do.

The spirit of chaos comes and gives us the opportunity to do something greater.

I want to tell you what's really interesting.

If you read the story carefully, the snake is telling the truth.

We get to hear what God tells Adam.

You can't eat from any tree, just don't eat from the one in the middle.

When Eve talks to the snake, she puts extra words in there.

You can't eat from it.

You can't even touch it.

Who told her you can't touch it?

Was that her idea?

Was that Adam's idea?

It certainly isn't what God said.

I've been taught that that tree was knowing the difference between good and evil.

But I want to tell you, our Jewish brothers and sisters don't read it that way.

They say this is the tree of knowledge.

And knowledge is both good and evil.

Isn't that right?

At the end of the day, our Jewish brothers and sisters say this is a story that describes in some ways what it means to really be human.

If we're offered the choice between knowledge and life, we usually pick the knowledge.

I want to give you evidence from that.

If you've ever had a friend who says, Do you know that lady Susan?

Yeah, I know her.

Well, I shouldn't tell you.

I shouldn't tell you.

And immediately you say, No, tell me.

We don't usually say, hey, thank you for screening that out.

I'm glad you changed your mind.

We say, you have to tell me, because we want to know.

And sometimes we get so caught up in knowledge for its own sake that we forget things like empathy and compassion.

So we spent a lot of time in a Bible study last year, and at the end of the day, we sort of concluded the difference between shrewdness and wisdom.

Both of them are based in knowledge, but wisdom has compassion, and wisdom has empathy.

It's great to know how to split an atom, but boy, that's got some really big consequences.

It can do wonderful things and it can do horrible things.

Knowledge is not inherently good.

It's not inherently bad either.

The question is, do we apply compassion and do we imply empathy to knowledge?

I want to suggest to you that's one of the things that's really happening in the wilderness.

So instead of imagining this as a cosmic battle between God and a red thing, I want you to imagine that this is everyday life.

And here comes the spirit of accusation to Jesus, and he says, You've got faith, you're a Christian.

If God really loves you, ask God to prove it.

You ever wondered that?

If you have never wondered that, I don't know if I have anything else to say to you.

Because this is one of those things about loving somebody else, period.

I'm married to a fantastic woman, but there's no way I can prove she loves me.

Ultimately, I've had to choose to believe that.

Because as a poor of a mathematician as I am, I know in order to prove a rule, you need infinite confirmation.

And to disprove it, you need how many counterexamples?

One.

Boy, and if you've never had a long-term relationship and had one potential counterexample, I have nothing to say to you either.

Ultimately, I choose to trust that my spouse loves me.

I make that choice, and because of what I believe, I see it.

But if I did the other way and I said, boy, when I see it, I believe it.

Friends, I don't know that I'd ever see it.

Jesus says, don't put the Lord your God to the test, and he's not talking about himself.

He's saying, look, you can self-sabotage yourself in a loving relationship all you want.

If you're looking for somebody to prove that they love you, and you're waiting on that, good luck.

And I think that's true to life as much as it's true to faith.

Maybe many of us now people, maybe this is a tendency we have in ourselves when someone gets too close.

We panic and we try to sabotage the relationship by showing how unlovable we are.

Or they do this by showing, you don't really care, and let me prove it to you by doing something really dumb.

I think Jesus is talking about that.

And he's saying, listen, what if instead of always saying prove, prove, prove, we just said, I'm just going to choose to trust.

I know that sounds kind of hard, but I want to suggest to you it's the difference between fighting to tread water and floating.

The spirit of chaos says, if God really loves you, turn these rocks into bread.

And look, is there anything sinful with eating when you're hungry?

What's the temptation there?

That actually seems like a really great idea.

Most scholars will tell you this isn't just about Jesus being hungry after 40 days.

This is what people expected the Messiah to do.

They expected him to wipe out hunger.

If you've been to San Diego or if you've been to Israel, you know there's a lot of rocks.

If you could turn the rocks into bread, hunger would be over.

So Jesus, are you gonna be the Messiah people expect you to be?

Or are you gonna be who you are and who God has called you to be?

Have you ever had to deal with the temptation between being who people expected you to be and who you authentically are?

If you haven't, I don't have anything to say to you.

I deal with that every single day.

That's accusation and slander.

What about Jesus going up and seeing the whole world, and if you bow down, you can have it?

I mean, I guess you could say that this is the devil trying to trick Jesus into being a Satanist, but that doesn't even make sense, does it?

I mean, if Jesus is God, doesn't he know not to be a Satanist?

