Looking Forward to February 26, 2023 -- 1st Sunday in Lent

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
• Matthew 4:1-11

The Sermon title is ...not into temptation...

Early Thoughts: This week we begin the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 days (not counting Sundays) leading us to Easter. Traditionally it is a time of somber reflection, sometimes (or often) with a good dash of penitence and confession for flavour.

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Many years we begin Lent with the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. In the end, I think, this is a story of self-discovery. Jesus is tempted with three possibilities (feed the hungry, be a worker of miracles, political power) of how he could live out his calling. He turns all of them down, not because they are unworthy (indeed one could argue that the story of Jesus and the church has him doing all three things) but because to choose one puts something other than God in first priority.

Is that really what temptation is about in the end? Is temptation about getting our priorities wrong?

Paired with Jesus and the tempter in the wilderness this week we have Adam and Eve and the tempter in the primordial garden. Here the temptation is "you will be like God". Temptation here comes from the idea that something great is being kept from us and if we just do what we were told was wrong we will benefit greatly.

In both these stories I think we are mis-served by seeing the tempter as evil incarnate. In most of Scripture the Satan is not seen this way, that seems to be a later development only hinted at in Scripture. One online friend of mine likes to see the tempter in both these stories more like the Trickster figure we find in other mythologies. The Tempter is testing, perhaps even on God's behalf, Jesus and Adam & Eve not trying to lead them into evil. Jesus passes the test with flying colours. Adam & Eve, not so much.

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To be human is to encounter temptations. We are tempted to put the wrong things as our top priority. We are tempted by FOMO (fear of missing out). We are tempted by promises of how wonderful things will be "if you only...". Maybe this is why we regularly pray that God will "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil".

What is your biggest temptation? How do we resist? When do we give in?
--Gord