Temptation

Lent 1A, 3/9/14
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Matthew 4:1-11

Oh Lord, open my lips, that my mouth might proclaim your praise. Amen.

I have a confession to make this morning.

I can’t write sermons in my office.

In almost eight years of preaching – in three years of ordained ministry – I don’t think I’ve written a single sermon in my office at the church.

There are just so many other things to do in the office!

It takes a long time to write a sermon – easily 10 hours, on average – so if I sit in the office for 2 ½ hours between meetings and try to put something down on paper, it hardly seems that progress has been made.

And in any case, I’m likely to get interrupted by phone calls or people dropping in… or by an email that just has to be responded to immediately… or by that pile of mail on my desk that has been sitting there for days, begging for attention… or by that one project that I said I’d do for the clergy in the Ministerium… you get the picture, right?

It’s hard for me to focus in my office.

Actually, the same thing is true at home. I’ll set up shop at home, away from the distractions in my office, and I’ll write two or three sentences… and then the dryer buzzes to tell me the laundry is done. Or I realize that if I want to have dinner at a reasonable time, I should really start cooking the rice now. Or I remember that I signed up to bring treats to the next clergy meeting and so I should probably bake some brownies instead of working on my sermon.

Again, you get the picture? There are so many distractions at home.

There are so many temptations.

I never thought I would describe laundry and going through stacks of junk mail as temptation, but when it comes to working on something like a sermon that takes so long to get ready… really, any distraction that offers measurable results is a temptation to stray from the true purpose of the work day.

This is why I love knitting. I make a lot of dishcloths. They’re small – I can finish them quick – they offer fast, measurable results.

I don’t get that too often in my day job.

The same thing goes for baking.

Or going through old piles of mail in the office sometimes.

It’s nice sometimes to feel a sense of accomplishment. Anything that can do that is a distraction from the everyday work that I should be doing.

And yet, whatever distracts from my purpose – from the calling I have from God – whatever causes me to shirk my responsibilities, that is something I need to avoid.

That’s why I write my sermons in coffee shops and restaurants. There’s a lot of noise in those places, but none of it relates to me. I can just hunker down with my computer or my books and get to work, ignoring anything else that’s going on around me. Working from outside of the office is how I can be most productive, and it’s how I can best avoid temptation.

I think we all experience some form of temptation in our daily lives. I’m sure you can think of things that distract you from the important work you’re supposed to be doing each day. For me, the temptation is to put off sermon writing or other important tasks that are a part of my call to be your pastor, and to do other things with visible results instead. For you… you know, one of my colleagues suggested that I have you all turn to one another and tell each other what you’re tempted by. But I’m not going to do that to you. You all know what your own temptations are.

Does that mean that going through mail and doing laundry and taking a break for some knitting are sinful things?

No, of course not.

In and of itself, almost any activity can be a good and useful thing.

But God has a calling for us, and when an activity draws us away from that calling, it’s a temptation, and temptation can easily draw us into sin.

It’s not just pastors who are called by God into a profession – God calls people to be nurses and grandparents and farmers and teachers, and to fill all kinds of roles in society. Temptation tries to draw us away from that primary calling.

When I spend a half hour visiting with someone who drops by the church office, or work on a project for the Ministerium, those are good things to do.

When I spend time on my hobbies like baking or knitting, things that give me those measurable results, those are good things also.

But if I spend so much time with my knitting that I am no longer able to perform the tasks of daily life, and if I focus so much on talking with the person who just drops in that I end up without time for the person who’s stuck in the hospital – when an activity leads me to neglect the care of my congregation or my family, well then, I have given in to temptation.

At that point, I’m no better than Eve and Adam when presented with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Today’s first reading gives us a great example of what not to do.

Don’t give in to temptation.

Don’t do those things that separate you from God and from your loved ones.

But we’ve all heard that before, right?

We know that if a talking snake comes up to us and offers us something to eat, we should say no every time!

It’s easy to think that we have nothing new to learn from the temptation story in the book of Genesis – we’ve heard it all before.

