When I was in ninth grade and taking confirmation classes,
The pastor remarked that Martin Luther did not think
That the book of James belonged in the Bible,
That it was just a piece of straw.
Which of course prompted each and every one of us
To race home and read the book of James.
Each of us thinking that there had to be some really juicy stuff in there.
And yes, there is lots of good stuff in there,
Good advice on how to conduct your life
And maintain you relationship with God.

James 1:13-15 says, "When tempted no on should say,
'God is tempting me', for God cannot be tempted by evil,
Nor does he tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire,
He is dragged away and enticed. Then,
After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
And sin, when it is full-grown,
Gives birth to death."
Not quite the juicy stuff we fifteen year olds were looking for,
But something for us to ponder.
Especially when laid beside the petition of the Lord's Prayer
We are looking at this evening.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Or as our modernized version puts it
"And do not bring us to the time of trial,
But rescue us from the evil one."

I tend to be more of a traditionalist when it comes
To some Biblical readings.
For me, there is nothing more beautiful than
The 23rd Psalm in the King James vernacular.
And I like the wording of temptation.
It conjures up all kinds of memories and connections.
Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden of Eden,
Jesus, after his baptism, was led by the Spirit
Into the wilderness to be tempted.
These stories seem to be in direct opposition to the reading from James.
How can this be, if James is to be believed,
And God tempts no one?

According to Luther, there are two meanings of the word temptation.
One is when God tempts us to test or try our faith.
He does not tempt us to evil, but rather allows events to happen
That may cause us to wonder about his love for us.
His desire is that we will pass through the time of testing as closer to him
And with a stronger, wiser faith.
The other, the one that is the subject of this petition,
Is the temptation to do evil.
Luther says in his small catechism,
"Temptation to evil consists in this, that the devil,
The world and our flesh try to deceive us or seduce us into misbelieve,
Despair, and other great shame and vice.

So, what tempts us?
As Nathan Dungan pointed out at the
Lay Leaders Extravaganza this past Saturday,
There has been a radical shift in our society,
Brought on by our rampant materialism.
Our lives used to be divided into needs and wants,
However, through marketing,
Which at the present level,
Exposes us to 5000 advertising pitches every day,
Wants have disappeared,
And we feel that we need and deserve everything.
If we go back to the most basic level,
Our needs consist of three things,
Food, shelter and clothing.
And everything else would be a want.
But today in American society,
Everything is a need.
We need cell phones that take pictures and connect us to the internet,
We need designed clothing, the latest electronics
And a two thousand square foot home
With walk in closets that we can fill will all the stuff we need.
When I was growing up, we had one television in our home.
Now, there is often one television in every room,
Including one in each of the children's bedrooms.
Because they need their own personal television.
We are living beyond our means,
And as a result, the average credit card debt is now over $3,000 dollars.
When you add in the fact that 40 per cent
Of credit card holders pay off their balance every month,
That gives a truer picture of just how in debt the remaining 60 per cent are.
Sadly, this 60 per cent of credit card holders are people under the age of 35.
We are raising a generation of financial illiterates.

My sister works in a bank.
Her official title is bookkeeper,
But she keeps no books.
Instead, she calls herself the problem solver.
She gets to deal with all the financial illiterates.
She gets telephone calls like,
"Yeah, I went to the ATM and it wouldn't give me any money."
"That's because you have a negative balance in your account."
"Yeah, but I went to the ATM."
"The ATM is connected to your account here at the bank.
When you are over drawn at the bank, the ATM won't give you any money."
"You're kidding me, right?"
"No."
"Oh man!"

In American society today,
There are no temptations, there are no wants,
There is only need, misguided, uninformed needs.
The need for more and more and more,
Without a thought for the future,
Or the other, the one who is struggling just to fill the most basic needs
Of food, shelter and clothing.

So we pray, save us from the time of trial,
From the Pre-Easter sales and the St. Patrick's day sales
And our own rampant materialism.
Show us a way Lord, out of this mess we have gotten ourselves into.

Success and recognition may pose much greater hazards to the soul
Than some of the headline sins,
Partially because we brace ourselves against the headline sins,
While the more subtle sins of greed, pride, envy and arrogance
Slip alongside us as friends.
All of us deal with adversity relatively well,
It is when things are going well,
When prosperity, acceptance and affluence come our way,
That we fall.
Christianity survived the periods of persecution in better fashion
Than the acclaim and recognition that came when Constantine
Gave the church the endorsement of the throne.
Public approval, acceptance and acclaim proved more damning tests
Than persecution.

When we fail to keep our lives balanced,
When we fail to keep our priorities straight,
When we succumb to our wants disguised as needs,
We then ask God to deliver us from evil.
We find that we need help with the evil we have created,
With the evil that we encounter.
The intrepid frontiersman Daniel Boone is said to have prayed,
One day when he faced a hungry bear,
"Lord, if you can't help me, don't help that bear".
I understand that prayer.

This petition of the Lords prayer
Is the prayer for life on the daily run,
Life In the daily grind.
This petition says, "Spare me from testing,"
But it goes on to acknowledge
That some testing can't be escaped,
And it offers help.
"But deliver us from the evil one."

This petition is for everyone,
Because all of us live in a world where testing happens.
This prayer works for a child who is tested by her
Little brother or older sister.

For a teenager whose greatest test in high school
Is the chance to elevate a grade by a little cautious cheating,
And it works for the husband or wife
Who just now finds marriage a bore,
And for the woman who has the ability to write or speak a clever,
Sarcastic, destructive sentence,
And for the man who is bright enough
That he finds it difficult to suffer fools gladly.
This petition fits every human being.
It recognizes that we are sometimes very frail,
But that in God's mercy
There is strength to emerge triumphant from our time of trial.
Amen.