Weekly Bible Notes  First Sunday in Lent

Year C, Purple

The Season of Lent

Introduction

Jesus has just been through the wonderful experience of baptism and received the approval of God for his chosen course of ministry. Then just when all is going really well he is faced with some difficult choices.

It is worrying when people tell you that they hear voices inside their heads, it can be associated with a range of conditions, with some nasty outcomes. But we all have ideas which can be good or bad, we are all placed in situations where opportunities present themselves to do good and bad things and we have to choose. This is just the situation which we are told Jesus faced in the wilderness. We can imagine that in the same situation we would have wondered whether it was not a good idea to make some bread miraculously to deal with the hunger. It would also seem rather a good idea for Jesus to have some spectacular stunts to help prove to the unbelieving masses who he really was. But this would not be a ministry of service and suffering, it would be using his position for himself, avoiding the restriction of his human incarnation. Ultimately to make such choices would enable him to choose a path which would avoid the experience of the cross.

Jesus knew bits of scripture which could be used to back up the wrong choices, scripture can be used wrongly to justify just about anything. Fortunately Jesus knew enough scripture to recognise that this was not in God's way for him. Israel had been in the desert for 40 years because they let God down, Jesus is there for 40 days, but he comes out triumphant over temptation, trusting in God and obedient to the call which God had made of him. The power which Jesus has inside him will be directed towards fulfilling the role of the servant, not playing to the crowds for cheap approval.

You and I might not have the same degree of temptation which Jesus faced, but we all have challenges and face difficult choices about the standards by which we will live. Our task as Christians is to weigh up these decisions as Jesus did and do the right thing. It will not be easy, battles may be fought and lost, but we do know that the same Spirit which was at work in Jesus is at work in us and we will ultimately share the victory which Christ won for us.

Opening Verse of Scripture    Psalm 91:1

They who dwell in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness, and was tempted as we are, yet without sin: give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit; and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

First Bible Reading   Deuteronomy Chapter 26 v 1 - 11

When you have entered the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land that the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land that the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us. The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians ill-treated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labour. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me. Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household. (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God)

Second Reading Romans Chapter 10 v 8b

The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God)

Gospel Reading  Luke Chapter 4 v 1 – 13

Post Communion Prayer

Lord God, you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven; by it you nourish our faith, increase our hope, and strengthen our love: teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread, and enable us to live by every word that proceeds from out of your mouth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Commentary

In the passage from Luke today we see jesus doing battle with the Devil. Jesus is tempted, challenged and made to engage in a kind of spiritual combat with evil possibilities. Our human lives are a battleground. Each one of us is conflicted, seemingly surrounded by beast and angels, every one of us has weaknesses which expose us to the powers of evil. Biblical writers have used many different types of language and descriptions to describe this conflict. The writer to the Ephesians speaks about having to put on the armour of God for battle, in Romans the apostle Paul tells us that whilst he wants to do good things, so often he ends up doing the bad things he doesn't want to do.

Each one of us aspires to do great things, we are full of dreams and high ideas, yet so often we disappoint ourselves and don't meet up with our own expectations. We really don't need to come to church to remind ourselves that we fall short of God's ideal, the truth is that we can't even hit our own low standards, let alone God's!

How easy it is therefore to pile on the guilt at Lent. All the food we have consumed since New Year which we were going to stop eating. More importantly all the good ways which we might have thought we could behave to be better Christian people. In past years preachers were likely to mount assaults upon congregations, berating them for their sins, 'dangling them over the pit,' before offering them a way back to salvation.

Surely there is no need to do this to Christian people, we already know the error of our ways. Indeed, perhaps the message of Lent should be more affirming. Last Sunday evening I listened to Roger Royle on the radio doing his introduction to Lent. he played a few nice hymns and then at the end he used the General Confession from the Book of Common Prayer. For me memories flooded back of sitting in draughty old Anglican churches reciting this confession which drums into the praying person just how dreadful they really are

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, We  have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us: But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders; Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults, Restore thou them that are penitent, According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord: And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

It really is depressing, 'there is no health in us'  -  'miserable offenders.'  Obviously we are all worms, not worthy. It is almost Monty Python. Contrast this with the Jesus who lifts up the head of the woman caught in adultery and sets her free from her captors. Are these the words which our Lord would expect to be on the lips of his children?

