First Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-11
1{Moses said to the Israelites,} “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. 3And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ 4Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. 5And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 9And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. 11And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.”
Psalm 91:1-13
1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, abides under the shadow of the Almighty. 2He shall say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I put my trust.” 3He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence. 4He shall cover you with his pinions, and you shall find refuge under his wings; his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler. 5You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day; 6Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, nor of the sickness that lays waste at midday. 7A thousand shall fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. 8Your eyes have only to behold to see the reward of the wicked. 9Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your habitation, 10There shall no evil happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. 11For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 12They shall bear you in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. 13You shall tread upon the lion and adder; you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet.
Second Reading: Romans 10:8b-13
8b“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Gospel: Luke 4:1-13
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” 9And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 12And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Until a More Opportune Time
Let me ask you something. It might seem like a silly question, but it’s still one I’d like to ask. Now don’t raise your hand, but how many here this morning have ever felt tempted? I know it’ a silly question, because we all know the answer. All we have to do is look around to see that everyone, at one point or another, deals or has delt with, temptation. Advertising companies, manufacturers, and retailers, spend billions of dollars each year to tempt, allure, and persuade people that they “need” what these folks are selling. What’s the old saying? “Sex sells?”
And with the rise of “social influencers”, those people who can persuade their followers that life is somehow incomplete without the product, service, or the techniques they espouse, it’s no wonder our economy and society are driven by temptation. Truth be told, temptation is something we all deal with each and every day.
Think about it, fast food advertisers are constantly tempting us with food that for the most part we could do without. Commercials on TV today seem like an endless parade of fast food, pastries, pasta, beverages and sweets, all beckoning us to come and feast. Truth be told, all these taste really good, but if you want to monitor and manage your diet, you simply cannot eat all that stuff, nor can you super-size every meal!
Another thing that tempts people is procrastination. If you have a project or something that needs to get done, it’s easy to get distracted and persuade ourselves that it can wait until tomorrow. Then we find ourselves working overtime to get the task done all because we gave into the temptation of procrastination. These examples are, of course, less serious. However, there are temptations that are much more serious in nature.
Each of us experience temptations that push us on how honest we’ll be; temptations that test us to see how faithful we are to our spouses and partners; temptations that expose our willingness to throw a friend under the bus in order to save our own skin, or worse, to make ourselves look good. Then there are temptations around taxes and tithing, lying, stealing and more. There are the temptations of laziness, pride, gluttony, greed, anger, envy, to covet our neighbor’s goods, to backbite or gossip. The list is virtually endless, and it’s stunning in its variety and complexity.
We live in a torrent of temptation, and our world has no desire to do anything but capitalize on this human weakness. How does that advertisement go about Las Vegas? “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?” What does that really mean? It doesn’t take a theoretical physicist to figure that out, does it? Or consider the carmaker who tempts us with the notion that they “have no boundaries.” Really, no boundaries? That thought in and of itself, is dangerous on so many levels.
Yet the temptation to push beyond, to transgress boundaries is ever-present. Sometimes the boundaries we’re tempted to cross are minor, and sometimes they’re serious and so are the accompanying consequences. You don’t need me to tell you that the world is falling all over its collective commercial impulse to dangle things in front of us; to tempt us into going places we know we shouldn’t go.
Everyday there are temptations to cheat, to lie, to seek revenge and to manipulate the system in order get what we think we desire. It’s like a vast sea in which we all must swim…and some are able to swim better than others. The world certainly had less technology in Jesus’ day, but temptation was just as prevalent for Him as it is for us today. Consider our well-know gospel lesson for today. Jesus, being hungry after 40 days of fasting, is tempted by His grumbling belly. The devil says to Him, “If you are the Son of God, go ahead, turn this stone into bread.” It’s a sensible yet amazing prospect and one that could even appeal to our fuzzy feel-good sense of things. We of course, remember His response: “One does not live by bread alone.” Next come the lure of power.
From the halls of governments to the workings of the Church, power attempts to seduce, and many fall prey to this temptation. But Jesus resists. “It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him…” Finally, satan tries to tempt Jesus to prove His divinity by demonstrating immortality in a dramatic leap from the pinnacle of the temple. As we know, Jesus resists this as well: “It is said, do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Then comes for me one of those amazing verses, one that is very revealing. In verse 13 we read, “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
It’s in this simple, yet easily overlooked verse that we come to understand that the devil never quits. He merely goes away “until an opportune time.” Therefore, since temptation is aways with us, it seems that the question before us isn’t about whether or not we’re tempted, again temptation is everywhere. The real question has to do with how we respond to temptation. It’s our response to temptation that creates or destroys us as a people. For me, there are three basic ways to respond to temptation. The first is to simply give in, in a concealing dust-cloud of weak-kneed justification.
