Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis September 2, 2007

Luke 4:1-13

“Learning to Pray, Learning to Live: 5. “Put to the Test”

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and God said, “Let the earth bring forth healthy, all-natural, high fiber, low fat, organic, locally grown fruits and vegetables of every kind–apples and artichokes, bananas and beans, cumquats and carrots. And behold, it was very good. And Man and Woman were destined to live long and healthy lives.

Then, combining God’s good gifts in unnatural ways, Satan created Krispy Kreme donuts and McDonald’s double quarter pounders with cheese. And Satan said, “You want fries with that? And Woman said, “Yes!” And Man said, “Supersize it!” And they gained ten pounds. And Satan smiled.

So God said, “Try my fresh green salad.” And Satan presented Thousand-Island dressing, butter croutons, and garlic toast on the side. And lo, their cholesterol count did increase mightily.

Then behold, God brought forth running shoes and treadmills so that his children might regain their youthful vitality. And lo, Satan gave them cable TV and didst provide them a remote control so that they would have to neither toil nor labor to change the channels. And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

Then Satan created HMO’s. [adapted from an e-mail of unknown origin]

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Does this part of the Lord’s Prayer apply to us? Of course it does, whether it’s in regard to where we turn for food or fun, attention or approval, sex or a sense of control. In fact, I can’t think of any aspect of our life where temptations aren’t present, trying to turn us in on ourselves and turn us away from the fullness of life as whole, free and creative creatures of God.

Sometimes our biggest temptation is to believe that we’ve risen above temptations by living good, respectable lives. But as the anonymous quote in the meditation section of the bulletin reminds us, “Most of the destruction in today’s world isn’t done out of malice, but by pursuing the convenient and keeping up with the urgent while neglecting the important.” Aramaic scholar Neil Douglas-Klotz says that in Aramaic, the language that Jesus taught in, this part of the prayer might be translated, “Don’t let surface things delude us or distract us; but set us free from what holds us back from our true purpose.” When we let our lives be shaped by the world’s norms, expectations and distractions, rather than being part of God’s plan for the renewal and redemption of the world, we are still yielding to temptation. We are choosing the lower path over the higher path.

The word that’s translated “temptation” in the Bible can mean an enticement to sin, but it more often means a test of character. Temptation isn’t designed to make us stumble as much as to make us stronger. That’s why the Holy Spirit needed to lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted–or tested–by the devil. That testing brought to the surface Jesus’ natural human susceptibility to using his God-given powers to feed his own hunger, to gain worldly power, and to protect himself from physical harm and danger. Jesus had to deliberately empty himself of all of his human, selfish motives in order to be filled with God’s divine Spirit and to totally devote his will, body, mind, heart, and soul to God’s highest purpose. The Bible says that Jesus was without sin. It’s not because he was born so pure and divine that he was above all of that, as today’s scripture passage shows . He overcame sin within himself by his spiritual nature wrestling with and transcending his lower nature, as he yielded fully to God’s will.

And it’s the same with us. If we didn’t wrestle with our lower nature, how would we learn to rise above it and develop our higher nature? Life is full of temptations because in a sense life is a continuous testing ground, much like school is full of tests that hone our learning skills and show us how we’re doing and where we need to improve. When we fail a test in this course of life, we’re really failing ourselves and will have to repeat the lesson until we master it. When we pass a test, we surpass ourselves and advance forward to the next lesson. We’re the ones who decide whether we progress quickly or slowly, whether we grow bigger or smaller, whether we move higher into our divine nature or lower into our human nature.

A good way to handle temptation is to ask ourselves what we really want. The loudest answer will be obvious–immediate gratification, stimulation, power, ego strokes, comfort, ease, and things like that. But there is another voice that has a deeper, bigger answer to the question of what we want. This is why Jesus taught us to pray this part of the prayer. In a way, the prayer “Lead us not into temptation” isn’t logical. Is it God who tries to seduce us into sin unless we ask him to stop? And should we pray to avoid what will make us stronger? But this prayer isn’t an exercise in logic. It’s a cry of the soul that is aware of being in the wrestling match, is very aware of the temptation to take the seductively easy way out and give in, and is calling on God to help him or her overcome the evil. Praying this prayer helps us listen deeper than our superficial desires, higher than our immediate wants. It helps us listen to what God wants for us, which is always our highest good. And isn’t that what our highest, truest self really wants?

