"DON'T AVOID TEMPTATION!"
There's "Chicken Soup for the Soul"...." Then there's "A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul"..."A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soup"...and "A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul." There's "Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul"..."Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul"...."Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul"....and "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul." And I read that plans are in the works to publish similar "Chicken Soups" for the Grieving Soul, the Parent's Soul, the Expectant Mother's Soul, the Kid's Soul, the Laughing Soul, and the Country Soul. Yikes! That's a lot of chicken soup!
Beneath the title ofeach of these books it says, "101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit." And indeed all the stories are touching and sweet...some funny and some sad but uplifting. You know...stuff to make you feel, "Mmmm, mmmm, good."
And there's nothing wrong with that. Everybody wants to feel good. But I think we sometimes need to expose our spirits to things that aren't quite so comfortable -- issues of spirituality and our relationships with God that don't necessarily leave a pleasant taste in our mouths. Sometimes we need to look at difficult issues in our lives. Real growth doesn't come by only dealing with the easy stuff.
So as a challenge to us all during this Lenten season, I'm going to be presenting a series of sermons which I've dubbed, "Spicy Gumbo for the Soul: Hot Topics that Can Be Hard to Swallow." Following the traditional Gospel readings for the coming weeks, we will explore stories about Jesus that bring up issues such as temptation, salvation, prejudice, suffering and death. Happy Lent!
I hope that you will commit to openly exploring these difficult issues with me. This ain't no chicken soup! But sometimes the things that are hardest to face are the very things that can bring us the greatest blessings, and I certainly pray that will be the case with this sermon series.
So today we begin by looking at temptation. And, no that's not the singular form ofthe harmonizing Motown group from the 60s! Temptation, in the context ofour Gospel reading today, is the testing, of our faithfulness to God.
In the reading we heard from the Gospel of Matthew (4:1-11), we find Jesus being "tempted"--"Satan," representative of the inner demons of every human being, is testing Jesus' faithfulness to God. And, of course, in the end, Jesus triumphs over every temptation. How does he do it? Is it because He is fully divine and has the power of God as His to command? No, I don 't think so. Jesus was also fully human and this experience of temptation is one he encountered using exactly what is available to every human being. Jesus triumphed over temptation because he was willing to undergo open, honest, active SELF-EXAMINATION.
Think about it. Just before going out into this wilderness place by himself, Jesus had been baptized. The Holy Spirit had descended upon him and the very voice of God had declared him to be the true Child of God. Jesus had been given his mission: to bring salvation -- eternal reconnection to God - to all humankind. And now...he had some thinking to do.
How was he to carry out this mission? What would his plan be? What direction should this ministry take? Serious questions. So he goes off, my himself, to fast and pray and seek out God's will.
During that long period of self-examination, his inner demons come. He is first tempted to consider using the power of material things to show the world that He is God. To feed himself...and then to feed the world. To make physical comfort the focus ofhis ministry. But no, He says....that's not God's plan. His work is to be first and foremost about spiritual health.
Then He is tempted to draw attention to Himself and impress the world with His divine power to do miracles. To throw himself off the highest point of the temple, up on a cliff, and land safely. Wouldn't that be spectacular! But no, He says....that's not how people should come to believe in Him.
Then, the ultimate temptation: power and prestige. To wield military might and political control and take over the world. But no...God did not come to be a ruler on earth but as the Sovereign of Heaven and eternity.
Jesus triumphed over every temptation because he was willing to look clearly at himselfand then choose God's way...every time. This is a story about open, honest, active self-examination.
How do we know this? Jesus left no writings or personal tapes or videos. All that was written about Jesus in the Gospels comes to us in the form ofwhat other people witnessed or heard Him say for Himself. He went into the wilderness alone. So how could the story ofthis experience get back to us? Obviously, Jesus Himself had to have told these things to His disciples. He shared with them, apparently, the truth of how He had been haunted by these urges to misuse His power...to seek out glory for Himself...to take advantage of His position as the Child of God. He was honest about His weaknesses and His vulnerabilities. And yet He had remained faithful by facing these things...by knowing Himself completely...and by choosing the ways of God every time. Jesus ultimately defeated the temptations to be unfaithful to God by practicing open, honest, active self-examination.
