Temptation
Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Luke 4:1-13
Before I say anything about this week's texts, I want to put in a plug for a film the kids and I saw this past weekend. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson, is one of the finest children's books ever written, and this film, with screenplay by her son, is absolutely faithful and fabulous. Don't be fooled by the marketing campaign; the computer generated fantasy effects take up a very small part of the film. The main story is relationships, being an outsider, imagination and friendship. You don't need a child to go see this film, but if you take children who have not read the book, be aware that there is a death involving a main character (offscreen) that is very sad.
Now, onto a bit about these texts.
The Deuteronomy text is a description of a ritual of worship for the harvest Festival of Weeks where the first fruits (literally baskets of the very first crop harvested, considered the best quality) were brought to be given at the temple, dedicated to God. So is it a stewardship text?
Well, it wouldn't hurt to hear that message in it (first fruits of my resources to God's work, hmmmm).
The ritual also includes the recitation of the heilsgeschichte (my favorite German word), or "salvation history." Now that the people are in the land and it is producing some of that fabled "milk and honey," worship is the occasion for remembering that it was not always so for the people of Israel. It is the occasion for remembering that it was not by their own wit or power or might or wealth that they got to the promised land, but by the grace of God. The story is identity forming and identity-reminding.
And note that when the worship leader speaks of what happened in the past, the term used is not "them," but "us." We are connected organically with this past, he/she is saying. It is not about us, it is us.
On to Luke and Jesus' temptation. I had a seminary professor who wanted to make sure we understood that Jesus' temptation was in so many ways different from ours that we should not make this an occasion for a sermon on "Jesus as a template for how to avoid succumbing to temptation."
So I won't do that.
But I will ask us to think about who the devil is here. The devil here is not a power co-equal with God, though he (and scripture is free with the male pronouns here, as it is for God, so perhaps we should acknowledge up front that gender attached to the devil is no more valid than gender attached to God) would like Jesus to believe he is.
Jesus' responses to the devil help us see what this evil is. The devil brings the temptation to forget what the worshipper in Deuteronomy remembered: who Jesus is and how he got where go was. The wilderness is often a place where people forget that, as the wanderers did in Exodus when they made the golden calf. Jesus actually counters the devil by quoting from Deuteronomy! The formational story not only forms, but grounds Jesus here. The devil is amnesia, spiritual Alzheimers, if you will.
So both texts are occasions for thinking about what we forget and what we remember and how those things form and ground us. What are the stories for us that do that?
Before I say anything about this week's texts, I want to put in a plug for a film the kids and I saw this past weekend. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson, is one of the finest children's books ever written, and this film, with screenplay by her son, is absolutely faithful and fabulous. Don't be fooled by the marketing campaign; the computer generated fantasy effects take up a very small part of the film. The main story is relationships, being an outsider, imagination and friendship. You don't need a child to go see this film, but if you take children who have not read the book, be aware that there is a death involving a main character (offscreen) that is very sad.
Now, onto a bit about these texts.
The Deuteronomy text is a description of a ritual of worship for the harvest Festival of Weeks where the first fruits (literally baskets of the very first crop harvested, considered the best quality) were brought to be given at the temple, dedicated to God. So is it a stewardship text?
Well, it wouldn't hurt to hear that message in it (first fruits of my resources to God's work, hmmmm).
The ritual also includes the recitation of the heilsgeschichte (my favorite German word), or "salvation history." Now that the people are in the land and it is producing some of that fabled "milk and honey," worship is the occasion for remembering that it was not always so for the people of Israel. It is the occasion for remembering that it was not by their own wit or power or might or wealth that they got to the promised land, but by the grace of God. The story is identity forming and identity-reminding.
And note that when the worship leader speaks of what happened in the past, the term used is not "them," but "us." We are connected organically with this past, he/she is saying. It is not about us, it is us.
On to Luke and Jesus' temptation. I had a seminary professor who wanted to make sure we understood that Jesus' temptation was in so many ways different from ours that we should not make this an occasion for a sermon on "Jesus as a template for how to avoid succumbing to temptation."
So I won't do that.
But I will ask us to think about who the devil is here. The devil here is not a power co-equal with God, though he (and scripture is free with the male pronouns here, as it is for God, so perhaps we should acknowledge up front that gender attached to the devil is no more valid than gender attached to God) would like Jesus to believe he is.
Jesus' responses to the devil help us see what this evil is. The devil brings the temptation to forget what the worshipper in Deuteronomy remembered: who Jesus is and how he got where go was. The wilderness is often a place where people forget that, as the wanderers did in Exodus when they made the golden calf. Jesus actually counters the devil by quoting from Deuteronomy! The formational story not only forms, but grounds Jesus here. The devil is amnesia, spiritual Alzheimers, if you will.
So both texts are occasions for thinking about what we forget and what we remember and how those things form and ground us. What are the stories for us that do that?
Labels: First Lent
posted by shelly @ 1:50 PM
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