Discernment, Temptation and the Strange Quality of Truth

A sermon preached at Old South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Hallowell, Maine
February 10, 2008.
Text:  Matthew 4:1-11
The Rev. Susan M. Reisert, Minister

            How would you characterize your reading of the Bible?             

            Do you think of the Bible has a nice collection of out-dated stories about people a long time ago, plus more outdated stories about people from even longer ago?  Or, is the Bible for you the inerrant word of God, as if God took the hand of each writer and helped to craft each word, each phrase, each sentence?   Would you characterize your reading of the Bible as the reading of a book, similar to the other books on your shelf, you simply pick it up and read without assistance from secondary sources or even without prayer?  Is the Bible the keeper of all of the answers to your life?  Is the Bible a kind of Magic 8 Ball?  As if you can come up with a question, and then magically open the Bible and find the answer to your question?

            I remember when I was a teenager, I was given one of those Bibles that had a helpful little section that offered headings of various kinds, relating to experiences that one has through life and then connecting those experiences to particular Bible passages.  Feeling sad?  Read this, that or whatever.  Feeling like you have something to celebrate?  Here's a few Bible verses that might help you express your joy.  Feeling lonely?  Here's a few verses to help put things in perspective. 

            I am sure that there are lots of those kinds of Bibles on the market still today.  These Bibles are helpful, to be sure, but they have very serious limits.  The Bible, after all, is not A book, but a library of books written in different times, by different people, for different purposes.

            It can be tempting simply to lift out distinct Bible passages, as answers to our questions or as a guide for our lives - or the lives of others.  It can be tempting to come to the Bible, and to search in a very limited way for an answer, as if our lives of faith are simply about questions that can neatly be answered and not a journey of discernment and struggle.

            As we see in this morning's Gospel lesson, it can be tempting to selectively cull words, phrases, and sentences from what we know of scripture and to read the resulting combination as a kind of secret message to us or even to others.

            It can be tempting to search for answers to our deepest questions, as well as our more superficial ponderings.  But, yet in this approach, we miss out on the greater understanding, the greater truth.  This is the problem with what the devil is up to in today's passage.

            On the face of it, the devil who confronts Jesus in the desert while he is fasting, the devil is telling Jesus the truth.  The devil tells Jesus that as God's Son, he can find bread in the desert.  That was true in the past:  God miraculously provided bread in the desert for the children of Israel after their exodus from Egypt.  It's going to be true in the future:  in stories to come, Jesus will, through God's power, provide a miraculous abundance of food for five thousand people, for example.

            The devil also says that the kingdoms of the earth would bow before Jesus.  That's true.  Jesus does indeed bear the name before which "every knee should bend, and every tongue confess his lordship" (Philippians 2:11) - and we believe they will.  We pray for the full realization of that truth every time we say, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

            The devil says that God will care for those God loves, and particular for Jesus, God's beloved Son.  That's true, too.  God's care for each one of God's children is trustworthy, and Jesus is God's beloved Son. 

Every point, then, that the devil makes is, in a sense, "biblical." Every point the devil makes is, in a sense, true.

            But though the devil's words are true, they're not the whole truth.

            We come together on this first Sunday in Lent - n this holy season of repentance, self-examination, of being with God in a particular way, this season perhaps of fasting, or giving something up, or acting in a special way to bring a new closeness to God - we come together on this day and we encounter a very important lesson about scripture and its use - and sometimes, its abuse, or, at the very least, its misapplication.

            To be a people of faith, to take the Bible seriously, is to know the significance of discernment, the very real problem of the temptation of thinking that a few verses will answer our questions, and the strange quality of truth.  There is truth, but it's sometimes not the whole truth.

            We were created with a brain for a reason.

            Though the devil's words are true, they're not the whole truth.  Though the devil's words are from scripture, God's word, they are not God's word to Jesus at that moment in his vocation.  While all of the devil's points are, in a sense, "true," or at least based on partial truth, they are woefully inadequate.  And, Jesus sees the ways of the devil and will not fall for the devil's tricks and traps - despite his weakened state on a fast in the desert.  He can see through the devil's plan.  So, should we.

            For Jesus, it's not just about God's truth - small "t", coming from a particular verse, a word or two on a printed page.  For Jesus, it's about God's Truth - big "T", as it transcends the simple word and conveys a fuller sense of who God is and what God's up to.

            We can find something in the Bible to meet almost any need, to favor almost any conclusion, to answer almost any question.  The temptation is when we leave discernment out of it and keep to the simple and neat.