And what Jesus did, you see, we too can do! He used nothing in this experience of triumph over temptation that you and I don't have the same capacity to do...ifwe will. When OUR inner demons come around we, too, can face them...we can be willing to know ourselves completely...and then we can choose the ways of God every time.
Dealing with our inner demons is scary stuff. When painful or unpleasant sides of ourselves start to emerge often our first reaction is to avoid them...deny them...slink away in fear to escape them. But they always track us down, don't they? The demons of temptation that would have us live unfaithfully thrive on such fear. But ifwe would turn and face them and deal with them directly their power would be greatly diminished.
Like many sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Lowler has tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing her sheep. She has used odor sprays, electric fences, and "scare-coyotes." She has slept with her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near them. She has corralled them at night, herded them during the day. But the Southern Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs - fifty last year alone.
Then she discovered the Ilama -- the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing Ilama. "Llamas don't appear to be afraid of anything," she says. 'When they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won't have anything to do with that. Coyotes are opportunists, and Ilamas take that opportunity away."
In the Bible, in the book of James, it is written, "Resist the devil and it will flee from you." Those inner demons that Jesus had, and that we have, are also opportunists. They attack us, usually, when we're alone...of ten when things are going really well for us...and always with a mind to lead us to be, in some way, unfaithful to God. In the moment we sense the attack, we should face them and deal with them for what they really are. But, that of course, will require us to know ourselves exceedingly well - to know our strengths and to fully understand our weaknesses.
According to Greek mythology, Achilles was dipped by his mother in the river Styx to make him invincible. However, in dipping him into the water, she held him by the heel of his foot and that left that one spot open to attack. Ultimately, Achilles was fatally wounded by Paris, who shot an arrow into his heel: the one vulnerable point on his body. As humans, we all have an Achilles heel. some part ofourselves that is particularly weak and open to attack. For some it is our self-esteem. For others it is the need for attention or control. For some, a weakness for alcohol or drugs is our downfall. In some, arrogance or selfishness or materialism may be the weakness. It varies from person to person, depending on the nature of our own particular intellectual, moral and spiritual vulnerabilities.
We can only defend these spots from the attack of our inner demons if we know exactly where they are. That requires a lot ofself-examination. Open, honest, active self-examination. The kind of self-examination that Jesus can teach us to do.
Now no one really enjoys this kind of personal scrutiny. What it will always reveal to us is that we are imperfect. There will always be things that God needs to be given control of. Things that we need to allow Christ to change within us. As human beings that will always be true.
I'II never forget once when someone gave me an electronic Bible concordance as a gift. You can type in a word or phrase or a name and it will find all the places in Scripture where it appears and will direct you there. Just for fun, I decided to put my name in and see what would happen. I typed in T.e.e.n.a. and hit "enter" and waited. Several seconds went by and the reading came out on the screen. It said, "Trying to correct - please wait."
In this lifetime we will never cease waiting for parts of ourselves to "be corrected." That's part of being human. But the more we can face and understand the imperfect parts of ourselves, the better equipped we will be, when faced by temptation, to choose the ways of God every time.
Don't avoid temptation! That will only give it strength. Instead, face it! See it for what it is! Honestly examine yourselfwell enough to know exactly what your weak spots are! Then, one day at a time, one moment at a time, choose the ways ofGod every time!
That's no easy task. Living as a disciple of Christ? Huh! This ain't no chicken soup! But there is no time like this season of Lent to begin the open, honest, active self-examination that can enable each of us to triumph over temptation...to chase off our inner demons and be what God would truly have us be: healthy...and whole...and conformed to the spiritual image of Christ in everything we do! Amen.
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