The language that accompanies the excuses for simply giving in are all too familiar. “Well, everyone does it….” Or, “you only go around once in life.” Or “no one is perfect.” Or, even the tired old excuse, “the devil made me do it.” Or, this one I heard the other day, “Oh, if I don’t do it, someone else will step right in and do it themselves. What difference does it make, anyway?” Giving in to temptation is an epidemic in our world. Think for a moment. I bet you’ve witnessed someone who easily surrenders their integrity to temptation and is ready with a carefully constructed defense that articulates why it was reasonable and acceptable in the first place. We all know people who have used these lines of reasoning as excuses for quickly giving in to temptation.
However, before we get too self-righteous, we might want to hold the mirror up for a moment. In what ways have we allowed ourselves to give into something similar, to give in to the allures of temptation? We must be honest with ourselves and ask, where, and in what ways, do we give ourselves away to lowered expectations and questionable activities? Remember this is Lent, a time of reflection and a time of asking ourselves the hard questions. In this season of self-examination, these are the tough questions that are important to pursue. The second way of responding to temptation is accommodation.
Accommodation is the submission to the notion that “it’s not really that bad.” Even as I write this sermon, there are groups of people, here and abroad, who will justify their actions by refusing to speak out against bigotry, hatred, and discrimination all in the name of getting along. They’ll use an excuse like, “there’s hate on all sides,” or “I don’t want to offend anyone.” Giving into the temptation of accommodation simply to avoid conflict or to wiggle out of taking a stand against sin, is wrong.
Accommodation is a way of submitting to temptation that mires us in the swamp of relativity. Our ethical standards become situational. This is the process of refusing to take a stand and saying that “all points of view are valid.” We need to be clear here. If a given point of view violates any of God’s laws, then it isn’t a valid perspective or one to be dismissed, it’s simply sinful. Thank goodness there’s a third way of dealing with temptation, the way Jesus delt with it.
In our reading from Luke, the devil really puts some serious pressure on Jesus. This is where we see the mettle of the Master as He repels the advances of satan. Jesus is offered abundant food when He’s famished from fasting. Political power is laid before Him, and the enticing power of His own “equality with God” (Philippians 2:6) is dangled in front of Him. Right here, in these verses, is our source of strength and consolation in the struggles we face hourly with temptation. In Christ, there is no surrender or accommodation. In Jesus, the devil is given no opportunity. In our Savior, there is no interior struggle with the tyranny of His desires (paraphrase from 1 Peter 2:9f). In God’s Son, there is a clear, simple refusal to give in to temptation. Now this passage in no way implies that such resistance is easy or even cost free. It takes faith and strength to resist.
It takes commitment and clarity to simply say, “No.” It takes knowing God’s word, God’s promises, and it takes faith in the One who promised that “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). The good news for us is that Jesus isn’t alone in this resistance. We have examples of others who have been tempted and yet chose to trust in God to help them overcome.
Joining Jesus in overcoming temptation is St. Francis of Assisi, who surrendered the tempting wealth to follow the voice of God. There are the thousands of Christians, black and white, who participated in the Underground Railroad, resisting the lure of power and the slave economy; Reverend Alex Trocme’ of Le Chambon, France who, rather than give in to power and betray his Jewish neighbors to the Nazis, organized his whole parish to assist hundreds of Jews to escape to freedom and to new life; Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker, came to faith later in life and resisted the temptations of hierarchy and power to serve the poor. The list is long and illustrious.
This list also includes Martin Luther who, rather than accommodate and give in to the threats of the Pope, famously said, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Each of us must tread water in a sea of endless temptations, but we do so in the strength of the Holy Spirit and in the presence of a mighty cloud of witnesses. We can take heart in the full humanity of Jesus and the many frail, imperfect, people who have faithfully followed Him. We take heart in the support of the Christian community who, in prayer, worship and discipline, help us to resist the flood waters of temptation that surround us all. We can take heart in the relationships we build together where we support one another in our shared and sacred resistance to the temptations satan lays before us.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, in this season of Lent, let us renew our faith in the One who overcame and resist the temptations around us. Let us also renew our commitment to resist evil and oppression wherever we may find it, to follow Jesus’ command to love others as we love ourselves, to give as Jesus gave, to remembering the poor, the outcast, and the marginalized. When we do, we will regain our stature as ones who will rise up with courage and with the joy we have in our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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