St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, March 13, 2011

Deliver Us – Rev. David Mundy

Genesis 2:15-17: 3:1-7 Matthew 4:1-11

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Many years ago, a staff member for the United Church of Canada made a visit to the congregation I was serving – they used to do house calls – and then stayed with us for the night. We enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours with this person in the evening and, during our conversation, she mentioned that she was reading a fascinating book which was very popular at the time.

It was written by a psychotherapist named Scott Peck who was already well known because of his bestseller called The Road Less Travelled which I’m sure some of you will remember. It was about developing meaningful and lasting relationships.

The book the United Church staffer was reading was much darker, although it was certainly fascinating. It was called People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. The original edition of this book included a clever pitchfork growing out of one of the letters, obviously alluding to Satan or the Devil – the Evil One. In John’s gospel, Jesus speaks of Satan as the Father of Lies, which may be why Peck called his book People of the Lie. The book is so entertaining, if that word can be used to speak about evil, because Peck draws on real-life stories of evil from his practice. He even includes a chapter with a title which is a question: Does the Devil Exist? And his answer was “yes.”

In our conversation that night, our guest gushed about the book and told us that it had just about convinced her that evil exists in the world. When Ruth and I were in bed later that night, I offered that this seemed a curious comment from someone who worked for a Christian organization. Why did it take a psychiatrist to convince this person that what she had been saying in church for a lifetime “lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil” might actually be true? There is evil in the world and we need to be rescued from it – end of story, or so I thought. Of course in the twenty-five years or more since this happened we have been less and less inclined to speak of evil, or define it in our individual lives or in the broader landscape of our world.

Not long ago we came to the end of a series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, and the final phrase we pondered was “lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.” That day, I pointed out that, in the New Revised Standard Version of the bible, it says “do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.” That morning, I focussed on the first part of the phrase, about temptation and trial, and didn’t even try to address evil or an Evil One. Just by adding one word, three letters, we “up the stakes,” because it strongly suggests that there is a personification of evil.

So this morning, on the first Sunday of the season of Lent, we hear about evil and the evil one in both our scripture readings. We began with that archetypal story from the book of Genesis about Adam and Eve in the garden. This is one of those stories which we aren’t meant to read literally, yet it ushers us into a powerful truth about human nature and our relationship with God.

The picture is of an idyllic time of perpetual innocence providing that these first “earthlings” – that is what the name Adam means – stay away from the tree which is the source of the knowledge of good and evil. The crafty serpent comes on the scene and invites them to ignore God and eat of the forbidden fruit. Both Eve and Adam eat the fruit, and then with great courage and a strong sense of personal responsibility Adam declares to God: “she did it!” We heard that there are consequences for their choice, the loss of innocence which is represented by awareness of their nakedness. Out come the fig leaves to cover their nakedness, and then out go Adam and Eve, cast out of the garden.

In our gospel passage, the story we hear every year on the first Sunday of Lent, Jesus is not in an idyllic garden but instead led out into an inhospitable desert by the Holy Spirit where he undergoes an intense period of fasting and temptation. Jesus is tested by the devil or Satan depending on which gospel we read for this story, but in either case it refers to the adversarial force Jesus encounters which entices him to change the direction of his mission. Despite his weakened state, Jesus draws on his relationship with God and the touchstones of the psalms to resist evil and to stay true to himself and to his purpose.

These passages remind us that in the Jewish and Christian traditions there has been a conviction that evil is more than the sum of individual acts of wrongdoing or sins. It is the dark power which manifests in our individual lives and in our world which misleads and undermines and destroys. The notion of an actual personification of evil, especially the one with the pitchfork and horns is not really part of that tradition, but there is no doubt that evil is real.

So every once in a while we need to ask what or whom we are being delivered from, if our prayer is sincere? How real is evil in this age where every action seems to be given a psychological explanation? I imagine that some of you would say that evil exists, although you might be hard pressed to define it.

In other times great Christian figures have believed quite vividly in the Evil One as a malevolent force in the world. As Protestants we look to Martin Luther as a central figure of the movement which shapes our faith today. Yet Luther told the story of working on his translation of the bible while he was under house arrest in Wartburg Castle. While he was working, Satan showed up to impede him and Luther picked up his inkwell and heaved it at the Prince of Darkness. Apparently you can still visit the room in the castle where Luther was held and see the ink stain. Luther wrote

“I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing that makes him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and tell him that through God I am more than a match for him.”

Can you imagine if I had told you at the beginning of worship that, while I was preparing my sermon this week, I had a dustup with Satan, but it’s okay because I chased him away, laughing as he skedaddled? Honestly, I think you would have me locked up in a hurry. Yet, Luther believed he was in a very real struggle between good and evil. In my own way I do as well, although I will assure you that there aren’t any ink stains on my study wall.

Day in and day out we see and hear of cruelty and torture and other forms of violence which are bewildering and disheartening. We see lives destroyed by that malevolence and it is hard to explain why we seem to have learned so little through the centuries. I asked my wife, Ruth, if she still believes in evil and her immediate response was an emphatic “absolutely!” We talked about her work as the outreach worker for Bethesda House the local shelter for women and children who have been affected by domestic violence. So often these are people who have been subjected to soul-destroying abuse which is not only physical but verbal.

We see evil in the racial and sectarian injustice which continues to plague our cultures. For reasons which are hard to explain human beings hate each other because of the colour of their skin, or their gender, or the arbitrary lines we have created as national borders.

It’s actually hard to imagine how we couldn’t acknowledge the existence of evil when we stop to consider what we see around us. At the same time our faith tells us that there is hope because God has overcome evil in Christ. There is a little chant, a joyful song, out of the Iona Community called Goodness is Stronger Than Evil

Goodness is stronger than evil:

love is stronger than hate;

light is stronger than darkness;

life is stronger than death.

Victory is ours, victory is ours

through him who loved us.

I have been part of gatherings where this chant was sung, repeatedly, but I had not noticed until this week that the words were written by Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop who was a fearless Christian leader during the dark days of apartheid. The systemic racial segregation in that country, enforced by the government and supported by some churches was one of the great evils of the past century.

The chorus reminds us that whatever evil we encounter in our lives, God is our strength and Christ is the one who has overcome and who leads us to victory. In so many ways, this is the message of this season of Lent, as we will journey through the darkness of Holy Week, through the evil of Good Friday, into the redemptive light of Easter and our Resurrection promise in Christ. As we share in communion this morning we will receive the nourishment we need to overcome

The good news is that the United Church still encourages us to respond with conviction and from the heart when we speak of deliverance from evil and the Evil One. In both of our most recent Statements of Faith, or creeds if you will, there are affirmations of the existence of evil and God’s power, in Christ, to overcome that evil. In the Song of Faith we find these words of hope”

Yet evil does not—cannot—

undermine or overcome the love of God.

God forgives,

and calls all of us to confess our fears and failings

with honesty and humility.

God reconciles,

and calls us to repent the part we have played

in damaging our world, ourselves, and each other.

God transforms,

and calls us to protect the vulnerable,

to pray for deliverance from evil,

to work with God for the healing of the world,

that all might have abundant life.

We sing of grace.

In the creed which many of us know much better, often called the New Creed we are invited to seek justice and resist evil as people of the crucified and Risen Christ. So this is where we can conclude this morning, with our affirmation:

We are not alone,

we live in God's world.

We believe in God:

who has created and is creating,

who has come in Jesus,

the Word made flesh,

to reconcile and make new,

who works in us and others

by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:

to celebrate God's presence,

to live with respect in Creation,

to love and serve others,

to seek justice and resist evil,

to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,

God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.