On this first Sunday of Lent, we begin our theme Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith by looking at two stories of temptation. First, we hear the familiar Genesis story of Adam and Eve tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, then from Matthew’s gospel we read about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan. In the face of temptation, our readings this week ask, “Who will you listen to?”
Will you listen to the lies of this world, the lies that draw us away from God’s love toward both the false hope of self-reliance and the fear of inadequacy and unworthiness? Or will you listen to the truth revealed by Jesus, the truth that you are a beloved child of God, totally reliant on God’s never-failing love and grace?
This week’s Scripture readings are Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11. This sermon is of course influenced by the reflections in the Seeking Lenten theme from A Sanctified Art. There’s also some carryover from my 2017 sermon for Lent 1. Here’s the sermon audio from Christ the King, and the livestream from Living Hope.
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Welcome to Lent! I was supposed to say that Wednesday, but here we are. The message of Ash Wednesday still applies a week later, and this Wednesday’s forecast looks fine, so I hope to see all of you at Living Hope for Ash Wednesday, take two.
On Sundays during Lent, we’re exploring a theme of “Seeking.” Each week we’ll engage with a question in our Scripture readings, with the hope that honestly tackling questions will deepen our faith.
This week’s question is “Who will you listen to?” and these readings give us a great opportunity to explore a topic I don’t think I’ve talked about at all yet here.
So, who’s excited for a sermon about the devil?
I don’t know about you, but I just don’t talk about the devil very much. I’m just not that interested in spending time thinking about Satan. Probably good, right!?
Every time I do a baptism, I meet beforehand with the person being baptized or their parents, and we go through the baptismal service.
One section is called the renunciations. In the green hymnal, the wording is “Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises?” Our newer hymnal expands it to talk about renouncing all the powers of this world that rebel against God, and the ways of sin that draw you from God, but it still asks, “Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?”
So far, no one has gotten very hung up on that question. I’ve even joked with a few people that I don’t know what I’d do if they answered yes. Renouncing the devil, saying you’re not a Satan-worshiper, seems like such a low bar for Christians; I just assume the answer will be yes.
But as I read this week’s lessons, I wonder if I’m sometimes too flippant about this question. As I’ve thought about how the devil works, how the forces of evil go about their business of drawing us away from God, it’s not so easy to just offhandedly reject evil.
Not all Christians believe in an active, personal devil named Satan, and that’s ok. It’s not a very healthy subject to explore too deeply. In fact, the Bible isn’t as clear on it as we often think.
The first time we hear about Satan is in today’s first reading from Genesis, when the devil tempts Eve to eat the apple and commit the first sin. Right? Except, that’s not actually what we just heard or read. It’s actually a serpent in this story, just a snake.
There’s nothing about the devil, or the name Satan. That’s us reading into the text, not what the Bible actually says. And for that matter, it says nothing about an apple, just a fruit.
But whether or not you believe in a personal devil as a character, I think we all have to believe in the power of evil. Both the Bible and our own experience make it clear there is evil at work in the world. And the work of evil, the work of the devil as personified in Scripture, is always to draw us away from God.
The devil’s temptations are always lies and empty promises. In John 8, Jesus refers to the devil as “The father of lies.” “He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3 talks about “the tempter.” Revelation 12 calls Satan “the deceiver of the whole world.” We must constantly ask, who will you listen to? The empty promises of the father of lies, or the voice of God our Creator?
The devil’s work is always calling us away from God, but I think the lies and temptations through which he does that work in two directions, often at the same time.
First, there’s the temptation for us to take God’s place. It’s not usually as obvious as denying God exists, but more by flattering us into thinking we don’t need God, that we can do it on our own, that we know better than God.
That’s Adam and Eve’s temptation. Stop trusting God for life, and start trusting yourself. Listen to yourself, not God. You can do it on your own, you can decide right from wrong, you can be the one in control. “You will be like God.” That’s a tempting voice to listen to, right?
It’s human nature to want to be in charge. I have a toddler who is fond of saying he’ll do something himself and getting really upset when I try to help, even if it’s something he cannot do on his own.
It’s a powerful temptation to be told you can be in control. Our world wants to work like this. We’re afraid of giving up independence, not being able to do what we want, insisting on maintaining our rights and liberties. How many politicians are elected by scaring people into thinking they’re under attack, that your freedoms, your control is being threatened?
Sometimes, the tempter even quotes scripture to us like he does to Jesus, wrapping up lies in religious sounding language. The promises in Scripture are always true, but we need to understand individual verses in the context of the whole.
You can cherry-pick verses to say whatever you want to. You can read from Psalm 10 verse 4 and learn the Bible says, and I quote, “There is no God.” But you really should read more of the verse, where it says, “the wicked say, “God will not seek it out”; all their thoughts are, “There is no God.”
The wicked denying God are not meant as a role model for us! God promises to be with us and protect us. That does not mean we should be jumping off buildings in faith God will catch us!
That’s just another way of us trying to be in charge, trying to manipulate God into acting the way we want. Faith is about giving up control, not a tool for gaining power.
The counter to that temptation is Lenten humility, the call to repentance, to return to the Lord your God. It’s the message of Ash Wednesday: No matter how hard we try to get control on our own, we cannot make ourselves live forever. Adam and Eve cannot stay in paradise on their own.
We are mortal beings, created by God from the dust. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Choose to listen to God, rather than Satan’s flattery.
The other temptation from Satan is to believe not that we are in charge, but the opposite, to believe we are worthless, that we are only dust and nothing more. Satan tempts us to believe we are not enough. To Jesus, he says, “If you are really the Son of God…do this. Take advantage of your position. Do some flashy magic. Then everyone will appreciate you. The whole world will worship you. Then you’ll really matter.”
Satan works in Scripture by telling us lies and half-truths, preying—pr-e-y, not pr-a-y—preying on our fears and insecurities, inviting us to question our identity.
To that, God says, “You are my beloved.” We go back to baptism, to the moment we can point to when God claimed you as God’s own. When Satan says you are lacking, God says, “You are my beloved.”
Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness come right after his own baptism, right after that moment when the heavens opened up and he heard God’s voice declare, “You are my Son, the beloved.” How often in the wilderness did Jesus return to that promise?
I think Satan works through the commercial messages of our society today too. Buy this, and you’ll be happy.
Never gone on a cruise? You’re missing out; your life is lacking.You’re not good enough, but if you buy this diet, then people will like you and your life will have meaning. Those are empty promises.
Any message—even ones wrapped up in religious-sounding language—that says if you do this, God will stop loving you, any message accusing you of being so broken that you’re beyond redemption, is a lie from Satan.
Don’t listen to any message that says your life is a waste, that you should be ashamed of who you are.
Listen to the Voice of Truth: You and I are made in God’s image, redeemed by Jesus. Your identity is found in who God says you are. Jesus sees you as valuable, beloved, worth laying his life down for.
In this season, we seek to hear the truth of how God sees us. We return to the One who is gracious and merciful.
Amidst all of this world’s lies, both the lies that you are the center of the universe and the lies that you are not enough, listen for the truth of how God sees you. You are beloved, and you are loved. Amen