First Sunday of Lent-February 26, 2023
Temptation bookends our liturgy of the word today. In the reading from Genesis, we get the familiar story of Adam, Eve, the Serpent and that damned apple. And, I don’t know about you, but from my standpoint, the whole situation was a bit of a set up. I mean, sure, God gave his first couple everything they might need in history’s first recorded nudist camp. Glorious surroundings, sustenance in the form of every imaginable fruit from every tree and each other for suitable companionship.
And then, God throws this in. “Oh and by the way, you can eat the fruit from any of the trees except one. Which tree? Oh, just the one that gives the knowledge of good and evil. Now, don’t tell me that the God who created the infinity of space and the billions of galaxies within it-and, even more to the point, created these very creatures-didn’t know better. I mean first of all, just the whole forbidding thing. I see a lot of parents in this room. How long did it take any of you to learn that the fastest way to make anything absolutely irresistible to your children was to declare it absolutely off limits. And worse, why specifically, was this tree off limits? Because it would give us a greater understanding of the world in which we live. Wow. Take the most inquisitive of primates and tell them that the one thing they must not touch is the one that just might help it all make sense. I’m sorry God, but that’s just not fair.
Ok, so I have been having a bit of fun with this story from Genesis. I don’t want to suggest that it is not a profound exploration of the origins of good and evil. The writer imagines that God created people within a world of innocence and balance, a world God sees as profoundly good. In doing so, the much more common contemporary view of the world arising from a violent collision of opposing forces is explicitly rejected. Human suffering is not embedded in the nature of creation itself, but results from our insatiable desire to be above creation-to be gods. We are expelled from the garden because we are unwilling to accept our natural place within it.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul contrasts this original sin with the “free gift” of Jesus’ own obedience to the plan of God. The church invites each of us personally to take up this comparison in the traditional choice of readings for this first Sunday of Lent: the temptation in the garden versus the temptation of Jesus in the desert.
“After being baptized, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus is not expelled from something but led somewhere. In this desolate, foreboding place he prays and fasts for nearly six weeks, until he is exhausted and weakened by hunger and thirst.
In comes the tempter.
If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread…If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the pinnacle…All the kingdoms of the world and their splendor I will give to you, if you fall down and worship me…
In each case Jesus responds rejecting the inordinate power, spectacle and wealth placed before him, and accepts his place in the world and before the God who has created it.
On this first Sunday of Lent, I too too am led to a wilderness as I am invited to take up my own small acts of fasting and prayer. And while there, I also am likely to be confronted with my own unwillingness to be as God has made me. There I am likely to confront the fears and desires that keep me from responding generously to the needs of others and living in balance with the natural world.
In her blog “The Painted Prayer Book,” Jan Richardson reflects on today’s gospel with the following:
“…there is wisdom in knowing when to turn toward a place, a person, or a practice that can help us see what we cannot always see under our own power.
This wisdom lies at the heart of Lent. These days challenge us to take on a practice, or give one up, so that we can look at our lives in a different way. As Jesus knew, going into the barren and uncomfortable places isn’t about proving how holy we are, or how tough, or how brave. It’s about letting God draw us into the place where we don’t know everything, don’t have to know everything, indeed may be emptied of nearly everything we think we know. And thereby we become free to receive the word, the wisdom, the clarity about who we are and what God is calling us to do.”