Gracious God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things that we can, and the wisdom to know the difference ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Hearing things you like about people you don’t.” That’s one definition of gossip – hearing things you like about people you don’t. Now, I’m from the South, where gossip could be an Olympic sport, as long as you know how to use the phrase “bless their heart.” Another way of defining gossip would be “talking about, instead of talking with.” This morning’s texts from Genesis and Matthew show us dangers of gossiping about God; of talking about God instead of with God.
In both passages, our Scriptures show that this sort of gossip is precisely how Satan beguiles us, by tempting us to talk about God instead of with God. Now, perhaps some are thinking “Seriously, we’re talking about Satan now? We all know that’s a fable from a bygone era.” As Keyser Söze says in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” The word “Satan” isn’t a proper name in Scripture; it’s just a title. It means “the adversary” or “the tempter.” So even if you don’t have room in your view of the cosmos for a diabolical entity, we can all see the reality of Sin, of the human propensity to mess things up. St. Paul writes in Romans that “The good that I want to do is not what I do, but rather the evil that I do not want is what I do.” That’s a daily reality for us. The great theologian of the 20th century, Reinhold Niebuhr said that “Sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith.” While I think that’s also true of Christian hope, the lures of Satan, however we want to understand that, surround us. Our siblings in recovery know well the liberating power of embracing this truth – that we are powerless over forces of temptation, and these forces become overwhelming when we fall out of conversation with God.
This is exactly what happens in Genesis – the serpent comes to the woman and man and lures them out of conversation with God. Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was enticing and that’s really where the story ends. Thomas Cranmer, the composer of the first Book of Common Prayer, said “What the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.” A character in an Oscar Wilde play says, “I can resist everything, except temptation.” That, in a nutshell, is the human condition. Once the seeds of temptation are sown in our souls, it takes a higher power, something beyond us, to weed them out. And that’s precisely what a relationship with God can do. But left to our own devices, as one of the Prayer Book prayers puts it, “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.”
The mistake that Adam and Eve made wasn’t so much in giving into their desires, it was talking about God, instead of with God. The serpent asks, “Did God really say that?” And a close reading of the text reveals that, no, God did not, in fact say what they said God did. Earlier in Genesis, God tells them not to eat of the tree, but says nothing about touching it. Had they gone to God and said, “Please remind us about the tree,” God would have repeated the prohibition, which was there for their protection, not their temptation. But they were talking about God instead of with God. I can imagine some of the extended dialogue. The gossip. The serpent saying, “Tell me about it. God is such a controlling and capricious deity. Giving us these silly rules. Why don’t you go ahead and just touch the fruit and see what happens. Then we’ll know if God was telling you the truth.”
Of course, there was no prohibition against looking at, appreciating, or even touching the tree. But the human condition is to reject boundaries; to grab for that which does not belong to us; to fill ourselves with things that are not fit for our healthy consumption. And because the woman falsely believed that God had said not to touch the tree, when she grabbed for the fruit and did not die, assumed God to be a liar and then easily caved to the temptation. They were talking about God instead of with God.
Rarely are we tempted to great acts of sin. It’s usually far subtler than that. Go ahead, have that fruit. Flirt with that person at the bar who isn’t your spouse. Fudge a few numbers on your tax return. Keep your mouth shut instead of speaking out against injustice. Tell a small lie to get out of an obligation. When no one is looking, give into that small temptation. All great evils start with small acts of rebellion against God; as a conversation that we leave God out of. Ernest Hemingway once described the process of going bankrupt as happening in two ways, “Gradually, and then suddenly.” It’s true not only financially, but morally. Once we exclude God from one conversation, it becomes so much easier to live as if we were autonomous creatures. “Autonomy” means “self-law,” when we live according to the standards and stories that we make for ourselves, when we defend whatever decisions we want to make, when we rationalize the behaviors that we would never tolerate in others, when we decide what God must have meant without actually listening to what God is saying.
