Lent 1<\/p>\n
Year A
\nGenesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
\nPsalm 32
\nRomans 5:12-19
\nMatthew 4:1-11<\/p>\n
Today’s Hebrew Scripture\u2026 about Adam and Eve and the serpent\u2026 brings to mind ideas about sin\u2026 and perhaps original sin\u2026 but neither the word sin\u2026 nor any synonym for it\u2026 appears in Chapters 2 or 3\u2026 and Chapter 3 doesn’t talk about punishment or the fall\u2026 it is simply a temptation story\u2026 maybe more about how we humans want to rely on ourselves and what we think\u2026 than on our relationship with God\u2026<\/p>\n
About Psalm 32\u2026 New Testament scholar Reta Halteman Finger writes\u2026 this psalm is attributed to King David\u2026 and most likely refers to his own sins of adultery and murder\u2026 but after David repented and experienced forgiveness\u2026 he was able to eloquently express both his misery\u2026 and the rush of relief\u2026 and wild joy that accompanied his confession and repentance\u2026 you\u2019d think\u2026 she wrote\u2026 that people would try repenting more often\u2026<\/p>\n
Our reading from Romans presents\u2026 quite honestly\u2026 some deep\u2026 and difficult to understand\u2026 theology about Law and sin\u2026 and so I\u2019ll just say\u2026 that if it\u2019s unclear to us just how Eve and Adam\u2019s trespass affects us all\u2026 then it may be equally unclear how Jesus\u2019 act of righteousness is passed on to us as well\u2026<\/p>\n
But what is clear\u2026 is that our forty days of Lent have just begun\u2026 and Jesus\u2019 Lenten journey has just ended\u2026 he had just been baptized\u2026 and was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness\u2026 and we have just been baptized with ashes\u2026 with stardust\u2026 and even in the city\u2026 we are surrounded by some wilder-ness\u2026 our forty days have just begun\u2026 but Jesus has already been in the desert for forty days\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>and as the text says\u2026 forty nights\u2026 let\u2019s remember that nighttime is safer for us than it was in Jesus\u2019 time\u2026 the dark nights then were really dark\u2026 there were real dangers\u2026 the text may even imply a sense of chaos\u2026 that which cannot be controlled\u2026 we are just beginning to think about the ways in which we miss God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 Jesus\u2026 although weakened by hunger\u2026 and thirst\u2026 and the desert\u2019s daytime heat\u2026 and its nighttime cold\u2026 has three opportunities to affirm all the ways that he still hits God\u2019s mark with bulls-eyes\u2026<\/p>\n All three of the synoptic Gospels\u2026 Matthew\u2026 Mark\u2026 and Luke\u2026 refer to this Temptation story\u2026 but Mark\u2026 which is the earliest Gospel\u2026 the one written first\u2026 conveys the story in just two verses\u2026 with no specific temptations\u2026 Matthew\u2026 which scholars believe was written next\u2026 and which was written more for a Jewish audience\u2026 uses eleven verses to list them as\u2026 (1) stones to bread\u2026 (2) the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 and (3) the high mountain\u2026 and Luke\u2019s Gospel\u2026 which was written last\u2026 takes thirteen verses\u2026 but changes the sequence to\u2026 (1) stones to bread\u2026 then (2) high mountain\u2026 and lastly (3) the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026<\/p>\n Theologian Douglas John Hall writes\u2026 the request to turn stones into bread\u2026 can be seen as an attempt to displace the most essential Hebraic commitment to creation\u2026 with a redemption theology that tries to avoid the Cross and go right to the Kingdom\u2026 it\u2019s a temptation to seek miracle by abandoning the world we have in favor of another one\u2026 but as the Son of God\u2026 Jesus will not suspend the laws of planting and harvesting\u2026 and baking\u2026 he knows he’s loved by God even when he’s hungry\u2026 and he will be hungry\u2026<\/p>\n Then he’s asked to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 to put God to the test\u2026 but as the Son of God\u2026 he will not suspend the laws of gravity now\u2026 he will not put himself in danger and presume on divine love to protect him\u2026 though we know that later on in Matthew\u2019s Gospel Jesus does just that\u2026 when he walks on water\u2026 but Satan\u2019s request is the temptation for spectacle\u2026 for the cult of celebrity\u2026 it’s an attempt to resist the hurt that comes with feeling invisible or superfluous\u2026 and make a name for oneself\u2026 as they tried to do at Babel\u2026 but Jesus knows he’s loved by God even when he’s hurting\u2026 and he will be hurt\u2026<\/p>\n Then he’s asked to fall down and worship the Satan\u2026 and while the text says that Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the world\u2026 I wonder if at a deeper level\u2026 what he was really shown\u2026 what he really understood\u2026 was how all the kingdoms of the world operate\u2026 which is by division and accusation\u2026 but as the Son of God\u2026 he will not suspend the deep unity he experiences with his Abba\u2026 so that he can rule\u2026 the way evil rules\u2026 Jesus will reject the ways of the world and remain politically powerless\u2026 and it will work against him\u2026<\/p>\n Over and over again\u2026 Jesus is weak\u2026 and hurt\u2026 