William H. Willimon - "Temptations" (March 4, 2001)

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-	Aristotle said that,	0:10
	"That action is right	0:13
	"that conforms to those purposes	0:16
	"for which the actor was intended."	0:21
	Every living being on Earth has got a purpose,	0:26
	and an end date, telos as Aristotle said,	0:31
	something for which that being was created.	0:36
	Dogs are created to run and jump and bark.	0:39
	A flower is meant to turn its head toward the sun.	0:42
	Human beings, as well, we have a purpose.	0:48
	Behavior is right or wrong, according to Aristotle,	0:54
	not because it conforms to some code or law,	0:59
	but rather how well that behavior conforms to the purpose	1:03
	for which that being was created.	1:10
	This is what philosophers call teleological ethics.	1:14
	At least that's what they taught us in high school shop	1:20
	as far as I can remember.	1:23
	Always use a tool for the purpose for which it was intended.	1:26
	It is a violation of the ethics of shop	1:30
	to use a knife for a screwdriver,	1:34
	or a wrench for a hammer.	1:36
	Well, enough of Aristotle or high school shop.	1:40
	Today's gospel is what it always is	1:43
	on the first Sunday of Lent,	1:46
	it is the story of Jesus' temptation.	1:48
	At the beginning of his adult life,	1:53
	the age of some of you,	1:58
	Jesus was led into the wilderness	2:00
	and there he met the tempter	2:03
	who tried to tempt Jesus to be	2:08
	who He was not.	2:12
	Here is the gospel:	2:14
	Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan	2:16
	and we led by the Spirit into the wilderness	2:20
	where for 40 days He was tempted by the devil.	2:24
	He ate nothing at all during those days,	2:28
	and when they were over He was famished.	2:31
	The devil said to Him, "If you are the Son of God,	2:34
	"command this stone to become a loaf of bread."	2:38
	Jesus answered, "It is written,	2:42
	"one does not live by bread alone."	2:45
	Then the devil led Him up and showed Him in an instant	2:49
	all the kingdoms of the world,	2:52
	and the devil said to Him, "To you I will give their glory	2:53
	"and all this authority, for it has been given over to me,	2:58
	"and I can give it to anyone I please.	3:03
	"If you then will worship me, it will all be yours."	3:06
	Jesus answered, "It is written, worship the Lord your God	3:11
	"and serve only Him."	3:16
	Then the devil took Him to Jerusalem	3:19
	and placed Him on the pinnacle of the temple saying,	3:21
	"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.	3:24
	"For it is written, He will command His angels	3:28
	"concerning you to protect you,	3:30
	"and on their hands they will bear you up	3:33
	"so that you will not dash your foot against a stone."	3:36
	Jesus answered him, "It is said,	3:40
	"'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"	3:45
	When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Him	3:50
	until a more opportune time.	3:54
	This is the Word of the Lord.	3:58
-	Thanks be to God.	4:02
-	Would you explain to me why it is that we sort of get	4:07
	goofy whenever that word temptation is mentioned?	4:12
	Just mention the word temptation	4:18
	and there's always somebody present to quote Oscar Wilde,	4:22
	you know, "I can resist anything except temptation."	4:25
	"What were you thinking of when you bought	4:31
	"that red convertible?" we ask.	4:33
	"Oh, the devil made me do it," he explains.	4:37
	They roll out the dessert tray at the restaurant,	4:42
	and there is the chocolate pie,	4:45
	and there is this, and there is that.	4:47
	Somebody at the table always says,	4:51
	"Get thee behind me, Satan.	4:54
	"Oh well, I guess I will have just one little slice,	4:57
	"and some of that stuff on top of it, too."	4:59
	Well this is the Scripture they're quoting.	5:04
	They're quoting Jesus: "Get thee behind me, Satan."	5:08
	It's what Jesus said in the wilderness when the tempter	5:12
	afforded Him three tantalizing alternatives.	5:15
