After eight weeks, we finally bring our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer to an end this morning. It’s been a slow and deliberate descent as we have traveled from the heights of divine holiness to now the depths of human depravity, as we have looked at such theological subjects as the fatherhood of God, the place of heaven, divine holiness, the kingdom of God and the will of God, only to conclude our prayer with such material and practical concerns as the need for bread and the perils of temptation. Of course, the most OBVIOUS question is why are we stopping HERE with, “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil?” After all, don’t we pray at the conclusion of our prayer each Sunday, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”? Well that last line never appears in the Bible but was added many years later by the early Church. Because Jesus’s life concluded with the “the resurrection,” they wanted to end the prayer on a high note, with a word of blessing and praise instead of an appeal to God to keep us from falling into the clutches of evil. 

For us to pray “lead us not into temptation” is not to say that God is the cause of the temptations we experience or that God purposely intends for us to be tempted to evil. Temptation is an inevitable and universal event- we ALL experience it each and every day. Generally speaking, our temptations can be said to fall into THREE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES: there are temptations to the FLESH, which produce such sins as lust and gluttony; there are temptations to the MIND, which lead us to pride and envy; and then there are temptations for the IDOLATROUS LOVE OF THINGS, which is the source of greed. They tend to vary in intensity as we grow from one stage of our life into the next. For instance, while we are young, we find ourselves easily lured into sins of the FLESH. Then in middle age, we are more easily given to sins of the MIND such as pride and the lust for power. Finally, in old age, we exhibit a greater inclination towards AVARICE. Knowing that our lives are nearing an end, we compensate for our lack of ETERNAL security by piling up earthly goods and trying to increase our ECONOMIC security.

Temptations in themselves do not imply weakness- they arise because we share a double nature. We are all a fusion or mixture of both animal and spirit locked together in the same body. As animals, we possess a strong instinct for self-preservation and the need to satisfy our most basic needs like food, sex, power, and security. But we are much MORE than animals- we are SPIRITUAL beings TOO, guided by values and ideals that are frequently at odds with the animal side of us. We suffer from what the great theologian Reinhold Niebuhr described as the paradox of being created in the IMAGE of God but not BEING God. Thus, there’s a natural antagonism at work within our breast; we are conflicted beings, constantly torn between two competing drives- one that looks upward towards heaven and another that looks down towards the earth. Therefore, temptation is as natural to us as the very air that we breathe.

The Bible states that even Christ HIMSELF was tempted in every way that we are. After all, how is it possible to affirm that he was perfectly human as well as divine if he never entered into the fullness of our experience, which includes our common susceptibility to temptation. We know he experienced hunger and thirst and weariness at various times throughout his ministry. We also know he was often angered by the neglect and injustices he saw against the poor and the weak, especially by the ruling religious elite who were supposed to represent God before the people. But regardless the temptations he endured, he remained steadfast, refusing to deviate from the calling he had received and dedicated himself to.

In his teachings, Jesus repeatedly warned his disciples of the dangers of temptation, of their moral and spiritual gravity. He told them in the hours shortly before his arrest to “watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.” This was because he understood temptation as more than just a simple attraction but THE OCCASION FOR SERIOUS CHOICES WHICH COULD HAVE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. Adam and Eve’s decision to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which they had been forewarned of, signified something far more serious than the urge to enjoy a fruit cocktail- it was the BETRAYAL OF DIVINE TRUST. Likewise, the constant surrender to our temptations represents to Jesus the very rejection of God. They become actions motivated by doubt and the desire to exalt oneself at the EXPENSE of God. Temptation seizes us at the very moment we begin to trust in our OWN powers and reasonings rather than we do God’s, hence making oneself into God. Put another way, the more we believe in our ourselves and trust in our OWN powers, the more we doubt God and trust in HIS guidance for our lives which is why John the Baptist so forcefully declared to his disciples that he must decrease while Jesus had to INCREASE.