And then today’s Gospel reading gives us an example that is nearly as irrelevant to us. We’ve heard the temptation of Jesus before; we know this story. And it can be hard to relate to it.

We know not to make the same mistakes that Adam and Eve did… but we are also fully aware that we don’t have Jesus’ resolve, or faith, or knowledge of Scripture in order to combat temptations when they come our way.

Sure, Jesus offers a great example of how to resist falling into sin, in contrast with Eve and Adam – but we are not Jesus. We are nowhere near as good as he is, so how can we even try to emulate him here?

What more is there to say about these two stories of temptation?

Don’t be like Adam and Eve.

Do try to be like Jesus… but then, if that’s our goal, we’ll fail every time.

In Matthew, Jesus passed each tempting test with flying colors – he’s the guy who throws off the curve in “resisting temptation” class, and all the other kids end up a little jealous of him because their accomplishments look pretty bleak compared to his.

We’re those other kids in the class, you know.

In Genesis, Eve and Adam give in to the temptation of the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit. What they do seems so blatantly wrong in hindsight that we have a hard time even appreciating the inner struggle that must have gone on with them before making a decision.

In each of these stories, the person being tempted is hard to relate to.

And yet we are well acquainted with temptation in many forms.

Temptation comes to us in food and drink… in opportunities for power and in empty promises from people we know… and sometimes in the things we really want to do.

It is inevitable that temptation will come to us. We’re going to be offered appealing choices, and we have to thoughtfully discern whether they fit with God’s calling for our lives or not.

And that’s really the point of the temptation stories today.

Listen to God’s calling for us, stay focused on that, and by doing so, we can avoid giving in to the temptations that come our way.

God does show up in both of these Bible stories. God may not be an active character in the story. But God’s promises are mentioned in both Genesis and Matthew.

God has given us instructions for living. And if we can only remember those instructions – and if we can only believe them – we can successfully avoid giving in to temptation.

Adam and Eve remembered the promise of God, but they didn’t seem to take it seriously. That was their mistake.

Jesus remembered the promises of God, and he did take them seriously. That was what saved him.

The good news – the divine promise – in the temptation stories today is that God is there to save us from temptation.

This does not mean that we will never be presented with options that draw us away from God’s calling… but it does mean that when temptation happens, we can rely on God’s instruction and promises to draw us back.

We actually have it a little easier than any of today’s Bible characters.

We have more ways of knowing what God wants us to do. We have more than just a single conversation with God, like the one that Adam and Eve relied upon. We have more than the Old Testament, which is what Jesus relied on.

We have the full Bible, Old and New Testaments. We have the example of the life of Jesus. We have two thousand years of church history and guidance from God. And we have our own prayer life, our own conversations with God, that can give us encouragement and direction in life.

God is there to save us from temptation. In Scripture, in the example of Jesus, and in the voice of our creator if we would only remember it – God is there to help keep us from falling into sin.

And here’s the other bit of good news.

We will fall into sin sometimes.

OK, that’s not the good news.

We will fall into sin, but when we do, Jesus is there to rescue us. Because of his death and resurrection, the penalty for our sins has been taken away.

Today’s Gospel reading takes place way at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Over the coming pages, the story of our redemption is told. The rest of Jesus’ ministry, which we’ll hear in summary over the course of these next six weeks of Lent, is what saves us from our sin.

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection don’t keep us from temptation.

It’s still up to us to remember the voice of God when distractions come our way.

But Jesus’ ministry will save us in those times when we forget to listen for God’s voice and we are drawn in by whatever it is that distracts us from our calling.

God our creator guides us, tries to steer us clear from temptations. And when that fails – when we fail – Jesus is there to rescue us.

Now that truly is good news.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.

Race

Transfiguration A, 3/2/14
Matthew 17:1-9

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

So. I don’t know how you’re doing with this long, cold snowy winter. But I know that most people I’ve talked to have had it. They’re ready for spring.

Clearly, my spouse and I picked the wrong year to put off buying a snowblower.