I have a problem with them. I see human beings made in the likeness of God. The image of God is poor in all of us, but we can never be worms. Moreover, telling people how dreadful they are so that they will turn to God and seek salvation, this is not an encounter with the Good News, it is a threat. Jesus loved people into the kingdom, he never delighted to make them feel worse then they felt already. The ministry of Jesus was about him raising up people who were low in self esteem, and putting them back on the road to recovery. If we study the words of Jesus we find that threatening words were only ever used for the self-righteous and those who pointed the finger at the guilt of others.

So this Lent, let us not be reminded more than we have to that we fall short of God's ideal. Let us not focus on our own shortcomings, rather upon the saving grace of Jesus. He was surrounded by beast in the desert, he was challenged to decide how he would live his life, and he choose well. In the life of Christ is all humankind saved, not by our efforts to become acceptable and winning God over.  Charles Royden

Meditation

At sometime in our lives each one of us has probably had one or more desert experiences - times of loneliness, disillusionment, emptiness, and spiritual dryness; times of change, decision, transition, and struggle. Times when we wonder what God’s calling, and our faith, are all about. Times when we seemingly have no other option but to wait until God’s direction for us begins to unfold. Jesus begins his ministry with exactly this experience. A time of loneliness, reflection, discernment, transition and struggle. Thankfully, the Spirit of God that accompanied Jesus in the wilderness accompanies each of us in our desert experiences too. And just as for Jesus, our desert experiences, however painful, can be a time of discovery and growth. A time that draws us into God's presence, offering us an opportunity to discern once again what it is that God is asking of us each in this short, earthly journey. A time, as Evelyn Underhill writes, ‘
when we can have a secret correspondence of the soul.’ Sam Cappleman

Hymns

1. Lead us heavenly Father lead us, 400  (Mannheim)

2. Forty days and forty nights, 160

3. As the deer

4. Through all the changing scenes of life, 702

5. Lord of the Church 442 (Londonderry Air)
   

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

"Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian.

If it is well cultivated and nourished it will produce fruit, but if it is neglected, it will wither and die."
 

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that by the observance of this Lent we may advance in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ, and show forth his mind in conduct worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Gelasian Sacramentary

Loving father, today we start Lent. Over the next six weeks, with your help, we are going to prepare for Easter. From today we are making a new start with a bigger effort to be more loving and kind. Help us to show concern for the less fortunate, the hungry and the poor, and especially help us to speak to you more often. We ask this through your Son, Jesus, whose death and resurrection we will be thinking about in the next few weeks. Tony Castle

O Lord and heavenly father, who hast given unto us thy people the true bread that cometh down from heaven, even thy Son Jesus Christ: grant that throughout this Lent our souls may be so fed by him that we may continually live in him and he in us; and that day by day we may be renewed in the spirit by the power of his endless life, who gave himself for us, and now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. FB Macnutt. 1873-1949

As the days lengthen and the earth spends longer in the light of day, grant that I may spend longer in the light of your presence, O Lord, and may those seeds of your Word, which have been long buried within me, grow, like everything around us, into love for you and love for people; to become a visible declaration of your Lordship in my life. Grant, Father, that this Lent there may be a springtime for my life in Christ.  Dick Williams.

 Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, lamenting our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Lord, Jesus Christ, help us to fashion in these Lenten days a season of inner redemption and holiness. Again and again, may we use these days to come quietly into your presence ever open to your prompting, ever ready to serve you and ever ready to reflect your coming Easter glory. Amen

Teach us, O God, so to use this season of Lent that we may be drawn closer to our Lord, and in fellowship with Him may learn to hate sin, to overcome temptation, and to grow in holiness that our lives may be strengthened for your service and used for your glory. We ask this is Christ’s name. Amen

Christ give you grace to grow in holiness, to deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow Him; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen

Gracious Father, your blessed son Jesus Christ, came from heaven to be the true bread which gives light to the world. Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Methodist Worship

Additional Resources

This is the time of year when we remember the importance of forgiveness, seeking God's will in our lives and trusting him for the future.