            The Bible says lots of things about a lot of different situations and circumstances.  And, there are plenty of occasions for confusion.  The Bible is not a monolith, containing consistent advice and counsel for all of life's experiences.  So, discernment in our lives of faith is so very important.

            For example, we find in the Bible lots of examples for the leadership of women among God’s people.  In the Old Testament, there is Deborah, among others.  In the New, we find Mary and Martha, the woman at the Samaritan well, Mary Magdalene, strong women missionaries who worked with Paul, etc.  Yet, in the New Testament, we also find a verse or two that tells us that women should be quiet in church.

            In the Bible, we find verses that seem to indicate that homosexuality (among men) is a sin, yet in that same section of the Bible, in Leviticus, we also find lots of other kinds of sins that involve those more private relationships, all having to do with men and women.  For example, Leviticus also says:  "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife . . . both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death." (Leviticus 20:3)  While I've seen a lot of quoting of Leviticus against homosexuals, I haven't seen much in the way of the call for adulterers to be executed.

Plus, also in that same section of Leviticus we find that God's people are forbidden from wearing clothing of mixed fibers, from getting tattoos (didn't think that tattoos were mentioned in the Bible, well they are!), and from planting two different kinds of seeds in their field.

            The Bible can be confusing.  Discernment is important.  In that discernment in our lives of faith, we come to understand the temptation to see what's there in a limited and narrow way that may shed light on the "truth," but not the whole Truth of God.

            The Bible, therefore, is not so much an answer key to life's persistent questions, but rather an invitation to a more holy life, a life of faith, a closer walk with our God.  There is a temptation to worship the Bible, rather than God.  That is part of what we must struggle with today:  to see the temptation for what it is, a temptation, a distraction from the true movement of God in our midst.  The devil tempts Jesus to worship the Bible, to worship scripture, rather than following his heart in worshipping God.  He doesn't buy the devils tricks even for a second.  Neither should we.

Today, as we enter the holy season of Lent, we are met once again with a familiar invitation:  an invitation to a journey, a journey of God’s people.  This journey is not so much about figuring out the puzzle of the Bible, but accepting the notion that we are part of the story, that we are a part - a vital part - of the unfolding narrative of God's work in this creation.

            And, Jesus leads the way.  All of what Jesus heard from the devil was true, and biblical.  Yet, it was not the whole Truth.  And Jesus knew that - knew it from the core of his being.  We are invited to do the same.  To read the Bible with eyes of faith and to know that God sets out before each generation a new part of the journey, a new step in understanding what it means to follow - that is our challenge.

            Through Lent this year, we will be focusing on hymns, some familiar, some not so familiar.  We will be thinking about, praying over, our lesson today through the words and music of the hymn, "We Limit Not the Truth of God," a hymn from the Pilgrim Hymnal which is probably unfamiliar to most of us. 

The words of the hymn were written by George Rawson and were based on Pastor John Robinson's address to the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, just before they left Holland for the New World (remember that the Pilgrims had gone to Holland first, after leaving England, before they left for the New World).  The hymn first appeared in the Leeds Hymn Book in 1835, where it was headed with the following extract on which it was based: "He charged before God, and His blessed angels, if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of His, to be as ready to receive it as any truth by his ministry; for he was very confident the Lord had more light and truth yet to break forth of out of His holy word."

Before we sing this hymn, let us be mindful of the lesson from the Gospel today as I read the words:

"We limit not the truth of God
To our poor reach of mind,
By notions of our day and sect,
Crude, partial, and confined.
No, let a new and better hope
Within our hearts be stirred:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
To break forth from his Word.

Darkling our great forefathers went
The first steps of the way;
'Twas but the dawning yet to grow
Into the perfect day.
And grow it shall, our glorious sun
More fervid rays afford:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
To break forth from his Word.

The valleys passed, ascending still,
Our souls would higher climb,
And look down from supernal heights
On all the bygone time.
Upward we press, the air is clear,
And the sphere-music heard:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
To break forth from his Word.

O Father, Son, and Spirit, send
Us increase from above;
Enlarge, expand all Christian souls
To comprehend Thy love,
And make us to go on, to know
With nobler powers conferred:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
To break forth from his Word."

            The Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word, his holy Word.  Let us be those faithful people who eagerly accept the invitation once again, to accept the invitation to this holy journey, to be God's people, to allow God to keep us from temptation and to discern God's true work in this creation, to be strengthened by God's grace and to accept the courage to be God's people in faith.  Praise be to God.  Amen.

[Many thanks to Sarah Dylan Breuer for her insights into this passage.  Her blog can be found at:  www.sarahlaughed.net.]