Sermon: “In the desert of our sin: Giving in or letting go?”
Did you notice that both the story about Adam and Eve – and the gospel story about Jesus and the Temptations are all about food?
In each of these central biblical stories, it all begins with food.
1. The first temptation begins with food. The forbidden fruit on the tree of knowledge that Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat, was too tempting when presented by the crafty serpent.
2. The first temptation of Jesus in the merciless scorching desert sun al begins with food. The crafty devil tempted the famished Jesus to turn the hard stones in the desert into loaves of bread to feed his hungry fasting stomach.
So, Adam and Eve did eat of the forbidden fruit and their eyes were opened, and their lives were forever changed for better and for worse. The time of innocence was gone. The time of the Garden of Eden was gone… and they were sent to live East of Eden.
So, Jesus did not command the stones to become loaves of bread, instead he said:
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
I don’t know about you, but I love cooking and preparing a good meal, - and then of course enjoying the good food with family or friends. I also love watching cooking programs. I especially loved watching the American chef, author and traveler Anthony Bourdain, who traveled the world, dining, cooking and delighting in food. He explored the world and explored food, international cultures, and human conditions. “A Cook’s tour”, “No reservations”, and “Parts Unknown” were some of his programs, loved by many. Sadly, in 2018 Bourdain died by suicide on location in France. Anthony Bourdain wrote in “Adventures in the culinary underbelly”
“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds?
Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head?
I know what I want. I want it all.
I want to try everything once.”
And then he added:
“Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
Temptations come in so many shapes and forms, but for many of us this time of Lent, this encouragement to fast, - leads us to make choices regarding food. As food is a great temptation. We live in a society that is addicted to food, but especially to sugar, salt and fat. We love fast food, processed food, easy food. Even if we know that raw ingredients, slowly prepared meals are much healthier. Not only for our body, but even more for our soul. So, I would rewrite Bourdain’s words about our body and say that our bodies are both Temples and Amusements park. It is just about the right balance.
Granted, we need food to survive, , but we do not need:
fluffy fastelavnsboller filled with cream and calories,
fast food filled with fat and sugar,
processed food that provides easy food for us but high cholesterol numbers in return
creamy addictive chocolate and mouthwatering Danish Licorice
We do not need it, but we often crave it and we certainly enjoy it. It is all about finding the right balance between Healthy Needs and Tempting Cravings.
Temptations come in many shapes and forms and various taste – and thus we are not surprised that two of the fundamental temptations in our biblical stories are all about food: a forbidden fruit on a tree and decision to make on a growling stomach.
Oscar Wilde wrote: “I can resist anything except temptation.”
Today is the first Sunday in Lent.
We celebrated Fastelavn last Sunday – a festive fun day with dressed up children, singing and hitting the barrel. Fastelavn =the evening before Lent.
Fastelavn is an old Christian Celebration to begin the time of lent with a big celebration of joy, food and laughter. As the time of lent was more humble, subtle and abstinent, the evening or the day before Lent began was to be fun and filled with good food for the stomach and for the soul.
Last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we began our Lent journey: 40 days of fasting in order to prepare for the miracle and joy of Easter.
So, we have begun Lent. We have already taken the first steps and counted 5 days of Lent.
During Lent many fast from certain foods or drinks, from calories and guilty pleasures, from Facebook and Social Media, from over consumption and materialism.
We have apps for Fasting and Detoxing, for Meditation and Mindfulness, - and all that is fine and dandy, but seems to forget the purpose of Christian Fasting.
Christian fasting is like a spiritual detox, with an encouragement to look up and beyond your own nose tip or weight on the scale.
A spiritual detox to focus on the weight of your faith, hope and love.
A spiritual exercise to focus on your relations to God and your relations to your neighbor.
The modern kind of fasting and detox too often focus on me and myself, my weight, my guilty pleasures, my personal choices, instead of focusing on our faith in God and our relations to our neighbor. That is the kind of fasting God wants.
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
So often, our lives are defined by food, clothe, houses, benefits, salaries, looks and positions.
Too often, we forget what we live by and need to live by in order to truly live.
So often, we live a life marked FOMO: fear of missing out.
A real increasingly common phenomenon that can cause significant stress. A deep anxiety of missing an event, an experience, an excitement that is happening without you.
FOMO is a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences and more fun from which you are absent – missing out. This is a social anxiety characterized by a deep desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing….
Our Social Media play a significant role in this desire and anxiety, as we are constantly informed about the where abouts of others.
FOMO is basically the fear of having made the wrong choice on how to spend time since others are having more fun somewhere else!
As a reply to this social anxiety phenomenon, there is also a life marked by JOMO: the joy of missing out!
It is all about finding balance in a wired and weird world of technology and digital presence.
JOMO is about daring to let go and to miss out. A counter movement as a conscious choice to disconnect and experience real life offline. What we regret most at the end of our lives isn’t missed tweets or fancy job titles. It is the deeper things: missed opportunities to love, to explore our curiosities and to spend our time well. To have missed good meals with family and friends. JOMO over FOMO is choosing joy over fear.
In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus chooses to enter a time of reality, of hunger, of fear, or loneliness. Retreating from society and choosing 40 days of solitude. There, the crafty tempter preys upon his potential weaknesses, and Jesus, 3 times, denies the crafty tempters request to follow a path of power position and instead follow the path of compassion, humility, dignity, grace and faith.
The world will tempt us to trust the glossy versions of our lives, where we constantly fear missing out and constantly strives for more and more and bigger and bigger.
The 40 days of Lent we can choose to trust God’s version of our lives, where we are constantly loved as we are – both saints and sinners. These 4o days of Lent we can repent our wrong ways and wrong choices of self service and instead focus on the image of love, grace, compassion and faith that God likes and shares with us through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Let this Lent be a time of letting go what blocks our clear view of God and our view of our neighbor.
Let this Lent be a time of letting go of the fear of missing out and instead be a time of taking on the joy of missing out of many of the superficial, self-serving and self-promoting activities that often consumes our ways and days.
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
We do not live by bread alone, by position, power of privilege alone, by benefits or belongings alone, - but life by every word of grace from the mouth of God and from the mouth of our families and friends and neighbors.
We live by faith, hope and love – words spoken from the mouth of our savior Jesus Christ. AMEN.