Today we hear of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7) and Jesus' time in the desert (Mt. 4: 1-11), two stories bearing a common theological thread. Let's take a look. Let me preface by averting to Doctor Marcus Borg's quip that pre-scientific ancients were smart enough to take biblical materials symbolically, while many modern people are stupid enough to take them literally.
Beginning with Genesis, what do we -- well-educated people of the twenty-first century -- make of a story in which a male of the species Homo Sapiens is created instantly from dirt, the first female of the species is created from one of his bones, and then a talking snake convinces the overly-curious spouse to eat a fruit which causes one to have a conscience? It is no seven-league stride to realize we are not dealing here with history or biology, but theology. And the story is an aetiology, which is a storyteller's best attempt to explain why things are as they are. We learn about lost innocence, the evolution of conscience, heterosexual relations, intellectual curiosity, and the consequence of choice, which is freedom to choose wrongly, to "sin." At the heart of all that is what I would call "original sin," namely our natural inclination to want to be the centre of our universe, to be in charge of our lives instead of letting God take charge, and to "look out after number one" instead of trying to love others as ourselves and be committed to community.
When we look at the story of Jesus' retreat in the desert as he wrestles with his temptations, we see that the tale has three vignettes. First, Jesus is tempted to turn some stones into bread, suggesting priority for the material over the spiritual. Jesus is then tempted to turn his ministry into a magic show by jumping off the temple parapet. Finally, he is tempted to turn to the Dark Side in order to gain wealth and power. In all three, Jesus is facing that underlying temptation to prioritize self and one's personal interests above the divine agenda. This is truly hard testing, which he passes, and now he is ready to go forward with his vocation.
The lesson we are to take away is that all humans are part of a large family and called to do what is right for all. However, when we pray not to be led into temptation but delivered from evil, we must necessarily first face the evil. We must in turn avoid the temptation to say this is not my problem; it doesn't affect me. If it affects humanity, it affects each and all of us.
I remember when, during our first tenure at Saint Matthew's, some Jewish graves in a downtown Tulsa cemetery were defaced. I joined other spiritual leaders of many traditions as we came there to support our Jewish brothers and sisters and to re-dedicate those resting places. Thus we told the world that, regardless of how we define ourselves religiously, we are all beloved children of God and we support one another, take responsibility for one another. Recently in Philadelphia hundreds of Jewish graves were overturned, spray-painted with swastikas, and otherwise desecrated. In response, Muslim-Americans contributed $100,000 towards restoration of those Jewish burial sites and a leading imam explained the generous gift by saying, "We are all in this together."
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