Lent 1 Choices

Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7 Matthew 4: 1-11
In his “Confessions”, St Augustine writes;

“Give me chastity and continence but not just now.”

I guess, we all know the reality of temptation. It is a part of being human. That has always been so and always will be. And today, as we enter into the season of Lent, we are met by scriptures on this very subject of temptation.

From the Old Testament has come the story of what has traditionally been referred to as “The Fall.” It is a story that shows man and woman breaching the one boundary given to them by God. It is a story that reminds us that there is a real temptation to breach boundaries and to take on ourselves those things that belong to God. How we see those boundaries today, is a matter of some debate. After all God has called humanity into the process of creativity. So at what stage do we over step the mark in matters such as the application of scientific knowledge? A big one for ethicists there!

Now, the story operates on one level as a reminder of our need for humility. We learn through it that we have a real temptation to step outside of God’s will. From the story has come an understanding of “original sin” which sees humanity as sharing in a falling short of what God would wish us to be. And in so many ways as Paul recognised, Adam is representative of humanity.

But the story has so much more to tells us. Firstly it reminds us that the things we do bring consequences. The disobedience of Adam and Eve brings exile from the garden for them amongst other things. And indeed shame enters into the human experience. And still today, we know what it is to live with the consequences of the choices we make. That is why it is so important to make our peace with God and with others as we worship.

But the story need not be seen as entirely negative. The Orthodox tradition has been particularly helpful in offering a positive outlook on this story. They would suggest that acquiring knowledge of good and evil is a picture of our being enabled to grow up. You know, as a father I am having to learn to let James and Kaye make their own decisions. A part of me would love to wrap them up in cotton wool and protect them for all of their lives. But what would that do to them? It would leave them as but little children for all of their lives. So all I can do is to seek to influence them but to then allow them to make their own decisions even when I might wish they made other choices. It is painful at times but it is the duty of a love that respects them. Likewise this story can be seen as God showing his love for humanity by enabling us to enter into choices, even those that are not in keeping with God’s will. Put simply, the story can be seen as God telling us that we can be free beings who grow through experience rather than utterly dependent little children, forever in nappies.

Now, if Paul sees Adam as a representative person, he equally sees Jesus as a representative person. From Adam, Paul sees death entering the world through disobedience. Through Jesus, he sees the greater power of life entering the world through obedience. Why? Because Jesus is the one who is victorious over temptation!

The tempting of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry is a reminder of the full humanity of Jesus. He is tempted in every way as we are. Matthew sets the temptations in the wilderness shortly after Jesus had been baptised at the Jordan by John the Baptist. The temptations which in length of time equate to the length of Lent are temptations as to the nature of his forthcoming ministry. Tired and hungry as he was, Jesus must have found it hard to resist these temptations to make things so much easier. Each of them was attractive to Jesus - after all temptation has no power if it is not attractive.

Those temptations have meaning today. Turning stones into bread is not a bad thing of itself and yet as the answer of Jesus reminds us, the good is no substitute for the best. Jumping from a pinnacle of the Temple into the depths of the Kidron Valley relying on God’s intervention, would certainly be spectacular even by the standards of some of today’s tele evangelists. But forcing God’s hand is hardly a stance of worship or discipleship. And then doing a deal with evil to attain power is alien to God’s character in every way. And how many have made that particular error of going along with this and that so as to climb a greasy pole believing that with them at the top things would be so very different - only to discover that the result of selling one’s soul is that the compromiser is different and the wrongs just go on and on!

One thing that always catches my eye as I look at the tempting of Jesus, is that the use of the scriptures in temptation. There we see the danger of the clincher verse so beloved by literalism. For Scripture can be used in destructive ways. That is why in Methodism saying “The Bible says” is not enough. To take seriously scripture, we use the Wesleyan Quadilateral in which scripture is in dialogue with tradition, reason and experience. Furthermore, there is value in seeing the scriptures through what we know of Jesus. Given that Jesus is seen to have been all loving, embracing and inclusive, we do well to recognise that we have a problem if our understanding of a scripture is at odds with what we know of Jesus. Always, our theology needs to be in touch with the Word made flesh that is Jesus.

Finally, I want to make a contemporary point. In the past three days, listening to the radio and reading the newspapers has at times made me ashamed to be British. I refer to the controversy over the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture to lawyers on Thursday. I have read the lecture and subsequent clarification by the Archbishop. I am not sure of the extent to which I agree or disagree with him as yet. But I do know that I am disgusted at the misrepresentation of the lecture and vilification of the man. I beaing a bear with a small brain, know that at times his arguments are hard to understand and I wish that he would be a little easier to understand (although many of the lawyers present were very impressed at what they heard). Contrary to what is being portrayed, he did not call for a parallel system of law to be introduced. Sections of our media are guilty of bearing false witness in this matter and of inflaming tensions that they themselves have done much to fan. In the case of that great theological publication, the Sun which has sent Page 3 girls to Lambeth Palace and a sound system playing “Rule Britannia”, the coverage has been totally mendacious. The front page on Thursday was nothing short of incitement to hatred! And sadly, far too many have jumped on a bandwagon without bothering to find out what the Archbishop said, such as the MEP I heard on Friday night on 5Live who was quick to condemn the Archbishop but had it eventually squeezed out of him that he had only read a newspaper account - Peter Hitchens managed a similar performance of ignorance on a Welsh radio channel.

I hope that we don’t as a society fall further into a soundbite method of discussing complex issues. The question of law and religious minorities is complex. May we not fall into the temptation of following the voices of hatred whose desire to hold on to exclusion results in denigrating a most reflective holy man, a man who seeks to give value to all. But of course, we wouldn’t be the first to do that would we?


Bideford Methodist Church Sunday February 10th 2008