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Serving God and Sharing Good News |
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 it was 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 - 11When 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
When announced - Glory to Christ our Saviour)Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.' The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendour, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered, It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' Jesus answered, It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. (Praise to Christ our Lord)
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
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
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
Through all the changing scenes of life, 702
He that is in us, 219
Forty days and forty nights, 160
Lead us heavenly Father lead us, 400
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."
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 ResourcesMeditationAbraham 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. Commentary4th March 2001 The 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 SundayLoving 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).
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