It is not the temptation but what you do with it

 The serpentine coils of temptation are with us still in an age of easy communication and persuasive advertising.  The problem or the challenge rather is the need to change gears, so to speak, and see with the eyes of Christ.  Justin Welby introduces this challenge at the beginning of his 2017 Lent book  and needs to be seriously considered if we are to be true to Christ's call on our lives.  Christ offers an appropriate response as he is driven into the desert following his acceptance by God (Matt 4.1-11).  Each time the temptation arises Christ responds with a referencing back to God and God alone.  In some ways the wording and the scriptural references are not important in this passage it is the fact that God alone is the source of all things.

In direct contrast the temptation of Eve and Adam (Gen. 3.1-7), created in God's image is the same as that offered to Christ but the responses given are very different.  The same choices are given to us daily and our response is ours to give but our mindset is not that of God / Christ.  Too often our response is still the response of Adam and Eve rather than Christ / God.  Looking generally at what we are offered each day in line with the temptations that Christ / Adam / Eve are offered we can see that it is food, fame and power/authority.  We all have to have some form of energy to  live, irrespective of who we are but it is what we do with our energy source that is at stake.  Adam / Eve were placed in a garden that produced all the food that they would ever want.  The food was provided by God and if we have faith than God will provide for our needs as he did for the first humans.  Christ acknowledges this as he is tempted with food at the end of his fast.  Do we think of Eve's temptation as a temptation of food? Not really but that is ultimately the serpent's approach (Gen 3.1).  The serpent appeals to the gustatory experience and then moves onto other temptations.  We utilise our food resources for our benefit, our profit, our GDP, etc., while the world goes hungry.  We bemoan the fact that there is famine but lock up food so that no one can have the food unless we can profit from it.  If not ourselves, than certainly the multi-corporates that control our food chain.  Is this not the same temptation that is on offer?  God provides us with food but we do not allow it out of our hands (temptation). What will we do? Have we no compassion, can we not see with Christ like eyes those that are in need, overcoming poverty and hunger may solve many of our burdensome population growth problems.

The coils of the serpent surround us still

But then we wilt lose out on our fame and fortune, to be like God (temptation 2), coming in and saving the day acting as if it is out of beneficence that we give our stocks away.  Look at the mileage that we will get out of our 'charity' rather than out of a sense of God's graciousness.  The generosity that is used to provide food is a source of pride and self aggrandisement.  The press is there we are famous for a day and a half.   Our twitter feed will go through the roof and we will have so many likes on Facebook that we will be like God.  Not only do we not seek God's grace but we look for our own prosperity and popularity rather than giving thanks for the goodness God brings.  What else did Adam and Eve require when in the garden? Why did they require popularity or the notoriety of becoming like a God?  Why, Why, Why?  We look around the world today and to get on we have to become popular it would seem.  The biggest twitter feed, more likes than Lionel Messi on Instagram, etc.  All God would like is our attention on God, not on ourselves, because then we may see the poverty and desperation around us.  The injustices caused by our incessant need for popularity and fame.

Then of course the final instalment.  Becoming like God in popularity is not enough we have to have the power.  Jesus' response is the correct one because we are not up to creation but God is and I am sure he weeps over our drive for God's power. Just stop and think about wanting power.  Remind yourselves that with power comes responsibility not only for those around you  and beneath you but also those who want your place in the hierarchy of power.  All of it takes time, effort and work.  Adam and Eve did not have their work cut out in the garden but as soon as they achieved power they had to work to maintain everything.  The consequence is greater than the wished for power.  We have to start relying on ourselves which eventually drives us away from all the good.  We isolate ourselves in our hunger for power.  We are thrust out of the supporting community as we seek power.  Acknowledgement of God and opening our eyes to Christ show us the relationships and support that fill our lives with love.  We gain hope and security as we find we do not have to fight tooth and claw because God's graciousness fills all our needs.  Only when we can see as Christ will we see our own faults and driving brokenness.

Changing perspectives in a new world

 The human being is under constant strain as each person changes on a daily basis in small and large ways.  These changes may be a simple as re-newing our skin each day or the more complex mental and social changes that come with the break up of a partnership.  So often at moments of stress with the implications of change to our perceptions narrow down and focus on anything we can think of to become an anchor (Matt 17.4).  Individuals and organisations all respond in similar ways by re-casting a new foundation that stops the change process and builds a new structure that can bring comfort and solace.

