Temptation Eyes
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"Temptation Eyes" by Keith Hewitt
"Lent 1" by John Steward
* * * * * * * *
Temptation Eyes
by Keith Hewitt
Luke 4:1-13
"Thank you for agreeing to see me," the young man said, sliding into the seat across from a somewhat older man. As he shrugged out of his jacket, a waitress appeared, bearing a pot of coffee. The young man nodded gratefully, and she poured; steam rose, and the rich smell of coffee wafted over him. She offered to top off the older man's cup, but he smiled and held his hand over it; she retreated out of earshot.
"It sounded like it might be an emergency," the older man said, then added with a smile, "Besides, I was looking for a reason not to work on my sermon this morning. Tell me what's going on, Tom."
The young man fiddled with his coffee cup for a few moments, staring into it as though the swirling blackness might offer some augury. Finally, without looking up, he said, "Have you ever had a... problem... with someone in your congregation, John?"
That brought a cautious smile. "Many. Are you having a problem with a parishioner?"
"Yes." Pause. "No." Another pause, and he looked up from his coffee. "Maybe."
The older man leaned back, rested his hands on the table. "Well, I think you've covered all the possibilities. Can you narrow that down a bit?"
The young man looked past him, gathering and ordering his thoughts before leaning forward slightly, lowering his voice. "I told you about the young woman I've been counseling: single mother, out of work, and going back to school. She may be depressed."
"I recall," he answered after taking a moment to review recent conversations. It was a sad case; the boyfriend had been killed in a car accident not long after the baby was born, leaving the girl to struggle on her own. A few months after that, she lost her job at the packing plant. No parents in the area on either side, no other family. She had turned to Tom for counseling one day when the burden had gotten too heavy to carry on her own.
"I found some resources for her," the young man explained, "and we were going to discuss them today. She called me this morning and told me her babysitter was sick, so she couldn't come to the church. She asked if we could meet at her apartment, instead."
"Oh?" He tried to make it sound casual, encouraging, while frowning inwardly.
"And I said, 'sure.' I was pretty excited. I had things to tell her -- and -- I realized this later -- I really like talking to her. I feel like I'm doing some good, and she's..." He hesitated, searching for the right word.
"Vulnerable?" the older man asked.
The young man's eyebrows furrowed. "I was going to say 'easy to talk to.' Truth is, I look forward to our meetings; of everyone I've counseled since I've been there, she's probably the only one I can say that about."
"I see."
"She's not that much younger than me, and I can relate to a lot of what she's feeling," he said defensively, then slumped a little. "Anyway, when I got to her apartment she told me that her babysitter had found someone else to take her daughter -- they'd just left."
"I see."
"I suppose you do. We sat down at the table... she poured me a cup of coffee... and then she gave me this look, and said she would be right back. Said she was going to change into something more comfortable." He looked down at his coffee cup. "Honest to God -- sorry -- honestly, I felt like I was in a Doris Day movie."
The older man smiled slightly. "I can see why. What did you do?"
"I left." There was a long pause, then the young man looked up, his expression pained. "I left, but I waited until she came back out before I did it. I knew I should leave, I knew that was the right thing to do, but part of me..." He trailed off.
"And was she wearing something more comfortable?" The question was gentle and bore with it the lingering hope that there might have been a misunderstanding.
The young man flashed back briefly to the vision of soft skin and lace, blue eyes and long, flowing hair, and shook his head. "I don't know what it did for her, but I can tell you it didn't make me more comfortable. I stood up, said something incoherent, and left -- I ran, practically left a hole in the air."
"So you did the right thing."
"Maybe, but I did it a little late -- I should never have stayed there once she excused herself. But I think I... I think I wanted to know. I think I wanted to see what she did... and I'll tell you something else. I think I ran, because I was afraid of what would happen if I stayed and tried to reason with her."
There was a long silence, then, before the older man spoke again. "I'd like to tell you that you did nothing wrong, but I'd be wrong. You did. You should never have gone to her apartment by yourself -- and once you did, as soon as you learned she was alone... and certainly once she started talking about getting more comfortable... you should have excused yourself and said that this conversation needed to resume at your office or in some other public place."
"I know that, now. Honestly, I knew it then. But... but..." He flailed softly.
"But you were tempted. You can file the rest under lessons learned -- or re-learned -- for a pastor, but the meat of the matter is that you were tempted. That's why you wanted to talk to me."
The young man nodded.
"I could absolve you, I suppose... but that's not my place. The way I look at it, temptation is a mirror -- it gets put before us to reflect our weaknesses... our human weaknesses. It's not a condemnation, but it is a warning sign. And it's certainly something that we have to learn to deal with -- after all, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness."
"As I recall, Jesus pretty much sailed through those temptations."
"First of all, we know the outcome -- we don't necessarily know if there was any inner struggle when he faced them that wasn't recorded for us. But most importantly, Jesus' reaction was bound to be different than ours. Remember, Jesus was God formed in the image of man... we are man, formed in the image of God. The way I look at it, his divine nature was bound to rise above his human nature. In order for us to rise above human nature, we have to struggle a lot more."
