From Twitter 03-12-2011

• 00:10:59: RT @TheBlackoutBlog: RT @maddiemarie: when life hands you melons......get tested for dyslexia.
  
• 00:15:17: RT @DerekDaSilva: People are talking end of the world again. It's telling that eschatology and scatology are almost the same word.
  
• 01:12:16: Night-night, all. Diodesan Synod tomorrow, then preaching on Sunday. Exhausting just thinking about it.
  
• 18:34:53: @jonk well, have some Virgin Marys, begging your indulgence & with no implication.
  
• 18:40:31: RT @cemab4y: Unemployed. I need a job. See http://www.4jobs.com/charlesmartin PLEASE RETWEET Telecommunications Engineer.
  
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• 18:54:41: RT @JosephPMathews I won't wear khakis under a cassock. I will wear jeans and rust colored chucks. < Shorts & black shoes & sox with garters
  
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Today's Sermon

I was supposed to preach last week, but the Vicar of St. John's asked me to put it off for a week. Sadly, I had already written the sermon. I've put it in the "bank", and preached this week instead.

Sermon delivered at St. John the Evangelist, 13 March, 2011, 1st Sunday of Lent. Readings: Gen 2:7-9;3:1-7; Ps 50; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11

In the name of God, the one, the undivided Trinity. AMEN

I don’t know whether it ever penetrated here, but in the 1980’s and 90’s there was a comic strip in American newspapers called Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin was a happy-go-lucky 6-year-old boy, and Hobbes was his stuffed tiger.

As in the world of comics six-year-old boys and stuffed tigers can not only talk but have rational conversations with each other, one strip has particular application to our readings today.

Calvin asks Hobbes: “Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?” Hobbes answers: “I'm not sure that man needs the help.”

Temptation in our readings today seems to be entirely instigated by the devil. The story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent is well known and ingrained in our memories and in our culture. We are also amazed that Jesus, the Son of God, could either be tempted by the devil or even in our wildest imaginations succumb to temptation by anyone, the Devil included.

Paul’s Letter to the Romans even shares the common theme of sin and temptation. This is out of the ordinary, as most of the time those who compiled the Lectionary pair the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures with the Gospel, while choosing another theme for the Epistle, in case the preacher isn’t sufficiently inspired by the other two readings.
So for the first Sunday in Lent we have a heavy message to hear. Sin began with the first stirrings of civilisation and self-awareness of the human race. It continues through Biblical times and even tests the humanity of Jesus, who was also Son of God.

In a religious organisation I was a member of in the United States, there was a weekly Eucharist put on by the local group. However, many in this group wanted to omit the penitential rite from the weekly Eucharist because they felt that people too often heard about sin and death when they attended church, and not enough about affirmation and eternal life. As I was in charge of putting together the weekly service, this idea remained just that: an idea.

Sin is a fact, say these readings. We have committed sins, we are committing sins, and we will commit sins. And, just as God does not directly will all things that happen in the world, good or bad, the Devil does not will every bad thing that happens or every sin that we commit. Hobbes is right: we need no help in committing sin—we do it all the time.

So why do we start out our Lenten Sundays with temptation? It’s always with us; we know that we are subject to it, we succumb to it, and we’re sorry for it afterwards.

I like to think that the Sundays of Lent tell a story of the history of sin, from the first sin through to the end of sin and death in the Resurrection. That history of sin is a pretty sordid tale.

The story in Genesis, taken allegorically, tells us that sinfulness stems from disobedience to God. It doesn’t matter what the sin actually is; it is more important to note that there are laws and norms in society and that transgressing those laws and norms carries consequences. The temptation doesn’t come from a snake, or from the Devil directly; I’m certain that the Devil has as much to occupy his time as God does.

Paul’s contribution is very interesting. We often think of sin as being the act of breaking some law or rule. Paul, on the other hand, says that sin existed before the Law—by which he means the Law of Moses or the Ten Commandments. To Paul, our lives up to the point at which Christ arrives on the scene are a constant judicial trial with a sentence of death. But Jesus is like the governor who sends a last-minute reprieve to the condemned prisoner. When he is incarnated, the death of sin turns to a life of grace, brought by Jesus Christ.

And finally we have the Temptation of Christ, where the devil tempts Jesus with all sorts of wealth and power. The sin that the devil is trying to get Jesus to commit is that of turning away from his mission on earth.

It is in human nature to sin and fall short of the expectations of God and ourselves as to how we will act. The serpent, far from being the Devil, is our own inner devil, urging us on to do things that we should not and must not do. We all have a serpent slithering around in our minds, and the challenge of being human is to ignore it.

The great concept behind Christ’s temptation is to show that he is not only fully God, but also fully human. For temptation is Jesus’s inner serpent. Along with the rest of us, he’s tempted to do what he ought not to do by that urge that we all share.

As we begin our Lenten devotions, we too should use our own strength of will, fed with the study of Scripture, to overcome temptation and become the better persons that God wants us to be. If Jesus, fully human, could banish the snake of temptation, we, fully human, can too. AMEN.

Stabbie's on the loose again

As you probably mostly know, Stabbie is partially laid up with diabetic foot problems. He has mostly been well-cared for by the NHS. They do a marvellous job with fewer staff than they should have and less material with which to do it. But, sometimes Stabbie wonders.

On Wednesday this week Stabbie was hoping to go out to do some shopping for various things that he can't get at the local shops. This would have to be done after the District (=US "Visiting") Nurse had come and administered his daily IV antibiotic. The time-pocket for this service is 11am to 2pm. Stabbie was ready for her at 11am. Stabbie was still ready for her at 2pm. At 2:30pm Stabbie called the nurse's office, and he got a call back from the nursing team leader saying that somehow he'd been left off the list and someone would be by that afternoon. At 5pm the someone showed up and did Stabbie's IV. At that point shopping was useless. Stabbie held his tongue.

On Saturday Stabbie had an all day meeting of Diocesan Synod, so he arranged for an evening visit. This went off very well, as did the Synod meeting.

On Sunday Stabbie preached at St. John's as usual, and then came home to await the nurse, who comes after 12 noon on Sundays due to Stabbie's stubborn refusal to have a lie-in on Sundays and instead attend church. Stabbie waited until 3 pm to have lunch, and then called the emergency nurse line at 4 pm. At 6 pm the nurse (same one as yesterday) showed up and told him that the nurse who was scheduled to shove antibiotics into Stabbie's arm had just forgotten to come.

Now Stabbie loves the National Health Service. It's the only institution that keeps him above ground, and is free at the point of use. Most of the NHS's employees are great. They are polite, willing to explain to you what is happening, and thorough in their diagnosis and treatment. However, occasionally Stabbie comes across a jobsworth who is sitting behind the receptionist's desk and who considers his job to be ensuring that no patient gets treated without permission from the Health Secretary. And, occasionally Stabbie comes across someone in the field, so to speak, who is not paying attention. Had this person been a terminal cancer patient, wanting to die at home but in terrible pain, then forgetting to see him and administer his pain killers would have been a much bigger deal than forgetting to see Stabbie, who merely needs some antibiotics.

Stabbie would not want to harm a fly—oh no, not Stabbie! But his knife could be used for other things, such as scratching the paint on the forgetful one's car, and giving the sharp edge of his tongue to the errant nurse would also not be pleasant. But Stabbie feels it's his duty to keep the nursing staff on their toes. After all, inattention on their part can lead to death on Stabbie's part, and (for Stabbie at least) that would put a crimp in his day.