First Sunday in Lent Year C, March 6, 2022

Prayer

Through all their desert wanderings, O Lord our God, you led our ancestors from toil and oppression to a land of milk and honey.  Through forty days in the wilderness, the Spirit led your Son from the devil’s testing to victory as your servant.  Lead us through these forty days of Lent and make that victory of Christ’s our own, till at the font of living water the elect find new birth, the penitent find pardon, and all rejoice to serve you alone. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 4:1-3

"I don’t think that a sermon on temptation needs to be either titillating or boring to be helpful. Rather, I think it needs to be both honest and realistic. In fact, I think that kind of sermon on temptation might be just the thing a lot of our people need and want to hear."

"Trust and Temptation," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2013.

"Wilderness was the wild place, the waiting place, the place of preparation. It also connected then, as it does now, to very basic spirituality: a place to grapple with God, a place to learn dependence on nature and its provisions, a place of extremes or contrasts, of wild beasts and desert. It is the Lenten space par excellence."

"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Lent 1, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



On the first Sunday of Lent we return to chapters which came before our Epiphany readings.  This Sunday we go back in time to the chapter just following the Baptism when Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the desert. This pattern of reading the Gospel works well for our liturgical year, and helps to bring the modern Christian journey through Lent into perspective alongside the journey of Jesus in the desert.  Sometimes it isn't very helpful as far as the narrative is concerned.

In Luke's Gospel we are clear that it is the Holy Spirit who is the one who is leading Jesus from the moment of baptism throughout his ministry. Jesus is God’s son specifically and this “’sonship’ is mediated by the Holy Spirit.” (LTJ, Luke, 72)

Jesus is led then as God’s son into the desert, full of the Holy Spirit. He is led there specifically to be tested.  In the desert we find that it is Job’s tester who comes to Jesus, a little different personality than in the other two Gospels. This devil will offer much in a land without much. The idea is that here the devil is offering a different world to Jesus, a different reign. This reign is one filled with demons and minions. To many the “wilderness” is a place full of demons.  The reign the devil offers is not only contrary to but working against the reign of God. The testing begins long after Jesus becomes hungry. He is dwelling within this counter kingdom where scarcity rules.

He dwells there for forty days which is a holy number.  In Exodus 34:38, Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days; In 1 Kings 19:8, Elijah spent forty days on the journey to Mount Horeb. According to the northern tradition (in Deuteronomy 9) , Moses received the Law there, rather than on Mount Sinai, the location in the southern tradition. In Deuteronomy 9:9, Moses says “I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.” “Forty days” appears many times in the Old Testament meaning a significant period of time. Recall also that Jonah predicted that Nineveh would be destroyed after “forty days” if the citizens did not repent.

This is an interesting tie-in for the discipleship journey. We, as disciples, live in a world tempted daily by the demons and minions of this counter-kingdom. When we live in the world we are hungry and find little sustenance. When we leave the life lived within the reign of God we will be tempted and it will be like a desert with living water ever more scarce and our own thirst and hunger increasing.

Jesus is first tempted to turn stones to bread. I am reminded first of all of John the Baptist’s words that God can raise up sons and daughters of Abraham from these stones, stones may be living, stones may gush forth with water. But Jesus is tempted here with the opportunity to use his “sonship” powers to try and sustain life in the “counter-kingdom.” (LTJ, Luke, 74)

Jesus responds by reminding the devil and us who are traveling along this desert journey with him that we do not live on bread alone. (Deuteronomy 8:3.) The message Jesus offers in not unique and yet it is always timely. We enter into this time of year to help us intentionally remember that we depend upon the bounty and grace of God for all that we have. This was the lesson taught to Abraham, to Joseph, to Moses, to all the prophets, kings, and holy people of God. As humans it is so very easy to believe that if we just have this or if we simply could have that our lives would be so much better off than they are today. We so easily forget in our hunger brought about in a world of scarcity that God’s love and providence is already there to be consumed.

The devil then shows Jesus all of the kingdoms throughout the empire and says that he can have them if he will but prostrate himself. In Luke’s Gospel this is more than bowing before the devil, acknowledging his power and reign over the counter-kingdom. It is worship he desires.

As I reflect on this passage it reminds me of all the false hopes of prosperity that are offered on late night infomercials. The promise looks good and it is inviting. The promise of the counter-kingdom is subtle and you and I buy into it pretty easily. “If I just had this or that,” we might say to ourselves. Just recently I read an article talking about the unfulfilled hope promised by technology. Jesus’ response is to reorient the conversation towards God. Jesus reminds the devil of the words of the Sh’ma: there is only one God of Israel and him we shall worship.

