Temptation's Consequence
Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7
Psalm 32
Matthew 4: 1-11
I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta. Where I grew up had just become a suburb. Only a few years before it had been farm land, cultivated and producing a good living for old Farmer Davis who sold the land and lived in the old farmhouse on the corner where the school bus picked us up and let us off each day.
What was left of Farmer Davis' farm was the ten acres on the side and behind his house. Every year he'd cultivate those acres, plowing the ground with his mule. He grew all kinds of vegetables there and for a short time every year he had a vegetable stand at the corner. He also had some apple trees. And all this was behind the substantial cyclone fence that framed his property.
We were busy kids back then. All kinds of activities occupied our time, without mentioning Kay, and Andrea, and Elena. Because we were busy we never paid any attention to Farmer Davis. We never paid any attention until that day we got off the bus and he yelled at us, “You kids had better stay away from my apples. You hear?”
Until that day those apple trees that bordered that cyclone fence had just been trees to us. But that was the day we first noticed the apples, hanging so green and temptingly off the branches. And, oh goodness, there were so many of them.
I don't know what day of the week Farmer Davis issued his proclamation. I do know for several days we walked past those apple trees we'd paid no attention to before. I do know that every day we walked by them they seemed to be more juicy and more succulent than the previous day. Every day the sweet, sweet smell of those apples assaulted our nostrils in an binge of temptation.
It was Friday night my friend Kenneth and I got to the other side of Farmer Davis' cyclone fence with no more trouble than it had been a bump along the path. Each of us then climbed into the branches of an apple tree, me in one and Kenneth in the other. We began to pick and fill our potato sacks with the source of our temptation.
My bag was almost full when I heard the voice. “Okay, you kids get down from there right now.” I looked down from my perch and there was Farmer Davis looking up at me in the moonlight. And he had a shotgun in his hand. “Get down right now. Get down or I'll shoot.”
I weighed the situation. I could come down. If I did it was either the Sheriff or my Dad. Neither was a viable option. I didn't want to contemplate what would happen if he called my Dad. And the Sheriff was Kenneth's dad. “I said come down,” he repeated. Weighing the options I replied, “No.” I had come to the conclusion he wasn't going to shoot me. I also concluded we were sharp kids and he was an old man and we could wait him out. I put my back against the trunk of the tree, pulled an apple out of my sack just to taunt him, and bit into it. “You've got to come down sometime,” he said. And he sat down and leaned his back against the fence.
I don't know how long we waited in those trees. And I don't know how many apples we ate as we waited. Did I mention that the apples were crab apples? Green, powerful crab apples. I do know we were in that tree long enough for the source of our temptation to begin working on my innards. I do remember the epiphany I had that I had to get out of that tree and quick.
I was in a world of hurt. I don't know if Farmer Davis fired that shotgun or not. I do know that if he did I was over that fence in a flash and outran the pellets. And I do know that by the time I got home the consequence of my having given in to temptation had stained me and there was no way to hide it from my Dad.
Temptation. Temptation knocks on the door of our lives everyday. Temptation. We're all subjected to temptation.
On the sanctuary screen appears a video of kids being seated at a table, alone in a room, and given a marshmallow on a plate. They are told that if they don't eat the one marshmallow until the adult returns they will get another marshmallow The video watches the struggles of the children to not give in to the temptation of immediate sweetness.
What is it about us that makes temptation so appealing? It might be the temptation to eat a marshmallow when not doing so will bring eventual benefit. It might be not punching the button beside the sign that says “Do not push button.” It might be not putting our finger on the wall with the sign that says “Wet Paint.” Or it might be much more serious.
Did you know that in 1987 over eight million children disappeared in the United States? They were not abducted. They just disappeared off the face of the earth. The year 1987, you see, was the year the Internal Revenue Service began requiring proof that the child you claimed as a deduction on your income tax actually existed. You had to put the little fellow's Social Security number on the form. And so eight million kids just disappeared from the year before.
Temptation. It's part of our lives. Temptation. Adam and Eve were tempted. Even Jesus was tempted.
Today's the first Sunday in Lent. The season of Lent always begins with the story of Jesus forty days of temptation in the wilderness. And that's the place we should begin. That's the root of much of our problem with spiritual lives.
Jesus encountered three temptations. He was tempted to turn the stones into bread. Listen, you want to rule the world? Solve the bread problem. Be the one who makes it possible for everyone to eat and they'll come and fall down before you and worship you. The second temptation was to place himself in peril and leave the protection to the angels. And the third was to rule by might.
Have you ever noticed the thing all these temptations have in common? It's the same thing each of us have in common when it comes to our temptations. When we yield to the temptation it's not the sinful act that damns us. The condemnation is the temptation leads to separation from God.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.... When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. [Genesis 2: 17-17; 3: 6-7]
We know the story, don't we? We know it so well. We've heard it all these years in Sunday School and heard preachers orate on it from the pulpit. It's a convenient story, childish, almost, in its simplicity. Maybe that's why we so easily gloss over the ultimate meaning of the tale. The story ends with Adam and Eve leaving the garden, leaving it and knowing they can never return.
That is the tragedy of the story of the “first man” and his woman. It ends with them separated from God.
And that is the tragedy of our sin. It pains me as a pastor to realize how many people think it's all about resisting the temptation to have sex outside of marriage, to resist the temptation to lie, cheat or steal. It is that, to be sure, but more than that it is resisting the temptation to separate yourself from God. That is the ultimate condemnation: to be outside the love of God. But that's where so many of us find ourselves. Think about it.
Did the hedging on your income tax condemn you or was it the fact that giving into that temptation placed you outside God's love? You young people? Does taking shortcuts, settling for being less than you could be, condemn you, or is it that by selling yourself short of your God-given potential you have separated yourself from God?
I know this sounds harsh. But the simple fact is we have all given in to the temptations and fallen short.
But there's good news. In the Psalm for today we read: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.' And you forgave the guilt of my sin. [Psalm 32: 5]
There's something separating you from the love of God today. I don't know what it is. But you do. Being outside the love of God is a horrible place to be.
But you can be embraced again in the loving arms of God. You can because Jesus resisted the temptations offered him those forty days in the wilderness. Once he resisted those temptations there was but one course left, the way of the cross.
Lent is a preparation for living in the light of the cross. Lent is a time of realizing your sin is real, but your sin can be forgiven, forgiven in Christ who resisted the temptation to compel us and chose instead to love us back to the other side of our temptation.
At the end of the gospel lesson for today, it says God sent angels to minister to Jesus. God will send those same angels to minister to you if you are determined to not be separated from God's love.
There's an old cliché we all use: “The Devil made me do it.” Well, guess what folks, the Devil cannot make you do anything. But you, by the power of God, can make the Devil do something. You can make the Devil go away. And that's when God will send God's angels to you.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
gentle and wise words
thank you
Posted by: wondering aloud | March 13, 2011 at 05:47 AM