Third Sunday in Lent: Real Temptations
This morning I thought about temptation and forgiveness. Well, actually mostly about temptation. I was listening to the radio on the way to church and an author was talking about one the characters in her novel. He was the father in the family and he did things which caused problems. But, the author mentioned, he thought he was doing the right thing. Sometimes temptations are in the small things.
I have said before that if we really wanted to be honest about the problem of sins and temptation it is not the BIG ones that we should be railing against. I think, in reality, the overwhelming focus we place on these BIGGIES gets in the way of most of us dealing with the real presence of sin in our world and our lives. Just listen to any preacher when he or she begins to rail against sin and you will often be able to sit back in relief that they are not talking about you.
But take a step back and think of the "tradition" of the Seven Deadly Sins. Here they are:
- wrath (inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger, including denial of truth)
- greed (a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power)
- sloth (failure to utilize one's talents and gifts, seen as laziness and indifference)
- pride (desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self; often seen as the original sin
- lust (excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature)
- envy (insatiable desire and resentment that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it)
- gluttony (over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste) (See Wikipedia.)
What is the way to handle all this? Honest self-inventory. Searching moral inventory. The founders of the 12-Step movements were onto something important when they wrote Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory. In fact when they wrote their second text, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, they talked about the Seven Deadly Sins as the list to use to think about those things. They are universal.
All this means that my life needs to be self-honest and not judgmental of other people. To use the Seven Deadly Sins reminds how easy it can be to move from good to bad, from hope to sin. I do it daily. So daily I need to remind myself that there is hope and forgiveness. That is what my faith is all about. I don't have to be a prisoner to these. I can be freed.
Thanks be to God who gives me the victory in Jesus Christ.
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