At this time many people will be encouraged by the words of scripture from the Psalms which reassure us that God really does forgive us and include us in his love. There are no sins which can separate us from God, we are already forgiven

Psalm 137:11

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

Commentary

Lent is the time in the church year where we are offered space for reflection and repentance. Sin is a part of all of our lives and none of us are strangers to temptation. Like Jesus, we are most vulnerable to the twisting, distorting forces of evil at those times where we are also most open to God. If Jesus had not been so consumed with passion for the hungry, the oppressed and those who have not experienced the power of God, the devil's proposals to Him would not have been the least bit tempting. But He was, and the resources that He had in those stark wilderness days can be ours as well.

The temptation of Jesus was for the sole purpose of distracting him from His ultimate goal and purpose in life, which was to die on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for humanity. As he tries to distract Christ from this goal Satan tempts Jesus in three different ways. He tempts Him to concentrate on His physical needs, he tempts Him to take moral shortcuts, and he tempts Him to focus on Himself rather than His Father God. Temptations which assail us all from one time or another.

Jesus was able to resist temptation because he was clear about His purpose and destiny and was able to focus on knowing and doing the will of the Father who had sent Him into the world. For Jesus and for every Christian, overcoming temptation is not just about knowing what not to do, it’s about knowing what we should be doing, about the fulfilling to the best of our human ability the purpose and destiny God has marked out for each one of us. Lent offers us a time reflection when we can draw near to God, through fasting, reading and prayer so that we can know more certainly what that purpose and will might be for our lives. One of the prayers we use on Ash Wednesday invites us to use the time of Lent as a time of holy observance, a time that is different from the rest of the Christian year, a time to reflect on the purpose of our own spiritual journey. It’s also a time which leads inexorably to the cross and the resurrection beyond, a time to look forward to an Easter which gives the ultimate meaning to our lives as the stone is rolled away and the world looks into an empty tomb. From Lent we look beyond to Easter. As we look into ourselves in Lent, we see the temptations we have succumbed to, we see the things in our lives which we need to repent of, see the things in our lives which we need to get sorted out, but beyond all those we are able to see the God who is in each one of us through the glory of a resurrected Christ. Sometimes we just don’t spend enough time looking and stop before we see His glory in our inner selves. Sam Cappleman 

Meditation

Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th President of the United States. On this day in 1861 he was sworn in as President, just as the American Civil War was about to begin. He is one of the most respected of American presidents, but he could have given up at the time of any one of his many failures and negative experiences: In 1832 he was defeated in state elections. In 1833 he failed as a shopkeeper and was in debt. 1836 saw him have a nervous breakdown. In 1849 he was disillusioned at not being offered a government post, and he left politics for a time. In 1855 and also in 1858 he was defeated in his wish to be elected for the U.S. Senate. He experienced personal tragedy as three of his four children died young. On finally becoming president, he was let down by some of those he had appointed to positions of trust.

Let us pray

Father, into your hands I place my successes. Into your hands I also place my failures, and I pray that, through your spirit, I may face the challenges of life with courage and determination. Help me to think anew and see things more broadly than in terms of “success” and “failure”. Lead me always to trust and place myself confidently in your hands. Amen.

Commentary

First Sunday of Lent. Deuteronomy 26: 1- 11; Romans 10: 8b – 13; Luke 4: 1-13
The passage from Deuteronomy, describes a harvest pilgrimage and serves to remind people of the exodus from Egypt as the event which turned the Israelites from being a collection of people, a series of tribal families, into a nation. ‘A wandering Aramaean’ stood at the centre of Israel’s confession of faith from the beginning, and this serves to invite us to trace our faith back to the experience of being foreigners in the desert. It is a creed which contains an important insight, and which is picked up again in Luke’s Gospel, that the wilderness is both a testing place and also a place for new beginnings. In our thankfulness for nourishment, we are reminded not to externalise evil, it exists within us. Everything is grounded in God’s love. God does not pull up evil by the roots, as we pull out a weed in our own garden, because the roots guarantee our own freedom as we make our own desert journey.