What if instead this is a way of saying you really can have it all if you'll do it this way?

Having it all might be good, but Jesus chooses what's better over what's good.

And I wonder if that isn't sometimes a temptation we have is just to say good enough.

Is it good enough?

I did some recycling.

Good enough.

I thought about my brother-in-law, that's good enough.

I prayed for them.

This is what I love about those prayers we do at the beginning.

Is it invites us not just to pray for people but to visit them.

It invites us to redefine what's good enough.

Good enough for us or good enough for them.

This I think is one of the operating points.

Are we tempted to say good enough for me or good enough according to you?

And when and how do we do it?

To me, these are parts of not just living out of faith, they're parts of just fundamentally being a human being.

I don't think it's helpful to think about the red guy trying to ruin my life.

I think the whole issue here is for us to think about what Lent is.

And many of us don't even know this, but Lent is a word that really means lengthening of days.

It's a time of year.

It's become associated with repentance as the daylight grows longer.

But don't you see metaphorically the goal of this whole process is that the daylight grows longer in your life and in your world.

The light grows longer.

What's really interesting about living in a community of people is to see that certain people can make certain switches really fast.

Maybe you know these people who wake up one day and they quit smoking and they don't use Nicoderm CQ and they don't use the patch, they just quit.

You ever met one of those people?

And then you meet other people who can't that from lack of you know, not for lack of trying, they just can't seem to deal with cigarettes.

But they can change their whole diet in one day.

They can go from being whatever it is, a a uh total omnivore, to going on the keto diet and never look back.

Do you know people like that?

I don't know that I know people who have that strength of will in every aspect of their life, but I know people who have that strength of will in one aspect.

I almost know somebody who can do that sort of thing in every area of their life.

Like my dad learned how to talk like a sailor when he went to Vietnam and my brother was born.

I've never still heard my dad say a profane word.

When I'm not there, apparently, he knows how to do that.

So maybe you know some of these people who can turn those switches.

And I think what we're being encouraged to do in Lent is say, look, all of us, all of us have turned certain of those switches in our lives.

So there's no reason we can't, in order to make our daylight longer, just turn another switch this year.

Just turn another switch this year.

And maybe your switch is to say, look, you're telling me a bad parent.

I'm a bad parent.

I may not be the best parent.

I'm good enough for my kids.

I don't know if I'm the best spouse or I'm the best athlete.

I'm good enough.

And maybe that's the switch to turn this year, is not being greater than anybody else, just being enough.

Maybe another switch we might turn this year in relationships that we have that matter to us is to start asking the question, when are you done with me?

instead of declaring when I'm done helping you.

Maybe that's another way our days could get a little bit longer.

And maybe another switch we might turn, and I don't know if it happens in an instant.

It might take more than 47 days to turn this one.

Boy, I keep looking for proof.

And maybe instead I'm just going to try to float.

Maybe I'm going to, when confronted with accusation and slander and doubt and uncertainty, I'm going to choose to believe that God loves me just like I am.

I don't know what your lent looks like.

But I want to encourage you to lengthen the daylight in your life over the next 43 days.

That's how much longer we have to do this.

43 days.

But I want to encourage you, when a spirit of temptation shows up, it could be for your benefit.

It could be for your benefit to say no.

This is a really interesting thing about our Lenten liturgy.

We get to hear some things like wretchedness and we're not worthy.

And of course, that is true to our feelings.

And that's why it belongs here.

But we get to hear other things like, regardless of how you feel, this is what God has done for you.

So in one sense, we can leave our service feeling beaten down because we confessed what we feel.

We're not worthy, we're not good enough.

And I want to tell you that's the wrong conclusion.

We make room to say, these are truly our feelings, and God truly loves you not in spite of your feelings, but because of them.

That's how much greater than us God is.

God does not love us in spite of our faults.

God loves us because of them.

And that's what the service is meant to do.

Now, you eight o'clockers are probably used to the prayer of humble access coming right before the communion.

Because that's where it comes in the prayer book.

The reason it came first is because after the confession, we hear the comforting words.

If you confess God is faithful and just and puts that all behind you, so that prayer of humble access, if we prayed it after that, we're going backward.

We come in and we say, God, I don't feel worthy.

And God says, I made you worthy.

So now we approach the Lord's table with confidence.

God is not put out to have you at God's table.

God is eagerly beckoning you to come.

And this whole bit about lengthening our days in Lent is just so we can make God's invitation more real to somebody else and more enjoyable for us.

So that we can come not with trepidation, but actually we can meet God's excitement with our own.

Lengthen your days to the next forty three.