In my article for the February issue of Beyond A Doubt, I announced a sermon series for Lent. The general theme is, Spiritual Disciplines, and the theme for this first Sunday of Lent is, of course, resisting temptation. In our readings today we have the two outstanding temptation stories in the Bible: Adam and Eve who gave in to temptation, and Jesus who did not give in. After I clear up an important misunderstanding about temptation, I want to look briefly at these two stories, ask how we can resist temptation, and then name some temptations we face today.

The important misunderstanding arises from the traditional translation of the Lord’s Prayer, which goes back at least to the King James Version. You all know it: we pray, “lead us not into temptation”. Was Jesus telling us in this prayer, that the Father who sent His Son to save us, deliberately leads us into temptation? Does it make sense that the God who is like a shepherd searching for one lost sheep, the God who is like a father running out to welcome the prodigal son, would try to tempt us? No it does not!!

There are two further reasons we can be sure that God does not lead us into temptation. Some early Christians did make this interpretation, which became a problem for the second generation of Christians. Therefore the Epistle of James includes this sentence: “No one, when tempted, should say, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He himself tempts no one”(1:13-14). And third, there is a translation difficulty. The Greek word that is translated temptation, is better translated, time of trial. It was probably used by Jesus to refer to the great upheavals which he expected would come at the end of the age. For this reason, I prefer the contemporary translation of the Lord’s Prayer. “Save us from the time of trial” makes it clear that God’s role is not to send us into the time of trial, but to save us from it.

Let us consider now the two temptations. The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is very familiar to us, yet we tend to hear it as it was interpreted by St. Paul, and St. Augustine. As it is written, this story explains why life is hard--the first human beings only had light work to do tending the Garden of Eden; but since they disobeyed the rule of God, they were been ejected from the Garden. The idea that they committed an original sin which was passed on physically to all human beings, comes partly from Chapter 5 of Paul’s letter to the Romans, which we heard as our second reading today. It comes even more from St. Augustine’s classic book, The City of God, chapter 13, in which he says that the guilt of Adam and Eve’s transgression was so great that it changed their human nature. As a result, all of their descendants received at birth, a rebellious nature, inclined to concupiscence (13:3). Concupiscence is a theological word referring to the desires of the flesh, which according to St. Augustine, are no longer under the control of reason. Is it necessary for me to say, that an enormous amount of harm has been inflicted on children since the 4th century, in an effort to contain their “rebellious nature”.

There are three things to notice about the actual story in Genesis. Our reading from chapter 2 begins with God’s command to Adam, not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, and then skips over the creation of Eve in verses 18-25. This means that Eve was created after the command was given to Adam. The second thing is, that Adam did not accurately report the command to Eve: he added something which God did not say, namely that they were not to touch the Tree. And the third thing is, that Eve did use her reason in making her decision. Therefore, Eve’s decision to eat the fruit, is like many decisions we have to make today: based on secondhand facts which are not quite accurate, with due consideration of the reasons in favor of eating, but no consideration of the reasons against that proposed action. As James said, she was tempted by her own desire, and that is the crucial issue.

Where do we get the ability to recognize how our own desires may be leading us astray? How can we see a bigger picture, and once we have seen it, how can we choose not to act on our desires? When Jesus was in the wilderness wrestling with the work God had asked him to do, Jesus had some desires of his own, which he managed not to act on. Surely one of those desires was to take care of the needy people around him. In his ministry Jesus certainly cared for some individuals very personally by healing the sick, by announcing forgiveness, and by answering questions. The temptation he faced, was to use some divine power to speed up the process of providing help, by turning stones into bread. Through his own reflection, and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he recognized that his job was to provide spiritual nourishment, not physical nourishment.

But how would he persuade people to accept the spiritual nourishment he had to offer? Would they listen? Would they accept the good news of God’s forgiveness? Whether or not an evil spirit was there to suggest the idea, his own desire to get his message of salvation across, would have led to the idea of a big-time miracle at the Temple in Jerusalem, in front of all the crowds gathered for one of the major feasts. If he jumped, and the angels caught him, the people would listen to him. The third temptation was similar: if he had control of the nations, he could rearrange society to suit his Father’s plan, and no persuation would be necessary. How did Jesus resist those temptations? I think he looked at the big picture; he recognized that the means he was considering were incompatible with the goals he hoped to achieve; and he put the well-being of other people ahead of his own personal well-being. He was willing to do some difficult and ultimately dangerous work, at the risk of his own life, because he believed it was right.

