Temptation lent 1 Feb 10 2008 R Swenson PUMC

You might think that God would want life just to be easy..
No big problems ..no big decisions...no doubts or struggles

Be honest now..do you ever wish for that?


But then have you noticed that in all three Gospel versions of the temptation story
it is very clear that the Holy spirit
is who sends Jesus into the desert
.or into the wilderness..

Mark uses this especially strong language
that Jesus gets driven..into the wilderness


Luke softens it little
he says that Jesus is guided by the Spirit in the wilderness..


but then in the wilderness

we are told that it’s the devil
or Satan
that does the tempting

and those are all names that mean things like
the adversary
the opposing force,,
the resistance to God
the liar..
. the deceiver
those are all ways of translating what we call the devil or Satan,

now
what do you with the fact that the Holy Spirit
is what puts Jesus into that wilderness

it’s God who puts Jesus into the experience of temptation or testing..

The Bible says god does not do the tempting

but God knows... that we have to go there

Or at least Jesus did and we got these doctrinal ideas
of how Jesus has to be tempted
and he needs to pass the test
so he can undo what Adam and Eve did
because they failed the test
and so its part of the redemption theology
and yes that’s all there
but
there is another layer to this story

and its not just the doctrinal layer
but the participatory layer..


I m going to make the case

that Jesus is the picture or the map for all of us....Jesus is our guiding savior

We don’t call him the way or the revelation for nothing..

In a sense we all follow Jesus
into the wilderness
and into temptation

you can’t be human without it.

we all share the life
of having to make choices..
values..commitment..

Choosing a path. and a voice in life.
and that
just as Jesus had to do this.. So do we ..

Or as Bob Dylan puts it in one of his songs

you gotta serve somebody

it might be the devil or it might be the lord
but you gotta serve somebody

that the participation point in this gospel lesson

We all have to go into the desert

we all have to do the soul searching

we all get hungry and famished..

we all do some suffering.
.that pushes us to the core

we all make decisions
under pressure

we all need to face the devil

we all have to learn something
about God and about ourselves


To be human..is to be faced with those choices..

The Temptation story
seems to be saying that!

We all need the test.. It is necessary..

It is life in the world.
it is the proving ground..

This wilderness world
is where we are....this is where we live
This is where we grow.
This is where we develop

and I think at some deep level of our soul
we already know that..

But the questions are
what will you expect
and what will you decide
and what will you learn

Let me add a story into the mix..


It from Fr William Baush
one of the great storytellers of our day


and the story is about a boy named Victor
and his mother and a magic wish

Once upon a time
there was a young woman who gave birth to her first child
but it was a difficult time

The baby was born Just one month after her husband had died in a tragic accident

the neighbors gathered around her


hoping to help this poor young widow... So they planned a baby shower and all the neighbors came with their things to help the mother and the child get started in life
and when all the gifts were open
the mother was overcome with tears

as she said thank-you...
thank you for all your help

you have made this hard time a little easier

Next Sunday my son will be baptized

and I am going to name him after his father he will be called Victor..

And with that the party ended
and when the neighbors were all gone
there was one more knock on the door

it was the old man who lived in the corner house all by himself

they called him Doc Burns

but that was just what they called him

he wasn’t a doctor
at least not in any normal kind of way

he was a reclusive old man

nobody really knew him or talked to him

but he would wave at people though the window

The old man said
I have come to give you my gift for your young son.

He said it in a soft kind of way..

but I have a different kind of gift for you

I can offer you one wish
for young Victor
it can be anything you want.

But you must make this wish before the child is baptized on Sunday

and with that
the old man bowed and walked back to his house

the young mother was just baffled by his words
this strange old fellow

what was he talking about could he really do that ?
... the power to grant a wish

and what would she ask for ?
all week long she could not make up her mind
but the decision had to be made this week

and before the baptism

finally

as she was actually walking down the aisle

Coming to the baptismal font.

.she whispered into the babys ear..

What seemed like a wonderful wish of a mother..

she said

I wish that everyone in the world would love my Victor,


and the wish came true

Victor grew up to be a handsome young man

and all the time people loved him
when he was a toddler

people just couldn’t resist hugging him

even when he was naughty

no one ever believed he had done anything wrong

as he got older
everybody in the little town knew Victor and they all loved him

the grandmothers in the town were always giving him little snacks and treats..
And the other children gave him toys

if his mother tried to discipline him or scold him..

The other adults would say to her
your being to strict with such a wonderful child.

But Victor took all this attention in

but then he treated people with scorn and contempt.

