On our first Sunday of Lent, we had quite a bit going on in worship: a cappella Sunday (no organ or piano accompanying our singing); a baptism; celebration of the Lord's Supper; anthem and prayer tied together; first Sunday of Lent stuff; plus, the sermon to kick off our Lenten preaching series focused on where we see God.
This morning, we reflected on where we see God in the midst of temptation. I had more material for the sermon, but tried to keep the sermon focused and concise given all the other things happening in worship. I enjoyed preparing and preaching the sermon.
Genesis 3: 1-7 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’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 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.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[a] knowing good and evil.” 6 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 of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Introduction: As we mentioned at the Ash Wednesday service, during Lent you are invited to reflect each day on the question: “Where have you seen God….” with a second question for each Sunday, “where have you seen God in the life and work of St. Andrew?”
To help you, we have devotional guides with a Scripture reading for each day; journals in which you can write your reflections; pens with which to write; a highlight board in the Narthex where you can share your; postcards in the Narthex you can take home to send to someone and thank them for the way you have seen God through them; and each week in worship we will have people share with you how they have seen.
it that is not enough assistance, the sermon each week will reflect on where we might see God in specific circumstances.
This week, we reflect on where we see God when we are tempted.
move 1: Some General observations about temptation.
a. All of us are tempted.
1. Too easy to read the story in Genesis and see it as the serpent tempting that other person, you know only Eve was tempted.
2. But notice that as the story unfolds, it turns out Adam was right there with her as the serpent tempted them.
3. The story never has a section where Adam says, “Stop. do not tempt us.”
4. Adam and Eve both faced temptation.
5. all of us face temptation.
b. Temptation is more than being tempted to not eat chocolate.
1. our Lenten practice of giving something up can sometimes lead us to seeing temptation only in terms of things we are tempted to eat or bad habits we are tempted to continue.
2. Temptation is about so much more.
3. Genesis story - Adam and Eve are tempted to be like God.
4. Or in our lives we are tempted to pursue power at the expense of our family, or our health, or well-being.
5. Or consider how we find ourselves in moments where we can choose to speak words that are divisive or words that build up.
6. Or times when we can choose not to speak or act and let things move along, even when we know they are moving in the wrong direction.
7. When we speak about temptation, we are talking about something we all face, often with important and far-reaching implications.
c. God does not tempt us.
1. Our lives and how we live them are not a game to God.
2. If you look for God, you will not find God as the master of the game: “Hey, why don’t we set him or her up with temptation”)
3. We are given choices, but they are not choices God uses to set us up for temptation.
Move 2: On to temptation - at the heart of temptation lies the question: Do you know who you are and whose you are?
a. As David Lose notes in his study of the story in Genesis, the serpent introduces uncertainty (Journal of Preaching, Lent, 2020, David Lose, 38)
1. Did God really say….? the sign of the temptation is eating the fruit. The real temptation is for Adam and Eve to give up who they know they are, to give up their relationship with God, and chase something else.
2. The devil in the desert with Jesus begins the series of temptations by asking, “If you are the son of God…” the opportunities the devil gives Jesus to do things is the sign of the real temptation - to forget that his is God’s own and does not need to prove himself.
3. Temptation seduces us into wondering or forgetting or being uncertain about who we are and whose we are.
b. consider how you are tempted in your lives.
1. The seduction of power is that it invites us to forget everything else in pursuit of the power and riches dangling before us. Who needs God when there is all that other stuff?
2. or when we are tempted to say or act in ways that go against who we are as followers of Christ.
3. the temptation is to move away from that which we know we are called to be, to turn away from the one we know to have claimed each of us as a child of God.
Move 3: Where do we find God in the midst of being tempted? Simply put - we find God standing with us, claiming us as children of God.
a. As we face temptation, God is found in the voice that whispers to us: I am with you. Stick with me. You are mine.
1. We see God in the people who stand with us and do not need us to be anything other than the child of God whom God calls us to be.
2. One of the powerful images from our baptism liturgy is the standing of the congregation with the one being baptized.
3. A symbol of God standing with us and a promise that God will send people to stand with us throughout our lives!
4. look for those people when you are being tempted
b. even when we give in to temptation, we see God moving us into a future where we can return to right relationship.
1. Go read the end of the story of Adam Eve, where God sends them to fo the Garden of Eden.
2. Temptation has won, right? Adam and Eve are separated from God.
3. Except, except we are told the “Lord God made garments of skin and clothed them” (Genesis 3: 20).
4. Adam and Eve find God standing with them, caring for them, inviting them back into right relationship, even when they have given in to temptation.
Conclusion: Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and theologian, once described this essential condition of humanity as having a "God-shaped hole," (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=902, David Lose).
Temptation seduces us into thinking we can fill the hole with something other than with God.
But, we discover again and again, that hole can only be filled by our relationship with God, knowing who we are and whose we are.
No comments:
Post a Comment