Social change is inevitable as we continue to adapt to our burgeoning knowledge and competencies in new technologies.  This creates instability within our lives as can be seen for example in the looming referendum regarding The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia.  Those who presumed that their views regarding race and ownership of land as well as the subordination of those who are different were going to be constant are now challenged. There is now a vacuum of thought in which people are existing attempting to find some solidity to their future thinking in a modern society.  The mountaintop experience drops into this vacuum announcing the possibilities of a new future and hope.  In such circumstances the new vision / hope is subsumed into a twisted reality that falls back onto known ideals and systems that have served over decades becoming fixated in a manner that does not allow for the hope expressed to become realised. Thus, we have an increase in racial and tensions over the other within society falling back on a sense of privilege or previously held archaic views of dominance.

The mountain top gives us a fleeting look at the way ahead

In the purview of religious and faith structures the same thing happens as we can perhaps see in our modern debates around sexuality and we have a tendency to be like Peter grasping for the familiar in a new and changing landscape.  In keeping with all moments of transfiguration or change the moment is fleeting and disruptive.  The sudden understanding that this, whatever this is, is a momentous moment that has an lasting impact upon our lives. It leaves us drifting with no anchor and a need to find ourselves in a familiar a haven.  The mountain top experience is a liminal space and place that is unique in that it brings to the fore a glimpse of the hope for the future yet centring it in the uncertainty of the present. That hope is now our centre, a vision that needs to come into reality within our lives as we cement it into a new way of being / doing / thinking.  Our challenge is to see the hope made reality rather than an anchor in the past to subsume the hope.  The disciples are looking for an unchanged reality that they can cope with and are familiar with, rather than to formulate a new understanding based on the hope that they have seen.

The hope that appears in the mountain top experience is not necessarily something that manifests immediately.  Just look at the disciples it was years before they realised that hope and only after the resurrection.  The experience is but a signpost and something that invigorates us for the next part of the journey.  Showing us that hope is present it is not something that needs to be grabbed but rather it is something that needs to be followed and nurtured in our lives.  It is a breaking into the present of an intimation of the future requiring us to acknowledge it and act upon that knowledge to bring about the hope that has been expressed.  There are as many downs before the fulfilment of the hope as there are ups towards it.  However, if we cling to the familiar we will never move into the future journey that brings us so much joy, laughter and love.

How do we tell the truth?

 I wonder what we think about when we think about telling or stating the truth of our lives? There are so many ways that we can interpret what we think the truth is and how that impacts on how we live and what we do with our personal lives. Indeed it is often said that truth is malleable and is determined by what you know or understand. This may well be the case but it can be seen that there are certain truths that are not malleable but are sure in our lives and can be shown through time. Repeated trial and error experimentation has shown some truths that are understood to be the bedrock of faith in the Christian church indeed lead to a better existence. One of these is the commandment to love, another could rightly be said to be living the way of Christ (although some may wish to substitute Buddha, Mohammed, etc) but in the end human thought has realised that most of the fundamental understandings of faith boil down to the truth of the way.

Too often I find we over theologise those things that matter rather than thinking of the original recipients and how they might receive the message that is being given. The passage from Deuteronomy spells it out fairly succinctly that we need to conform to the ways of God and to love God (Deut. 10:12b). Yet, we still seem to think that what we believe and what we think ourselves is the be all and the end all. Thus, what we believe to be love irrespective of whether that actually entails acceptance and listening or not has to be the correct way and true. Thus, if I state that tradition or my own thought declares that everyone who is different from me cannot be loved this is true, irrespective of that not being how God may define love. So I go my own way and tell my truths as to how I perceive what God's love is for this has to be the truth for it is my truth. Yet, Paul in his letter to the Corinthians speaks against precisely this (1 Co 3:3-4). Once we start pursuing truth as if it belongs to or is only associated with one person then we have fallen away from what God is and asks of us.

Don't make Pinocchio's of our faith and lived lives

Paul goes on in the same passage from Cor (3:8-9) suggesting that we are a team that goes to build the structure that belongs to Christ and hence belongs to and of God. It is in this respect that we as a part of the body of Christ must operate so that we to may conform to God as God's love is not an exclusionary love, as that is humanities conception, but inclusionary to an extent that is beyond our wildest understanding. It is not the love fest understanding of the 60's but rather something that is even more exclusive in its inclusion of all. When we attempt to state that we are in accordance of God's law we often skirt around the issue and say something along the lines of "Yes, we love you but..." or else we say that we are trying to dialogue with ... so that we can include them. Neither of these are really stating the truth that God wants us to conform to or represent as the body of Christ or as that human expression of unity the Church.

