First Sunday in Lent 2006

In our typical cycle of handwringing and pontificating on the world's decline, we spend most of our energy pointing fingers. And we share lots of opinions on when and where it all began. Some trace its beginning to the Age of Enlightenment and the dawn of modernity with its philosophers and ideologues. Closer to our own time blame is variously placed on economic theories, the industrial revolution, feminism, the pill, the sexual revolution, abortion, and the extreme expression of personal freedom from all kinds of constraints and norms. Pick your poison. But before you do, I want you to consider what our Scripture Readings this morning have to say about the matter.