William H. Willimon - "Temptations" (March 4, 2001)
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| - | Aristotle said that, | 0:10 |
| "That action is right | 0:13 | |
| "that conforms to those purposes | 0:16 | |
| "for which the actor was intended." | 0:21 | |
| Every living being on Earth has got a purpose, | 0:26 | |
| and an end date, telos as Aristotle said, | 0:31 | |
| something for which that being was created. | 0:36 | |
| Dogs are created to run and jump and bark. | 0:39 | |
| A flower is meant to turn its head toward the sun. | 0:42 | |
| Human beings, as well, we have a purpose. | 0:48 | |
| Behavior is right or wrong, according to Aristotle, | 0:54 | |
| not because it conforms to some code or law, | 0:59 | |
| but rather how well that behavior conforms to the purpose | 1:03 | |
| for which that being was created. | 1:10 | |
| This is what philosophers call teleological ethics. | 1:14 | |
| At least that's what they taught us in high school shop | 1:20 | |
| as far as I can remember. | 1:23 | |
| Always use a tool for the purpose for which it was intended. | 1:26 | |
| It is a violation of the ethics of shop | 1:30 | |
| to use a knife for a screwdriver, | 1:34 | |
| or a wrench for a hammer. | 1:36 | |
| Well, enough of Aristotle or high school shop. | 1:40 | |
| Today's gospel is what it always is | 1:43 | |
| on the first Sunday of Lent, | 1:46 | |
| it is the story of Jesus' temptation. | 1:48 | |
| At the beginning of his adult life, | 1:53 | |
| the age of some of you, | 1:58 | |
| Jesus was led into the wilderness | 2:00 | |
| and there he met the tempter | 2:03 | |
| who tried to tempt Jesus to be | 2:08 | |
| who He was not. | 2:12 | |
| Here is the gospel: | 2:14 | |
| Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan | 2:16 | |
| and we led by the Spirit into the wilderness | 2:20 | |
| where for 40 days He was tempted by the devil. | 2:24 | |
| He ate nothing at all during those days, | 2:28 | |
| and when they were over He was famished. | 2:31 | |
| The devil said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, | 2:34 | |
| "command this stone to become a loaf of bread." | 2:38 | |
| Jesus answered, "It is written, | 2:42 | |
| "one does not live by bread alone." | 2:45 | |
| Then the devil led Him up and showed Him in an instant | 2:49 | |
| all the kingdoms of the world, | 2:52 | |
| and the devil said to Him, "To you I will give their glory | 2:53 | |
| "and all this authority, for it has been given over to me, | 2:58 | |
| "and I can give it to anyone I please. | 3:03 | |
| "If you then will worship me, it will all be yours." | 3:06 | |
| Jesus answered, "It is written, worship the Lord your God | 3:11 | |
| "and serve only Him." | 3:16 | |
| Then the devil took Him to Jerusalem | 3:19 | |
| and placed Him on the pinnacle of the temple saying, | 3:21 | |
| "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. | 3:24 | |
| "For it is written, He will command His angels | 3:28 | |
| "concerning you to protect you, | 3:30 | |
| "and on their hands they will bear you up | 3:33 | |
| "so that you will not dash your foot against a stone." | 3:36 | |
| Jesus answered him, "It is said, | 3:40 | |
| "'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" | 3:45 | |
| When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Him | 3:50 | |
| until a more opportune time. | 3:54 | |
| This is the Word of the Lord. | 3:58 | |
| - | Thanks be to God. | 4:02 |
| - | Would you explain to me why it is that we sort of get | 4:07 |
| goofy whenever that word temptation is mentioned? | 4:12 | |
| Just mention the word temptation | 4:18 | |
| and there's always somebody present to quote Oscar Wilde, | 4:22 | |
| you know, "I can resist anything except temptation." | 4:25 | |
| "What were you thinking of when you bought | 4:31 | |
| "that red convertible?" we ask. | 4:33 | |
| "Oh, the devil made me do it," he explains. | 4:37 | |
| They roll out the dessert tray at the restaurant, | 4:42 | |
| and there is the chocolate pie, | 4:45 | |
| and there is this, and there is that. | 4:47 | |
| Somebody at the table always says, | 4:51 | |
| "Get thee behind me, Satan. | 4:54 | |
| "Oh well, I guess I will have just one little slice, | 4:57 | |
| "and some of that stuff on top of it, too." | 4:59 | |
| Well this is the Scripture they're quoting. | 5:04 | |
