The Gift of Temptation

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Rev. Monte Marshall

So here we are again, on another Sunday morning during the season of Lent and we’re still on a path that winds through the Dark Wood. The image comes from the poet Dante and it signifies a terrifying place of struggle, failure, emptiness and uncertainty that we would choose to avoid if we could.

But according to author and pastor Eric Elnes, there are gifts to be found in the Dark Wood. So Elnes invites us to enter this terrifying place, and to journey through it on our way to a spiritual awakening as we meet God and discover our true selves within the Dark Wood.

On today’s journey, we seek the gift of temptation. Let’s pray. PRAYER.

Temptation: “an urge or desire to do something”1—and that “something” is usually defined as something bad or sinful or evil. For some high-minded moralists, temptation is the urge to engage in “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll,”2 or more broadly, any one or more of the so-called seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.3

But Eric Elnes highlights another aspect of temptation: “the temptation to do good.” Elnes writes: “In itself, doing good is not the problem. Doing the wrong good, however, is entirely the problem. By the wrong good I mean any good work that is not yours to do. It may be someone else’s good to do, but not your own.”4

Elnes illustrates the point with the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness in Luke’s gospel. In the story, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he’s tempted by the devil three times: First, he’s tempted to turn a stone into a loaf of bread; second, to exercise political power over all the kingdoms of the world; and third, to perform a miracle as proof of his divine credentials.

Now you may have noticed that there’s something good in all three temptations: By turning stones into bread, Jesus can feed the hungry of the world. By exercising political power over all the kingdoms of this earth, Jesus can finally establish peace and justice in the world. By performing a spectacular miracle, Jesus bolsters the case for his divine connections.

But in this story, Jesus turns aside each and every temptation to do these good things. Eric Elnes explains why: “Jesus’ purpose and true power was not realized through feeding the hungry or practicing politics or performing miracles, even as each of these surely was a part of his path. Devoting his entire life’s work to them was too small a calling for Jesus. God called him to something far higher. Part of Jesus’ calling was to live more fully into his human identity than anyone else had done before. In so doing, Jesus reveals…how much we’re not our true selves. Jesus also reveals that the more we draw from the Source of our highest energies,

thereby living into our true identity, the more we resemble actual divinity. That’s because in order to follow our best path in the world, we’ve got to move off the path of common wisdom and start following a path marked by…those gut hunches and reverberations of peace and joy that emanate from the Spirit.”5

To further underscore the point, Elnes tells the story of David Whyte. David worked as an administrator for a non-profit that accomplished tremendous good for others. But David felt lost in his work. “He discovered that the good he was doing was not something he could do wholeheartedly. The work of a poet was more central to David’s call in life…. Acting on the temptation to do the wrong good was what produced the exhaustion necessary to provoke David to ask questions about his work and seek counsel from a trusted friend. Eventually, exhaustion drove David to take the enormous risk of trading a steady job (and paycheck) for a chance to swim in his elemental waters as a poet. He has been wholeheartedly swimming there ever since.”

Elnes also notes that “David Whyte is a man of high intelligence, whose strategic mind is as keen as any other I know. Yet for all his intelligence and ability, what led David to find his distinctive calling, giving him the courage to take the plunge into his elemental waters, had little to do with intelligence or strategic ability. In terms of finding his place in the world, exhaustion proved to be a greater gift than all the others.”

Elnes then says: “The reason the Dark Wood gift of temptation is so important is that it produces results—like exhaustion—that reveal fairly quickly whether you are on the path that is central to who you are and what you’re here for or are on a side path. The faculties people typically employ to discern these very things—logic, reason, and strategy—tend to be surprisingly unhelpful in this regard. In fact, they often produce a long list of reasons we should stay on the path that is not our own…. Logic and reason will say, ‘Think of all the good you’re doing here!’ [Y]our strategic mind may advise, ‘Think of all the people who rely on you. Think of your coworkers. If not them, then think of your family. Ensuring that they have food to eat and a roof over their heads is a good thing. And what about your pension? Why not put off doing what you really feel drawn to do for a few more years?’”6

But here’s the deal: After a lifetime of saying “yes” to the expectations of others, and doing the smart and reasonable things that are undeniably good—but the wrong good for you—life may be okay, but it’s not a fulfilled life lived wholeheartedly.

God intends something more for us. Paul calls it a “new creation.” And we experience this new creation when we allow the old order that pursues the wrong good to pass away so that a new life can emerge—a life “in Christ”—the life that God dreams for us—the life that comes when we follow “the path of our greatest aliveness.”

The path of my greatest aliveness found me a long time ago. In the late 1970s, as I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book, The Cost of Discipleship, and learned about intentional Christian communities like Sojourners in Washington, D. C. and Koinonia in Georgia, something within me came alive. Both of these communities took the scriptures seriously enough to practice justice by holding their goods in common and giving to the poor, and by working for

peace through non-violence and reconciliation. Both of these communities lived a radical discipleship.

In the depths of my soul, I knew that this kind of radical discipleship was my calling in life. I’m not called to be a pastor. I’m called to deepening discipleship. As Eric Elnes puts it, this is the “sweet-spot” in my life. But I don’t have a clue as to why this calling came to me.

But I do know that over and over again, in response to this calling, I’ve yielded to temptation. I’ve said “no” to living in the “sweet spot” and “yes” to the wrong good. When I decided that I was not courageous enough to pursue a life of radical discipleship, I also settled on a logical, reasonable and strategic compromise. I decided that I could do a lot of good by serving as a pastor. I think I have many of the gifts and graces that a pastor needs. I’ve tried to bloom where I’m planted. And I do hope that I have done some good along the way. But for me, it’s the wrong good because serving as a pastor without pursuing deepening discipleship, is not the path of aliveness for me.

And I realize that as long as my resistance persists, I’ll remain in the Dark Wood where I’ll experience many moments of joy and fulfilment and peace, but always tinged with a gnawing sense of discontent that lingers in my soul. This restlessness is the result of yielding to the temptation of doing the wrong good and it is a constant reminder that life for me is still a little less than God intends.

Nevertheless, I continue to yearn for the day when the gift of temptation received in the Dark Wood, and the resulting discontent, will finally be enough to overcome my fear and put me on the path of greatest aliveness. And this is my prayer for each of you as well.

A Time for Reflection

Each week we are taking time to reflect, accompanied by music. This week, the insert in your bulletin is a finger labyrinth. Following the labyrinth is an ancient Christian practice designed to simulate the experience of pilgrimage in which the Spirit guides us to discover new pathways of fullness. You are invited to slowly follow the path with your finger, opening to and listening for the intuition, the small voice, inside of you nudging you in the path that brings your life the most fullness.

Closing: Thank you, God, for all the gifts of the Dark Wood, especially for the gift of temptation. Amen.