Brixton Hill, 25 February 2007

Temptation!

It's difficult, isn't it? There you are being offered a box of chocolates, and you simply can't resist! Or it's late, and you're tired, and it's a whole lot easier to get a take-away than to cook supper. Or you're in the supermarket, and there's a wonderful-looking cheese-encrusted loaf that seriously calls your name.... or they have a special offer, buy one and get one free, on Ginsters' Cornish Pasties.

And if you need to watch your weight as much as I do, you'll know these aren't totally great food choices! But they are sometimes very tempting ones!

Okay, so eating the wrong sort of food can scarcely be called a sin! It might have been more sensible to have eaten a few grapes, rather than the pieces of chocolate I actually did eat while preparing this sermon, but that's all.

But sometimes we find it easy to be tempted to do wrong. Perhaps we're tempted to use our bodies in the wrong way, or worse, to misuse other people's bodies. Or to misuse other people full stop - Jesus reminded us that if we were angry with someone, we needed to express our anger in such a way that it didn't destroy the other person, or put them down. Jesus tells us that we are to treat other people with the greatest possible respect for who they are - physically, emotionally and spiritually. And the rest of the New Testament makes it clear that we aren't even supposed to think unkind things about other people, which it's very hard to do at times! We can be tempted, too, not to get involved when a friend needs help or a listening ear; we can be tempted to ignore it when someone in the church is in difficulties. We can be tempted to steal - even a few minutes' of our employers' time to make a personal phone call or answer a personal e-mail. Although, of course, most employers do allow a reasonable amount of that, but not all.

And some poor folk are addicted to things, drink or drugs or gambling or cigarettes or something - and it's terribly hard for them to resist the temptation to indulge their habit. I know - I'm addicted to cigarettes. Oh, I've not smoked for over 13 years, but I'm still addicted, and one puff and I'd be back to 40 a day in no time at all. On the other hand, I can claim no virtue for not being addicted to gambling - it simply doesn't interest me and I've never seen the point!

Different people are tempted to different things. I know that when I read today's Gospel, I often wonder what the problem was - what are these so-called temptations? But to Jesus, they were very real, and very urgent. He was being tempted to misuse his divine powers, to go for cheap glory rather than the way of the cross.

I don't know how many of you enjoy the Harry Potter books and films - I know I do, and I'm really looking forward to the last book coming out in July. But sometimes, when I read about the way they use their wands, I wonder why they bother - I mean, whatever is the point of using magic to draw the curtains, for instance; can't they just pull them by hand or with a cord, like everybody else? Jesus did miracles, sure, but they weren't like that. They weren't just to avoid bother, or to get something more easily. That's why it was wrong for him to turn the stones into bread - it would have been a cheap magic trick and would have done nothing to enhance God's glory.

It must have been so insidious, mustn't it? "Are you really the Son of God? Why don't you prove it by making these stones bread? You're very hungry, aren't you? If you're the Son of God, you can do anything you like, can't you? Surely you can make these stones into bread? But perhaps you aren't the Son of God, after all...." And so it would have gone on and on and on.

We read Luke's account, and it just sounds as though Jesus shook his head and said, "No, it's written: you shall not live by bread alone!" But it can't have been that easy, can it? If it were, it wouldn't have been worth worrying about. It's like I have no interest in going to a casino, or in playing games of chance - it just isn't my scene, so I'm totally not virtuous if I don't do it! But for someone who finds that sort of thing the most enormous fun, it must be enormously tempting: "Oh, go on then; you never know, you might win! Just buy that scratchcard.... who knows, it might be the one!" And so on.

Jesus was also tempted with riches and power beyond his wildest dreams - at that, beyond our wildest dreams, if only he would worship the enemy. But that wasn't what he was about - much to the disappointment of some of his followers. That, too, must have been ghastly for him. Could he fulfil his mission without riches and power? What was being God's beloved son all about, anyway? Would it be possible to spread the message that he was beginning to realise he had to spread if he was going to spend his life in an obscure and dusty part of the Roman empire?

We can sympathise with this particular temptation; I'm sure we all would love to be rich and powerful! But for Jesus, it must have been particularly subtle - it would help him do the work he'd been sent to do! And again, after prayer and wrestling with it, he finds the answer: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

And then the third temptation. The view from the pinnacle of the Temple. So high up.... by their standards, like the top of the Canary Wharf tower would be to us. "Go on then - you're the Son of God, aren't you? Throw yourself down - your God will protect you!" It's the Harry Potter temptation again, I think - the temptation to show off, to use his powers like magic. Yes, God would have rescued him, but: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” That's not what it's about. That would have been showing off. That would have been misusing his divine powers for something rather spectacular.

