March 13, 2011
(First Sunday in Lent)
(From The Lectionary Page)
Right Things, Wrong Reasons?
There’s an old story that tells of a yankee who applied for the position of pilot of a Mississippi steamer. The owner of the steamer looked him over cautiously, and replied, “Well, I suppose you’re acquainted with the river then, with where all the snags are and all?” "Well, I'm pretty well acquainted with the river," replied the Yankee, “but about snags, I don't know exactly where they are." "You don't know where the snags are!" said the captain in a tone of disgust. "Then how do you expect to get a position as pilot on this boat?" "Well, sir," said the Yankee, "I may not know just where the snags are, but you can depend on me knowing where they’re not, and that's where I plan to be with your boat, sir."[1] All depends on how you look at things, doesn’t it?
There’s something like this happening with our readings for this first Sunday of Lent. You can say that the reading from Genesis, for example, is about the Fall, the origin of Sin, and so on. But, as biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann has pointed out, this feels a bit backwards. In reality, these stories are about God’s “resolve for life, in a world on its way to death.”[2] They’re about the mystery of “God’s purposes, about “God’s powerful resolve to overcome [human] alienation [from God].”
Years ago, philosopher Martin Heidegger described a human process that he called, “En-framing.” People often see things, he said, not for what they are in their essence, but rather as a tool, a means to some end.[3] A river, for example, can be understood in a variety of ways, but to a manufacturer with unwanted waste to dispose of, it can be en-framed as an ever flushing ditch, that carries away the stuff I don’t want. As Wendell Berry has recently made known in Kentucky, a mountain top can be thought of simply as, an easily obtainable source of coal. The result of this understanding, is that the complete removal of the mountain tops is now justified. And so on…
In our story from Genesis, the knowledge made available to humans by the fruit of the forbidden tree, must be en-framed as a tool, for some purpose other than God’s purpose. The story implies that this fruit was not needed for sustenance. God’s command seemed like a no-brainer. They were told not to eat it, and since they didn’t need it anyway, it was an easy equation. But once this fruit become a means, to something that fell outside of this equation, temptation was born.
Truman Capote once wrote that, “Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.” This is an incredibly powerful truth, although, like most truths, this too can be understood and used in different ways. Imagine a German citizen during the early 1940’s, looking upon the suffering of Jews, and contemplating the risk of helping them as he can. Knowing the danger to himself and his family, he shouts through tears, in a decisive moment, “Love knows no boundaries!” Now, imagine the equally passionate cry, of a man who’s been contemplating having an affair, “Love knows no boundaries!” The exact same notion, but its application betrays what is in the heart. In one instance, a truth found beyond the individual, literally “moves” the individual, from where he was to a new place. In the other instance, the individual grasps this truth, as a tool, that will serve his own purpose. He is not moved by it, but he twists it to his will.
The serpent said, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The serpent is not simply lying, to get the first humans to do what it wants. There is some measure of truth to the serpent’s claim. It has taken what is true, and twisted it to its own purposes, rather than its inherent divine purposes. We’ve already been told that humans were created in God’s image, so they are something like God. It’s also true that Adam and Eve do not die upon eating the fruit, although this is due, not to any claims of the serpents, but to due only to God’s mercy. And finally, we are told that Adam and Eve’s eyes were, in fact, opened. They see differently now. They already had knowledge of good, but now they have seen evil as well.
I think that a key to the faithful application of any truth, begins with our asking, as the prophet Jeremiah did so often, “Where is the Lord in this?” Here we meet one of the key functions of a community to any Christian. We all need someone, at one time or another, to challenge us with this question. You could even say that the spiritual health of that community, is found precisely, in the measure of its ability to expose, to itself and its members, where it tends to make knowledge a tool toward its own end. Had this question followed the serpent’s twisting of truth in today’s story, the outcome could have been less tragic.
In today’s Gospel reading, we find Jesus effectively undoing this twisted-ness, this en-framing of God’s Truth. The tempter is, on some level, offering Jesus the results, that he seems to be striving for already. This tempter paints for Jesus, an image of all the kingdoms of the world, in Jesus’ control. They could now be forced, to love God with all their hearts, and their neighbors as themselves. He could prove the authority of his teaching, because the protective show of the angels, catching him mid-air, would leave no room for doubt. But, to achieve his goals in this way, is to leave behind God’s way. God’s way for him seems to be through the cross. How we get there, makes all the difference.
T.S. Elliott once wrote that, “The greatest temptation, is to do the right thing for the wrong reasons” How we live our lives, matters infinitely more to God, than what we accomplish, than the results of our lives. As Father Bruce Rahtjen once said, “None of us are called to change the world. We are called to be faithful.” It is in our being faithful, that the world may yet be changed by God.
[1] From the “More Illustrations” web site (
http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/temptation%206.html
), accessed on 3/8/2011
[2] Walter Brueggemann, Genesis. From the
Interpretation commentary series (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), p. 44
[3] From Heidegger’s article, "The Question
Concerning Technology," Basic Writings Ed. David Krell (New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, 1993)