On the plus side, I suppose, we’ve gotten a lot of fresh air and good workouts in this winter with all the shoveling we’ve had to do.

But seriously? Most people around here are ready for the snow to be gone.

The last thing that anyone wants in their life right now is more white.

Yet here we are.

We are stuck at the end of this long winter – at least, I hope it’s the end – and we’re left with Jesus on the mountaintop, turning as white as snow, as bright as the sun, whiter than any detergent could possibly bleach a set of clothes.

The Transfiguration shows up in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and each account describes him a little differently. But all of the accounts emphasize how white Jesus appeared up on that mountain with Moses and Elijah.

What does it mean?

What does whiteness mean?

It’s something that we don’t stop to think about very often.

So much of the imagery we use every day implies that white is good and dark is bad.

When we want to clarify a situation, we shed light on the subject.

When someone is ignorant about a particular topic, we say they are in the dark.

A smart student is brilliant or bright, while a slow learner may be dim-witted.

A quick glance at the dictionary tells us that white equals pure, while black equals dirty, evil, hopeless and dishonorable.

In old westerns – starting in the silent film era, to offer a visual explanation when an audio one was not possible – the good guys wear white and the bad guys wear black.

Angel food cake is white. Devil’s food cake is dark, almost black.

In The Lord of the Rings books and films, the walls of the evil kingdom of Mordor are black, while the walls of the heroic city of Gondor are white.

When a Jedi Knight turns evil in Star Wars, he goes to the Dark Side.

Images of whiteness being good and darkness being bad have plagued our society for generations. A hierarchy of skin tones has led to racism, to violence, to self-hate among some groups and self-righteous superiority among other groups.

We sometimes try to let ourselves off the hook by saying that we’re not really racist any more – we’re nothing like Nazi Germany, throwing people of other races and cultures into execution chambers and mass graves.

Seriously.

If the best we can do is, we’re better than the worst racists ever – we’re not doing very well. We still imprisoned thousands of Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent during WWII, for no reason other than their race.

White supremacy has seeped its way even into the mindset other racial communities. Did you know that 77% of women in Nigeria use a skin bleaching product on a regular basis? Across Africa, many women are trying to lighten their skin because they have been taught that “if it’s white, it’s all right.”

(http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/02/24/6-examples-of-the-devaluation-of-dark-skin-around-the-world/5/)

I sent a draft of this sermon to an African-American friend of mine to read over before preaching it today. He helped me understand that this prejudice towards whiteness is alive and well in many communities. My friend’s wife is Haitian, of African descent, and apparently her mother sends her bleach soap all the time.

Really? Since when is white more beautiful than black? What has gone wrong with our perception of the world when a mother thinks her daughter will be better off if her skin is lighter?

White supremacy has led to slavery, to colonization, to oppression, to segregation, to the legalization of shooting a black teenage boy on the street for no reason other than that his blackness makes a white person feel threatened.

The church is as much to blame for persistent racism as anyone else. As Martin Luther King said, eleven o’clock on Sunday mornings is the most segregated hour in Christian America.

Our church doesn’t do much to make things any better than they ever have been.

We have our leaders wear white to lead worship. We pull out the white paraments for celebratory seasons. We hear the story of the whiteness of Jesus’ clothes and the brightness of his face every single year the week before we head into Lent.  

So here we are, on Transfiguration Sunday, with Jesus’ face shining like the sun and his clothes becoming dazzling white.

We do know that Jesus    isn’t    white,    right?

I mean, racially speaking, Jesus was a Jewish man living in Palestine two thousand years ago. He would have had brown skin.

Contrary to the depictions of nearly every nativity set on the market, the baby Jesus did not have blonde hair and blue eyes. 

Contrary to what we see repeatedly on film, most recently with the release of Son of God this past Friday – Jesus is not white. He’s not even a tan white man with brown hair. His skin would have been brown, just like the skin of the Palestinian people who are born in Bethlehem today. According to the book of Revelation, Jesus’ feet were like brass, or bronze. (1:15)

Not black. Jesus wasn’t African. But he sure wasn’t Caucasian either.

