Bible Text:

Text:   “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”                                                                               (Matthew 6:13)

A certain woman could not avoid the temptation to buy new clothes. Each time she was in a clothing store she ended up purchasing two or three dresses or suits at increasing costs. Her husband became concerned about their family finances. When he brought it up with her, she said simply, “I’m sorry, I just can’t help it. I try a dress on and I like it, so I buy it.” 

Replied the husband, “Why don’t you just resist the temptation? Why don’t you say something like, ‘get thee behind me, Satan’?” 

“I tried that,” she replied, “and Satan simply said, ‘It looks good from here, too.’” 

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It has been pointed out that the Lord’s Prayer encompasses the whole of life. There is the prayer for today: Give us this day our daily bread. There is the prayer for yesterday: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And there is the prayer for tomorrow: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

Some people might ask, “Why would God ever lead us into temptation?” It is entirely possible that this particular petition in the Lord’s Prayer should read a little differently than we normally say it: “Do not allow us to be led into temptation.” In other words, “Dear God, protect me, shelter me, hold my hand. Do not allow this to happen to me.” When I think about the prayer that way, it helps me to pray it more clearly. 

The fact is that temptation is tempting. Someone once said, “Instead of stopping with ‘lead us not into temptation,’ most of us would like to add, ‘…but let me flirt with it occasionally.’” 

There’s also the story about a church with an outside sign. The sign had this carefully lettered message: “If you’re tired of sinning, stop in here.” Beneath those words someone had added another message: “And if not, call 445-7751.” The fact is, temptation is tempting. 

It’s easy to poke fun at the reality of this prayer. A mother was teaching her young daughter the Lord’s Prayer. Finally the daughter was ready to go on her own. On her first night of praying the prayer solo, she carefully enunciated every word: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some e-mail.” 

I can think of at least three words which describe the reality of temptation: powerful, pervasive, and subtle. 

POWERFUL 

Temptation is powerful. Charlie Brown was lying on his bed one night. He says aloud, “Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’ And then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.’” 

Temptation is a powerful force in life. That’s why the image of Satan or the Devil is so real to so many. Martin Luther wrote some familiar words in one of his great hymns: “Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us.”[i] Martin Luther also wrote this in his journal one night, “Tonight I threw an inkwell at the devil.” 

I’m not sure what I believe about a personal devil out there. But I surely understand how powerful temptation to evil can be. 

Paul is very descriptive at this point. Paul writes that the very things he knows he should do he ends up not doing, and the very things he hates in himself he ends up doing. Listen to his words, “I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15) Paul then adds, “Who will deliver me” He knew the powerful reality of temptation. 

Or there’s the story of Jesus’ own temptation in the wilderness. The temptations were real. They were not staged. Jesus had to do battle with temptation. 

Or again Paul speaks about it in our New Testament reading for today. He says that each of us needs to walk through life in a suit of armor. We need to pick up the shield of faith, strap on the breastplate of righteousness, place on our heads the helmet of salvation. The implication is that temptation is so powerful that I need a suit of armor at all times.  

PERVASIVE 

Temptation is also highly pervasive. Temptation is everywhere. It touches and affects us all. The biblical witness is unambiguous on this point. 

Temptation and evil are pervasive challenges to faithful living. You may have a musical voice that makes heaven rejoice, but you also may have some temptations with which to wrestle. You may have an excellent church attendance record. You may even show up early to get the right seat. But you also may have some temptations to battle. You may give regularly of your financial resources. You may give gladly. You may even tithe. But you also may have some temptations to fend off. You may be the high school senior that all junior highs want to become, but especially now you are dealing with intense temptations. Your temptations may not be the same as my temptations. But if you are honest, you are dealing with them in some area of your life. 

Many of us watched the looting of Baghdad this week, following the fall of that city in the war. People were hauling off things they couldn’t possibly use. One man was hauling a copier out of an office to put it on his donkey cart. He may have even not had any electricity in his home. Islamic clerics were speaking out. They were saying to the people, “This is wrong.” Wrong, yes. But also pervasive. 

A young man was caught stealing a car from a church parking lot. He was arrested and hauled off to jail. As they took him away, the owner of the car exhorted him, “Young man, you should spend more time inside this church and learn what is right.” He turned to the woman and replied, “Lady, I know what is right. My trouble is doing it.” 

Theodore Parker Ferris was a well known and much loved Episcopal rector in Boston in the late 20^th century. When he died, his family pored over many of his personal papers. They were somewhat astonished to find so many scribbled prayers of confession among his papers. They found this particular prayer, which was so honest and revealing.