Christ makes all of this quite plain in the passage from the Sermon on the Mount regarding oaths (Matt. 5:33-37). Reminding ourselves that he is talking to non-erudite folk who are listening to him and has just finished explaining how we handle our own sexual needs in some really down to earth language that we theologise (Mat. 5:27-30) so as not to or gloss the actuality of what is said. It is perhaps the hardest thing any person can do, especially in this day and age, and that is allow what we say to be who we are in truth. Too often we mask ourselves in what we believe society wants us to say rather than what God wants of us i.e. the truth of our lives. In our words to each other we often gloss over our meaning or our intent in such a manner that the words no longer matter. We make promises to elicit higher effort or to maximise profit for ourselves and our community rather than just stating the truth of the matter, Indeed in some respects we can no longer tell the truth because our society has taught us to lie. It is convenient and also less stressful as the lies that we often tell our no longer notices by those around us. We just need to look at how we portray what we think of as the "best" dressed, beautiful, person to emulate rather than tell the truth of their lives only to find our the darkness that surrounds them. Christ states make your yes be yes and your no no that is how we used to see ourselves. Let us reclaim ourselves as purveyors of God's goodness and not those that do evil in the world.

Presenting ourselves before God

 The Jewish ordinances required that the first born be presented to God which is what happened when Christ is taken to Jerusalem. It was part of the purification ritual that all Jewish people undertook in accordance with the laws given in the Torah  (Ex 13:12-15; Lev. 12). The event is for Mary herself and for the redemption of her first born son, Jesus. The first was to remove the impurities associated with childbirth and is a rite of cleansing something that was a must in ancient times to ensure, not only in terms of faith but also in terms of social behaviours and health, cleanliness with a surety of being disease free. This is also a time when the first born son was presented and redeemed from God who required the firstborn as sacrifice. There have over the years a number of other things been associated with this date in terms of its alternative name of Candlemas when the beeswax candles were blessed for the year.

So why celebrate this, why make a liturgical fuss about a Jewish event for a mother that was normal for the time and has lived out its usefulness in terms of our modern society? Perhaps there are a number of reasons that can be thought of a) it introduces the Simeon prophesy with regards the Christ and Mary, b) it also introduces the prophecies of Anna though we pay small attention to them. Furthermore, it is an opportunity for ourselves to once again present ourselves as an offering to God and seek his presence to guide and direct us in lives that are lived in Christ. Something that we remind ourselves of at the end of each Eucharistic service. In doing this we need to pay attention to both Simeon and Anna as their words, at least some of them, are familiar to us or should be. The words that are not familiar, I suspect most people do not know what Simeon says after what we call the Nunc Dimittis but are indeed important for us, just as the words of the prophetess Anna who we neglect.

We need to present ourselves before God each day of our lives

Anna's word speak of liberation for the people of Jerusalem. It is probably fairly certain that readers and those listening to Anna think in terms of liberation from the Romans. However, like the more deluded and opaque followers, not only in Christ's disciples but also today, this is not the reality, I suspect, of what Anna is speaking of. Christ shows us a way towards redemption and liberation that is not the overthrow of those in power by physical revolution but rather in the revolution of our understanding of living. Once we think in terms of mortal revolution and liberation we begin to be the Che Guevarra's of the day losing our hope and the understanding embedded in the way of Christ. The liberation that Anna speaks to is the liberation of our own lives from the tyranny of the selfish physicality of human thought of power over and to the transformation of our lives to the spiritual reality of living alongside others in creating community by using power with.

However, as Simeon points out in his final words to the parents, particularly Mary, such a liberation that is promised by Christ is not without its own issues and challenges to our lives. Some of these challenges will pierce our hearts with doubt and sorrow. So that in following Christ we follow fully to the cross and its underlying pain and struggle. Power over is an easy route to take as it establishes us without concern for the other. The revolution that Christ calls us to is a liberating of our need to control and allowing God to take that power. By presenting ourselves as a sacrifice as the parents of Christ did we relinquish our idea of power over to attain a more cooperative understanding of God's presence that allows us to care for the other and encourage them to perform the miracles of community with us rather than subjugating themselves to us. This is liberating in this day and age as we forgo the need to maintain ourselves as powerful but rather we submit ourselves to the authority and presence of God within our lives. We give ourselves to God, truly as a living sacrifice, as required allowing for God's leading and direction to fulfil that which brings justice. All liberation in Christ is about bringing that justice which is God's rather than the justice promulgated by our own power and authority.