Saturday Night Theologian
13 February 2005

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

North Korea this week admitted that it had developed nuclear weapons. Their admission was hardly a revelation to the rest of the world, since intelligence sources had claimed for several years that Pyongyang had a handful of nuclear weapons, but their public confirmation of these reports marked a new challenge for the rest of the world, particularly those countries that have attempted to get North Korea to forego its nuclear aspirations: China, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. It is particularly problematic for the three largest of these countries--China, the U.S., and Russia--to argue that North Korea has no right to develop nuclear weapons, since they all have large nuclear arsenals. It is also ironic, or perhaps even disingenuous, for the U.S. above all to seek to limit nuclear proliferation while at the same time the Bush administration is actively working on developing a new class of battlefield nuclear weapons, like the bunker-buster bombs the administration craves to add to its arsenal. Leaving aside for the moment the hazards involved with nuclear power, one can argue that it offers an alternative to the continued burning of fossil fuels, whose combustion is raising worldwide temperatures and whose supply in limited. On the other hand, the temptation to move beyond producing energy into building terrifying weapons is great, and it is a temptation that some countries find too great to resist. The story of the Fall is a story about temptation, missed opportunities, and the transformation of good into evil. God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, but God told Adam and Eve not to eat its fruit. The Hebrew phrase "good and evil" is a figure of speech that encompasses all knowledge, not just an understanding of morality. The tree bore a fruit that promised the world but cost the soul of the one who ate it. The fruit was a temptation, according to the story, because it was good to look at, but also, and more importantly, because it could make the man and the woman wise like God. Knowledge is a fruit that tempted Adam and Eve, just as it tempts us today. It offers the opportunity for great good, but too often we miss the opportunity because of our lust for power, fame, or fortune. The acquisition of knowledge in and of itself is good, because of the potential that it offers for doing good works, but our human frailties often pervert the potential for tremendous good into the realties of overwhelming evil. The discovery of the hidden power inside atoms was an incredible bit of knowledge that Einstein, Bohr, Planck, Curie, and others at the beginning of the twentieth century uncovered. The atom has the power to generate electrical energy. Atomic radiation helps doctors diagnose and treat illnesses and fractures. Understanding the secrets of the atom brings scientists closer to understanding the mysteries of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Grand Unification Theory. However, our understanding of the atom has also led to great evil. Not only can nuclear energy create useable power, it can also be wielded as a weapon of mass destruction with a yield beyond that of any other weapon known. Radiation in small doses can look inside the body, and in slightly higher doses it can eradicate cancer cells, but as the byproduct of a nuclear explosion, radiation can both kill immediately and alter the normal functioning of cells so that people die from dread diseases even years afterward. The secrets of the atom can help us understand the world, but the misuse of the atom threatens to destroy the world, or at least its human inhabitants, along with innumerable other species of plants and animals. Perhaps it would have been better if scientists a hundred years ago had never discovered how to unleash the power of atoms, but the human quest for knowledge is innate in us, as the story of the Fall illustrates. Rather than try to stifle the acquisition of knowledge, we need to learn to recognize both the possible benefits and the potential dangers of that knowledge, and we as a society need to do all we can not to transform the good into evil. Nuclear weapons are a prime example of a great discovery twisted by the lust for power into something perverse, and the world will be a better place when all nuclear arsenals are dismantled. Many other goods have been hideously transmuted into evils, resulting in such modern problems as global warming (fossil fuels), deforestation (agriculture), various types of cancer and other diseases (chemical pollutants), handguns and assault weapons (invention of gunpowder), subjugation of women (religion), and overpopulation (medicines). To borrow a phrase from nuclear physics, human knowledge in the past century has reached critical mass. We must apply our knowledge for good and turn away from harmful applications, for the very existence of life on this planet hangs in the balance.

Psalm 32

How truly happy is a man
When God forgives his blackest sin.
What joy when God removes the guilt
Through him whose precious blood was spilt.

When hidden sin was in my life,
My days and nights were full of strife.
I felt your rod upon back.
My heart despaired, my strength grew slack.

In desperation to you I cried.
My deepest sin I did not hide.
I said, "My sins I must confess,"
And you forgave!  You called be blest.

So pray to God you pure in heart,
While it is day before the dark.
You hide me, Lord, from misery
And surround me with shouts of victory.

"I will show you the way you should go,
And teach you wisdom that you should know.
Don't stiffen your neck in pride and say,
'I can make it,' for I am the Way."

The wicked live in sore despair,
But for the faithful God's mercy is there.
So be happy in God and lift your voice,
You righteous ones, rejoice, rejoice!

For another discussion of this passage, click here.

