First Reading Genesis 3:1-21
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So 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. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 20The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Psalm Psalm 32:1-7
1Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away! 2Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile! 3While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long. 4For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer. 5Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt. 6I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin. 7Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them.
Second Reading Romans 5:12-19
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned — 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Gospel Matthew 4:1-11
1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” 11Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
WHY CAN’T I HAVE IT ALL
Today, we enter into the season of Lent. During the Ash Wednesday liturgy (which I accidently skipped this past Wednesday) we hear these words: Friends in Christ, today with the whole church we enter the time of remembering Jesus’ passover from death to life, and our life in Christ is renewed.
We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance and for God’s mercy. We are created to experience joy in communion with God, to love one another, and to live in harmony with creation. But our sinful rebellion separates us from God, our neighbors, and creation, so that we do not enjoy the life our creator intended.
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to a discipline that contends against evil and resists whatever leads us away from love of God and neighbor. I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent— self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love—strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament. Let us continue our journey through these forty days to the great Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Lent traditionally is a time when people ask themselves how far they’re willing to go in order to challenge their own desires. It’s a time to contemplate what it means to be in a relationship with God and others. Because of this, and tradition, the usual question we hear and ask ourselves is, “What will we give up for Lent?” Now there are many aspects to the “giving up” of something for Lent. However, before we can begin to answer the question, we must begin by drilling down to the root of this exercise. First the “giving up” is rooted in the tradition of fasting. Fasting in the Bible is not only commanded, but it is a time of self-denial in order to focus on God.
In giving something up, we need to use that resource that is being set aside, whether money, time or a particular thing to honor God. For example. if we decide to give up fast food, the expectation is not to simply save the money we would spend on the meal, but to honor God by giving that money to the poor. If we choose to give up a meal all together, then we would use that time in prayer and study. The thing we must bear in mind is, if the motivation for giving something up is self-motivated rather than God-centered, then we’ve missed the whole reason for the fast. It’s something we to comprehend and put into practice as we begin our Lenten journey.
Another one of the nuances of fasting in Lent is associated with certain foods like chocolate or carbs or sugar or other manners of gluttony, but the real root of that challenge might simply be “entitlement.” Can we give up feeling “entitled” to have or consume whatever our heart desires, no matter what the cost to ourselves and others? This question of course goes way beyond food. And when you carefully read our First Lesson for today, gluttony, and especially the feeling of entitlement, applies.
In Genesis chapters 2 and 3 we read that age-old scripture story that tells about, what we call, our grand “fall” from grace, which is significantly more than the desire for an apple or pomegranate or whatever we believe that metaphorical fruit might be, and all about the apple of our eye at any given moment.
English professor Steve Almond wrote an article in 2014 in Poets and Writers about his experience with a fictional class of students. He had introduced to them a volume of Best American short stories and asked for their input. Surprisingly, instead of learning from the published authors, the entire class overwhelmingly disdained and dismissed each one of the stories, indicating that they didn’t seem worthy to be in the volume. Almond’s initial response was to respond firmly to them, saying that when they’ve reached a level where they can be published in that same volume, then maybe, they may feel worthy of dismissing their colleagues.
However, in thinking about the students’ reactions, Almond realized that when students (and others) feel the challenge of a great deal of work, learning, possible rejection, insecurity, and the example of an established authority, it’s easier and more attractive to think that the authorities are deceptive or got their accolades deceitfully, than to rise to the challenge of working hard and measuring up. You see, the root of “entitlement” appears to be good old risk aversion, fear of failure, and expectation of immediate and costless pleasure. The bottom line to this story? When we are gifted, we expect to have to try less.
The more gifted we perceive that we are, the less we feel we need to work in order to gain the responses, desires, and outcomes we want. Is that human nature? Sure it is. But every time we postpone gratification, rise to new challenges, challenge ourselves in relationships to love others before ourselves, respect and seek to learn from the successes, failures, experience, and authority of others, we rise to a more complex and sophisticated part of our human nature. This is not only true in faith but in life as well. We live a journey that takes us from novice to disciple, and disciple to master. How we navigate that journey depends on our ability to turn from entitlement to relationship, from expectation to engagement, and from the poisonous temptation to take the easy way out, to the challenge of learning from following Jesus and others.
Psychologist Robert Porter describes “entitlement” as an unrealistic, unmerited, or inappropriate expectation of favorable living conditions and favorable treatment at the hands of others.” In other words, when we feel entitled, we literally feel we deserve to be at a status that we’ve not yet earned. In the language of Genesis, we don’t want to be subject to God. We want to be God, with all the perks and wisdom that go along with that title. Looking back at Genesis 2, adamah (ground/earth/the created human) or Adam, is given “rest” or a “dwelling place” (nuach) within a paradise-like garden. However, the human is also given a purpose, a responsibility, a command–to till/plant/sow/cultivate (abad) the garden and to keep it, guard and protect it from harm, predators and infiltration by forces of destruction (shamar).