	Get the behind me, Satan.	5:19
	But isn't it odd that we take this,	5:24
	and we turn it into a joke, something funny;	5:28
	temptation in jest.	5:32
	We, if we think about the devil,	5:36
	we think about the devil not there with Jesus	5:39
	in the wilderness, but prancing about on a basketball court,	5:42
	the devil with the blue dress on, or Temptation Island.	5:47
	Why do we make so light	5:55
	of a serious subject like temptation?	5:57
	I wonder if we do it, the same way we make light	6:02
	of a lot of things, as a kind of defense.	6:05
	Let's make temptation into something cute,	6:10
	something that you say when the dessert tray	6:13
	is passed around,	6:15
	a sort of intentional trivialization.	6:17
	The devil made me do it!	6:21
	Because how different is our jesting	6:27
	from temptation as it	6:32
	really is in life?	6:34
	Down deep she knew that her mother loved her.	6:42
	Down deep she knew that her mother	6:47
	meant to be a good mother.	6:49
	But when she was on that stuff,	6:52
	when she was on that powder came through the little envelope	6:54
	slipped under the door after a few bills	6:58
	were slipped under the door to the other side,	7:01
	when she was on that stuff she was not a good mother.	7:03
	Her grandmother had given her a little necklace,	7:09
	a little diamond necklace, and she loved it.	7:13
	She'd only worn it a couple of times.	7:15
	She kept it carefully in a box	7:17
	on top of her dresser in the apartment.	7:21
	One day it was gone.	7:25
	Her mother said to her, "Well, you're careless,	7:28
	"you probably misplaced it.	7:31
	But she knew she hadn't misplaced it.	7:32
	She knew immediately what had happened.	7:35
	Her mother had stolen it to buy some of the powder	7:37
	they slip under the door.	7:41
	Her mother seemed to love her,	7:45
	but it was humiliating to know	7:49
	that she loved those drugs even better.	7:52
	How many times had her mother said,	7:56
	"I'm gonna get off this stuff.	7:58
	"I can get off this stuff any time I want to.	7:59
	"One of these days I'm gonna get myself together."	8:02
	But she had said it so many times,	8:04
	and every time it was always a lie.	8:07
	Now that's what temptation looks like in the real.	8:13
	"What were you thinking of?"	8:20
	the head of the law firm asked him.	8:23
	What was he thinking of?	8:27
	It was only a couple thousand dollars.	8:29
	It was just a fraction of his yearly salary at the law firm.	8:32
	Yet he had falsified his expense accounts.	8:38
	He had blown it all, his great career, everything	8:42
	for a couple of thousand bucks.	8:44
	"You were to be one of our very best lawyers,"	8:49
	the partner said, "and you blew it all."	8:54
	That's temptation.	9:00
	The wrecked lives, the broken hearts,	9:04
	this is no joking matter.	9:08
	It's odd how we joke about that,	9:12
	how we trivialize it.	9:14
	Temptation Island.	9:19
	Note that when Jesus was tempted	9:23
	it wasn't about chocolate pie.	9:25
	When Jesus was tempted it didn't involve	9:30
	somebody with a shady there and a scant negligee	9:33
	and a dab of nice-end perfume behind the ear,	9:38
	a youthful discretion in a motel room;	9:41
	it was very specific temptation.	9:43
	Do you remember the words of the tempter?	9:48
	"If you are the Son of God,	9:51
	"then prove it."	9:56
	If you are this, then prove that	9:59
	by how you respond to this test.	10:03
	Don't be who you say you are,	10:07
	you be who I say you are.	10:09
	I think right there is the heart	10:14
	of the ugliness of temptation.	10:17
	If you are; it's an identity test.	10:21
	When I was in college,	10:27
	this nice little botanist returned out midterm exams,	10:29
	and he put these exams down on the table,	10:34
	and he just slouched forward.	10:36
	Then he looked out at the class.	10:42
	None of this is a good beginning for a conversation	10:44
	between professor and a class about the midterm.	10:47
	"I've graded your exams," he said,	10:52
	"and in grading them it appears	10:55
