Sermon Archive
First Sunday in Lent
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Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,
'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Sermon
The Rev. Jack Zamboni
Well, maybe the tempter knows the truth experience should teach us -- that human beings routinely want to put ourselves in the place of God. The first creation story in Genesis tells us that we are made in the image of God -- but that didn’t seem good enough for Adam and Eve -- or us. We want the whole enchilada. We don’t want just to reflect God’s wisdom, knowledge, and power -- we want to be “like God,” to be extra-specially important, to take God’s place in the center of the universe.
The ways people act is if they were like God are often quite subtle – but maybe you’ll recognize some folks you know. There are those people who think that the well-being of others or the proper execution of some job depends upon them and them alone. Their inflated sense of responsibility for the rest of the universe is a form of imagining that they are like God -- though it often looks like self-sacrificing generosity or committed hard work. There are people who believe in complete self-reliance: that they neither can nor should have to depend on anyone else. Then there are those who, sometimes without being aware of it, expect that their wishes should routinely take precedence over those of others; people who need to be in control of everything that happens around them; and folks so absorbed in their own issues that they are oblivious to anyone else.
Did any of this remind you of people you know? Oh, there is at least one more way that people routinely put themselves in the place of God – and that is in judging the sin and failings of others. It is so much easier to recognize other people playing God than it is to see it in ourselves!
All these behaviors -- and many more -- have this in common: when we act in these ways, we place ourselves in the center of the universe. Like our ancestors before Copernicus who believed that the earth was the center of the universe around which the sun, stars and planets all moved, we imagine that everything is supposed to revolve around us. Of course, we know that isn’t how we are supposed to think or behave, and we try to teach our children otherwise as they grow. I remember the headmaster of the elementary school my son, Jonathan, attended occasionally yelling across the gym at one misbehaving kid or another, “You are not the center of the universe!”
But despite the knowledge that this isn’t the way we ought to act and despite the best efforts of parents, teachers, and mentors to train us otherwise, its very hard to avoid placing ourselves, however unconsciously, in the center of the universe. This habit is actually built into our bodies. I don't know about you, but I have a very hard time walking into a room without seeing it from wherever I happen to be standing. I see everything and everyone there in some sense as being physically around me. Similarly, I have a hard time looking at most situations from somewhere other than my own point of view; I have a hard time starting to deal with what life brings my way -- notice that I said my way -- from someplace besides me: what I think, feel, want, could do, should do, have responsibility for, and so on.
We do this not only as individuals, but as companies, cultures, nations -- and churches. And that, my friends, is wanting to be like God -- making ourselves the point of reference, the place from which everything else starts or is measured, acting as if we were the center of the universe around which everything else revolves. It is no wonder that the tempters in the biblical stories start from this place so often: “You will be like God,” they tell us, because they know we want to hear it. They know how easy it is for us to get hooked on our own imagined divinity.
It is all the more striking, then, that Jesus, the only human being who could claim to be God, refuses the temptations that come in this seductive form. “If you are the Son of God,” the tempter says -- and, of course, Jesus is! How tempting it must have been to prove that he is “like God” in that oh so special way by turning stones into bread or jumping from the top of Temple and landing safely! That would leave no doubt as to who was really like God, who was really the center of the universe. And that is exactly what Jesus will not do.
Instead, each time Satan tempts him, he answers by turning to, pointing to and depending on the One who actually is the center of the universe: God. Each of Jesus’ answers to the tempter points away from himself and towards God. Humans don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Worship and serve only the Lord your God! The point could hardly be clearer. God is the center of the universe. God is the point of reference for everything else. God is the One from whom everything else starts and is measured. God is the One around whom everything else revolves. God, God, God.
What a different perspective that is from the one we live with most of the time -- not me as the center, but God. What a change in our lives living from that perspective would make! Indeed, one could say that much of the point of Christian life is moving from the self-centered way of living that we elaborate in so many subtle ways to the God-centered way of living that Jesus demonstrates for us in his refusal of Satan’s temptations. In this way, at least, we are supposed to be like Jesus, not with ourselves at the center of our universe -- but with God in that center. We are, as God says in the Psalm, to “be still and know that I am God.” Its not that we human beings have no worth or dignity. To the contrary! We are made in the image of God and God came in Jesus to live and die for us. But we are not the center. We are not God. We are to let God be God.
How, this Lent, could we take a few small steps on the journey of letting God be God, of living a bit more as if we weren’t the center of everything, but that instead God is? It is, as I said, a hard thing for us to do -- in fact, on our own its not possible. Even our best efforts are likely to put as much focus on ourselves and our own effort as they are on the God to whom we are seeking to turn.
What then can we do? We can ask for the help of the One who is the real center. We can ask God to help us do what we cannot do by ourselves. Simply put, we can pray. I will be exploring various ways of praying in the Adult Forum I’m beginning today, and I hope many of you will join me for that. But for us all, I want to propose a prayer practice for us individually and as a congregation this Lent. At the beginning of each day -- even better, at points throughout the day -- ask God to help you know that God is the center of the universe, and to help you live a bit more as if that were true.
Ask this for yourself, and ask it also for this parish, for it is a truth we need to learn in communal life as well as individual life, especially now. As you seek to discern this congregation’s future, it will be vital to recall that God is the center of the universe, and, specifically, of this parish’s life and purpose. Ask that God may be the point of reference for everything else; that God may be the One from whom everything else starts and is measured; that God may be the One around whom everything else revolves; Ask that you as individuals and as a congregation may live on every word that comes from God’s mouth; may trust God, not test God; may worship and serve only God. Ask that every day and then go on living and let God do what only God can. This is prayer is dear to God’s heart and God will respond – quite possibly in ways you would never expect.
In closing, I must warn you that this is dangerous prayer. If we pray this way, our lives, individually and corporately, will not remain unchanged. By paths not likely of our own choosing, we will find ourselves not quite so much the center of our own universes as we were before. But just maybe that is the point.