| They're quoting Jesus: "Get thee behind me, Satan." | 5:08 | |
| It's what Jesus said in the wilderness when the tempter | 5:12 | |
| afforded Him three tantalizing alternatives. | 5:15 | |
| Get the behind me, Satan. | 5:19 | |
| But isn't it odd that we take this, | 5:24 | |
| and we turn it into a joke, something funny; | 5:28 | |
| temptation in jest. | 5:32 | |
| We, if we think about the devil, | 5:36 | |
| we think about the devil not there with Jesus | 5:39 | |
| in the wilderness, but prancing about on a basketball court, | 5:42 | |
| the devil with the blue dress on, or Temptation Island. | 5:47 | |
| Why do we make so light | 5:55 | |
| of a serious subject like temptation? | 5:57 | |
| I wonder if we do it, the same way we make light | 6:02 | |
| of a lot of things, as a kind of defense. | 6:05 | |
| Let's make temptation into something cute, | 6:10 | |
| something that you say when the dessert tray | 6:13 | |
| is passed around, | 6:15 | |
| a sort of intentional trivialization. | 6:17 | |
| The devil made me do it! | 6:21 | |
| Because how different is our jesting | 6:27 | |
| from temptation as it | 6:32 | |
| really is in life? | 6:34 | |
| Down deep she knew that her mother loved her. | 6:42 | |
| Down deep she knew that her mother | 6:47 | |
| meant to be a good mother. | 6:49 | |
| But when she was on that stuff, | 6:52 | |
| when she was on that powder came through the little envelope | 6:54 | |
| slipped under the door after a few bills | 6:58 | |
| were slipped under the door to the other side, | 7:01 | |
| when she was on that stuff she was not a good mother. | 7:03 | |
| Her grandmother had given her a little necklace, | 7:09 | |
| a little diamond necklace, and she loved it. | 7:13 | |
| She'd only worn it a couple of times. | 7:15 | |
| She kept it carefully in a box | 7:17 | |
| on top of her dresser in the apartment. | 7:21 | |
| One day it was gone. | 7:25 | |
| Her mother said to her, "Well, you're careless, | 7:28 | |
| "you probably misplaced it. | 7:31 | |
| But she knew she hadn't misplaced it. | 7:32 | |
| She knew immediately what had happened. | 7:35 | |
| Her mother had stolen it to buy some of the powder | 7:37 | |
| they slip under the door. | 7:41 | |
| Her mother seemed to love her, | 7:45 | |
| but it was humiliating to know | 7:49 | |
| that she loved those drugs even better. | 7:52 | |
| How many times had her mother said, | 7:56 | |
| "I'm gonna get off this stuff. | 7:58 | |
| "I can get off this stuff any time I want to. | 7:59 | |
| "One of these days I'm gonna get myself together." | 8:02 | |
| But she had said it so many times, | 8:04 | |
| and every time it was always a lie. | 8:07 | |
| Now that's what temptation looks like in the real. | 8:13 | |
| "What were you thinking of?" | 8:20 | |
| the head of the law firm asked him. | 8:23 | |
| What was he thinking of? | 8:27 | |
| It was only a couple thousand dollars. | 8:29 | |
| It was just a fraction of his yearly salary at the law firm. | 8:32 | |
| Yet he had falsified his expense accounts. | 8:38 | |
| He had blown it all, his great career, everything | 8:42 | |
| for a couple of thousand bucks. | 8:44 | |
| "You were to be one of our very best lawyers," | 8:49 | |
| the partner said, "and you blew it all." | 8:54 | |
| That's temptation. | 9:00 | |
| The wrecked lives, the broken hearts, | 9:04 | |
| this is no joking matter. | 9:08 | |
| It's odd how we joke about that, | 9:12 | |
| how we trivialize it. | 9:14 | |
| Temptation Island. | 9:19 | |
| Note that when Jesus was tempted | 9:23 | |
| it wasn't about chocolate pie. | 9:25 | |
| When Jesus was tempted it didn't involve | 9:30 | |
| somebody with a shady there and a scant negligee | 9:33 | |
| and a dab of nice-end perfume behind the ear, | 9:38 | |
| a youthful discretion in a motel room; | 9:41 | |
| it was very specific temptation. | 9:43 | |
| Do you remember the words of the tempter? | 9:48 | |
| "If you are the Son of God, | 9:51 | |
| "then prove it." | 9:56 | |
| If you are this, then prove that | 9:59 | |
| by how you respond to this test. | 10:03 | |
| Don't be who you say you are, | 10:07 | |
| you be who I say you are. | 10:09 | |
| I think right there is the heart | 10:14 | |
| of the ugliness of temptation. | 10:17 | |
| If you are; it's an identity test. | 10:21 | |
| When I was in college, | 10:27 | |
