I am doing intercessions tomorrow at Holy Communion, and while thinking about the prayers which will be themed with the Gospel of Jesus during his 40 days of prayer in the wilderness, being tempted by the Devil and refuting all with the words of scripture.
If only we could refute or turn away temptations, by using the word of God! Part of our humanity is the free will to make choices - and things in life can tempt us in so many ways, whether deliberately, accidentally during waking hours or even while asleep (who knows where the dreams come from which tempt you?). Evil exists and attacks wherever it can.
The choice is simple, yet extremely hard. We can give in to temptation, and turn our face away from God, or we can resist it and remain steadfast as urged by St Paul (Hard choices, but simple and perhaps in black and white) - but what about the other temptations, the temptation to be judgmental, to ignore injustice, poverty, what is happening in our work lives, what is happening in our church, what is happening in our communities? Surely these are worse errors than perhaps the occasional uttering of a swear word?
It is an easy choice to look away, to ignore things, to tell yourself that it has nothing to do with you! But when conscience steps in, nagging and prompting, we know that we have not been true to ourselves and what God wishes us to be - this is where repentance and recompense is needed to put things right.
When I look back over my life, I know that these errors have featured, more often than not, as taking the easy way out, and refusing to acknowledge that it was my responsibility to do something. As it is up to all of us to take responsibility for both our own actions and as communities for each other - when this happens we might have a nearly perfect world.
So my intercessions tomorrow will be asking for us as individuals and as communities to take responsibility and to keep ahead of what is going on, and doing what we can through prayer, practical, financial and material support to try in small ways to make things better.
Of course in Jesus' Jewish culture and background, the Torah was considered to be the Word of God. Reading the Law communally was seen as one way of engaging with God, of listening to what God has to say to us.
ReplyDeleteSo what Jesus was saying, by quoting Scripture, was basically, "God has other plans."
I think we can do this even if we don't specifically quote Scripture. But it isn't always easy for us to discern God's will, or even to remember to ask ourselves what that might be.