First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 2:15-17;3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

It’s easy, in between two powerful stories, to glaze over this reading from Romans.  Don’t do it!  There’s some real food for your spirit in here.

Paul is telling a story based on the Genesis story.  It’s the story of how human development opened us up to choice and freedom, and we so often misused that freedom.  The Genesis story can sound like innocent people were trapped by God into making a bad choice.  After all, if God didn’t want us to have the knowledge of good and evil, what is that tree doing there?  But as a friend pointed out, this is an act of love on God’s part.  God doesn't want us to have to grow up, but God won’t force us to remain innocent and unaware.  God may regret our choices, but won’t take our freedom.

In the face of our bad choices, our sin, God first tries to save us by setting up a fence.  That fence is the Torah, the law of Moses.  It marks out the safe territory, but allows us the freedom to choose to stay within it or obey.  It’s something that might work with cattle, but with people it’s not so effective.  The fence tells us we’ve strayed, but it doesn’t help us choose to stay inside.

So God tries another approach.  God asks herself, What would it be like for these children of mine to really grow into their fullness, to be righteous rather than just innocent?  What would it look like if they could stand in the face of the knowledge of good and evil, and choose good of their own free choice?  And God decides to show us herself.

Just as one person’s “disobedience” spreads like a virus through a community, causing others to lose their way and infect others with fear and hatred, so one person’s righteous love can become a beacon of hope and peace for others.   The story of Adam and Eve tells us how sin gets started unintentionally, and builds on itself.  The story of Jesus tells us how the yeast of love and faithfulness can call us back to God.

Unlike Eve and Adam, Jesus is already self-aware.  He knows a tempter when he meets one.  He knows his potential as a child of God, and he knows his limits as a mortal human being.  And when he stands in that knowledge, angels surround him.

As Janet Morley’s beautiful collect for this day says, “Give us clarity to know what is right, and courage to reject what is strategic; that we may abandon the false innocence of failing to choose at all, but may follow the purposes of Jesus Christ.”  Amen.

May the angels surround and uphold you, today and always.