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Serving God and Sharing Good News |
Weekly Bible Notes Third Sunday in Lent
Year C, Purple
The Season of Lent
Opening Verse of Scripture Psalm 51:17
The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart He will not despise.
Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; 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
Isaiah Chapter 55:1-9"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendour." Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (This is the word of the Lord -- Thanks be to God)
Second Reading 1 Corinthians Chapter 10:1-13
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our
forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the
sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all
ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they
drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was
Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies
were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to
keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be
idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to
eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." We should not commit
sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand
of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were
killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed
by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were
written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has
come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't
fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is
faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when
you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up
under it.
Gospel Reading Luke Chapter 13:1-9
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"Post Communion Prayer
Merciful Lord, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Commentary
Introduction
When something bad happens who is to blame? If a baby child dies of cancer, or a family drown in a boating accident, is this God punishing them? Jesus is asked just this kind of question in our reading today. Jesus is clear, such disasters are not targeted at individuals. God does not have a heavenly lottery to call your number, neither does he point the fickle finger of fate at us. We are not zapped by God if we do something wrong. However having made that clear Jesus does not waste the opportunity of this question to challenge those who had the cheek to ask it. He tells them to amend their own lives not to point the finger at others.
In AD 70 a terrible thing happened, the Jewish Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were massacred by the Romans. This was a punishment for their rebellion, those who lived by the sword were, as Jesus forecast, to die by the sword. Throughout his life Jesus encouraged people to adopt a different life of peace. Jesus warns people in the passage today to change their ways or destruction will surely come. Jesus is not referring to some punishment beyond the grave, he is stating the obvious to his his questioners that they should bear fruit now or suffer the consequences of their own decisions. The result of their refusal to follow the way of Jesus brought destruction and the magnificent temple stones were raised to the ground and many lost their lives.
Commentary
Pontius Pilate was an unpopular Governor of Judea. Josephus the Jewish historian tells us how he spent the Temple tax to build an aqueduct and brutally crushed the following rebellion. When some pilgrims from Galilee had been offering sacrifices at the Temple Pilate sent troops in and had them massacred. So questions come to mind. Is the death of these pilgrims a sign of the punishment that Jesus is speaking about? Is Jesus frightened? Will he still take his Galileans on to Jerusalem?
You can just imagine the relish with which some people told Jesus the
horrible story about the Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate. Bad news
travels very fast, and I expect they got a ghoulish pleasure from retelling
the shocking details, while wringing their hands over the ritual defilement
of the Temple. The story tellers were probably expecting Jesus to shake His
head and say that it served the Galileans right, that God was punishing them
for some transgression of the Law. But Jesus wouldn’t play along. He refused
to give a trite explanation of why these poor men had died such particularly
gruesome and shocking deaths. (Humans always long to be able to account for
a disaster by blaming the person to whom it happens!). Jesus wouldn’t score
such an easy point, but instead argued that the real lesson from to be drawn
from their deaths is that it is essential to repent before a similar fate
befalls His hearers. As always Jesus surprised, disappointed and even
shocked His hearers. Instead of gaining a comfortable, complacent feeling
that they were safe, that they were saved, Jesus reminded them that they too
were vulnerable to the dangers of the world and that the only safety to be
gained was through repentance and being “right” with God. Jesus’ insistence
that all of us are sinners isn’t always easy to listen to: perhaps we feel
that we are doing our best. Repentance is a two speed process: the
once-for-all event which marks a change in hearts and a determination to
live in the Way of Christ, and a slower, daily determination to correct our
course, until it lies with His. The need for repentance has never been more
important, is Jesus’ message for them and for us. Joan Crossley
Meditation
‘If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.’ Abraham Lincoln
Hymns
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Come down o love divine 281
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I danced in the morning See Partnership News
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For the beauty of the Earth 333
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Now the green blade riseth 204
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God is love, his the care 220
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."
In the name of God who takes the risk of creation. Of Jesus who journeyed
to Calvary and beyond, and the Spirit who kindles our hope and strength, let
us go in peace and be witnesses of the Living Faith. Amen
Almighty God, you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves.
Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may
be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all
evil thoughts which may assault the soul. Methodist Worship
Gracious Father, fill your whole Church with truth and peace; where it is
corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss,
reform it; where it is right, strengthen it; and where it is divided and
torn asunder, heal and bind its wounds; through Christ our Lord. Amen
William Laud, 1573-1645
Blessed be God for the grandeur and power of crashing waters and the
fearsome downwardfall of the cliffs; for the swoop and swing of white birds
riding the waves, exultant; for the wind hurtling over moorland miles to
break battering round the house, with clawing hands eager to invade and
chill; for the silent blanketed folds after snowfall; for trees etched in
silver against pewter skies, for winter sunshine brittle as thin ice.