and mocked\u2026 and rejected\u2026 and powerless\u2026 and he engages people and circumstances\u2026 not with the world\u2019s answers\u2026 not with the world\u2019s authority\u2026 but with God\u2019s\u2026 he gathers with the disciples to teach them\u2026 through stories and parable\u2026 how to be humble\u2026<\/p>\n In our time\u2026 sometimes\u2026 when people gather socially\u2026 they like to tell stories\u2026 and some of the stories are about common experiences\u2026 like parenting\u2026 or having travelled to the same foreign city\u2026 or having watched all six seasons of Game of Thrones and really disliking the end\u2026 stories that help them feel affirmed and connected\u2026 but sometimes\u2026 and this is true for only some people\u2026 they tell stories to earn more social capital\u2026 to puff themselves up\u2026 to increase their standing\u2026 to do each other\u2026 one better\u2026<\/p>\n But how would it be\u2026 if culturally\u2026 we tried to outdo each other in how we miss God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 that\u2019s what sin is\u2026 missing God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 both individually and corporately\u2026 but how would it be\u2026 if the acceptance of imperfection\u2026 was commonplace and mundane\u2026 we\u2019d still need to find the best people for the job\u2026 we\u2019d still need to be held accountable\u2026 there might still need to be some consequences for some of the things we did or didn\u2019t do\u2026 but that kind of perspective would be a game-changer\u2026<\/p>\n And while\u2026 it seems to me\u2026 that too many American Christians are focused on things like smoking\u2026 drinking\u2026 gambling\u2026 swearing\u2026 and shhhh\u2026 sex\u2026 it seems to me that God is more focused on us putting ourselves first less often\u2026 and last more often\u2026 and I don\u2019t mean in the coffee hour line\u2026 I mean in the ways that matter more to God\u2026 things like feeding the hungry\u2026 clothing the naked\u2026 healing the sick\u2026 and expressing Gospel values through our legal and judicial systems\u2026 that is\u2026 after all\u2026 what the prophets spoke about\u2026<\/p>\n So what if\u2026 when someone asked\u2026 and how are you today<\/i>\u2026 I said something like\u2026 oh\u2026 I was so disappointed that my sport\u2019s team lost \u2026 that I got really impatient with Joel and yelled<\/i>\u2026 or\u2026 how are you today\u2026 oh\u2026 I\u2019m feeling really guilty about not putting my shopping cart in the cart corral in the parking lot\u2026 because the wind caught it as if it were a sailboat\u2026 and it dented a nearby car\u2026 but I just kept on driving<\/i>\u2026 or\u2026 how are you today\u2026 oh\u2026 I\u2019m feeling some regret\u2026 because I voted for someone who promised they\u2019d support the stewardship of creation\u2026 and all they\u2019re really supporting is them-self\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n Truly resisting temptation is hard work\u2026 repenting of sin may be harder work\u2026 but\u2026 as Amy Ziettlow\u2026 pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Decatur, Illinois\u2026writes\u2026 our willingness to change is infinitely more important to God than is our skill\u2026 when we\u2019re willing\u2026 God can equip us for whatever God calls us to do\u2026 our sacrifice is our willingness to follow\u2026 and then we can expect to grow in our abilities to be faithful\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>the same faithful Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness\u2026 leads us today\u2026 just as Jesus was tested\u2026 so we are tested\u2026 Jesus was asked to give up\u2026 his implicit trust in God\u2026 and he would absolutely not compromise\u2026 in our humanity\u2026 we will continue to compromise on some things\u2026 but maybe during Lent\u2026 we can at least acknowledge that we do it\u2026 then our good deeds may grow from pebbles\u2026 if not into mountains\u2026 then maybe at least into hills\u2026 and that would be a good beginning\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lent 1 Year A Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Today’s Hebrew Scripture\u2026 about Adam and Eve and the serpent\u2026 brings to mind ideas about sin\u2026 and perhaps original sin\u2026 but neither the word sin\u2026 nor any synonym for it\u2026 appears in Chapters 2 or 3\u2026 and Chapter 3 doesn’t talk about punishment or the fall\u2026 it is simply a temptation story\u2026 maybe more about how we humans want to rely on ourselves and what we think\u2026 than on our relationship with God\u2026 About Psalm 32\u2026 New Testament scholar Reta Halteman Finger writes\u2026 this psalm is attributed to King David\u2026 and most likely refers to his own sins of adultery and murder\u2026 but after David repented and experienced forgiveness\u2026 he was able to eloquently express both his misery\u2026 and the rush of relief\u2026 and wild joy that accompanied his confession and repentance\u2026 you\u2019d think\u2026 she wrote\u2026 that people would try repenting more often\u2026 Our reading from Romans presents\u2026 quite honestly\u2026 some deep\u2026 and difficult to understand\u2026 theology about Law and sin\u2026 and so I\u2019ll just say\u2026 that if it\u2019s unclear to us just how Eve and Adam\u2019s