Will any of this help us resist temptation? I hope so! Let me summarize what we can learn from these temptations, into 4 guidelines. First, always put the decision you have to make, into the big picture -- beyond the present situation, consider the effects on other people, next week, and next year. Second, honestly answer the question, what are the reasons against doing what I am inclined to do? Third, ask how the action you are considering, will contribute to the well-being of others. If you are doing something just to make your own life easier, and no one else benefits, maybe it is a temptation to resist. And finally, ask yourself, will Jesus be pleased more, by the action you are tempted to take, or by your choice not to act? That 4th question may not be easy to answer; you will probably have to pray about it.

It’s quite likely that you are thinking to yourself, that Adam, Eve and Jesus faced temptations completely different from the ones you and I face, and therefore their experience is irrelevant. After all, none of us are the Messiah of God . . . and yet, we Christians are often tempted to believe that we can save one person, or one situation from disaster. How many of us have gotten married in order to save someone? How many of us have tried to rescue a son or a daughter or a friend from a bad situation? How many of us have believed we could save a school, or a company, or a working group, or a volunteer program by our labor of love? I have certainly given in to some of these temptations, mostly by over-estimating what I can do, and by under-estimating the complexity of the problem I am taking on. Precisely because we are followers of Jesus, the temptation to save one person or one group, is a powerful one.

We also face, exactly the opposite temptation. Because the problems of poverty and homelessness are so complex, and the problem of global warming depends on many causes, we are tempted to do nothing, because we do not believe that the actions of one person can make a difference. We are tempted to underestimate the effects of our actions. Perhaps this is a bigger temptation than it was 20 years ago, because of instant communications. We can see same-day footage of protests in Pakistan and riots in Kenya on television and on the internet; however the solutions to those problems take months, years, and decades, so we rarely “see” the footage of problems being solved.

Along with our Presiding Bishop Katherine, and the General Convention, I am calling on you to resist that temptation. We have made a commitment as a national church, to do something to achieve the 8 Millennium Development Goals. It is certainly true that the Episcopal Church cannot reach even one of those goals by our own effort, but we can contribute to the efforts of many people around the world. Those 8 millennium goals were adopted by the United Nations in 1999, and the last two General Conventions of the Episcopal Church asked all Episcopalians to give, and to work toward reaching them.

On Ash Wednesday, I challenged members of St. Thomas to give up eating the meat of livestock (cows, sheep and pigs) for 3 days of every week in Lent, because livestock production is harming our environment, and diverting food from hungry people. If you normally eat meat most days, I hope you will give it up on three days of each week, and get your protein instead from dairy products, chicken, fish, whole grains and vegetables. If you are a vegetarian, then I ask you to follow the pattern I proposed: on one day, give up something so that you can be healthier, such as sugar. On the second day, give up something that harms our environment, such as detergents made with phosphates. On the third day, give away food or money to the poor.

The second part of my challenge for Lent, is to ask you to learn something in depth, about one of the Millennium Development Goals. Pick the one that interests you the most, and read a book about it, or watch a DVD, or do some research on the internet --- not just for half an hour, but long enough to learn about the complexities of the problem and the solutions. I have prepared a list of resources for you: it is mostly books, some DVDs and a few websites. Each of the 8 goals addresses a complex problem in our world, so I am asking you to overcome the temptation to ignore those problems. I am asking you to make an offering to God, of the time and attention it takes to learn, as a Lenten discipline. I hope and pray you will accept this challenge, and when you have read a book or watched a DVD, send me a short review of it, so I can publish what you have said, and we can all benefit. The first step toward action, is to learn the dimensions of the problem, and understand how various solutions are working. That is the work of Lent which I call you to do this year. Now, to begin our Lenten disciplines, I invite you to come forward and place in front of the altar, your rock, which stands for a sin you want to give up, a burden you need to lay down, or a healing you hope to receive.