Still they just adored him.
They only person he ever really listened to now and then was old Doc Burns


well
when Victor finished high school.

He got a scholarship to a college back east

when he came back from college at Christmas time

for the first time back home
he was driving a beautiful black Cadillac

his suitcases were filled with fine and fancy clothes

and he seemed to have plenty of money to spend

he hardly saw his mother during vacation

he was out making the rounds
partied and went to the taverns

after college


Victor never did any work.

It seemed like
any thing he tried,,,got him what he wanted..

He just went on in a life of ease.

and everything seemed to just come his way.

well to tell you the truth
he was into every pleasure and every vice you might imagine

but some how

in all this .
Still
Everybody just loved him.

Yet with all of this

he despised the people who catered to him..

and his heart felt empty and his soul

His soul was sick.
He was disgusted
with everything and everyone.


Even though he had all these things

.. This kind of power and popularity
comfort and success..

Something was so very wrong.

One night he decided to end it all..

He went to his room
and put some poison into a glass of wine.

And just as he was about to drink it down.

Doc Burns rushed into the room..
And took the glass out of his hands.

Good evening Victor
he said
we have not talked for awhile

you seem to be done with your life of frivolity

I am sorry that this has been such a meaningless existence for you

I suppose I am the one responsible for your misery

I answered your mothers wish
the day you were baptized.

Even though it was a foolish wish

How about if I offer you, now
a new wish?

Make it anything you want.


And I will give it to you

Oh , victor said sadly,,


I don’t think you can give me anything that I haven’t already had.

But Doc Burns insisted

think.... think again..
Make another wish for my sake

or maybe for the sake of your mother

so Victor closed his eyes

and he thought
for several minutes

Finally he spoke through the tears.

He said
take away the old magic.. And give me a new wish

My new wish is this
instead of being loved

I want the ability to love everyone in the world

That was good . Doc Burns said..
And he hugged the young man who was in tears..

Now things will go better for you.


And things did go better for Victor..

But not right away

Now that he didn’t have his great charm.... his friends left him

Some people really didn’t like him

and some of the people got even with him.
For things that he had done wrong..

he had hurt more than a few people
He got thrown into jail for three months

..Some of those old behaviors caught up with him
now that the magic wasn’t protecting him anymore.

And no one came to visit him.

When he got out he was sick and lonely and he didn’t have a dime.
He went back to take care of his ailing mother

you see

for the first time in his life.
He was able to return her great love.

After his mother got well,

, Victor got a job as a janitor

over in the grade school
he cared for the floors and cleaned the rooms

But not just the floors and the building

he took care of the children too

especially
those who came from the poorest of homes.
all the children called him Mr Victor

their friend and companion

and finally

he met a wonderful young widow
who had two little children

they got married
and he gave all three of them

the kind of love that they so desperately needed

They never had much money

just getting by really

but they were the richest people in the world

Life was good
it was where they knew they needed to be..

Victor discovered that it is in loving ... not being loved..

but in loving others

that life becomes full and abundant..
And you feel alive
He found the spiritual life.


Well
I dont’n really think I have to explain that story

you know what it is saying

and you know the truth of it..

Life simply cannot be all easy...
without the impact
of our choices and consequences..and struggles

it does become meaningless...and loveless.

In a very real sense..
Victor in the first part of his life got everything that the devil was offering Jesus
and it was not the way to real life.

Go back to the Bible lesson today

the devil
that liar in life..
.however you want to imagine it..

Is trying to tell Jesus
and us too
he is trying to tell Jesus
that life

is about everyone liking you
or getting what you want .

Having what you want
physical security..
satisfaction.
bread..
fame and fortune and power.

But Jesus sees through it..

Life is about trusting God
living by the word of God.

.serving God..



Jesus..just like all of us is tempted to serve himself and make himself the center..

but in the wilderness
In the test,,,
he points us to the God centered life
.and to selflessness

and really
he puts us to the life of loving others
embodied later in the cross.

So you see

the temptation story

is not just about Jesus

do’nt just leave it there in the past
or in the Bible or as a theological discussion. about a doctrinal salvation plan

. Listen to what he taught us

how he leads us in our wilderness
let him lead you..in the wilderness

we face the same temptations .every day

and the wilderness days

the desert days
the struggling days.. Might be the days

the times
that will teach us love.

They will teach us the Jesus way

true life comes..

from loving others.
As the life of serving God alone

the Gospel lesson says that after Jesus said this.

after that
the devil..left him..has nothing else to say
remember
that....when you follow Jesus in the God centered life of love alone

the devil ..the tempter
has nothing else to say