	"that five or six of you have collaborated.	10:57
	"You cheated.	11:01
	"Since I discovered this, I've been asking myself	11:03
	"over and over again,	11:06
	"did I do anything to deserve this kind of response?	11:10
	"Is there anything I have said in this class	11:17
	"during the semester that led any of you to believe	11:19
	"that this class was more important than your good name?	11:23
	"Did I say or suggest anything during the course of our work	11:28
	"that leads you to believe that botany	11:32
	"is more important than your integrity?	11:37
	"My God, it's only a grade.	11:41
	"Let me assure you, you get out of here	11:44
	"nobody's gonna know what you made in this class.	11:47
	"We're talking about your life, your honor.	11:52
	"Nobody'll ever care about what you know about botany,	11:59
	"but everything is gonna hinge on who you are as a person,	12:01
	"and I shudder to think if I've done anything	12:09
	"that led you to sacrifice your good name	12:12
	"for something as trivial as botany.	12:18
	"Now I want those of you who cheated,	12:23
	"I want you to come by my office this afternoon	12:24
	"and let's talk about this.	12:27
	"I just need to be reassured by you	12:30
	"that I did nothing to lead you into this dishonesty."	12:32
	After class on the way out this guy said to me,	12:41
	"Man, I wish he'd done the nice thing and just flunked us."	12:44
	(laughing)	12:49
	Even though I was a sophomore,	12:53
	I actually got the point though.	12:55
	Temptation is not just a matter of cutting a few corners.	12:58
	It's not obeying some honor code	13:03
	posted on the wall of the classroom.	13:05
	It's not getting a grade you didn't really deserve.	13:07
	Temptation is a question about who you are	13:12
	and have been intended to be.	13:19
	Satan, to his credit, honestly puts that on the table.	13:23
	If you are, then...	13:27
	Satan urges Jesus	13:36
	spectacularly to turn stones to bread.	13:39
	After all, don't we believe in doing good for hungry people?	13:45
	Imagine what kind of world we would live in	13:49
	if Jesus that day had only said yes.	13:51
	Failing at that Satan says,	13:57
	"Well, throw yourself down off the pinnacle of the temple.	13:59
	"Boy, that would be some sermon illustration.	14:03
	"Everybody would believe you then.	14:05
	"Hey, it's in the Bible.	14:08
	"God will protect you.	14:11
	"God will not let any harm befall his servants."	14:12
	Then Satan says, "Have you ever considered politics?	14:17
	"Take charge of the kingdoms of this world."	14:25
	I know after the last election you wish Jesus had said,	14:30
	"Well, yes, I'll se what I can do."	14:33
	(laughing)	14:35
	Imagine how differently the news would run this morning	14:38
	and the paper if Jesus had said yes, but Jesus said no.	14:42
	Jesus doesn't do politics.	14:46
	My point is, you see, all these temptations are good.	14:51
	Satan doesn't say, "Hey Jesus, come over here,	14:57
	"I gotta fifth out in the car.	15:00
	"You wanna have a good time?"	15:02
	Satan does not tempt Jesus to do bad.	15:05
	He tempts Him to do good things,	15:08
	but they are not	15:10
	Jesus good things.	15:13
	Jesus you wanna be just like God?	15:16
	You wanna come in here and take charge,	15:19
	wave a magic wand over everything, set everything right?	15:21
	Jesus you wanna be...	15:26
	Jesus do you wanna live like God or not?	15:27
	Hey, you wanna live like the devil?	15:30
	You see the temptation,	15:34
	the temptation is who am I?	15:36
	What is God's will for my life?	15:41
	That is the tempting question that Satan puts before people,	15:46
	the temptation to be somebody	15:51
	you haven't been intended to be.	15:53
	It is that temptation, that desire in our lives	15:57
	to turn a knife into a screwdriver,	16:03
	a flower into a dollar bill,	16:05
	a treasured human life into a thing;	16:07
	that's the temptation Jesus faced.	16:09
	Be who you are not meant to be.	16:12
	And that in my experience is the hell of addiction.	16:18
