LENT I
Rev. Robert W. Carlson
I became particularly aware of the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness twice in my life. The first time was when I visited the ancient city of Jericho in Israel and saw on the Judean skyline the "Mount of Temptation," the traditional site of where this event took place. Even in May the area surrounding the mountain was barren, dry and inhospitable to life. One could imagine how tempting it would be to sell your birthright for food or drink. One could also imagine it as a place where, if one had been alone for any time, one might have strange and convincing thoughts, an encounter with God or the devil!

The second experience that brought the Temptations vividly to mind was seeing Scorcese's film The Last Temptation of Christ. I saw a preview of the film because it was July, both ofour bishops in Pennsylvania were off on vacation and I ended up being the senior staff person at Church House. They wanted an Episcopalian to give an opinion on the film and I was naive enough to accept the invitation and be interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter. The newspaper article then got me an invitation to be on a television panel along with three other clergy. I found myself locking horns with two evangelicals on the panel who felt it was blasphemy, although they hadn't seen the film! I generally like the film, though I felt Scorcese' portrayal of the first three temptations was not nearly as convincing, for me at least, as his portrayal of the "last". That "last" temptation, by the way, was not about sex. It was the temptation to lay aside the mission to be the Messiah, to suffer and die for the sins of the world, in favor of the option of living out a normal, reasonably happy human life.

But the three biblical temptations of Jesus are similar to the "last" one created by Katzinzakis, on whom Scorcese based his film. They are temptations to misuse the unique, divine powers at his control: first, by magically turning stones to bread, to use his power to meet his own needs rather than the needs of the world; second, to worship Satan, to surrender to evil in order to gain power over the world; and third, to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple and to be miraculously rescued as a way of gaining popularity and control over the people. While we all experience temptation, Jesus' temptations were unique because of his uniqueness. We are not tempted as he was. We can't turn stones to bread or jump safely from tall buildings. But we are tempted, at least I am and I think you are. It is impossible to embark on a religious life in which faith and fidelity, responsibility and love play a major part, without wishing some times to toss it over for something less. And at each stage in life the temptations differ. As we age the youthful temptations centering around power and winning and sex aren't as prominent as some others. When I turned 70 years old I began discovering that the tempting devils of the seventies wear different faces from those of earlier years.

T.S. Elliot describes one of these devils in his poem Ash Wednesday. He compares life to going up a twisting staircase:

At the first turning of the stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitful face of hope and despair.

"Hope and despair" may seem like contradictory feelings. How can one devil wear both faces? I think that by "hope" Elliot did not mean the Christian virtue of hope, but something like cheerful optimism. I recognize that a Christian may experience both hope and despair at many different times in life, but we need to know that neither approach totally comes up to a "faith" view of life. If, for example, we think that everything is going to be perfectly delightful now that the house is paid for and the kids through college, we are probably in for some surprises. But if we look to the future with despair, without hope, we are shutting ourselves off from the potential for experience and growth and service to which God is calling us at every stage of life. Being a reasonably cheerful person, most of the time at least, I tend to see the hopeful face of the "devil of the stair," but shortly after my seventieth birthday, I had my regular physical and was hit with the fact that I had five or six things that needed medical attention: a high cholesterol level, a slight swishing sound each time my heart beat, , two teeth that needed caps just for starters! For a while I felt and acted as if my life were just about over, but as a Christian, and with some good medical support, I am coming back to a more realistic and more faithful view of life.

A second devil that can tempt you in your mature years also wears two faces: a face that looks only to the past and one that looks only to the future. One of the most effective ways to be a bore is to keep reminding people of how good you were in your 20s and 30s. John Barth, in his book Chimera, pictures an aging Perseus, the Greek hero who in his youth slew the monster Gorgon, reflecting to himself, "It's hard to be a mythic hero after forty!" People who live in the past, even Greek heros and heroines, can be very dull, but equally dull can be someone who can't wait to be 65 to take up the retired life. A Christian is called to live in the present, because this is where God calls us to be, to worship, to help others, to be a creative and healing influences in the world.

A third devil to tempt us in our mature years is one that urges us to rest on our oars the remainder of the journey. Jesus identified this temptation in the man who had "much goods stored up for many years" and decided to "eat, drink and be merry." The danger here is not just that we may die tomorrow and not enjoy our riches. The danger is that we can lose our soul by not taking up the challenge of life to learn, to grow, to serve God and our neighbor. I don't mean to be a killjoy here. One of the real advantages of getting older and having the kids out of college and the mortgage paid is that we can rest our hands a bit more lightly on the oars. By then we know pretty well that we are not going to be president or bishop or principal, or whatever the next step up the stairs may be. Knowing this can be a great source of strength. God can use us best, and we can be most creative, when we stop fighting battles and start letting God work through us. But this does not mean surrender, or spending the rest of our days playing shuffleboard or golf. Life is not over until it is over, and the devil who tells us it is over now may rob us of the most important part of our lives.

There are other devils to tempt us in our mature years. There is one that tells us nobody loves us anymore, another who gives us easy answers rather than the difficult answer of faith. There is still another that urges us to try harder. But there are two sides to temptation. On one side is the danger that we might give in to it and find something less than what life is meant to be for us. But on the other side is the promise of finding our faith deepened and our life enriched. For those who do not give in to the devil who wears "the deceitful face of hope and despair," to those who do not give in to living in a successful past or in a golden future, to those who do not give in to the temptation to coasting the rest of the way in life, there is the promise that our mature years and even old age can be a time of learning, growth and blessing, through Jesus Christ our Lord.