A Sermon preached on the first Sunday of Lent. The texts were: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11
Dan Price is the boss of card payment company in Seattle. He’s the boss who took a $1million pay cut to put himself, and all 120 of his staff, on a $70,000 minimum salary.
In a piece for the BBC he reveals the trigger for such a policy: when a friend revealed how she was struggling to pay rent and bills whilst working 50 hours a week in two jobs, he saw the human face of financial and social inequality.
Price is the same age as Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook; but he’s no longer living out the lifestyle clichés of a tech millionaire. He confides that on some days, he has dark moments, when he wants to be just as rich as Zuckerberg, to compete with him; to be on the Forbes list, have his face on the cover of Time magazine and make lots of money.
He says, ‘All these greedy things are tempting. It’s not like it's easy to turn down. But my life is so much better’.The health, productivity, morale and stability of his staff have also improved. As Price puts it, ‘We saw, every day, the effects of giving somebody freedom.’
The twin poles of temptation and freedom are at the very heart of our human experience.
We are created in and for freedom.
That gift of God to us is fraught with risk and possibility.
It makes every act of generosity and love, creativity and kindness of great value; because those actions and attitudes spring from a freedom not compulsion.
We are created in and for freedom.
The way in which we inhabit and exercise that gift is fraught with temptation.
It means we are susceptible to the desire to possess and consume; exploit and manipulate.
Freedom means that we are not puppets or robots, controlled or programmed by God.
Freedom means that we are curious, longing for knowledge and life; testing the ‘what ifs’, the shortcuts and ambitions.
We’re tempted: attracted to go beyond limits; to find ourselves out of our depth and fearful.
That is the story that Genesis seeks to capture: it invites to inhabit its images and metaphors and find therein a recognisable truth.
The ubiquitous apple; an apple with a bite taken from it.
The apple is good and pleasing to the eye; surely to take it and touch it would cause no harm? And if no harm was caused, if no death occurred, why not eat for the sake of wisdom and knowledge; for a fully awareness of what is good and evil?
The man and the woman share in this first act of trespass. They assume their independence from God; it’s an act of separation which means their relationship to one another is impaired. Shame and suspicion creep in; they cannot look upon each other in the same way.
In succumbing to temptation, their freedom is for the other is distorted.
Freedom becomes bondage; a limitation on our capacity to do good. We are bound to sin.
Bound to those the things that glitter and attract, the wealth and status rejected by one tech entrepreneur; to the darker compulsions to violence, which we have seen bubble up in our own parish.
As our litany on Ash Wednesday reminded us, our lives are laid open before God: our pride and impatience; our self-indulgence and hypocrisy; our negligence and laziness; our envy and indifference.
And yet, we are rescued from the chaos of sin and separation; from our misdirected desires.
We are rescued by the same means as which we were created: by overflowing love of God.
In Jesus Christ, God is with us: as Paul puts it, through him, all know the grace of God. Through his obedience we are justified, or restored to right relationship with God and each other. We pray that through the ongoing work of the Spirit in our lives and in our world, that that grace will be a sign of hope; a bond of peace and the source of all virtue.
Resisting temptation and setting people free is not a one-off act for us: it is a response to God’s love moment by moment; and often we will fail through our own negligence or will.
Our hope remains in Christ.
In our Gospel reading today, we see him facing temptations which urge him to act from a position of power and privilege: to meet his own needs; to be protected from the vulnerability of his humanity; to rule the kingdoms of the world by domination.
Jesus is tempted to one thing: but in his refusal, his redemptive act liberates us for life in all its fullness. This work is of freedom is through the costly path of service, suffering and death.
For the people of Israel, the years in the wilderness had been a time of testing, but also of divine guidance; aligning their wills and lives with the love of God. We see God’s loving care in the provision of manna; but we also see it in the revelation of the commandments; the framing of community life by love, and a naming of those things which do harm including lies, theft, adultery and dishonouring others.
Jesus faces three temptations or challenges about the use of his power; which take us to the essence of who he is as God’s son.
Christ in the Wilderness - Briton Riviere
He’s invited to turn stones into bread; to provide a lavish supply of food.
Satisfy your hunger, says the tempter: no, says Jesus, for we are sustained not by bread alone. No, I will not love the world simply by satiating physical desires; by refusing to go deeper into human longings; by colluding with greed. Love that gets to the heart of our needs and hopes, that is real.
Jesus has no need to prove himself or satisfy is physical needs here: he remains faithful to God and uses his ministry to not only feed others, but to challenge others to a radical life of hospitality and generous service.
He’s invited to take the risk of demonstrating his power and identity in a sensational act of bravado.
No, says Jesus, I won’t perform a stunt. He won't take a short cut to cultivate human regard or a fleeting celebrity. I won't put God to the test in that way; I won’t take advantage of that love. Instead, I will take up the cross. I will will walk with humanity in the way of sorrow.
God’s love doesn't change human hearts by performing dramatic feats of reckless showmanship. Such love is superficial and fleeting: it doesn't forgive or heal; it doesn't challenge or embrace.
He’s invited to accept the splendour and power of earthly kings, to rule over rather than be with.
Jesus has no need to seize glory and authority in that way. It is not God's way of loving. Resorting to domination on someone else's terms is not real love. Love that coerces and bullies a response isn't real.
Attention to God in worship is the beginning of love; serving others by attending to their needs, that's real love. This is love that walks the way of grief and exclusion; transforming it into joy and welcome.
It is through this love that the eating of an apple becomes a happy fault; the means by which God’s love stoops down to us to raise us up. We are no longer condemned and death has no more dominion
Here in bread and wine we are offered the food that gives life: which sets before us the cost of love and the gift of freedom. May we embrace that not just for our own sake; but for the sake of our world.
May we too make those costly and ordinary acts of love; standing against powers of darkness and bringing light: let us pray.
© Julie Gittoes 2020
