Flip Wilson gained a lot of fame with his line, “The devil made me do it.” We’ve all used this excuse, or a variant thereof. It takes the onus off our own responsibility and places it on an outside agency: the Force of Evil was too strong, even though our spirit was sound. But really, in my honest moments I have to admit to being a willing accomplice. Come, whisper in my ear!
Readings for this First Sunday in Lent address the spiritual pulls we all feel. The Old Testament takes us back to the Story of the Beginning, Genesis 3. The serpent said to Woman, “Did God say….?” Is that for real, or just rhetorical? What were his actual words? “You will not die…” You know the rest: they ate of the Fruit of Knowledge, and thought they could be their own gods. This, then, is Original Sin–that we humans think we know as much as God…and die for our presumptions. A serpentine inner voice is always there to whisper, “Try it, you’ll like it!”
Paul tells the Church at Rome that “death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.” (5:14) But here’s the Good News, the core of our Lent: “If, because of the one man [Adam]’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 life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (5:17, emphasis mine) Christopher Grundy asks, “What might it mean to live a life in which death does not exercise dominion?”
Feeling very holy after his baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1-11) Ain’t it the truth! Here, you remember, Jesus was offered three gifts: to be relevant (stones turned to bread), to be spectacular (dive off the Temple), and to be powerful (all the kingdoms of the world). Sounds pretty good: who wouldn’t want to feed the poor forever with a bunch of rocks? who wouldn’t want to have his message noticed and published? and who wouldn’t want to be King of the World and eliminate war and other chicanery? Here, though (unlike our Genetic ancestors), Jesus recognized these temptations to be substitutes for GOD’s power and grace.
Lent is important because it demands that we acknowledge that the Cosmic Battle rages around us and within. We are also reminded of the nearness of Christ and the Holy news that God’s Steadfast Love will not abandon us on our way back to the Garden. O let me feel thee near me! The world is ever near; I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear;
my foes are ever near me, around me and within; but Jesus,draw thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin.–John E. Bode
God Bless Us, Every One! Horace Brown King
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