In Paul’s letters, Jesus is frequently referred to as ‘Lord’, and this is probably to distinguish him from the many gods of the pagan religions to be found in the Roman empire at that time. In the passage in Romans, God’s powers are exercised through Jesus as God’s representative and things which were quite traditionally said about God were quite properly said about Jesus. In Paul’s thinking, the focus is on Jesus’ stewardship of a ministry and mission delegated to him by God, and shown in his life and death. The confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ can be thought of as both an individual commitment and also a recognition of Jesus’ lordship over the Church membership as well. Christian discipleship has always lived ‘in the Lord’ and, in New Testament terms, shares the same conflict over which Jesus’ ultimate and universal lordship is assured.
The Gospel reading set for today really places Jesus’ earthly ministry in that universal context. Luke saw the whole life of Jesus as one of temptation, which comes to a head in the passion. In the Bible this is the 'testing' of Jesus, the Son of God, for his fidelity. The agent may be either God, as n the wilderness wanderings, or Satan, as in Job. The immediate background for Luke’s account is the wilderness temptation of Israel: Jesus succeeds where Israel fails, particularly in the supreme temptation of a testing God, and so fulfils Israel’s history. It is this larger picture in which following Jesus as a Christian has to be understood. The call to ‘embody Jesus’ comes to the Church in the ‘wilderness places’; but the final harvest is universal and cosmic. It offers us a vision which draws us towards a more humane world in which we endeavour to live and struggle against sin and evil in ourselves and in our communities. We are not ‘like God, knowing good and evil’ in any final or absolute sense. Rev Peter Littleford.

Prayers for Sunday

Loving God - when we get tired or hungry - when we feel angry or lonely - help us to stop and think a while - instead of getting nasty or mean - help us to think about - what Jesus would do - and to remember what you ask us to do - and that you can help us do it. - Help us to walk each day with you - and to make this world a better place - we ask this in the name of Jesus - Amen
Loving and Compassionate God, you know that the battle of good and evil rages within and around us, and that our ancient foe tempts us with his deceits and empty promises. We pray that you would keep us steadfast in your Word and, when we fall, raise us again and restore us through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was tempted as we are tempted - but resisted the wiles of the evil one
Father, in those moments when our weaknesses and our strengths are tested, fill us with your holy presence that we may always remember whose we are. Keep from us the temptation to give up on seeking to do your will, and shield us from the despair that doubts your goodness. Help us to remember that you are the one who is able to move the rock aside, the one who gives new life
O Lord our God, listen to the voice of your church, calling to you from the desert of this world. Protect us with your strong hand and outstretched arm, that, nourished by the bread of your word and fortified by your Spirit we may proclaim the good news of your love to all people in word and deed, even as Jesus showed us. We ask it in his name. Amen

Hymns for Sunday

(Hymns and Psalms)255 Crown him with many crowns, Colours of Day (On notices), 260 Jesus is Lord, 463 To God be the glory, I’ll go in the strength of the lord (On notices).

A modern parable.
A man fell into a pit and he couldn't get out.
Buddha said: "Your pit is only a state of mind."
A Hindu said: "This pit is for purging you and making you more perfect."
Confucius said: "If you would have listened to me, you would never have fallen into that pit."
A new ager said: "Maybe you should network with some other pit dwellers."
A self-pitying person said: "You haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit."
A reporter said: "Could I have the exclusive story on your pit?"
A Tax Inspector said "Have you paid your taxes on that pit?"
A Local Authority Officer said: "Do you have a permit for that pit?"
A realist said: "That's a pit."
An idealist said: "The world shouldn't have pits."
An optomist said: "Things could be worse."
A pessimist said: "Things will get worse."
Jesus seeing the man took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit, because a pit is an awful place to be -particularly the pit of created by the power of sin and temptation. Jesus is one who has managed to avoid the pit and who seeks to help us out of the pit. Do not dwell in the pit - Do not accept the pit - Rather reach out your hand to the one who has stretched out his hands for you - and who still reaches out for you today. Reach out to Christ - and through Christ - reach out to others around you and let the know that there is a better life to be had - a life that is given freely to all who desire it.

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