| this nice little botanist returned out midterm exams, | 10:29 | |
| and he put these exams down on the table, | 10:34 | |
| and he just slouched forward. | 10:36 | |
| Then he looked out at the class. | 10:42 | |
| None of this is a good beginning for a conversation | 10:44 | |
| between professor and a class about the midterm. | 10:47 | |
| "I've graded your exams," he said, | 10:52 | |
| "and in grading them it appears | 10:55 | |
| "that five or six of you have collaborated. | 10:57 | |
| "You cheated. | 11:01 | |
| "Since I discovered this, I've been asking myself | 11:03 | |
| "over and over again, | 11:06 | |
| "did I do anything to deserve this kind of response? | 11:10 | |
| "Is there anything I have said in this class | 11:17 | |
| "during the semester that led any of you to believe | 11:19 | |
| "that this class was more important than your good name? | 11:23 | |
| "Did I say or suggest anything during the course of our work | 11:28 | |
| "that leads you to believe that botany | 11:32 | |
| "is more important than your integrity? | 11:37 | |
| "My God, it's only a grade. | 11:41 | |
| "Let me assure you, you get out of here | 11:44 | |
| "nobody's gonna know what you made in this class. | 11:47 | |
| "We're talking about your life, your honor. | 11:52 | |
| "Nobody'll ever care about what you know about botany, | 11:59 | |
| "but everything is gonna hinge on who you are as a person, | 12:01 | |
| "and I shudder to think if I've done anything | 12:09 | |
| "that led you to sacrifice your good name | 12:12 | |
| "for something as trivial as botany. | 12:18 | |
| "Now I want those of you who cheated, | 12:23 | |
| "I want you to come by my office this afternoon | 12:24 | |
| "and let's talk about this. | 12:27 | |
| "I just need to be reassured by you | 12:30 | |
| "that I did nothing to lead you into this dishonesty." | 12:32 | |
| After class on the way out this guy said to me, | 12:41 | |
| "Man, I wish he'd done the nice thing and just flunked us." | 12:44 | |
| (laughing) | 12:49 | |
| Even though I was a sophomore, | 12:53 | |
| I actually got the point though. | 12:55 | |
| Temptation is not just a matter of cutting a few corners. | 12:58 | |
| It's not obeying some honor code | 13:03 | |
| posted on the wall of the classroom. | 13:05 | |
| It's not getting a grade you didn't really deserve. | 13:07 | |
| Temptation is a question about who you are | 13:12 | |
| and have been intended to be. | 13:19 | |
| Satan, to his credit, honestly puts that on the table. | 13:23 | |
| If you are, then... | 13:27 | |
| Satan urges Jesus | 13:36 | |
| spectacularly to turn stones to bread. | 13:39 | |
| After all, don't we believe in doing good for hungry people? | 13:45 | |
| Imagine what kind of world we would live in | 13:49 | |
| if Jesus that day had only said yes. | 13:51 | |
| Failing at that Satan says, | 13:57 | |
| "Well, throw yourself down off the pinnacle of the temple. | 13:59 | |
| "Boy, that would be some sermon illustration. | 14:03 | |
| "Everybody would believe you then. | 14:05 | |
| "Hey, it's in the Bible. | 14:08 | |
| "God will protect you. | 14:11 | |
| "God will not let any harm befall his servants." | 14:12 | |
| Then Satan says, "Have you ever considered politics? | 14:17 | |
| "Take charge of the kingdoms of this world." | 14:25 | |
| I know after the last election you wish Jesus had said, | 14:30 | |
| "Well, yes, I'll se what I can do." | 14:33 | |
| (laughing) | 14:35 | |
| Imagine how differently the news would run this morning | 14:38 | |
| and the paper if Jesus had said yes, but Jesus said no. | 14:42 | |
| Jesus doesn't do politics. | 14:46 | |
| My point is, you see, all these temptations are good. | 14:51 | |
| Satan doesn't say, "Hey Jesus, come over here, | 14:57 | |
| "I gotta fifth out in the car. | 15:00 | |
| "You wanna have a good time?" | 15:02 | |
| Satan does not tempt Jesus to do bad. | 15:05 | |
| He tempts Him to do good things, | 15:08 | |
| but they are not | 15:10 | |
| Jesus good things. | 15:13 | |
| Jesus you wanna be just like God? | 15:16 | |
| You wanna come in here and take charge, | 15:19 | |
| wave a magic wand over everything, set everything right? | 15:21 | |
| Jesus you wanna be... | 15:26 | |
| Jesus do you wanna live like God or not? | 15:27 | |
| Hey, you wanna live like the devil? | 15:30 | |
| You see the temptation, | 15:34 | |
