God of law and of love, dispenser of justice and of mercy, judge of our actions and saviour of our lives - help us to hear your word this day. Bless my lips and our hearts - so that in speaking and in hearing your will may be known and that which you want us to have and do may be had and done - we ask it though Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our texts today deal with sin and temptation and with grace and faith.
- the first text tells us the story of how Adam and Eve were tempted and sinned against God in the Garden of Eden.
- the second shows Christ living blamelessly in the face of evil, by the power of faith.
Temptation and sin, grace and faith - these are the great motifs of our lives here and now in the world - the axes around which everything else revolves.
As Christians we believe that sin has power - a deadly power - that comes from evil; but we also believe that faith has power - a live giving power that comes from God.
In our lives we experience a struggle between these two powers, and even when we are on the side of life, even when we have faith in the God of life we experience temptation, we feel desires and live through events that test our faith and seek to lure us away from God and have us serve evil instead.
There is an old Scandinavian legend about mighty Thor and how one day he visited the land of the giants.
When Thor arrived there he found that the giants were engaged in various contests of strength. They asked him if he would like to take part in their games and he said that he would. So it was that they proposed three tests of strength for him.
First Thor was asked to drink all the liquid in a large two handed drinking bowl. But as much as he could drink of it, only a tiny portion of the liquid in it disappeared. Finally he had to put down the bowl and admit defeat. To him the giants seemed sympathetic - and they proposed something a bit easier for his second test. A black cat was walking by and Thor was instructed to lift it up. He grabbed hold of the animal, thinking it should be easy to hoist it up, but strain and tug as hard as he could, he couldn't even begin to budge the cat.
By this time the giants were beginning to be openly amused at Thor's predicament. "You are supposed to be strong", they said, "but it seems you are not. Well - we will give you something even easier for your third test."
So for the third test the giants challenged Thor to wrestle with an old woman and throw her to the ground. With every bit of strength that Thor could muster he grabbed hold of the toothless old woman, but all his pushing and pulling and twisting was in vain. He simply could not meet the challenge.
As Thor, humbled and dejected, left the giants to head back home, one of them went with him for a part of the way and told him that their was magic in the contests. "The cup," he said, "contained the sea and who can drink that? The cat was the evil in the world, and who is able to lift that up and take it away? And the old woman was time, and who is able to contend with her?"
I believe that most of us feel, when it comes to the sin that is in the world, that we are living in the land of giants.
We are tempted to give in to despair - the despair that nothing we can do will make a difference; the despair that says that there is no help or hope for us our for our world.
Indeed I believe that this is the greatest temptation of our age.
But my brothers and sisters-in-Christ, we have within us one who is stronger than the world, one who is greater than the tempter, one who has triumphed over evil both in life - as we see in the story of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness, and in death - as we see in the cross - and again three days later - in the resurrection.
Some people - most people perhaps - dwell too much on the negative side of things. Like the game show Jeopardy - all their answers to life's problems are expressed in the form of questions. They see the problems that exist all round us - but do not lay hold of the solutions - of the good news that also exists all round us - of the salvation that is offered to us all - without condition or qualification.
They despair on account of the giants - forgetting perhaps the story of David - and of how one small stone in his hands brought an end to the Goliath that threatened his nation that caused even Saul and his mighty army to despair of ever being victorious.
A man by the name of Richard Lederer collects funny signs. Some of these are simply the result of people in foreign countries having difficulty translating into English. He says that at the entrance to a hotel swimming pool on the French Riviera there is a sign that reads like this: "Swimming is forbidden in the absence of a Saviour."
Maybe the person who put up that sign knew English better than we may suppose. Not only swimming but life itself should not be lived in the absence of a Saviour.
We have a Saviour - one who remembers who we are - one who loves us as a father loves his children - one who seeks to nurture us as a mother nurtures her brood.
This Saviour has ventured into the same waters that we swim in each day. He has battled the currents - fought the foes - and shown that he is able and shown that we - when we swim with him - are able as well.
Our Saviour remembers who we are - and he loves us - and seeks the best for us. He knows that we are weak swimmers - that we from time to time we will flounder and thrash - and sink. He knows the waters we are in - and that is why he has been appointed the judge of the living and the dead.
Our Saviour is our judge. He does not judge us for the sake of condemning us - he takes no delight in catching us in our sin, he has no joy when we hurt ourselves or hurt others - rather he reaches out to us - he calls to us - he seek to guide us and help us - and like all good parents - he forgives us and does all that he can to make sure that we start each day new and fresh and bathed in love.
Kenneth Filkins has caught this beautifully in a poem entitled "The Pit." Let me share just a little bit of it with you: Visualize, if you will a great pit - a pit perhaps of your own devising - or perhaps one devised for you by others - visualize a pit into which you have fallen and cannot get out of.
Filkins writes: A man fell into a pit and he couldn't get out. BUDDHA said: "Your pit is only a state of mind." A HINDU said: "This pit is for purging you and making you more perfect." CONFUCIUS said: "If you would have listened to me, you would never have fallen into that pit." A NEW AGER said: "Maybe you should network with some other pit dwellers." A SELF-PITYING PERSON said: "You haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit." A NEWS REPORTER said: "Could I have the exclusive story on your pit?" A FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT said: "Have you paid your taxes on that pit?" A COUNTY INSPECTOR said: "Do you have a permit for that pit?" A REALIST said: "That's a pit." An IDEALIST said: "The world shouldn't have pits." An OPTIMIST said: "Things could be worse." A PESSIMIST said: "Things will get worse." BUT JESUS, SEEING THE MAN, TOOK HIM BY THE HAND AND LIFTED HIM OUT OF THE PIT.
A pit is an awful place to be -particularly the pit of created by the power of sin and temptation. But there is One who will help. There is one who has managed to avoid the pit and who seeks to help us out of the pit. His name is Jesus - and he lives and reigns with God - and with God he is able - able to help - able to save - able to redeem.
Not only is he able - he is willing.
And not only is he willing - he has already acted - acted to save us - acted to bring to the world a new day. Acted to bring to each of us a new life.
Do not dwell in the pit - Do not accept the pit - Rather reach out your hand to the one who has stretched out his hands for you - and who still reaches out for you today. Reach out to Christ - and through Christ - reach out to others around you and let the know that there is a better life to be had - a life that is given freely to all who desire it. May His Name be praised day by day! Amen!
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