Now I’ve spent a good portion of my life pondering the question of “ethics,” that is, how to make responsible decisions while living in a world full of confusing options; it’s a subject I love and have even taught on the college level. What probably concerns me most is how our continual surrender to what is unhealthy and even DESTRUCTIVE to ourselves can result in a loss of personal character to where we no longer care about such things as human relationships or personal integrity or lose all commitment to what is right and good and true. Eventually, it can lead to the death of the soul. This was best summed up for me in a quote I stumbled across by the great 19^thcentury evangelist Dwight L. Moody, “Sow the act, and reap the habit; sow the habit, and reap the character; sow the character, and reap the eternity.” 

This first crystalized for me about forty years ago when, not long after John Paul II had been elected Pope, I happened to pick up a copy of one of his first magazine interviews. I was curious to learn more about this man- who he was, where he came from, and his views on some of the major issues of the day. He said something in that article that has never left me. In fact, it has become one of the cornerstones to my OWN understanding of ethics and moral behavior. He was talking about the young people of the world and the great spiritual hunger he sensed within many of them and said to the effect:

I’m not all that worried about the individual sins that so many of us in the church often get exercised about- such as whether they smoke some pot or drink too much or perhaps indulge in a little free love. What concerns me MOST is when the Spirit of God speaks to their hearts and tries to remind them what is good and true and beautiful and right and yet they constantly shut their ears to him. Over the course of a lifetime, we can so continue to shut our ears to the voice of truth and love–to the voice of GOD HIMSELF as he tirelessly calls us to himself–that we can no longer hear him, that it has reached the point where our heart is crusted over and our conscience no longer has the force it once did. It is then that our soul has become DEAD and matters of right and wrong no longer have any meaning for us. THAT is what worries me most!

I often think about those words. I think about them every time I hear about another mass killing- how the shooter was not born that way but over the course of years and by slow degrees he surrendered bits of his soul, he forfeited parts of his humanity until the capacity to love and empathize with others was lost COMPLETELY. I thought about it again three weeks ago when I heard about the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl. Those who know the young man--Nikolas Cruz--describe him as “lost” and “lonely” and a “violent” soul. His father died when he was young and he drew especially close to his mother which was by all accounts a loving relationship. Although raised a Catholic, the lessons of his faith never seemed to take root. His behavior in school grew increasingly worse- characterized by foul language, insults, disobedience, and constant disruption. Easily angered, he eventually developed a fascination with guns and death to where he would torture and kill small animals. The police were called to his home twenty-three times over his conduct. When his mother died last year, he was taken in by another family who lived not far from his home, but he continually got into fights, punched holes in the walls, and even attacked the mother. That’s when he took out his AK-15, walked over to the school, and began shooting. Minutes later, seventeen students and teachers were dead and another seventeen were left severely wounded. 

Cruz’s story is similar to so many others who over the course of a lifetime gradually became more and more deaf to the entreaties of God until they could no longer hear them and their conscience curdled and died. The heart can become SO calloused, SO jaded as to what it means to be human that it eventually becomes incapable of loving or accepting love. Such persons are unable to register the slightest pity or sympathy for anyone other than themselves, and it usually ends with their OWN destruction and incalculable damage to everyone else around them. 

There is a moving scene in Melville's Moby Dick where the Pequod, Ahab's ship, comes across another ship, the Rachel. Only the day before, the Rachelhad encountered the white whale and, sending the boats out after it, the whale had disappeared into the distance dragging the small boat with the captain's twelve year old son on board. Captain Gardiner now appeals to Ahab's compassion and asks if he will assist in finding the boat with his son on board. He explains that if the two ships systematically sweep the sea, they may find it or at least the remains of it. "My boy, my own boy is among them. For God's sake- I beg, I conjure...For eight-and-forty hours let me charter your ship- I will gladly pay for it, and roundly pay for it- if there be no other way- for eight-and-forty hours only- only that you must, oh, you must, and you SHALL do this thing." 