| the temptation is who am I? | 15:36 | |
| What is God's will for my life? | 15:41 | |
| That is the tempting question that Satan puts before people, | 15:46 | |
| the temptation to be somebody | 15:51 | |
| you haven't been intended to be. | 15:53 | |
| It is that temptation, that desire in our lives | 15:57 | |
| to turn a knife into a screwdriver, | 16:03 | |
| a flower into a dollar bill, | 16:05 | |
| a treasured human life into a thing; | 16:07 | |
| that's the temptation Jesus faced. | 16:09 | |
| Be who you are not meant to be. | 16:12 | |
| And that in my experience is the hell of addiction. | 16:18 | |
| You know in your heart of hearts, | 16:23 | |
| in your sober moments you know that you | 16:26 | |
| were meant for more than to have your precious | 16:29 | |
| God-given human life tethered to nothing more than a bottle. | 16:33 | |
| You know that you are meant for more | 16:40 | |
| than to have your life jerked around | 16:42 | |
| by a handful of pills. | 16:44 | |
| You know that, | 16:49 | |
| but the temptation is too great. | 16:52 | |
| Oh live a life without pain. | 16:54 | |
| Live a life where there are no tough dilemmas. | 16:56 | |
| It's hard to decide whether to go this way or that. | 16:59 | |
| Don't live like somebody with a brain, | 17:02 | |
| but live like some mellowed out, smiling, | 17:04 | |
| that life is easier. | 17:08 | |
| That's what we're talking about. | 17:13 | |
| And it is not a joke. | 17:15 | |
| The devil made me do it. | 17:20 | |
| This is dead serious. | 17:24 | |
| It's a continued fundamental, | 17:27 | |
| irresistible violation of who God meant us to be. | 17:31 | |
| That's temptation. | 17:38 | |
| But this is Lent. | 17:43 | |
| This is the great season of the gospel. | 17:46 | |
| And if we can't resist temptation, | 17:52 | |
| the good news is that Jesus can. | 17:57 | |
| As the writer to the Hebrews says, | 18:00 | |
| "He was tested like us in every way, | 18:02 | |
| "just as we are, | 18:08 | |
| "and yet He said no." | 18:11 | |
| There is no temptation that we have faced | 18:16 | |
| and to which we have succumbed | 18:20 | |
| that He has not said no. | 18:22 | |
| And this is Lent, | 18:27 | |
| and this is the good news of the gospel, | 18:29 | |
| that even if you've made a mess of your life, | 18:32 | |
| even if you said yes when you should have said no, | 18:35 | |
| it isn't too late. | 18:38 | |
| Even if you have messed up your life | 18:41 | |
| in ways that we can't say publicly, | 18:43 | |
| we went through three pages of confession | 18:45 | |
| at the beginning of this service, | 18:47 | |
| maybe we didn't cover your sin in all that, | 18:48 | |
| (laughing) | 18:51 | |
| but even if we didn't, | 18:53 | |
| and even if we had and you couldn't say it out loud | 18:55 | |
| to God or anybody else, it is not too late. | 18:58 | |
| He, the One who stared temptation in the face | 19:03 | |
| and took it with utter seriousness and resisted temptation, | 19:06 | |
| the good news He can help us resist as well. | 19:12 | |
| There's still time to turn | 19:17 | |
| and be who God meant you to be. | 19:22 | |
| He told me, he said, "You know I always thought | 19:29 | |
| "I wanted to be in a fraternity in college. | 19:31 | |
| "I couldn't believe it when they gave me a bid. | 19:34 | |
| "The very one I wanted more than anything to be a part of. | 19:37 | |
| "And I liked the first days in the fraternity, | 19:40 | |
| "but I didn't like what it was doing to me. | 19:44 | |
| "I didn't mind what they were doing, | 19:49 | |
| "but it bothered me what it was doing to me. | 19:51 | |
| "I realized I was changing the way I dressed. | 19:54 | |
| "I was changing the way I talked, the way I acted. | 19:57 | |
| "It was about then that I finally said to myself, | 20:00 | |
| "wait a minute, this isn't who you really are." | 20:03 | |
| Well, this is what we call gospel, good news, | 20:11 | |
| conversion, born again; | 20:15 | |
| it is the good news of Jesus Christ. | 20:18 | |
| It isn't a matter of saying no | 20:22 | |
| to something that would be a lot of fun. | 20:25 | |
| It's a matter of saying yes to who you really are | 20:29 | |
| and God means you to be. | 20:32 | |
| And the good news of this story is that because | 20:34 | |
| He did, you can. | 20:37 | |
| Amen. | 20:44 |