Dilivered by Rev. Ellen Brantley

Sunday, February 10, 2008

SERMON: A Matter of Choice

TEXT: Matthew 4:1-11

Some of us may remember back to the late sixties and early 70’s and the rebellious attitude that prevailed in this country, especially among the younger generation. My sister was a teenager at the time, and I remember seeing and hearing some of the catch phrases that reflected this attitude: “Question authority.” “Make love not war.” “Stick it to the man.” “Let it all hang out.” “I’m okay, you’re okay.” “Anything goes.” “The devil made me do it.”

It was a time when nobody wanted any rules – at least not any that applied to them: “anything goes”. And nobody wanted to take responsibility for anything – the blame always belonged to someone else: “the devil made me do it”.

Things haven’t changed all that much over the years. We just have different ways of expressing ourselves. Now instead of blaming the devil, we blame our parents or our childhood for our failures, our flaws, or our sins.

Men like to blame women for original sin, saying that Eve was the first to eat of the forbidden fruit. Eve, in turn, could have claimed that she was tricked by that devilish serpent. And, I guess WE could blame both Adam and Eve, for if they had only followed the rules of the Garden of Eden, we would not be sinners today. After all, Paul wrote to the Romans that “sin came into the world through one man.”

Even Jesus could have said, “The devil made me do it” had he succumbed to the temptations placed before him in the wilderness. And we would have understood. Let’s look again at what Jesus was faced with. Matthew writes that Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights, “and afterwards he was famished.” If you’re like me you can’t go much beyond nine o’clock in the morning without feeling like you’re starving to death. So, when I think about Jesus fasting for forty days and nights in the wilderness – well, it makes me hungry!

Then along comes the devil, who appears to take a compassionate stance. “Gosh, Jesus, you must be hungry. You’ve gone without food for over a month, and you’ve done a great job, by the way. Why don’t you eat something now? Nobody would blame you. And you can’t expect to get a good start on your ministry in this weakened state. C’mon, you’re the Son of God, right? I bet all you’d have to do is say the word and these stones would turn into bread. Go ahead, no one will ever know.”

Not only does the devil tempt Jesus with something to eat, he also appeals to another very human emotion by daring Jesus to prove himself as the Son of God. “IF you’re the Son of God,” the devil provokes, “show me.” (He must have been from Missouri!)

Three times the devil tempts Jesus: “IF you’re the Son of God… turn these stones to bread and eat something; throw yourself down from the temple and let the angels catch you; fall down and worship me and I’ll give you the world.”

Jesus could have given in and claimed, “The devil made me do it.” But he didn’t. And the truth is that the devil doesn’t MAKE us do anything. Nobody makes us do anything. I remember learning years ago that no one can make you feel guilty; no one can make you unhappy. We are in charge of our own feelings, and consciously or unconsciously, we choose them. We always have a choice… to take the temptation or walk away, to sin or not to sin, to do evil or to do good. Even if someone holds a gun to your head, you still have a choice to do what they say or not.

Even the original sin argument doesn’t work. You can say, “I’m human. I was born a sinner. I can’t help it.” But what we’re really born with is the freedom to sin or not. We’re born with the ability to choose.

Some of us were discussing just the other day about the people who figure out how to steal another person’s identity. It’s got to be a tricky thing and these people must have a good deal of intelligence and creativity to be able to do it. Why then, don’t they use that intelligence and creativity for something good? Certainly they could make a good living without having to be dishonest.

When you think about it, anything that can be used for good can also be used for evil – even the church, even the ministry, even the Bible. Think about Jim Jones and David Koresh and other cult leaders who have led people to their deaths in the name of God. It’s not the knowledge of good and evil that makes us sinners, it’s A MATTER OF CHOICE.

But how do we learn to make better choices? How do we gain the strength to choose good over evil? Sometimes, as in the temptation of Jesus, evil is the easy choice and good is much more difficult. Let’s look at how Jesus responded to the devil when faced with his greatest temptations.

When tempted to turn stones into bread, Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” When the devil tempted Jesus to prove the truth of God’s promises, Jesus answered, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Finally, when he is offered all the kingdoms of the world, Jesus once more quoted scripture, saying, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

Do you see the formula? Temptation, scripture; temptation, scripture; temptation, scripture. Each temptation the devil poses, Jesus faces with God’s word as his armor. Jesus knew he would be weak and vulnerable because he’d been alone and without food for so long. He knew his human strength was not strong enough to stand against the wiles of the devil. So he turned to the one thing he knew he could depend on: the word of God.

You know, in order to walk away from one thing, we have to have something to walk toward – something to replace it with. When we’re baptized or when we make our profession of faith, we promise to “turn away from evil” and turn toward Christ. We could also do as Jesus did and replace temptation – or even remove temptation with a commitment to study and focus on God’s word. Certainly we can strive for this in honor of the one who took our place on the cross.

The season of Lent, which began last Wednesday (Ash Wednesday), is traditionally a time of disciplining oneself – either to sacrifice something or put a stop to a bad habit OR to take on something new, to begin practicing a good habit. I would challenge us on this first Sunday in Lent to choose both. Let us choose to fast from temptation as we feast on the word of God. May we draw strength from God and may the angels wait on us as we partake each week in the Lord’s Supper and become one with Christ – God’s word made flesh.

It’s A MATTER OF CHOICE. AMEN.