For Black History Month, one of our local middle schools had a special celebration. Now, there are some very good reasons to celebrate Black History Month and to talk about the systematic oppression that has plagued Black people over the years, and to learn about the important contributions of Black people to our society.

But there was something a little    off    about this particular celebration of Black History Month.

All of the students and staff were invited to wear black to school that day.

As one African-American student observed, why are we wearing black today? Most Black people are really brown.

Wearing black doesn’t actually help white people understand the nuances of racism    any more than having his clothes shine dazzling white made Jesus Caucasian.

Want a better way to celebrate Black History Month? Talk to a black person. Get to know them. Ask them what it feels like to be the only black person in a room full of white people. You might be surprised at the answers.

Here’s one for you. Did you know that black cancer patients can’t get wigs for when they lose their hair in chemotherapy?

Oh sure, they’re eligible just like anyone else is. But as my dear friend recently found out – no wigs exist with for patients who have chosen to keep their natural, kinky, afro hair.

Do an online search if you don’t believe me. All the wigs for cancer patients of African descent are straight – meaning, they look like a black person has straightened their hair. Any curly afro wigs on the market are sold alongside bright colored bellbottom leisure suits. They are intended to be part of a costume for a black man from the ‘70s with a huge afro.

Every week I participate in a text study group, where other pastors and I discuss the Bible passages for the upcoming Sunday. This week a black pastor joined us.

Race was the first thing that he talked about in relation to this passage from the Gospel of Matthew.

In a story where whiteness is so valued, how can a Black person find meaning or redemption or good news?

For many Black people, the answer is that they can’t. Some people find the undercurrent of racism in American Christianity to be so prevalent that they simply leave religion altogether.

But that’s not good news. The Gospel is supposed to draw people in, not turn them away. So if people are leaving the church because of our emphasis on the goodness of whiteness, we’re not really sharing God’s good news with the world. 

How does the Transfiguration proclaim the Gospel to someone who is not white?

What good news can be found in today’s Bible reading?

For my African-American colleague, the Transfiguration is not necessarily good news. This story that has been used to justify oppression of black people by white people – this story that glorifies whiteness at the expense of blackness – God is not really at the center of this story.

Now, we can take all kinds of theological perspectives on the Transfiguration – and in other years, in other sermons – I’m sure we will.

But at face value, on first reading, this story is problematic for humanity. It has been misused over the years, and our friends and families, other dear sisters and brothers in Christ, are still feeling the effects of racism – racism that is occasionally justified by passages like the Transfiguration story.

Don’t let Jesus’ transfiguration turn you into someone who values whiteness above all other colors.

Another Lutheran pastor – a white woman who pastors a Hispanic congregation in New York City – writes this about images of race and whiteness in the church:

“White privilege is not an illusion. It is not something in the past. It is a log in my eye that I cannot remove by my own power.”

(http://hneumark.com/2014/02/28/fifty-shades-of-changing-the-subject/)

Learn from the missteps of our predecessors.

Don’t let the light of the Transfiguration make you blind to the needs of the rest of the world.

The purpose of Jesus’ transfiguration is not to advance light and white, but to bring the glory of God to the world.

And God’s glory shows up in all kinds of places, in white snow and dark clouds, in bright sunshine and shadowy forests, and in everything in between.

All of humankind was created in God’s image… male and female, white and black, old and young… all people reflect the glory of God.

Sometimes I’ve thought that if we could just take an average of all the faces and personalities of all the people in the world, we would have an idea of what God is actually like. Each of us is created in God’s image, so if we could only combine all ourselves into one, we would come close to understanding the divine.

This week we will enter the 6-week season of Lent, a time to focus on our own sinfulness and our need for redemption and salvation.

As we begin Lent this year, I hope that we can consider all our attitudes and assumptions – those things that separate us from one another.

Sin isn’t just breaking one of the rules that guide our society. Sin is more than going over the speed limit or lying to our spouse.