 Lord Jesus, I would like to be able to do myself the things I help others to do. I can give them a confidence that I myself do not have, and I can quiet their anxieties, but not my own…I like to think that you can be with me and in me, and that with your help I can do better. 

Temptation is pervasive. It is infectious. And it is hard to conquer alone. 

SUBTLE 

Temptation is also very subtle and deceptive. Dr. Fred Craddock writes these words in a sermon on the story of the temptation of Jesus. 

Temptation is not obvious: “Hi! I’m Satan; I am here to tempt you.” The tempter often looks like and sounds like a friend or relative…At the heart of the deception are offers not to fall but to rise. The tempter in the Garden of Eden story does not ask, “Do you wish to be as the devil?” but “Do you wish to be as God?”[ii] 

A favorite book of mine for many years has been C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. The letters are an imaginary series of writings from a senior devil in hell to a junior devil on earth. The letters purport to give the junior devil advice on how to win over people for Satan’s kingdom. The message of the book is simple: temptation persuades us that what we know to be contrary to the guidance of God is really okay. Temptation is subtle. 

Do you remember Jimmy Bakker? Jimmy and Tammy Bakker ran the PTL television empire for many years. Jimmy Bakker was the prophet of prosperity theology. On October 6, 1989 he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 44 years in prison. Many of us said, “Good riddance.” 

Five years later a book appeared in the bookstores with his face on the cover. It was his autobiography. The title was simple: I Was Wrong. In the book Jimmy Bakker writes this.

God does not promise that we will all be rich and prosperous as I once preached… To my surprise, after months of studying Jesus, I concluded that He did not have one good thing to say about money. 

The book concludes with this comment by Bakker. 

As with so many things done under my leadership at PTL, we started with the best of intentions and somehow got sidetracked onto a path of pride, arrogance, and indulgence. We got trapped in the subtle snare that says, “Big is better.” 

Note that Bakker refers to temptation as a “subtle snare.”

 One writer then adds this comment about all of Jimmy Bakker’s issues.

 Millions watched his TV program because they wanted his message to be true. We prosecuted Jim Bakker, but ignored the question of why thousands of people, when promised blessing, sent him checks.[iii] 

Temptation is subtle. It is very subtle. And it is pervasive… and it is powerful.

 BIGGER THAN ANY OF US

 The reality is that temptation is bigger than any of us. Temptation can bring us down. And when it brings us down, it can bring a society down as well. That’s why it’s an important message for the church. 

If you and I—as believers—succumb or fall into the snare of temptation, then it grows like a cancer. It permeates the whole society with amazing speed.

 Income taxes are filed this week in this country. I read a story about a man who wrote an anonymous note to the IRS. The note said, “Last year I misrepresented my income, and I have not been able to sleep. Enclosed is $150. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send the rest.”

 When Christians capitulate to false gods, the whole society loses. When we allow money or power or possessions or self-gratification to take hold of us, there is a tremendous possibility of loss for the whole society. When we unconsciously claim superiority, it infects the nation.

 So this particular petition has a great deal to do with the nature of the church. You and I must stand in the “force field” of God, of Jesus. You and I must pray that God will give us strength, endurance and wisdom. You and I must lean into the Almighty with consistency.

When I came to this church in 1980, one of the members of the Pastor-Parish Committee was a man who held a very responsible position of leadership in one of the major Pittsburgh-based corporations. He served for several years as the chair of that committee, and then retired and moved south. It was after he moved away that I learned something of his own personal history and style with this church over the years prior to my coming. The nature of his job took him all over the country by air, almost every week. But he gave the same instructions to his secretary each time: “Make sure that my return flight has me back in Pittsburgh in time to be at the 9:30 worship service at my church on Sunday morning.”

I seldom knew him to ever miss church. I did not know the instruction behind it until later, when he was gone. I did know that he started a men’s Bible study group in the new city to which he and his wife moved. He needed that constant sense of community to help fend off temptation.

 The hymn written years ago by Annie Hawks is very real: “I need thee every hour. I need thee, O I need thee.”[iv] There’s no shame in praying that prayer. There is no sense of weakness in that prayer. As a teenager, as a staff member of the church, as a lifelong believer, as a new believer, each of us needs to pray, “I need thee, O I need thee.” For the sake of your health and spiritual vitality and, by extension, for the sake of this country and the world, “I need thee, O I need thee.” 

And so we pray, “Dear God, do not allow us to be led into temptation. Keep us in the force field of your protective, guiding energy. Amen.