An Open Table where Love knows no borders

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  1. Vincent Michael Hodge

    Excellent insight in Simon’s sermon by linking the congruence of the Serpent’s approach to Eve and Adam in Genesis and The Devil’s approach to Jesus. of course the great thing about “insights” is that once it is drawn to our consciousness we immediately ask ourselves….of course that should be and why did I not notice the connections before? Both Genesis and Luke are dealing with the human response to pleasure, power and worshipping ourselves as if God – the Bible’s central question- idolatry. So Simon’s sermon referent is so relevant. Like all great literature, the interest is on the “question” as much as the “answer’. And so we are drawn to the nature of the conversation rather than any pre-conceived idea of the moral uprightness of the “characters”. It is also dsaid that greta drama requires “characters” who are alive in the story. So on both counts we moderns come to the stories at great disadvantage, loaded a we are with preconceived notions of the moral identities in the stories before we even read the stories. So ‘serpent’, ‘devil’, ‘ first parents’, ‘Jesus’ – all have a pre loaded meaning for us that blinds us to the story itself and inner dynamics that the “questions’ lead us along by. We are often too concerned with Jesus as Good and devil as Bad; Adam and Eve as Weak and Serpent as Cunning. These are not aspects of the Story at all. In fact in the stories in Genesis and luke, the serpent and The devil are there as dignified and intellectually valid characters. The stories are about the Questions. In Genesis and in the third temptaiton story of Luke, the questioner is much more subtle than we give them credit for. Both the Serpent and the devil do not launch “direct frontal attacks” but come in by the rear door where our Vanity is much more willing to provide open access. Both The serpent and the devil suggest that their listener does not have the right perspective and provides them with an alternative prespective that surprises: The serpent suggests that maybe they have misunderstood what god commanded and then suggests they put their own ‘spin’ on the commandment as the proper interpretation. In Luke, the devil suggests that Jesus has scriptural support in testing out his identity by throwing himself from the pinnacle. And this is where Genesis and Luke take separate roads…..Jesus does not deviate from Scripture because jesus has his eye always on God as his source of identity. In Genesis Adam and Eve do deviate as they have no such loyalty to their Maker. They take the first opportunity to define life on their terms. Jesus finds no such opportune time for such error. It is the devil who must withdraw and look for another opportune time to lead Jesus away from his chosen path. All these thoughts have come to me simply through Simon’s suggestion ( like The serpent and the devil) that in Genesis and Luke we have parallel and interlocking dramas and characters. This is not to insult Simon since he is doing exactly what the Biblical Authors expect of anyone proclaiming Scripture – either as the original protagonists ( Serpent, Devil) or as modern day Sermonisers stanfing in their shoes addressing Congregations with those same questions– Simon has not revealed simply information and done a ‘dump’ on us. No he has been much more powerful – he has opened our eyes to the nature of the questions that, without care and loyalty to Jesus, will spark our vanity and lead us down the path of Idolatry – either by worshipping false gods or worse, worshipping ourselves. Thank you Simon.

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