Sin is anything that separates us from God.

Racism can separate us from God. A glorification of whiteness separates us from all God’s children who are dark-skinned yet are created in the divine image. Racism is a sin.

I’m not preaching about racism today because I think it’s a sin that anyone here commits intentionally. But preference for light and white is so prevalent in our society, that we can practice this sin without even trying.

During Lent this year, I hope that we will try. I hope that we will try to see God’s image in the dark places as well as the light. I hope we will stand up against prejudice and mistreatment of people who look different than we do.

And I hope that we will find the glory of God in all those places.

God help us.      

Amen.

Perfect Holiness

Epiphany 7A, 2/23/14
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Matthew 5:38-18

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.

Seriously, Jesus?

I mean, I struggle enough with perfectionism anyway.

Times like Ash Wednesday are almost refreshing for me, when we’re reminded that God is God and I am not, so the weight of the world really doesn’t need to rest upon my shoulders.

But Jesus today is telling us almost the opposite.

If we are following Jesus, if we are worshipping God, then our goal is nothing short of perfection.

No pressure.

Some colleagues of mine have been preaching or leading Bible studies on the theme, “things I wish Jesus had never said.” Be perfect certainly makes it on to that list.

We’ve been hearing from the Sermon on the Mount for the past several weeks, and we’ve done our best to take Jesus at his word all the way through. I believe that Jesus really meant what he was saying. He didn’t just preach to hear his own voice, but he really wanted – and expected – his disciples to follow his teachings.

We’ve learned from the past several Gospel readings that Jesus has high expectations of his followers.

Blessed are you when people persecute you.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost it’s taste, what good is it?

You have heard it said… but I say to you… let your yes be yes and your no be no…

Sometimes the way that Jesus describes the expectations he has for his followers is really harsh.

He doesn’t mince words.

He’s not a warm fuzzy preacher – he’s not concerned with making people feel good, but he is concerned with speaking the truth. Jesus speaks with conviction and passion, even at the literal risk of his own life.

So when Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect,” I think he means it. I think we need to take him seriously.

Jesus wants his followers to be perfect.

         OK.

But what in the world does that mean?

And how in the world can we even come close to perfection?

Thankfully, we have some guidance from the Old Testament lesson today.

You don’t tend to hear sermons on Leviticus very often in Lutheran churches.

There are reasons for that.

Leviticus is full of rules and regulations, God’s laws and commandments.

Some of the laws seem totally irrelevant to our society today.

In the verse following our reading, we are told not to grow two kinds of crops in the same field and not to wear fabrics of mixed fibers.

Well, I think I'm already condemned, since I’m pretty sure every pair of underwear I own is made out of at least two types of fabric.

A few verses further, we learn that trimming your beard and getting tattoos are forbidden.

I guess my husband is out of luck, as is the pastor who I do text study with every week.

Chapter 20 talks a lot about sex, about incest and adultery, and why a man must not sleep with a woman who is having her period.

Well, probably every married couple here has been in violation of that one, since you’re not even supposed to sleep in the same room as a menstruating woman, since the blood makes her unclean, according to Levitical laws.

Looking back a few pages, chapter 11 goes through food laws, saying that it’s not OK to eat shellfish but it is OK to eat locusts, and if a mouse falls into a jar, that jar is forever unclean and must be broken to pieces.

Yeah, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather eat scallops than locusts, and if any vermin like a mouse happened to fall into a ceramic vessel I own, I’d probably soak it really well, but I’d definitely use it again and not break it into a million bits.

Leviticus is given a pretty poor showing in most Christian preaching. 

This Old Testament book only shows up once in the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary. In the schedule of readings we follow of Old Testament, New Testament, Gospel readings, and Psalms, this is the only time we’ll hear from Leviticus until 2017.

And no wonder, with so many laws that not only seem irrelevant to us, but also require explanation as to why they ever existed in the first place – it’s easier just to ignore passages like these in the Bible, when there are so many more life-giving passage out there.