"But still --"
"Look -- Jesus is our savior, but he's also our role model. In our lives, we should strive to be like him... but we can never really achieve that end, and we shouldn't spend too much time beating ourselves up for not being perfect. We hold up athletes as role models all the time, but does that mean we're ever going to be able to pass like Aaron Rodgers or bat like Hank Aaron? No -- but it gives us something to strive for. So we use temptation to learn -- to learn what our weaknesses are and how to overcome and strengthen them. Now that you know of this one, that's your job."
There was another long silence before the young man nodded, and said quietly, "I suppose you're right, John. But it sure would be nice not to have to worry about temptation, wouldn't it?"
The older man considered this while he raised his cup, took a sip of hot coffee. When he had swallowed, he put the cup down and said, "You know, I've made my peace with it, Tom. I certainly don't seek it out, but I do try to learn from it when it crosses my path, when it shows me a flaw in my character." He looked at his young friend, then, and smiled. "As to the rest, I can tell you this much: a little bit of worry is a good thing, because the most dangerous temptation of all is to believe you're above it."
Keith Hewitt is the author of three volumes of NaTiVity Dramas: Nontraditional Christmas Plays for All Ages (CSS). He is a local pastor, former youth leader and Sunday school teacher, and occasional speaker at Christian events. He is currently serving as the pastor at Parkview UMC in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. Keith is married to a teacher, and they have two children and assorted dogs and cats.
Lent 1
by John Steward
Romans 10:8b-13
In a Danish village there was a Lutheran church where each Sunday the people would walk into the church by way of the center aisle. At the front of the church, there was a break between the pews and a blank white wall. Every Sunday, the people of that church would walk down the center aisle to the front of the church and genuflect at the blank wall. A man visiting the church did not understand what the people were doing; when he asked them they said that they had always done this. Upon further investigation, he learned that hundreds of years before there had been a painting of the Virgin Mary on that wall. At the time of the Protestant Reformation when the church became Lutheran they had painted over the display of the Virgin Mary. Since the people had always bowed before the Virgin Mary, they just kept on bowing even though there was nothing on the wall.
There are many people in church who simply go through the routine Sunday after Sunday. They know all the prayers by heart and could go through the entire service without ever opening the hymnal. For some that is all it has ever been. They do it because they have always done it that way before. But God wants to move beyond the routine. He wants the gospel to become so real that we confess with our own lips that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. God wants his love to be routine no longer but to be very real in our lives.
_______
Source: Leith Anderson, A Church for the 21st Century (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers), p. 145. Used by permission.
(from Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit, Series II, Cycle C [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 1997], p. 30)
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 17, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Temptation Eyes" by Keith Hewitt
"Lent 1" by John Steward
* * * * * * * *
Temptation Eyes
by Keith Hewitt
Luke 4:1-13
"Thank you for agreeing to see me," the young man said, sliding into the seat across from a somewhat older man. As he shrugged out of his jacket, a waitress appeared, bearing a pot of coffee. The young man nodded gratefully, and she poured; steam rose, and the rich smell of coffee wafted over him. She offered to top off the older man's cup, but he smiled and held his hand over it; she retreated out of earshot.
"It sounded like it might be an emergency," the older man said, then added with a smile, "Besides, I was looking for a reason not to work on my sermon this morning. Tell me what's going on, Tom."
The young man fiddled with his coffee cup for a few moments, staring into it as though the swirling blackness might offer some augury. Finally, without looking up, he said, "Have you ever had a... problem... with someone in your congregation, John?"
That brought a cautious smile. "Many. Are you having a problem with a parishioner?"
"Yes." Pause. "No." Another pause, and he looked up from his coffee. "Maybe."
The older man leaned back, rested his hands on the table. "Well, I think you've covered all the possibilities. Can you narrow that down a bit?"
The young man looked past him, gathering and ordering his thoughts before leaning forward slightly, lowering his voice. "I told you about the young woman I've been counseling: single mother, out of work, and going back to school. She may be depressed."
"I recall," he answered after taking a moment to review recent conversations. It was a sad case; the boyfriend had been killed in a car accident not long after the baby was born, leaving the girl to struggle on her own. A few months after that, she lost her job at the packing plant. No parents in the area on either side, no other family. She had turned to Tom for counseling one day when the burden had gotten too heavy to carry on her own.
"I found some resources for her," the young man explained, "and we were going to discuss them today. She called me this morning and told me her babysitter was sick, so she couldn't come to the church. She asked if we could meet at her apartment, instead."
"Oh?" He tried to make it sound casual, encouraging, while frowning inwardly.
"And I said, 'sure.' I was pretty excited. I had things to tell her -- and -- I realized this later -- I really like talking to her. I feel like I'm doing some good, and she's..." He hesitated, searching for the right word.
"Vulnerable?" the older man asked.
The young man's eyebrows furrowed. "I was going to say 'easy to talk to.' Truth is, I look forward to our meetings; of everyone I've counseled since I've been there, she's probably the only one I can say that about."
"I see."
"She's not that much younger than me, and I can relate to a lot of what she's feeling," he said defensively, then slumped a little. "Anyway, when I got to her apartment she told me that her babysitter had found someone else to take her daughter -- they'd just left."