Sister Catherine OHP
Prayers for the victims of the Madrid bombings
God of all consolation and comfort, bring to us at this time of trial a
knowledge of your presence in the face of fear, darkness and death. We ask
for your comfort to be with those who grieve, that they might find the
courage to bear their pain of their most bitter loss. We pray for all
victims still in hospital and for those who care for them.
We bring you our grief and ask for courage to bear it. We bring you our
thank for all you give us, in those we love. We bring you our prayers for
peace. God our creator and our end, give us the courage to welcome that
unimaginable moment awaiting us all; give us trust and confidence;
and at the last give us peace.
Additional ResourcesMeditationBecause God never gives up on us, we need never give up. This is what God accomplished when the Crucifixion became the way to the Resurrection, when Lent became the way of Easter. Judgement and death - the ultimate "give-it-ups" - have been replaced by redemption and everlasting life - the eternal "never-give-ups." Adapted from Homelitics CommentaryThird Sunday in Lent 'Our God is a Patient God' This week’s readings, and many of the readings leading up to Easter, focus on the theme of repentance. In the gospel reading, the owner of a fruitless fig tree wants it destroyed, but the vinedresser asks for more time to cultivate it so that perhaps it will bear fruit. If it does not then it can be cut down. We never hear what happened. Did the tree bear fruit or not? We don’t know - but it was given time by a gracious owner. What would the believers think every time they looked at the tree? Perhaps each time they walked by they would be reminded of Jesus’ words to repent and to turn back to God. The God to whom we turn and return (the root meaning of the word repentance) is that same God. He is the God of the past, and the God of the future. The God of our past, and the God of our future. When we do repent and turn to Him, it’s not so much a case of our finding God, but more a case of being open to be found by Him. And because He finds us, what may have appeared to be a fruitless past need not produce a barren future. In today’s world it sometimes seems that turning to God and spending time with Him on a regular basis is at odds with being fruitful. There seems to be little enough time to do all that we want to do anyway, without trying to find time to fit even more things in. And yet, it’s a paradox of the gospel that it’s precisely by taking time out and spending time turning back to God that we are able to be more fruitful. As we open more of ourselves up to God, so He can pour more of Himself into us and we bear fruit, perhaps not in the way the world would see, but then, God’s economy never was the same as that of the world. For some of us, taking the time to stop and wait on God requires a discipline that we find hard. There always seems to be something else to do, even if it’s just watching the TV or reading a book. For others, this discipline may be a question of getting priorities in the right order. One of the things Lent offers us is a time to reflect on our priorities and the discipline (or lack of it!) we have in our relationships with each other and with God. Are we serious and diligent about developing our relationship with God as we turn and return to Him day by day? Where do our priorities really lie? This is the theme which is picked up in our readings from Isaiah. An invitation to the hungry and thirsty to come to eat and drink from the richest fare that God has to offer and to labour on the things which really do satisfy. To get our priorities aligned to those of God. To walk in His way and receive His blessings. For if the first paradox of this weeks readings is that by spending more time with God and walking in His ways we become more fruitful, the second is surely that as we become more fruitful so we receive even more of the riches and blessings God has in store for us. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand what God is doing in the world. The world, it seems, is far from walking in God’s ways, working to His priorities or being fruitful in God’s economy. More often it appears like we are wasting the world’s resources and working to our own agendas, or to those of people in positions of supposed power and authority. The world’s ways are not always God’s ways. But His desire for us remains the same; to be fruitful, now and in the future; whatever may have happened in the past. As Christians, as people who are continually turning to God we open ourselves to His cultivation and encouragement to grow and develop. In so doing we have the sure hope that after the austerity and apparent barrenness of a Lenten time comes the fruitful bounty of Easter. Prayers for SundayO most gracious Jesus, our Lord and our God, who bore our sins in your own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, might live unto righteousness: have mercy upon us we pray, and grant that we may live a Godly and peaceful life in this present world, and through your grace, in the world to come. Amen Father God, we ask that you would give the nations of the world a thirst for righteousness and justice, that they would not waste the riches you have give to the earth, and that they would strive for peace and harmony with all people. Amen Soul of Christ, sanctify us; Body of Christ, save us; Blood of Christ, refresh us; Water from the side of Christ, wash us; Passion of Christ, strengthen us; O good Jesus hear us; Within your arms, hide us; From the power of darkness defend us. Bid us come to you that with your saints we may praise you. Amen From the Anima Christi c 1300 Christ give you the 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 Hymns for Sunday(1). I rejoiced to hear them say (On notices) Tune: St George's Windsor, (2). There’s a sound on the wind-681 Mission Praise, (3). We cannot measure how you heal-Glory to God 103, (4). Be thou my vision-378 Hymns and Psalms.
Sermon for 11th March 2001
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