Romans 5:12-19

For the past several years many of the world's political leaders, leaders of the United Nations, leading human rights activists, and even the pope have called on the industrialized countries of the world to forgive the debt of Third World nations. Imagine this scenario in a typical underdeveloped country. After the nation gains its independence from a colonial power, probably in the 1960s, the people have high expectations and hold their first free elections. Lack of sufficient technological expertise, an educated workforce, or infrastructure quickly lead the nation into chaos, and a strongman seizes power. The country has a few very rich people, but the masses remain poor. The poor attempt to bind themselves together to oppose their oppressors, perhaps encouraged by Marxist economic theories and ideals of egalitarianism. The free democracies of the West, fearful of the dangers they believe to be inherent in all forms of communism, pour military aid into the country, propping up the tyrant and the military in their oppression of the common people. The ruler appropriates the country's natural resources for himself and his cronies, lining his own pockets, while also buying stockpiles of weapons. Lacking the funds to pay for all the military resources the West wants to pour into the country, the dictator accepts loans from Western nations, promising to repay every dollar borrowed. After years of corrupt rule, the leader is forced into exile, but he takes with him an enormous fortune and leaves his country with a huge debt burden. The International Monetary Fund then offers new loans to cover the earlier loans, provided the nation implements draconian economic measures. The newly elected leaders implement these measures, but the promised economic improvements don't come, and in the meantime, millions of people crowd into the cities looking for jobs that don't exist, while other remain in the rural areas unable to eke out a living without government aid, which is not forthcoming. One reason that aid is not forthcoming is that the government has to make huge annual payments to its creditors, nations and international organizations that don't need the money nearly as much as the nation that is paying. Imagine now that the IMF, the World Bank, and the Group of Eight, the richest eight countries in the world, decide to forgive the debts of the 40 or 50 poorest countries in the world. How would the life of an average citizen of those nations be affected? Suddenly the government would have resources it never had before, and wise elected officials would do all they could to alleviate the suffering of the hungry, provide jobs, and support subsistence farmers around the country. Debt forgiveness in today's world would have a tremendous impact on people living in those countries. Paul, writing to the Roman church, describes the effect of Christ's death on humankind as debt forgiveness of a different sort. The transgression of one man, Adam, introduced sin into the world, and because of Adam's sin, all of his descendants suffer the penalty of death, Paul says. On the contrary, because of Jesus' righteousness, all who are spiritual descendants of Jesus receive the free gift of eternal life. Whether we understand verse 12 to mean that all sinned in Adam ("in whom all sinned") or to mean that all have sinned like Adam ("because all sinned"), the end result is the same. Human beings are sinners and in need of redemption. If we will but accept the free gift that God offers, the gift of forgiveness, Paul says that we will be able to exercise dominion in life. Our mortality need not render us powerless, for Christ's righteousness gives us the ability to live our lives free from the control of forces of oppression. Too many of us continue to live our lives as though we were still under the thumb of sin, death, or powerlessness, but we aren't. All we have to do is assert the authority that we already have through faith in Christ, and we can accomplish great things. Our debt has been paid, hallelujah!

Matthew 4:1-11

I have what you might call a healthy fear of heights. I have no problem climbing a ladder or even being on a two-story roof, as long as I'm not too near the edge. I fly on planes with few qualms, although I prefer to drive anywhere within about 500 miles or so. However, although I like to hike and climb hills, I have no desire whatsoever to scale a mountain that requires the use of ropes, hammers, and spikes. I watch movies like K2, Vertical Limit, and Cliffhanger with a certain amount of terror. I feel the same way when I watch a high wire or a trapeze act at the circus. All I can say about Belo, the star of the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus, is that he must be crazy! When I visited the circus, he climbed a ridiculously high, wobbly, vertical pole, swung on a trapeze, and performed other stunts high above the ground that I would never have attempted even on the ground when I was younger and more nimble. As the saying goes, it's not the long fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. I say all this to say that I would never have been tempted to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, or any other tall building, to see if God's angels would come to rescue me. They wouldn't need to rescue me, because I wouldn't jump. I wouldn't even be anywhere near the edge of the roof. Similarly, I've never been tempted to turn rocks into loaves of bread. I don't know how to do it, so it's just not a temptation. Although I've never been anywhere close to starvation, I've felt like I was starving at various times in my life, particular during my teenage years. The hungriest I've ever been was at Philmont Scout Ranch during the summer of 1977. We hiked in the mountains of northern New Mexico for two weeks, and we ate freeze-dried food that we carried in our backpacks. Freeze-dried food is OK, but the portions they allotted to us were not enough to satisfy the appetites we worked up from hiking ten miles a day or so. One night two friends and I liberated a can of Hershey's chocolate syrup that somehow hadn't made it into whatever that evening's dessert had been. We snuck out a little way from the main camp, opened the can, and proceeded to drink its entire contents. It was sickeningly sweet, but it helped. On the way back home from our stay, our scoutmaster made the mistake of offering to buy us as many McDonald's hamburgers as we could eat. After an appetizer of about half a dozen sandwiches in the car, I managed to eat nine hamburgers that day, and others in the group also consumed vast quantities. Despite my hunger, however, it never occurred to me to magically change a rock into bread or a pine cone into a hamburger. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, I presume that the temptations to leap from the pinnacle of the temple or to turn stones into bread were real, despite the fact that I can't relate to them. However, I can relate to the last temptation, the promise of great riches in exchange for worshiping the devil. I haven't ever been rich, I don't ever expect to be rich, and I don't even particularly want to be rich. What do I want with the wealth of the whole world? On the other hand, I wouldn't mind if someone paid off my mortgage; or if I suddenly inherited enough money so that I could devote myself to study, writing, and teaching, regardless of remuneration; or if on my next trip to the beach I discovered some long-lost buried pirate's treasure. We're familiar with stories of people like Dr. Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the love of Margaret. We remember Joe Hardy, who sold his soul in exchange for a role in getting the Yankees to the World Series in Damn Yankees!. We've also read about Dorian Grey, who traded his soul for eternal youth and beauty. We might not be engaged in Satan-worship, but we often find ourselves paying homage to love, sports, youth, riches, power, or some other worldly idol. The desire for more of the world's goods even penetrates the doors of the church when we offer financial management seminars as a substitute for Jesus' command to give all we have to the poor. The things that tempt me may not be the same things that tempt you, but we are all tempted. Only by maintaining a close walk with God can we avoid succumbing to a host of temptations around us. Lent is a season in which we remember our weakness, our spiritual impoverishment, and our susceptibility to sin. As we enter this time of the year, let us remember that we cannot live the Christian life on our own. We need the strength of the one who was tempted in every way as we are, yet overcame his temptations through the power of God.