{"id":2059,"date":"2017-03-05T13:23:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T18:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2017-03-05T13:23:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T18:23:02","slug":"1st-sunday-of-lent-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/1st-sunday-of-lent-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"1st Sunday of Lent, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

1st<\/sup> Sunday of Lent, Year A<\/a>
\nGenesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
\nPsalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
\nRomans 5:12-19
\nMatthew 4:1-11
\nMarch 5, 2017<\/p>\n

Today we hear the story of the \u201coriginal sin<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Adam and Eve were in the Garden and God had given them just one rule.\u00a0 They were told not to eat of the fruit of one<\/em><\/strong> particular tree.\u00a0 There were plenty of other trees so it didn\u2019t seem like a big deal.\u00a0 They had plenty they could eat.<\/p>\n

Then out comes the serpent who is described as \u201cthe most cunning of all the animals<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 He wants them to disobey God but he knows they will not disobey God without some trickery.\u00a0 So he uses his cunning to cast doubt on what God has said.<\/p>\n

First, the serpent says, \u201cDid God really<\/strong> tell you not to eat from any<\/strong> of the trees in the garden?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 He knows full well this is not what God had said and Eve knows that and responds accordingly but he whittles away at what God has said…\u00a0 Next, he tries to get portray the one rule God has given them as selfish.\u00a0 Why did God tell them not to eat from the tree?\u00a0 Because, \u201cGod knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds appealing and so Eve ate the fruit and got Adam to do the same.\u00a0 Satan works the same way with us.\u00a0 He will try to distort God\u2019s word.\u00a0 He will try to make it look like God has alternative motives.\u00a0 Satan tries to make sin look good.<\/p>\n

He does this to tempt us, to get us to sin.<\/p>\n

Sometimes Satan\u2019s cunning is too much for us and we sin.\u00a0 Sometimes we are weak and are not always able to resist and we sin.\u00a0 Resisting temptation is not easy but it is part of being human.<\/p>\n

As a human, it was necessary<\/em> for Jesus to face temptation.\u00a0 So, right after his baptism, Jesus is \u201cled by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He fasts for forty days and so he becomes hungry.\u00a0 The tempter said, \u201cIf you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 This might not even seem like temptation.\u00a0 Jesus hasn\u2019t eaten for forty days.\u00a0 It might seem perfectly reasonable for him to use his power to have bread to eat but Jesus knows he does not have this power for selfish reasons.\u00a0 He knows God provides the word that truly feeds him.<\/p>\n

Next, the devil tries to deceive Jesus by using scripture to tell Jesus He can throw himself down and God will save him.\u00a0 Does scripture teach us to trust in God?\u00a0 Absolutely, but, as Jesus says scripture also says, \u201cYou shall not put the Lord, your God to the test<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 We can fully trust in God but that doesn\u2019t mean we can do whatever we want and expect God to rescue us from our own stupidity.<\/p>\n

We probably aren\u2019t literally going to throw ourselves off a parapet and expect God to catch us but are there times we rush blindly into something and then question God when things don\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

The devil tries to tempt Jesus one more time but offering him all that physical things of this world if Jesus will just worship him.\u00a0 To have everything\u2026power, wealth\u2026<\/p>\n

Many, many people give into this type of temptation and put their whole lives into building up wealth and power for themselves.\u00a0 Hopefully you don\u2019t succumb your whole life to this but how many individual choices do you make for wealth and power that lead down the slippery slope away from Jesus?<\/p>\n

Of course, Jesus is able to resist all temptation.\u00a0 I say \u201cof course\u201d because He is the Son of God.\u00a0 Jesus shows us that it is possible to resist temptation but we might feel it is impossible for us.<\/p>\n

With God\u2019s help, all things are possible but it is true that often we sin.\u00a0 It started with the original sin<\/a> of Adam and Eve.\u00a0 As Paul writes, \u201cThrough one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Death here is the separation from God caused by our sin.<\/p>\n

But there is hope.<\/p>\n

God offers a gift following our sins.\u00a0 It is \u201cthe gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 It is the gift that \u201cbrought acquittal<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 It is the \u201cgift of justification<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 \u201cFor just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The gift comes through Jesus\u2019 death on the Cross.\u00a0 The gift is freely given.\u00a0 There is nothing we can do to earn<\/em> <\/strong>this gift but we do need to accept it.\u00a0 To accept it, we must confess our sins and resolve to sin no more.\u00a0 We often fall short but we must keep trying and keep repenting.<\/p>\n

How have you fallen into temptation?\u00a0 What do you need to confess?<\/p>\n

And so we cry out in our psalm, \u201cBe merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Sunday of Lent, Year A Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 March 5, 2017 Today we hear the story of the \u201coriginal sin.\u201d\u00a0 Adam and Eve were in the Garden and God had given them just one rule.\u00a0 They were told not to eat of the fruit of …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘1st Sunday of Lent, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,260],"tags":[263,162,163],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-xd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2060,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions\/2060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}