When I was a young adult and started reading the Bible seriously for the first time, I was shocked – shocked! – to discover that large portions of it had been taken straight out of The Book of Common Prayer.  The Preface that we will use for the first part of Lent is a case in point.  The Preface, I might mention, is a variable part of the liturgy, so it changes depending on the season or the day.  It is the portion of the Great Thanksgiving that comes right before the Sanctus.  The Preface we will use for the first part of Lent refers to Jesus saying, “who was tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin.”  Of course, the Bible isn’t taken from the Prayer Book, rather the Prayer Book quotes the Bible, and this verse comes right out of the Letter to the Hebrews.  The Letter to the Hebrews is thinking of the story we hear this morning about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  The story of the temptation in the wilderness is so familiar that sometimes we don’t really hear it or think about it.  I know that as soon as I hear those familiar opening words, “After he was baptized by John, Jesus was lead up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,”  I think, “Yeah, yeah, I know that story,” and my mind shuts off.  But what if we turn our minds back on and ask some critical questions.  For instances, did Jesus make a mistake when he turned down the tempter’s offers?

Did Jesus make a mistake when he turned down the offer to turn stones into bread?  Think of what a huge problem and what a huge tragedy hunger is.  According the Episcopal Relief and Development, the Episcopal Church’s international relief agency, one sixth of the world’s population lives on less than $1.00 per day.   The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America says that 146 million children under age five are underweight and that 10 million children die of hunger related causes every year.   According to the US Department of Agriculture, 35.5 million people in our country are food insecure, meaning that they have reduced the quantity or quality of their food and have frequently skipped meals.  Of those 35.5 million hungry fellow citizens, 12.6 million of them are children.   Hunger is a problem locally, too.  Perhaps you saw the recent article in the Staten Island Advance which said that 64,000 Staten Islanders participate in emergency food programs and that this is a 300 percent increase since 2004.   Considering all these grim statistics, was Jesus right to refuse the opportunity to turn stones into bread?  Was he right to allow hunger and death to continue unabated?

Did Jesus make a mistake when he turned down the tempter’s offer to safely throw himself off the roof the Temple?  Think of how hard it can be to believe in God.  It is easy to believe in a mercurial God or an impersonal God, but it is almost impossible to believe in a God who is loving and good. After all, almost all the evidence is against it.  We’ve already looked at the statistics on hunger both internationally and locally, and we each can think of thousands of example where we wish God had intervened.  When I read about the Kenyans who were burned alive in their church, I wondered how a loving God could allow such things to happen. Forcing God to catch you as you jump off the roof may be a cheap trick, but at least it shows that God is loving and good.  Consider what the world would be like if God intervened directly every time we needed his help.  Was Jesus right to refuse the opportunity to let the angels catch him and prove God’s love and goodness?

Did Jesus make a mistake when he turned down the tempter’s offer to rule all the kingdoms of the world?  Think about all the things that are wrong and evil about the kingdoms of this world: war, torture, poverty, and injustice, to name just a few.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the world were ruled by the Prince of Peace with perfect justice and compassion?  Was Jesus right to refuse the opportunity to rule the kingdom’s of the world?

There are a lot of ways of thinking about sin, and one way to think about sin is that sin is a matter of choosing a lesser good.  The good with a capital G is God.  For us humans doing good consists of choosing what God wants for us and for others.  Frequently, however, we choose things that are not necessarily bad but are not the ultimate good.  In other words, they fall short of God’s standards.  That’s what St. Paul is talking about in the passage we hear today from his Letter to the Romans.  Because we have the Law as God’s standard, we can see how frequently we fall short.  Feeding the hungry is good but relying completely on God is the Good.  Proving God’s love is good but trusting in God is the Good.  Ruling the world justly is good but worshiping only God is the Good.

Sometimes I really do think that Jesus blew it by not accepting the tempter’s offers.  But when I think that I remind myself of the story of Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve chose what they thought was good and that had some unintended consequences.  Somehow I think that if we were to solve world hunger, the crisis of belief, and abolish injustice, we would still have problems.  Lent is a time for a little humility.  It is a time to remind ourselves that we are consistently incapable of choosing the Good and the best we can do is accept the free gift of grace offered by Jesus Christ. Amen.