You may remember that Jesus was similarly tempted on the Cross, he could have called down the legions from heaven to rescue him. But he chose not to. It wasn't about spectacular powers - often, when Jesus did miracles, he asked people not to tell anybody. He didn't want to be spectacular. He'd learnt that his mission was to the people of Israel, probably even just the people of Galilee - and the occasional outsider who needed him, like the Syro-Phoenician woman, or the Roman centurion - and anything more than that was up to his heavenly Father.

And, obviously, if the "anything more" hadn't happened, we wouldn't be here this morning! But, at the time, that wasn't Jesus' business. His business, as he told us, was to do the work of his Father in Heaven - and that work, for now, was to be an itinerant preacher and healer, but not trying deliberately to call attention to himself.

In the world of Harry Potter, magic is sometimes used for personal comfort and to save time - look at Mrs Weasley cooking by magic, and Fred and George teasing Ron and Harry because they have to prepare the Christmas Brussels sprouts using a knife, instead of just being able to wave their wands at them.

Jesus wasn't like that. His powers weren't to be used to save him discomfort, even death. They were only to be used at God's command, to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. There were no short cuts. He had to go to the Cross, to walk the way of Calvary, to be put to death.

In our world, unlike that of Harry Potter, there simply aren't any short-cuts. We, too, have to learn to walk in God's way, wherever it takes us. I'm not saying, by the way, that Harry Potter is in any way a bad thing - they're superb stories, brilliantly told, about the fight between good and evil, which we Christians certainly don't have a monopoly on. And I'm really looking forward to the last book, coming in July. All I'm saying is that unlike the people in Harry's world, Jesus couldn't use his powers for his own glory, his own comfort, even to save his own life.

And we can't, either. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I find the traditional things preachers tend to say about this story rather irritating. They point out that temptation does go away if you don't give into it, and that help is available to help us resist. Well, yes - if it's something like an addiction - been there, done that, when I was giving up smoking, and I know I couldn't possibly have done that without God's help. And if there is time, we can often decide that we won't do whatever it is we are being tempted to do, whatever it is. But far too often, the temptation to do or say the wrong thing happens so quickly, there simply isn't time! before you know it, you've snapped at someone, or you've got engrossed in something at work and missed the train you'd earlier promised to catch. Or whatever.

I'm not quite sure what you're supposed to do then.... except know that God does change us, slowly, as we walk more and more in His way, as we get more and more used to being His person all the time, not just on Sundays or whenever we happen to think about.

Earlier, I said to the young people that it didn't matter much what Lenten discipline you chose as long as it was something to help you come nearer to Jesus, to become more Jesus' person. And that's true for all of us. This season of Lent is about becoming more and more Jesus' person. We aren't required to be perfect - although when we do mess up, we're required to try to put things right as far as possible. But we are expected to be open to being made more and more perfect!

Jesus was tempted in ways that we may not be. But we are all tempted, we all have our own weak spots. Mine are different to yours, but I have them, and so do you. But with God's help we can fight them, we can gradually gain ground over them. And Lent is a terrific time to increase our spiritual discipline to help us do just that. Amen.

Children's talk: Lent

Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is the time when we prepare for Easter. But Easter is still a very long way away, it isn't happening until April. We get just over six weeks to prepare, which is quite a long time, really. At Christmas, we only get four weeks, can you remember what that time is called?

The thing about Lent is that it's traditionally been a time of fasting. This means some kind of physical deprivation, to help you with your spiritual preparation. Some people find that not eating sweets, or meat, or fizzy pop - booze if you're grown up - or something like that helps them to be more spiritually aware, and more ready to think about Jesus at Easter. In my church, King's Acre, we don't have flowers in Lent, to remind us that this is a special time. And then we appreciate the Easter flowers all the more. And in churches where they have different colours on the communion table or the minister's robes at different times of year, during Lent and Advent it's purple.

This can be a good discipline, but of course it can just be done for the sake of doing it! I don't know if any of you know the children's author, Noel Streatfield? She wrote a lot of books for children, the most famous of which is called Ballet Shoes. Well, she and her sisters grew up about a hundred years ago, and in their family, as in many others, it was assumed that nobody would want to eat sweets or cake or jam during Lent, so they were never served! So even if you had wanted to eat them, you couldn't have done so. And I don't really see what good that did, as it wasn't a voluntary thing, and just made the children dread Lent each year.

My mother used to say that if you give up something for Lent, you ought to put the money you save aside, and give it to Children in Need or a similar charity, so that you aren't just doing it for yourself. She has a point!

Some people take on something extra during Lent. Perhaps they go to a study group, or read a bit of the Bible every day, or spend time visiting someone who isn't well, or something. Or maybe you could do something like remembering to say "Thank you" to God for something every day. That's what I'm doing this year. You could keep a diary, and write down what you said "Thank you God" for - and then you would have a record to show for it, too! I've got a blog on LiveJournal, and I'm putting it on there, but pencil and paper is fine, too.

The thing is, it doesn't really matter what Lenten discipline you choose, as long as it's something that helps you come nearer to Jesus. If it doesn't, don't do it!

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