The desperate sea captain even reminds Ahab that he, Ahab, ALSO has a young son back home in Bedford. He appeals to any vestige of sympathy or tenderness he might have but Ahab will have none of it. Deaf to the captain’s pleas, he only wants to know, "Have you seen the white whale!" In other words, he hasn’t heard a single word of the frantic captain. In his monomaniacal hunt for the animal that years before had taken his leg, in his single-minded pursuit of vengeance, it seems everything human is now gone and he has become no better than an animal HIMSELF. His heart has become so eaten up by bitterness and revenge that nothing else matters- there is no measure of love or sympathy left to appeal to. Incapable of hearing the other man’s plea, Ahab will stalk and kill that whale even if it leads to his own death and ultimately the destruction of his men- which it in fact does.

Judas Iscariot was ALSO such a man. Throughout our Lord’s ministry, he was unable to respond to the continuous offers of love and grace patiently extended by Jesus time and time again. His was the sad story of a man so given over to avarice and greed that it eventually destroyed him. He’d been provided many opportunities to turn from his ways. Jesus showed him the same degree of love and grace and forgiveness that he offered to his other disciples- but Judas rejected them all. Over time, his heart became increasingly hardened until his conscience could no longer respond to the voice of the Spirit. Honesty, integrity, and truth no longer held any meaning for him as any distinction between right and wrong was gone, and he was now incapable of experiencing love or sympathy or pity for anyone except himself. 

Friends, the story of Nikolas Cruz and Ahab and Judas Iscariot is that of the death of the soul. These men were not born monsters. They grew up in homes just like ours- experiencing the same love and joy, laughter and tears. But pride and ambition, jealousy and hatred, avarice and greed took seed in their hearts, gnawing away at it until there was no heart left, until nothing remained for God to speak to. And THAT becomes the WORST fate, the most HORRIBLE judgment one can suffer- to no longer be able to hear the voice of God, to no longer own a conscience, when all those qualities which make one human--faith, love, compassion, trust--have atrophied and died. 

I remember watching a television interview back in the late 70’s with Bishop Festo Kivengere, the Anglican bishop of Uganda who had been a personal witness to the brutality and horrors that took place in that country under the bloody tyrant Idi Amin. He had just written a book entitled I Love Idi Aminand was on a book tour to promote it. When asked how a man who was responsible for the deaths of countless thousands of his own people could be loved by ANYONE much less a religious prelate, his answer was, “I have no hatred for Idi Amin, nothing but compassion and love. You see, people say that one day he will be judged by God but I say that he has ALREADY been judged. That man’s conscience is now dead and he can no longer hear the voice of God’s Spirit calling out to him, imploring him to cease his evil deeds and instead embrace the way of mercy, justice, and love, the way of Jesus Christ himself. When one can no longer hear that voice—the voice of GOD speaking to his heart and spirit--he already IS judged and becomes a person to be most pitied. It is the WORST judgment anyone can ever suffer.” 

Believe me when I tell you that if it could happen to such individuals as these, it could yet happen to any of US, MYSELF included! THIS is why we have to stay close to Christ, why we have to pray EVERY DAY, “Lord, lead us not into temptation but DELIVER us from evil!”- because we all find ourselves so darn SUSCEPTIBLE to evil’s influence! Through the biographies of such men, we are warned of the dangers of allowing sin, no matter how petty, to go undealt with. Years of pride and jealousy and petty thievery had built such a thick crust around their heart that it eventually smothered their conscience as well. The GOOD NEWS, however, is that God is STRONGER than the adversary and his love is GREATER than any evil. Christ’s power can sustain us through ANY temptation! He promises to deliver us from the destructive grip of each temptation for the risen, living Lord stands with us in the midst of every testing. Through his Word and by his Spirit, we are constantly reminded that in spite of our own treachery, regardless of the selfishness and pride, the lust and the ambitions, the jealousies and the hatreds that we secretly harbor, his love and forgiveness can break through them all. He can prevent them from taking root in our lives and ultimately devouring us. He gives us the power to humbly confess our sin and express new dependence upon him. He shows us that though we may often be faithless towards HIM, he will always keep faith with US. But we need to act decisively, we need to repent quickly, we need to remain close to Christ lest we TOO "sow the act, and reap the habit; sow the habit, and reap the character; sow the character, and reap the eternity." Amen and amen.