Today is the first Sunday in Lent, and we have the familiar stories of temptation: the temptation to which Adam and Eve yielded, and the temptations which Jesus of Nazareth resisted. When we come right down to it, those are the two choices we always have when faced by temptation: yield or resist?

St. Augustine points out that PRIDE is the key to our reaction to sin. Were you really listening to the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve? If you were, you will have noticed that God was very clear in his instructions about the fruit of that tree: You may freely eat of the fruit of every tree of the garden: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall die. That's what God said. But apparently when Adam relayed this information to Eve, Adam was already feeling the temptation to be like God, because he added to what God had said. When the serpent asked Eve if it was true that they were not allowed to eat any fruit from any tree in the garden, Eve replied with what Adam seems to have told her: 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, \ul nor shall you touch it\ulnone , or you shall die.'

You see, Adam had added that touching the tree was forbidden...something God had not said. Perhaps he wanted to impress Eve with the idea that Adam was close to equal with God and could add to God's orders. Or maybe Adam wanted to safeguard Eve by forbidding her to touch the tree, not just eat the fruit of that tree. We don't know, but either way, it was pride speaking, and that is why Adam was punished as severely as Eve when God found out that they had eaten the fruit of the tree. It is interesting to notice that the thing Jesus scolded the Pharisees for, many years later, was adding their own ideas to God's law, just as Adam had. Pride was the doorway to sin for Adam, and it is for all those humans who come after him, the Pharisees, and also us today. Adam's pride gave the serpent the opportunity to tempt Eve. The additions the Pharisees made to God's laws made it nearly impossible for the average person to avoid many sins that were not really sins according to God. Pride is responsible for both.

Now look at how Jesus handled temptation, in that time in the desert after his baptism. Jesus is God the Son. Jesus has all the power of God at his command. But he refused to allow pride to govern his response to temptation. Every time he was tempted, he did not answer with something like, "Hey, I am God, you know; I don't need to make the stones become bread. I already own all the countries of the earth, so I don't need you to give them to me. And of course I will not be hurt or killed if I jump off the tower of the Temple, because God always was and always will be." No, Jesus did not throw his weight around and he did not try to satisfy his human pride by boasting or by making himself seem more powerful than he actually was...after all, he was living in a human body, and seemed to be an ordinary man, even if he is really God. Instead, Jesus answered each temptation with a verse from God's Law, the Bible. He did not try to look big or important. He trusted God's words to speak for him, just as he taught his followers: When you are on trial, or arrested, don't worry about what to say; the Spirit of God will give you words to answer your accusers.

So: although all of us are sinners, as Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Rome, we do have a choice when we are tempted...and God knows that we are all tempted over and over again every day of our lives. We can let pride answer for us, and try to make ourselves look big and important. Or we can be humble and let God answer for us, because God knows much better than we do how to respond to the Devil and his temptations. The choice is ours.

Perhaps this Lent would be a good time for us to give some thought to this choice, and practice choosing to let God answer for us, in the words of the Bible. Of course, the catch is that we really have to study and know our Bible, so that God's words will come from our mouths easily when we need to answer to temptation. Amen.

Ahh Lent - Is this the time of year we love to hate? Last week we had an Alleluiah Fellowship and we talked about Ash Wednesday and Lent. Explaining Ash Wednesday was not easy. I told them it was a time we recognize our own mortality. The fact that God made our bodies from ash and it to ash that we return. And then we talked about Lent as a time of self analyzing and working on self changes that would bring us closer to God.

There is a really nice description of Lent in the Ash Wednesday service that Anne read for us this past week.

Read prayer book page 264

I think it might be helpful to think of Lent as a journey. I think our reading this morning have aspects of journey.

In Genesis, God sets man ( and woman ) in the garden of Eden. He gives them the run of the place but He also establishes rules. Well one rule. They can eat of every tree in the place but one. They must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. They are tempted by the serpent.

They break this rule established by God. They eat of the fruit of Good and Evil and their eyes are opened and they know themselves to be naked. Their impulse is shame. They cover themselves and go hide.

God comes after them calling in the evening and they hide. Afraid. . They are naked and ashamed before the lord their God. They have been found out. From then on they are estranged from God. The a very personal and special relationship with God has changed forever.

This is such a wonderful and important analogy of the human condition. It is a description of the start of the journey a journey of mankind. I like to think of the human story as one of reconciliation of our shame before God. How we become able to stand naked and ashamed but still loved.

Romans ties in Adam and Eve’s mistake with the gift of Grace- the Grace of God through Jesus. Many of the statements in this lesson are very very profound.  It was written partly as an explanation of the relationship of Jesus to Adam in the saving grace given to man and woman kind. Paul's theology of evil and sin existing from Adam to Moses and the change that was possible through Jesus our Lord.

