Whatever happened to sin?

Whatever happened to sin?

Don't get me wrong: I know there is evil in the world, and some of that evil is close to home. But saying there is evil in the world is not the same as saying there is sin. To acknowledge that there is sin is to acknowledge agency, a willingness to be a partner with evil. And that is an idea that makes us profoundly uncomfortable, even those of us who come to church where we pray regularly for God's forgiveness for our sins. I cite as evidence a comment made to me this past week. We ran an ad in The Daily Princetonian earlier this past week for Ash Wednesday services that included the eighth verse from 1 John, chapter 1: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Not one but two students asked me why it was necessary to place such a harsh, off-putting biblical quote in the ad.

I replied that Lent, and Ash Wednesday in particular, are times when we face up to our sinfulness, our brokenness, and rededicate ourselves to an amendment of life so that we can make steady progress in our lifelong journey toward union with God. But these students were not pleased with this answer and indicated, each in their own way, that they don't come to church to be reminded that they are sinners. If they wanted that, they said, they would go to another church that specializes in making people feel guilty.

Those who share the views of those students might find tonight's gospel lesson even more unsettling than the passage from 1 John. It is a story of temptation by Satan and of Jesus' response. The season of Lent begins each year with the story of the temptation of Jesus. This year the story is from Matthew - next year from Mark - the following year from Luke. It is the same story with minor variations. Jesus has just been baptized, and the Spirit leads him into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil.

We follow a three-year cycle of readings, and not many stories are repeated year after year. For the most part, when we read a gospel story, we won't see it again for three years. Why, then, should we hear this temptation story every year?

A better question, I think, is why not hear it every day? That is how temptation comes to us, isn't it - every day! Is there anyone here who did not experience some kind of temptation yesterday? Is there anyone who does not expect some kind of temptation tomorrow?

And where does this temptation come from? In the Bible, Satan is an evil force opposing God - opposing good - spreading evil. It is not at all difficult to believe that there is evil abroad in our world. All we have to do is to open a newspaper, and we see all the evidence anyone could want.

Princeton professor Elaine Pagels' thesis is that Satan is a sectarian demonization of the "intimate enemy" - Jews and heretics - and the use of the character of Satan, a sort of anthropological evil, is a polemical device. Such a characterization not only is not necessary to the central message of the gospels, but actually is unhelpful in several ways. One way, obviously, is that the demonization of enemies has resulted in atrocious behavior by Christians over the centuries.

But in a more intimate and a immediate sense, by nominating Satan as the source of temptation we externalize and distance ourselves from the tendencies within all of us that separate us from God, temptations which can lead to sin. The ascetical teachings of the 4th century desert monks - men and women who lived in the wilderness of Egypt and Syria - developed an understanding of those basic things with which all humans must cope: food and drink, sexual desires, material goods, the need to compare ourselves with others, resentment, failure, success, and self-centeredness. These passions give rise to temptations in all of us that the desert fathers and mothers called the eight deadly thoughts – which later became known in the western church as the seven deadly sins.

Right at the beginning, I want to differentiate thoughts, temptations, and sin. Thoughts are not what make us sinful. We all have thoughts, and they are reflected in the thoughts that Jesus had in tonight's gospel reading. The point is that thoughts can lead to temptations which, in turn, can lead us to sin. Even when we do not commit actual sin, our passions can hinder us from following Christ. These thoughts are sometimes called deadly because if they are not controlled, they can become the focal points of our lives and thus stand in the way of our living a life of love for God and for our neighbor.

I think it is instructive to examine Jesus' thoughts in this gospel as they are personified in Satan's temptations and to examine how Jesus dealt with them. The passage begins by establishing the humanity of Jesus - his connection to us - by telling us that after a period of fasting "he was famished." Jesus here, notwithstanding his being the Son of God, is weak just as we are weak, is vulnerable just as we are vulnerable.

The thoughts that Jesus has are thoughts we all might be able to identify with. He is hungry, and Satan tempts him by encouraging him to turn bread to stones. We hunger for more food than we really require and thus abuse our bodies; we hoard while others go without anything. We hunger for the body of another for the pleasure we can derive from it, without a true regard for the person within that body.

Jesus is tired and weary and perhaps feeling overwhelmed by what he knows lies before him. And Satan uses this as an opportunity to suggest that Jesus test whether God will really rescue him. "Why me?" Jesus may be thinking. He may even be angry that he must endure all that God asks of him. His angry and self-pitying thoughts could lead to apathy, to a feeling of despair. Haven't we felt this way too? Don't we know what it is to feel like giving up? Don't we from time to time ask God why we are not rescued from our misery?

Finally Jesus' thoughts turn to power, avarice, pride. As personified by Satan, Jesus is tempted to give in to pride and avarice. Jesus is tempted to put his own thirst for power before his acknowledgement of God as his ruler. Once again, the thoughts Jesus had are not far from our own experience. I spent much of my early career driven by a desire to make more and more money and to achieve more and more prominent positions in business while I neglected other aspects of my life that were much more important. And we read daily in the newspapers of executives at Enron who seem willingly to have thrown themselves at the feet of Satan in return for money and power.

So, this gospel story tells us that Jesus, like us, had desires and thoughts of anger, self-pity, apathy, pride, and avarice just like we do. But, unlike us, Jesus did not allow the thoughts to go any farther. In each case he turned his heart and mind to God which in the gospel story is expressed by Jesus quoting scripture:

• "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of god."
• "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
• "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."

It is interesting to note something else here. The Jesus we encounter in the gospel of Matthew is a Jesus who performs many miracles: he cures the sick, he walks on water, he feeds thousands with a few loaves and fish. But in this passage he doesn't do anything miraculous. He could indeed have turned stones in to bread. He could have thrown himself from a high place, and angels indeed would have rescued him. Instead, Jesus, who was tempted just as we are tempted, finds a way out of temptation not by miracles that he only could have performed, but in a manner available to each of us. He put God at the center of his consciousness. In spite of thoughts and temptations to the contrary, he subordinated his heart and mind to God. And in this way he staid close to God and shows us the way to do the same.

Earlier I cited a bible passage that a couple of people found objectionable: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Perhaps I should have included the next verse which reads: "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”"

The Christ who was tempted as we are, yet did not sin, has compassion on us when we do sin. God calls us back, as a loving and forgiving parent, and God will never abandon us. All we are asked to do is turn our hearts and minds to God as Jesus did. Let us use this Lenten time to practice keeping our hearts and minds on God so that when we are tempted by our own passions we will choose to put God, and not ourselves first.