Not to disparage our grandma’s generation, but the stories about temptation really don’t have to do with sex! Readings presented this weekend address our proclivity to try to assume God’s role. These aren’t even ethical issues, but ones of our theology: who are we? and who is God? Spoiler: two of these stories talk about snakes–or at least about the powers of Evil (Satan?) that assail each of us daily. My maxim holds–“the only good snake is a DEAD snake!”
We begin with the latter parts of the Creation story, found in GENESIS 2:15-17 and 3:1-7. You’ve probably heard the story of Adam & Eve & the serpent in the Garden of Eden; unfortunately, many tellings leave us with the idea that Original Sin (whatever that is) came from eating the fruit of Knowledge of Good & Evil, thus bringing death & condemnation to all (“boo, Adam!”). One good translation of “you shall die” reads “you shall KNOW death”. And so we worry about it. Human purpose, then, isn’t to worry about life & death stuff, but to faithfully care for Creation. The Serpent told First Humans that they could do God’s work by deciding “right” from “wrong”, certainly an ongoing temptation to every generation. Lent is a season for recognizing that each of us is distracted by our own attempts at glory.
Paul’s Letter to the ROMANS (5:12-19) attempts to contrast Jesus and Adam, Grace and Temptation. He admits that “death exercised dominion” through our preoccupation with it, allowing it to shade our lives/actions with fear. The study -leader does well to survey our own angst about dying in order to set the stage for the Christian appearance. Lift up the idea that in Christ is an assurance of moving beyond death into life!
The First Weekend in Lent wouldn’t be complete without the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert (MATTHEW 4:1-11). Here comes that snake, again, with ideas about how Jesus could be in charge of everything in lieu of his Father. He spoke of relevance: turn stones into bread, feed yourself and the whole world; of being spectacular, jumping from the roof of the Temple, which would show the people his invincibility; and of being powerful, being able to direct all the nations of the world and enjoy their riches. Well, sounds good! What would YOU do if you won the big lottery? or were The Grand Marshall? or had super-powers? To what extent will Jesus trust God to be God, that is, to have all these things under control? “Now that you’ve been recently baptized, what will you do? What signs will you give us?”
The Season of Lent begins with a puzzle which tends to keep with us until the resolution of Easter. These readings are part of the contemporary story, and not just interesting incidents of Long Ago.
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Every Tuesday we’ll explore together the lections assigned to the upcoming weekend. Come along at horacebrownking.com
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