It’s hard to find any Gospel – any good news – in the pages of Leviticus.

But in this combination of readings, when Jesus is continuing his reproachful and convicting Sermon on the Mount, I think that today’s better news is to be found in the Old Testament lesson, in the words for Leviticus that Jesus repurposes for his audience in Matthew.

Jesus tells us to be perfect.

Leviticus tells us why.

You shall be holy – because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

You shall leave some of your harvest for the poor and the foreigner – I am the Lord your God.

You shall not steal or lie – I am the Lord your God

You shall not cheat or steal, you shall not harm the deaf or the blind – I am the Lord your God.

You shall treat everyone with justice – I am the Lord your God.

You shall not hate your family or your neighbor, or hold grudges against anyone – I am the Lord your God.

And I, the Lord your God, am holy.

And if you do these holy actions, the whole world will know that you belong to me, that you are people of God.

And the whole world will know something about who I am – who God is – through learning who you are as God’s people.

Who you are – who you are intended to be – are holy people.

People set apart for God’s work.

People who live according to God’s law.

People with a special promise from God to be forgiven of all sins and to be granted eternal life.

According to Leviticus, God wants the chosen people – God wants us – to live our whole lives as a quest for holiness. We are supposed to make following God and reflecting God’s values the primary reason why we    ever    do    anything.

In all aspects of our lives, from what we eat and what we wear to how we speak and run our businesses, we always have the opportunity to reflect well upon God with our actions. By doing everything for the glory of God, we end up making our actions holy. We end up living holy lives.

Does this translate into being perfect, like Jesus talks about in the Gospel reading?

Maybe.

“Perfect” is a complicated word.

For us, in English, as 21^st-century Americans, “perfect” usually means “flawless.”

For Jesus, and for his followers, and for the earliest readers of the Bible, “perfect” was synonymous with “complete” or “whole.”

Be whole, then, as your father in heaven is whole.

Or even, be holy, as God is holy.

Wholeness, completeness – holiness – these values imply a journey, a process, a continual state of being that needs regular maintenance.

If you have a whole chocolate cake, you need to work to make sure that no one else stops in and eats a slice before it’s time to serve it.

If you have a complete set of first editions of Charles Dickens’ works, you need to work to keep it from deteriorating, or from being stolen, or from experiencing damage from sun or moisture.

Wholeness – holiness – requires maintenance

Another pastor I know rephrases Jesus’ command this way: Jesus is inviting us to live into our true selves, created in the image and likeness of God.  

And I, the Lord your God, am holy.

God’s people are meant to be set apart from the general population.

That’s not because we’re better than anyone else. Any of us who have struggled with perfectionism will know beyond a doubt that we are far from perfect! We are definitely not any better than any of the other sinners out there!

But we can try to be.

We know the promises that God has for us, and we know the expectations that God has for us. And the good news is that, regardless of whether we follow God’s commands for two or three days at a time, or whether we sin every other second, God still loves us.

God still believes that we can be holy – complete – perfect.

So let’s follow through on God’s faith.

Let’s try our best to be as holy as God thinks we are.

According to today’s Leviticus reading, that means we should provide for poor people and foreigners, that we should be honest and fair with our money, that we should be attentive to the needs of the deaf and blind, that we should be just, and that we should love our family and our neighbor.

And so on, and so forth.

Between Jesus and Leviticus, it would be a full-time job trying to follow all of God’s commands.

But really what the readings get at is this:

Let your actions reflect the holiness of God.

If you’re living like that, you’re living right.

We could spend weeks arguing the merits of things like fair trade food and clothing that’s not made in sweatshops.

But really what God wants us to do today is to pay attention.

Know what it is that you’re doing.

And every step along the way, consider whether your actions truly reflect the nature of God.

If they do, then you are holy – whole – complete – and perfect.

If not, then you have work to do.

So let’s let our actions reflect our love of God.

And let’s live in confidence of God’s promises of grace and forgiveness for us in all those times when we fail to measure up.                

Amen.