In reality, this “paradise” isn’t simply a gift, but an invitation to invest in a relationship. The more cultivation of that garden’s beauty and propagation of its nourishing and yielding nature, the more guarding of its resources and viability, the more beautiful and yielding it becomes. And the wiser and more seasoned we become. Paradise is what a relationship looks like when its cared for and valued. Anyone with a great marriage knows this to be true! And it’s also true of our relationship with God, and our relationship with others, our relationship to our world, and our relationship to ourselves.
The garden gift God gave us is like being given a puppy for your birthday. There’s a relational responsibility that goes along with having that puppy. You must care for it, protect it, feed it, nourish it, love it, invest in it. The more you do that, the more loyal and loving that pet will be. Every gift comes with an invitation. If you take the “easy way out” and allow that pet to wander off into the woods where wild animals lurk, or into the highway where cars and trucks speed by, you can be sure that things won’t end too well for that pet. Perhaps that’s why God’s other favorite metaphor in scripture is the “good shepherd.”
Every gift, every blessing comes with an invitation to invest in relationship, a responsibility to care and love. If entitlement is the root of all evil, then love is the root of making things flourish. Now turn to Genesis chapter 3. We’re left to ponder the question of what happened in that garden when things went awry? Here in Genesis 3, an alternate voice to the voice of God is heard, that of a serpent, a “poisonous” voice if you will, one that suggests that maybe there’s a “shortcut” to attaining the perks of God-like status and wisdom. After all, the serpent of “entitlement” hisses, there’s no reason why you can’t be just like God, is there? God is deceiving you about that.
Taking the short cut won’t harm you. In fact, it will make you more like God. Aren’t you accepting the life of a patsy by not taking what you can? Why should you spend so much time working for it, striving for it? Why shouldn’t you have the best immediately and without any cost or toil? Why shouldn’t you have it all now? Why should you have to work for it, invest in it? Why must you be denied what you want? You are, after all, you. And God is no better than you! Why should you be subject to God, when you can be on the same level as God, enjoying the freedom that God has?
Now stop here and take a moment to consider these entitlement questions and our gospel reading for today. Aren’t these the same temptations Jesus was faced with? Weren’t these the same assertions satan was making when he came to Jesus and said, “If you are the Son of God?” The Jewish people call this “poisonous voice” lashon hara, the “evil inclination,” the curse of the tongue. It’s a voice that prompts cravings for reward without investment, the awakening of expectant and entitled appetites, and a deceitful self-image –a dissatisfaction with one’s place within the created world. We have a similar story in our armory of fairy tales.
So many of our fairy tales and legends have their roots in the scriptures, and this one is no different. It’s the story of Snow White. In the story, the jealousy and envy of an “evil” and entitled stepmother causes her to poison young and beautiful Snow White with a “poisonous apple.” Snow White is the apple of everyone’s eye, and her stepmother wants to rid this competition from her life, making her instead the center of everyone’s admiration. The poison puts Snow White into a deep sleep/death. Yet, true love’s kiss in the end can overcome this evil. Following this narrative, Jesus then, is for us True Love’s Kiss.
Jesus’ sacrificial gift, His resurrection promise, His putting Himself on the line to eliminate our poisonous sleep of death and to restore us to life is God’s True Love Kiss to all of humanity. For all of our efforts at risk aversion, Jesus takes the greatest risk of all –He sets aside His place in heaven to take on our flesh and live among us and then gives up His life to redeem ours. In doing so, Jesus again invites us into relationship with Him and with the Father. We get a second chance to put entitlement behind us and assume the role as a faithful disciple, a mature human being, and servant of God.
In coming to us in human form, God in Jesus tries to reconnect us to our true selves, to show us what true love looks like, what investment and service look like, what being created in the image of God, but not assuming the role of God, looks like. He invites us to try again. We as human beings live in a constant struggle between the need to feel special and individual, and the need for relationship and connection with others. We spend our days evaluating where our needs start and end, and how and to what extent we will care about the needs of others.
In a sense, this is our human purpose, to learn what it means to be whole and yet to love. It started with a garden gift. It started again with the gift of Jesus’ sacrificial redemption. So, the question remains, how will we spend our life? How will we see our purpose? Will we again be lured by the tempting voice that says, “you deserve to have it all now, without effort?” “You deserve a garden, risk-free, easy, entitled life?” Or will we take a risk and invest? In relationships, in loving, in worshipping a God who is wiser and greater than us? In Jesus, who asks us not to go our own way but to yoke together and travel our path with Him?
Why can’t we have it all? Actually, we can. But we can’t have it on our own. Not without cost. We can’t create it on your own. We can’t take it and assume something that isn’t ours to take. You cannot be God. But we can receive the free gift of God’s love and grace, and God’s invitation to enter into a relationship with Jesus, a discipleship relationship, in which we strive, and we learn, and we change, and we love. In doing this, we truly can have it all.
Amen
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