March 13, 2011
1 Sunday of Lent. A. Year
Genesis 2:15-17;
3:1-7 Psalm 32
Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11
God invites us to a life completely open, without fear of deportation.
When we live and love in unconventional ways, often we are accused of ignoring the clear commands of God. Sometimes it is said that everything went wrong from Adam and Eve began to ask questions. As the host of God, lived among us in Jesus, exceeds any fear of expulsion, God asks us to live our lives openly.
According to Matthew, when Jesus was baptized, was revealed by the Spirit of God as the beloved of God. The Gospel reading this week, Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus shows struggling to discern how to live with such knowledge. Like Adam and Eve, says Charles Allen, Jesus ponders whether it is sufficient to be a fragile creature it is. Holly Hearon see Jesus fighting between allowing someone hostile (the tempter of verse 3) define their identity by him, or decide for themselves what it means to be a child of God. Similarly, Michael Miller questions whether Jesus is tempted by the idea of \u200b\u200bhaving to prove their "belonging" to someone else, as expected. Who, among all the creatures of God, has the authority to question the relationship between Jesus and God, or yours or mine? Helene Russell focuses on the question of power. Jesus is tempted by the vision of a kingdom of God in terms of control-releasing around the world and the pain itself, assuming all the power, and thus make a mockery of any genuine love.
When God has called you "Beloved"? How are you tempted by others to doubt the word of God matters of unconditional acceptance? Who dice que tienes que probar algo a alguien?
No es ninguna sorpresa que la historia de las tentaciones de Jesús estuviera vinculada a la historia de la primera tentación en Génesis 2. Una serpiente parlante le cuenta a Eva la verdad. Ella y Adán no caerán muertos cuando coman el fruto prohibido; en cambio se parecerán más a Dios. Sus ojos se abrirán para discernir el bien y el mal. Y eso es más o menos lo que pasó.
Sin embargo, dice Charles Allen irónicamente, una vez que Adán y Eva conocieron la diferencia entre bien y mal, malinterpretaron su propia desnudez como algo "no bueno". They were ashamed of their fragility as creatures and stopped (they got in the closet) with fig leaves. They hid from God, and in doing so, they expelled themselves from the presence of God, and before they were expelled from Eden.
Michael Miller warns that no always can see the difference between God and disobedience to a legitimate questioning of the limits, although both modes who push the limits will feel exposed and vulnerable. Holly Hearon asked if nudity was the question when the couple's eyes widened. Maybe it was his awareness of what could easily be fooled, its capacity to sin. In it were still far from being as God.
How do you distinguish good from evil? Who will listen? When is it good to change the rules? When you are tempted to hide who you are?
In Romans 5:12-19, Paul uses the story of Genesis to establish a contrast with the story of Jesus. Eva falls in history and Adam takes all the blame. Adam prefigures Christ, in both figures, their actions have an effect on all humanity. Both are universal, says Helene Russell. But for Paul, the faithfulness of Jesus (or the faithfulness of God in Jesus) than Adam's transgression.
The unconditional acceptance of God, life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate truth about God and about us. In fact, says Holly Hearon, God somehow "violates" our sense of what is just and right, because God's desire is that all may have life. This gift always-on-rise and "transgressive" of grace provides a safe space, says Michael Miller, in which we can deal honestly with all that is involved in exploration, adventures and discoveries of our lives, even our challenge the limits. In fact, Charles Allen suggests, we are invited to bring our times even more skeptical of the very presence of God without fear of expulsion. We do not have to put in the closet any part of ourselves.
Feeling accepted by God, accepted unconditionally? What you allow yourself to put in the way of the reception of God? What are you hiding?
Psalm 32 celebrates the joy of living without pretense. "Blessed are those ... in whose spirit is no deceit" (verse 2). Living without pretense requires confess our sinfulness. We need forgiveness, suggests Holly Hearon, not because same sex relationships, but often they do not embody the unconditional acceptance of God, even our life-giving relationships. LGBT people we should never hesitate to admit that we are as sinful as any other, Charles Allen insists. No extravagant love of form and transgressive as God has loved us. And perhaps the greatest failure is to hide our faults. Confession is the moment when we realize that God is the true hiding place [shelter] (verse 7), the safe space where we can live in complete openness.
How do you feel calling yourself a sinner? Do you feel it as degrading or you can feel liberating?
inclusive Prayer
God who always welcomed us
invite us to bring all that we are,
our questions and our failures,
to your life-giving presence.
Give us the courage to live with you without pretense,
we can know the joy of forgiveness and renewal
without fear of deportation.
Amen.
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