Now the good news in this is that God doesn’t expect or want us to be austere, dour, pleasure-avoiding prunes. God created us with passions and desires and a capacity for enjoyment and a spirit of adventure. We move forward and upward in this life course, not by pushing all those impulses underground, but by channeling them in unselfish, life-giving ways.

Let’s take sex as an example. If our sex drive stays selfish, it seeks gratification in superficial, exploitive relationships that shrink people’s souls and deaden their hearts. It uses demands and manipulation to use our partner as the means to our own gratification. Or it turns to obsessive fantasies, pornography or romance novels to feed its appetite. Self-centered sex offers only fleeting satisfaction. So we keep wanting more. In fact, it easily becomes addictive. And that’s true of any temptation if we indulge in it in a selfish way.

That’s why it’s liberating to our bodies and minds as well as our spirits to look deeper and higher than our immediate selfish gratification for what we really want. So if you listen deeply into your desire for sex, and listen for God’s higher will for you, what do you find? Do you feel in there a desire for deep connectedness and unity, so that all sense of separation and estrangement dissolve? This is what the Bible means by “ the two shall become one flesh”– one entity. Do you long for a deep trust that allows you to be emotionally as well as physically naked, known and loved just as you are, as you love the other person unconditionally, just as they are? I think this is why the Bible uses the words “know” and “knowledge” instead of “having sex.” In “good sex” we allow ourselves to be known and to know, through the eyes of love. And do you long for an open, spontaneous flow back and forth of giving and receiving. This is the original meaning of the word “intercourse”. Do you long to not only have love for someone, but to embody love with your whole being, and thereby generate more love around you? This is the best way to “make love” We can make more love in the world that way.

I think this is the big, deep, high longing for what God wants for sexual relationships. But we’ll never, ever really find it by fantasizing about or looking for the perfect person to be loved by. We will only find what we’re longing for by learning how to love an imperfect person more perfectly, more actively, more fully. If we become the kind of lover we’re longing for, we will never lack for love. We will always have it inside us. We will be a channel of God’s boundless love.

But it doesn’t take being in a sexual relationship to fulfill this high calling to be a great lover. In psychology, eros is that drive that connects us with others through bonds of affection, trust, give and take, and mutual respect. You can be a lover of your family, a lover of children, a lover of your work, a lover of humanity, a lover of nature, a lover of Jesus. In all of these we become a channel of the Source of all love.

So when we feel a temptation to gratify our sexual appetite, it’s really a test. It’s a test of what we really want. Will we let it keep us small, or will we channel our sex drive to help carry us beyond ourselves and expand our capacity for love? Will we wish for a great lover , or will we become a great lover in the spirit of the One who loves us all? What do we want? This is a test. It’s your choice.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” No matter what the temptation is, we can turn to God and ask God to help us listen for God’s highest will for us in it. Maybe our temptation is to indulge in an extra helping of chocolate ice cream (not that I would know anything about this). Maybe within that empty feeling we can find a God-given appetite for savoring life’s gifts fully and tasting and seeing God’s goodness in the wonder and beauty of life all around us without clinging to it. It’s easy to mindlessly fill our stomachs. It takes intentional effort to learn to open our awareness to being present to each gift as it comes. This is a test. What do we really want– ice cream that leaves our stomach temporarily full but our spirit empty, or our life filled with the flowing abundance of God’s blessing?

Maybe inside our temptation to get angry, judge and blame lies a God-given longing for justice and righteousness. Maybe there’s a calling there for us to help right the wrongs in the world, but always beginning by humbly recognizing and working on the ones that live in ourselves.

On September 22, we’ll be offering a workshop called “If I Had But One Year to Live,” that is designed to give us all a chance to listen deeply to God’s whispers to us through our hearts and souls of what we most truly want.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” “Don’t let surface things delude us or distract us; but set us free from what holds us back from our true purpose.” “Don’t let us be seduced by the small stuff, but help us to open to the heights and depths of who you created us to be and what you created us to do.” Every temptation is a test. It’s your choice. Do you want to live small or live big? Do you want your life to be bound to the earth, or do you want to dance with God?