For the other response, we turn not to the old Adam, but the new Adam – Jesus. He, too, meets the Deceiver who invites him into a conversation about God instead of with God. Every single temptation that Satan offers to Jesus is rooted in Scripture – the multiplying of bread is the miracle of the manna in the wilderness. Psalm 91 declares that, “For God will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” It’s not a preposterous temptation – Scripture says God will protect you, so go ahead and take a risk in faith. There’s a sense of logic there.
The priest I learned under in DC used to say, “If you think you are smart, the Devil is smarter. If you graduated summa cum laude, the Devil graduated summa magma cum laude. So don’t try to outsmart the Devil.” We are tempted not by grandiose sins, but with plausible deniability, small shortcuts, and half-truths. It’s also worth noting here that the Devil is quite proficient in quoting Scripture – so be wary of those who talk about the Bible without being in dialogue with God.
The third temptation is to worship the Devil to gain the kingdoms of the world. How telling it is that the political structures and nations of the world belong to Satan. Jesus counters – there is but one story to live by: the story of the God who is love. In each temptation, it is clear that Jesus is in dialogue with God the Father because he knows his place in the story of God. Each time Satan comes to him, Satan opens with “If you are the Son of God.” If – such a powerful word. It gaslights us, makes us doubt reality, question ourselves, and takes us out of conversation with God and into a debate with the Tempter.
Now, the example of Jesus here is not “Just follow his example and you, too, can resist the Devil.” As much as I wish that were true, it’s not. The Crusades, Inquisition, scandals, and Christian Nationalism all make it clear the we all struggle to resist the Devil. CS Lewis writes has a demon in The Screwtape Letters say, “Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar.” It’s why in our Baptismal Covenant we do not say “I will,” but rather “I will, with God’s help.” We will utterly fail if we do a bit of Bible reading and prayer in the morning and then walk into City Hall, the board room, the classroom, or waiting room to deal with life on our own. The story about the temptation of Christ is not here for us to learn strategies for resisting evil. Not at all. It’s a story about being in a constant dialogue with God, not about God as the Devil tempts us to do.
Will Willimon, a prolific author and Methodist bishop, has noted that God is “lovingly loquacious.” I love that description of God – lovingly loquacious. In other words, God has a lot to say, if we’re open the conversation. The Church can provide us with some time and battle tested ways to stay in the holy dialogue that God initiated with Creation in saying “Let there be…”
One is silence, which is hard for us who live in a sound-saturated world. Mother Teresa was once asked, “When you pray, what do you say?” She responded, “Nothing, I listen.” “Well, what does God say?” “Nothing, God listens.” The reporter looked confused and she simply said, “If you don’t understand, I can’t explain it to you.” If Mother Teresa can’t explain it, I won’t attempt to either, other than to say that God is not external to us. Scripture teaches us that God put breath, the very Spirit of God, into us. Simply breathing with a prayerful intention of being in communion with God is one way of staying in dialogue with God.
Reading Scripture, slowly and meditatively, is another practice. You might try to memorize short passages of Scripture through which God speaks to your heart. As you repeat those words throughout your day, you’ll find God as a constant conversation partner. In particular, the Psalms are a great place to turn. I like to use a version of the Jesus Prayer as a mantra that I repeat often – “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and give me your peace.” Going into a tough meeting or thinking about what to do next? Try using those words as an opening to the conversation.
You can also talk to God as you would a friend. No need to be pious or overly-reverent, just talk to God. And then try to be quiet and listen for a response. God also really likes to talk through others, so being in conversation about deep things with others can also be a way to converse with God.
And how do we know if we’re talking to God, or just engaged in a self-absorbed inner monologue? Well, talking with God will often be challenging and comforting, both surprising and inspiring. Conversation with God usually leads us to the prayer that Jesus teaches us, saying “Not my will, but thy will be done.”
Beloved, there is much out there to distract and tempt us. The great danger for us is to gossip about God, to talk about instead of with God. Our God is lovingly loquacious, so speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. Amen.