Jesus is understood as a culmination or destination of the journey of the Jewish people.

A Lenten journey if you will. 

Our Gospel lesson never ceases to thrill me. Jesus had been born and baptized. the first two of the stages of Jesus life. Jesus now as a baptized person in a special relationship to God must now face his own Lenten journey. The Holy Spirit leads him to the desert.

He is tempted after fasting 40 days and 40 nights.
It is something like this: Command stones to become bread( for you are hungry)
Throw yourself down from a high place to dare God to save you (for you have that promise and power)
Worship me and you will get all the riches of the world. (for you are worthy and deserving of riches)

What is the common denominator of all these temptations?
You will have food
You will have power
You will have wealth

At every turn Jesus turns the You or the Me or the I to God.  Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.

A Lenten journey is ideally a life changing journey. A decision making time that will get you closer to God for the rest of your life.

I have been fortunate to have had many Lenten journeys - I would like to tell you of one of them.

We will go back to a Lent 9 years in the past now.

I was in a wheel chair. I had no use of my legs. Paralyzed from the knees down and limited use of my arms and hands. I was in a rehabilitation facility sitting at the end of long hall. I had gotten there by way of a car accident that broke some vertebrae in my neck.

I had been having something of a spiritual crisis although I was not aware of it at the time or perhaps I was aware of it and was doing my best to ignore it.

I had been ordained 6 years - I had taken an oath back then that I believed Holy Scripture be the word of God and to contain all things necessary for salvation. In my inner mind I knew this required a clear understanding of what Holy Scripture is.

I was not real sure that I had that understanding. I was not real sure I knew what Holy Scripture was to me or the meaning it held for me.

My meaning for life had become my work in my new business. I had built an LLC- a limited liability corporation that contracted services with Vocational Rehabilitation and Mental Health Agencies.

I had become resource for good work. I had built a community resource that was vital and important. I had done it on shear willpower and determination. Out of this LLC had come a more vibrant and self supporting ministry among Deaf People. I had done it.  Me ! Can you imagine my feelings of pride and self fulfillment?

Well, in that car accident, I had lost it all !

It was my job that morning to get myself to breakfast.  As I moved laboriously down the hall toward the breakfast area I noticed that farther down there clear to the end of the hall there were some nicely framed pictures on the wall.

It was then that my Lenten project for that year came to me. I determined that I would get to the end of that hall and go see what those pictures were about.

Little did I know that
that Lenten journey
to the end of the hall
to see those pictures
would be a journey that would change the rest of my life.
A journey so profound as to effect my relationship with God and fellowman and my concept of my ordination vows.

It was weeks of work to get there. I had therapy sessions in the pool. Exercises in the gym. I had work with people dedicated to teaching me how manage my body independently. It was complicated, frustrating and hard hard work. Slowing my strength and endurance increased and I was finally able to get my wheel chair to end of the hall.

What l found there was-- A series of framed butterflies.
Butterflies - It was beautiful display. Each butterfly was pinned to a back ground with its scientific name below it.  The wings were spread so you could see the color patterns. There were many of them and I was fascinated --but I began to realize some thing.
These butterflies were dead.

They were dried lifeless hulls of what had once been alive and in the air dancing in the sunlight.

What was in front of me represented an experience of the past preserved for the future.

My mind went back to my experience on the farm. I remembered the butterflies of early summer. I knew that what was before in the framed display was something profoundly different. And yet strangely the same.

I could learn a whole lot about a whole bunch of these beautiful insects by studying this display.

Study it I did. I came back to it again and again during my time there, The trip down the hall became part of my daily exercise.

I realized that the experience of the butterflies was not what I was seeing in the display. The experience was something different but this was the best that could be done. It was framed and presented with love yet it was not the real thing.

In my Lenten thinking I suddenly made a connection. That display was much the same as holy scripture. Holy scripture does its’ best to capture an experience. Much could be learned about our relationship with God and what it was for the people who wrote about that experience.
But----
The experience of God happens in our hearts - It happens in our being at the deepest levels. It is true of us today as it was of those who wrote of God down all through the centuries. It can not be fully expressed in writing.

Like the framed display of the butterflies it is the best we can do. This was the revelation of that particular Lenten Journey. I suddenly knew that Holy Scripture is dependent on our own experiences of God and the Holy Spirit that we bring to it.

Yes! I do believe that Holy Scripture is the word of God and that it contains all things necessary for our salvation. But this will not mean a thing to us unless we bring our experiences of God to Holy Scripture.

So I leave you with these questions?  What will be your Lenten journey? Whose man or woman will you be as you walk and live that spiritual path? Will you be open to God or only open to your own efforts, goals and achievements. Will you be doing God’s work or your own?

What is it to be?  What will you be?