"I see."
"I suppose you do. We sat down at the table... she poured me a cup of coffee... and then she gave me this look, and said she would be right back. Said she was going to change into something more comfortable." He looked down at his coffee cup. "Honest to God -- sorry -- honestly, I felt like I was in a Doris Day movie."
The older man smiled slightly. "I can see why. What did you do?"
"I left." There was a long pause, then the young man looked up, his expression pained. "I left, but I waited until she came back out before I did it. I knew I should leave, I knew that was the right thing to do, but part of me..." He trailed off.
"And was she wearing something more comfortable?" The question was gentle and bore with it the lingering hope that there might have been a misunderstanding.
The young man flashed back briefly to the vision of soft skin and lace, blue eyes and long, flowing hair, and shook his head. "I don't know what it did for her, but I can tell you it didn't make me more comfortable. I stood up, said something incoherent, and left -- I ran, practically left a hole in the air."
"So you did the right thing."
"Maybe, but I did it a little late -- I should never have stayed there once she excused herself. But I think I... I think I wanted to know. I think I wanted to see what she did... and I'll tell you something else. I think I ran, because I was afraid of what would happen if I stayed and tried to reason with her."
There was a long silence, then, before the older man spoke again. "I'd like to tell you that you did nothing wrong, but I'd be wrong. You did. You should never have gone to her apartment by yourself -- and once you did, as soon as you learned she was alone... and certainly once she started talking about getting more comfortable... you should have excused yourself and said that this conversation needed to resume at your office or in some other public place."
"I know that, now. Honestly, I knew it then. But... but..." He flailed softly.
"But you were tempted. You can file the rest under lessons learned -- or re-learned -- for a pastor, but the meat of the matter is that you were tempted. That's why you wanted to talk to me."
The young man nodded.
"I could absolve you, I suppose... but that's not my place. The way I look at it, temptation is a mirror -- it gets put before us to reflect our weaknesses... our human weaknesses. It's not a condemnation, but it is a warning sign. And it's certainly something that we have to learn to deal with -- after all, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness."
"As I recall, Jesus pretty much sailed through those temptations."
"First of all, we know the outcome -- we don't necessarily know if there was any inner struggle when he faced them that wasn't recorded for us. But most importantly, Jesus' reaction was bound to be different than ours. Remember, Jesus was God formed in the image of man... we are man, formed in the image of God. The way I look at it, his divine nature was bound to rise above his human nature. In order for us to rise above human nature, we have to struggle a lot more."
"But still --"
"Look -- Jesus is our savior, but he's also our role model. In our lives, we should strive to be like him... but we can never really achieve that end, and we shouldn't spend too much time beating ourselves up for not being perfect. We hold up athletes as role models all the time, but does that mean we're ever going to be able to pass like Aaron Rodgers or bat like Hank Aaron? No -- but it gives us something to strive for. So we use temptation to learn -- to learn what our weaknesses are and how to overcome and strengthen them. Now that you know of this one, that's your job."
There was another long silence before the young man nodded, and said quietly, "I suppose you're right, John. But it sure would be nice not to have to worry about temptation, wouldn't it?"
The older man considered this while he raised his cup, took a sip of hot coffee. When he had swallowed, he put the cup down and said, "You know, I've made my peace with it, Tom. I certainly don't seek it out, but I do try to learn from it when it crosses my path, when it shows me a flaw in my character." He looked at his young friend, then, and smiled. "As to the rest, I can tell you this much: a little bit of worry is a good thing, because the most dangerous temptation of all is to believe you're above it."
Keith Hewitt is the author of three volumes of NaTiVity Dramas: Nontraditional Christmas Plays for All Ages (CSS). He is a local pastor, former youth leader and Sunday school teacher, and occasional speaker at Christian events. He is currently serving as the pastor at Parkview UMC in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. Keith is married to a teacher, and they have two children and assorted dogs and cats.
Lent 1
by John Steward
Romans 10:8b-13
In a Danish village there was a Lutheran church where each Sunday the people would walk into the church by way of the center aisle. At the front of the church, there was a break between the pews and a blank white wall. Every Sunday, the people of that church would walk down the center aisle to the front of the church and genuflect at the blank wall. A man visiting the church did not understand what the people were doing; when he asked them they said that they had always done this. Upon further investigation, he learned that hundreds of years before there had been a painting of the Virgin Mary on that wall. At the time of the Protestant Reformation when the church became Lutheran they had painted over the display of the Virgin Mary. Since the people had always bowed before the Virgin Mary, they just kept on bowing even though there was nothing on the wall.
There are many people in church who simply go through the routine Sunday after Sunday. They know all the prayers by heart and could go through the entire service without ever opening the hymnal. For some that is all it has ever been. They do it because they have always done it that way before. But God wants to move beyond the routine. He wants the gospel to become so real that we confess with our own lips that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. God wants his love to be routine no longer but to be very real in our lives.
_______
Source: Leith Anderson, A Church for the 21st Century (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers), p. 145. Used by permission.
(from Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit, Series II, Cycle C [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 1997], p. 30)
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 17, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