trespass affects us all\u2026 then it may be equally unclear how Jesus\u2019 act of righteousness is passed on to us as well\u2026 But what is clear\u2026 is that our forty days of Lent have just begun\u2026 and Jesus\u2019 Lenten journey has just ended\u2026 he had just been baptized\u2026 and was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness\u2026 and we have just been baptized with ashes\u2026 with stardust\u2026 and even in the city\u2026 we are surrounded by some wilder-ness\u2026 our forty days have just begun\u2026 but Jesus has already been in the desert for forty days\u2026\u00a0 and as the text says\u2026 forty nights\u2026 let\u2019s remember that nighttime is safer for us than it was in Jesus\u2019 time\u2026 the dark nights then were really dark\u2026 there were real dangers\u2026 the text may even imply a sense of chaos\u2026 that which cannot be controlled\u2026 we are just beginning to think about the ways in which we miss God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 Jesus\u2026 although weakened by hunger\u2026 and thirst\u2026 and the desert\u2019s daytime heat\u2026 and its nighttime cold\u2026 has three opportunities to affirm all the ways that he still hits God\u2019s mark with bulls-eyes\u2026 All three of the synoptic Gospels\u2026 Matthew\u2026 Mark\u2026 and Luke\u2026 refer to this Temptation story\u2026 but Mark\u2026 which is the earliest Gospel\u2026 the one written first\u2026 conveys the story in just two verses\u2026 with no specific temptations\u2026 Matthew\u2026 which scholars believe was written next\u2026 and which was written more for a Jewish audience\u2026 uses eleven verses to list them as\u2026 (1) stones to bread\u2026 (2) the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 and (3) the high mountain\u2026 and Luke\u2019s Gospel\u2026 which was written last\u2026 takes thirteen verses\u2026 but changes the sequence to\u2026 (1) stones to bread\u2026 then (2) high mountain\u2026 and lastly (3) the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 Theologian Douglas John Hall writes\u2026 the request to turn stones into bread\u2026 can be seen as an attempt to displace the most essential Hebraic commitment to creation\u2026 with a redemption theology that tries to avoid the Cross and go right to the Kingdom\u2026 it\u2019s a temptation to seek miracle by abandoning the world we have in favor of another one\u2026 but as the Son of God\u2026 Jesus will not suspend the laws of planting and harvesting\u2026 and baking\u2026 he knows he’s loved by God even when he’s hungry\u2026 and he will be hungry\u2026 Then he’s asked to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 to put God to the test\u2026 but as the Son of God\u2026 he will not suspend the laws of gravity now\u2026 he will not put himself in danger and presume on divine love to protect him\u2026 though we know that later on in Matthew\u2019s Gospel Jesus does just that\u2026 when he walks on water\u2026 but Satan\u2019s request is the temptation for spectacle\u2026 for the cult of celebrity\u2026 it’s an attempt to resist the hurt that comes with feeling invisible or superfluous\u2026 and make a name for oneself\u2026 as they tried to do at Babel\u2026 but Jesus knows he’s loved by God even when he’s hurting\u2026 and he will be hurt\u2026 Then he’s asked to fall down and worship the Satan\u2026 and while the text says that Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the world\u2026 I wonder if at a deeper level\u2026 what he was really shown\u2026 what he really understood\u2026 was how all the kingdoms of the world operate\u2026 which is by division and accusation\u2026 but as the Son of God\u2026 he will not suspend the deep unity he experiences with his Abba\u2026 so that he can rule\u2026 the way evil rules\u2026 Jesus will reject the ways of the world and remain politically powerless\u2026 and it will work against him\u2026 Over and over again\u2026 Jesus is weak\u2026 and hurt\u2026 and mocked\u2026 and rejected\u2026 and powerless\u2026 and he engages people and circumstances\u2026 not with the world\u2019s answers\u2026 not with the world\u2019s authority\u2026 but with God\u2019s\u2026 he gathers with the disciples to teach them\u2026 through stories and parable\u2026 how to be humble\u2026 In our time\u2026 sometimes\u2026 when people gather socially\u2026 they like to tell stories\u2026 and some of the stories are about common experiences\u2026 like parenting\u2026 or having travelled to the same foreign city\u2026 or having watched all six seasons of Game of Thrones and really disliking the end\u2026 stories that help them feel affirmed and connected\u2026 but sometimes\u2026 and this is true for only some people\u2026 they tell stories to earn more social capital\u2026 to puff themselves up\u2026 to increase their standing\u2026 to do each other\u2026 one better\u2026 But how would it be\u2026 if culturally\u2026 we tried to outdo each other in how we miss God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 that\u2019s what sin is\u2026 missing God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 both individually and corporately\u2026 but how would it be\u2026 if the acceptance of imperfection\u2026 was commonplace and mundane\u2026 we\u2019d still need to find the best people for the job\u2026 we\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}