	You know in your heart of hearts,	16:23
	in your sober moments you know that you	16:26
	were meant for more than to have your precious	16:29
	God-given human life tethered to nothing more than a bottle.	16:33
	You know that you are meant for more	16:40
	than to have your life jerked around	16:42
	by a handful of pills.	16:44
	You know that,	16:49
	but the temptation is too great.	16:52
	Oh live a life without pain.	16:54
	Live a life where there are no tough dilemmas.	16:56
	It's hard to decide whether to go this way or that.	16:59
	Don't live like somebody with a brain,	17:02
	but live like some mellowed out, smiling,	17:04
	that life is easier.	17:08
	That's what we're talking about.	17:13
	And it is not a joke.	17:15
	The devil made me do it.	17:20
	This is dead serious.	17:24
	It's a continued fundamental,	17:27
	irresistible violation of who God meant us to be.	17:31
	That's temptation.	17:38
	But this is Lent.	17:43
	This is the great season of the gospel.	17:46
	And if we can't resist temptation,	17:52
	the good news is that Jesus can.	17:57
	As the writer to the Hebrews says,	18:00
	"He was tested like us in every way,	18:02
	"just as we are,	18:08
	"and yet He said no."	18:11
	There is no temptation that we have faced	18:16
	and to which we have succumbed	18:20
	that He has not said no.	18:22
	And this is Lent,	18:27
	and this is the good news of the gospel,	18:29
	that even if you've made a mess of your life,	18:32
	even if you said yes when you should have said no,	18:35
	it isn't too late.	18:38
	Even if you have messed up your life	18:41
	in ways that we can't say publicly,	18:43
	we went through three pages of confession	18:45
	at the beginning of this service,	18:47
	maybe we didn't cover your sin in all that,	18:48
	(laughing)	18:51
	but even if we didn't,	18:53
	and even if we had and you couldn't say it out loud	18:55
	to God or anybody else, it is not too late.	18:58
	He, the One who stared temptation in the face	19:03
	and took it with utter seriousness and resisted temptation,	19:06
	the good news He can help us resist as well.	19:12
	There's still time to turn	19:17
	and be who God meant you to be.	19:22
	He told me, he said, "You know I always thought	19:29
	"I wanted to be in a fraternity in college.	19:31
	"I couldn't believe it when they gave me a bid.	19:34
	"The very one I wanted more than anything to be a part of.	19:37
	"And I liked the first days in the fraternity,	19:40
	"but I didn't like what it was doing to me.	19:44
	"I didn't mind what they were doing,	19:49
	"but it bothered me what it was doing to me.	19:51
	"I realized I was changing the way I dressed.	19:54
	"I was changing the way I talked, the way I acted.	19:57
	"It was about then that I finally said to myself,	20:00
	"wait a minute, this isn't who you really are."	20:03
	Well, this is what we call gospel, good news,	20:11
	conversion, born again;	20:15
	it is the good news of Jesus Christ.	20:18
	It isn't a matter of saying no	20:22
	to something that would be a lot of fun.	20:25
	It's a matter of saying yes to who you really are	20:29
	and God means you to be.	20:32
	And the good news of this story is that because	20:34
	He did, you can.	20:37
	Amen.	20:44

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - "Temptations" (March 4, 2001)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4d21s00c

Date:

March 4, 2001

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:11. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 20:50.
The preacher argues that temptation shapes who we are; thus, resisting temptation is not saying “no” to an evil opportunity for fun, but is instead saying “yes” to the person that God has called you to be. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-1055
ref10267_4md
uachapelsermaud
duke:321115
dcrau001699
ark:/87924/r4d21s00c
06b4ad7d-203e-4884-8167-bdba40c16a22

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 4:1-13

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