Growing up in Arizona, I became quite familiar, early in life, with a variety of cactuses called the "jumping cactus." That's not its real name, but that's what everybody calls it. With most cactuses, you can easily avoid up close and personal encounters if you're paying attention. But the jumping cactus is different. It grows in clumps, it's dry and has long, nearly invisible, hooked spines. So, if you even get close, before you know it, pieces of it jump out at you and have hooked into your Levi's, if not your bare skin.

Now I want to tell you that the last phrase of the Lord's Prayer, the Disciples' Prayer, can act just like a piece of jumping cactus. "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." If we're numbly rushing through this prayer, perhaps not paying much attention to those first sentences, this phrase jumps out at us and hooks on and pricks our conscience.

"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." This phrase is very hard for us to fully comprehend, because the mind-set we bring to it is very different from that of Jesus or the first disciples or the early church. The Greek words here are difficult to translateŠmaybe hearing some alternate versions will get your imagination going: let us not fall into temptation. Deliver us from the Evil One. Or my current favorite translation: deliver us from the time of trial.

Just for a moment, on a humorous and completely superficial note, the reason that's my current favorite is because, as many of you know, I'm serving my time on Jury Duty. Deliver me from the time of trial, I pray, but really I just want to be let out of the Juror Assembly Room!

But, really, Jesus wasn't discussing jury duty or a court case! He was deadly serious about this matter. He knew first hand the power of Satan. And he knew what was at stakeŠfar beyond whatever personal consequences might be in store, he knew that the success or failure of the whole Kingdom of God was on the line in this contest. He knew that if Satan overcame him, if Satan lured him away from his course, if Satan could persuade him to settle for personal power, fame, cheap glory, then God's purpose in him would be lost. And the world would have to wait for another Messiah.

In our day, in most of our lives, temptations are things we can see, eat, drink and buy. When we think of temptation, don't we first think of the variety of ways we over-indulge? Then, our struggles are with weight loss, substance abuse, credit card debt, and sexual fidelity. We reduce temptation to something we can avoid through great will power.

It really doesn't take long, if you think about it for a moment, to realize that this is not what Jesus was getting at. He barely had enough to eat, had no paying job and surely couldn't have been tempted by much to buy. Whether or not he was tempted to sexual sin is left to the imagination of modern playwrights and novelists.

No, the real temptations of Jesus can be seen first in his encounter with Satan at the beginning of his ministry, and then as he faces death in the Garden of Gethsemane. For Jesus, you see, temptation should be spelled with a capital "T," for it has to do with the ultimate temptation of turning away from God. Of being overcome by the forces of evil. Of selling out his birthright. Of turning away from the Cross.

The prayer hymn we've been singing all month gets it right: "In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer." Now still, if that sounds too easy because of its somewhat romanticized 19th century hymn tune, just refer back to Martin Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress," which we also sang this morning: "For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal."

You see, there are many weaknesses and indulgences in life with which we must wrestle, but that's not what Jesus' prayer is dealing with. Jesus goes to what underlies all that. He is not referring to things that are in our control, and in our modern world we have come to reduce almost everything to a framework of self-control and will power. "Just Do It" is our mantra. "Just Say No" is our popular wisdom. This prayer turns that pride inside out and puts it in proper perspective. Remember, from God comes food and forgiveness. From God comes the strength to overcome evil and become part of the new kingdom on earth as in heaven.

Evelyn Underhill, the great Christian mystic, wrote: "It is from our inveterate egotism with its million cunning disguises, our pride, greed and anger, our steady downward drag to self-satisfaction, that we need deliverance; this we can never vanquish in our own strengthŠ[So we must pray God to] deliver us by keeping clear that single relation with God which is a harmonizing of our wills with God'sŠwe are asking that our unsteady lives may be brought into line with that one life in which evil did not operate."

Jesus knew that his disciples would be put to the same test. He knew how very hard it would be to hold to the course. And the biblical account tells us very clearly that not all of them could. Judas was the most obvious in his denial for personal gain. But all the rest fell asleep in the Garden that night and left Jesus alone in his final agonizing prayers, didn't they? And the very next day, Peter, the Rock, publicly denied him three times.

Oh, dear brothers and sisters, can we begin to see our story in their story? Can we relate to their temptation to fall away, to choose an easier path, to wish to avoid the sacrifices that come with the way of the Cross, with the birthing of God's Kingdom on this earthŠwhich isn't a whole lot more ready for that Kingdom now than it was then?

When you pray, say: "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." Jesus gives us the prayer he himself must have prayed over and over again. The prayer that guided him to the very end, to the Cross, and then, beyondŠto the ultimate deliverance from evil that is the power of the Resurrection.

What does this mean for our lives? We pray not to be led INTO temptation. The key word to remember is that little "into." Jesus isn't saying to ask that God remove temptation from our lives. Temptation comes with living. It just is. It is not in and of itself sin. Nor is Jesus saying that we can avoid encounters with temptation or temptations. But he tells us to plead God to hold us back from entering into it, from going to that place, like Jesus in the wilderness, where we must engage Satan face to face. "But deliver us from evil." Deliver us from this formidable foe. Keep us from a fight we might well lose. In other words, help us, O God, to say "no" to evil and "yes" to you.

We may not ever face Satan in the wilderness quite as directly as did Jesus. We may not be called to go all the way to the cross, as have Christian martyrs through the ages, including those today in Nigeria and India, killed for their faith. But are we not frequently tempted to turn away from the truth of the Gospel and the dynamics of God's Kingdom? Are we not, for example, tempted to act out of greed, or to exclude the very marginalized people Jesus would have us embrace, or lead self-centered, selfish lives while millions of God's children are perishing? Are there not many opportunities presented to us regularly to say "no" to God and "yes" to evil?

You see, the Christian life is not one of escapism, nor of some sort of magic protection from the bad things of this world. Rather, it is a life of growth in faithfulness and courage. Of continually amazing grace that takes us forgiven sinners and continually redirects us along the path of truth and life which is Christ Jesus, God's great "Yes" Incarnate. As Martin Luther put it, "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is heŠ"

This is a prickly prayer. Like the pricks of the jumping cactus, this prayer should always call us back to our dependence on God in all things and prevent us from lives of complacency or self-congratulation. And, in concluding this series of sermons, it is my hope that never again will we be tempted to "recite" it, as we so often thoughtlessly say. Instead, now, may we always pray this prayer with focus and intentionality and with an open heart, so that through it God might work to lead us into greater faithfulness. Perhaps, we should always introduce it in the words of the old liturgy which said, "And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray" and then give ourselves over to the coming of God's Kingdom on earth.

For then, you see, we can conclude this prayer with its doxology, the praise of its last lines: "for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever." Amen.