The first two temptations not having worked, the devil takes Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. The devil offers a few quotes and invites Jesus to test his father. Surely the angels would save Jesus from stubbing his toe. Jesus of course “exhausts” the devil with his focus on the reign of God and his unbending mission to bring it to fruition. At the end of the day it is the tester of Job and Jesus who looses faith and withdraws.

Luke includes this phrase, “withdrew from him for a time.” The tempter will play an important role towards the end of Jesus’ mission. While the ruler of the counter-kingdom is quiet for most of the Lukan gospel, his minions are not. Luke Timothy Johnson tells us we should not pretend that the clash of the reign of God and the counter-kingdom of the world is over by any stretch of the imagination.

As we come to the end of this passage and I reflect on possible messages for the first Sunday in Lent, there are the obvious themes of desert and testing. There also emerges a theme on the faithfulness of Jesus to bring in the reign of God. Perhaps in our beginning of Lent we might not simply see our journey with Jesus in a desert or wilderness as a time to grow close to God, but rather a time to test our faith in God by stepping boldly forward into ministry and mission. Can we be driven into Lent by the Holy Spirit for the sake of the reign of God and see what it is that we discover along our own journey to Jerusalem? Can we fast, and pray, and be reconciled to the lordship of Christ in our lives?

Some Thoughts on Romans 10:8-13

"Few congregations today face the precise questions that challenged Paul's churches. Even so, there remain significant issues that divide believers from one another."
Commentary, Romans 10:5-15, Audrey West, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"Resurrection itself is an overcoming of shame -- the shame of crucifixion in particular, but also overcoming the more general shame that God did not act to save God's faithful servant from death."
Commentary, Romans 10:5-15, J.R. Daniel Kirtk, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"God's salvation is available to all. This is a bold statement. We err if we hear it as anthropology, as a claim that all people are about the same, or as a maxim that "a person's a person, no matter how small" (that's not Paul, but Horton Hears a Who!). Rather, Paul makes a statement about God: God has made salvation near to all."
Commentary, Romans 10:5-15, Matt Skinner, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Paul

In this lesson Paul substitutes the word for Torah with the word Christ.  Therefore what we are presented with is the transformation of living the law transformed into the Gospel of living out the Christ like heart.

We have a unique proclamation of Good News about Salvation and of Christ and his resurrection.  We cannot underestimate the reality that Paul's view that God's grace, mercy, and salvation preceded virtue was a radical notion.  The reversal of the economic nature of faith was powerful to the first century ears.  Today, most of us still live within a predominately exchange based faith practice; though a more subtle one.  We trade on "right belief" today or "right worship."  Paul's message is very important for us to hear.

Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is working God's purpose out in the world.  God as Holy Spirit is a spirit of love and grace which is breathing life into people.  They are receiving grace and this grace brings with it a deliverance from the old ways.  Shame is not God's way, though it was the way of the law.  We are freed now into a new life which makes all things and all people new.

This God is a generous God and Christ sees no distinction in the human family when he looks upon us with the eyes of grace.  Paul says it is no longer about marking the boxes and checking off your list of achievements.  Instead God has saved us.   Paul writes:

For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

This is good news indeed and having heard it, we proclaim it, and we choose to live and be differently. We choose then to live out of our freedom and liberty a grace filled and virtuous life.  This is the new economy of faith, traded on grace and forgiveness from God to us and to all others.  Moreover, an opportunity to live life empowered by the Holy Spirit to give thanks for this salvation and to offer it to others; all the wile attempting a virtuous life of love.

Some Thoughts on Deuteronomy 26:1-11

"The book of Deuteronomy records the orations Moses declared to the Israelites on the last day of his

Offering of the First Fruits (בִּכּוּרִים, bikkurim)
(illustration from a Bible card published
between 1896 and 1913 by the
Providence Lithograph Company)
Thanks Wiki!

life."

Commentary, Deuteronomy 26:1-11, William Yarchin, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"It is the will of God, that we should be chearful not only in our attendance upon his holy ordinances, but in our enjoyment of the gifts of his providence. Whatever good thing God gives us, we should make the most comfortable use of it we can, still tracing the streams to the fountain of all consolation."
From John Wesley's Notes.

"Signifying that God does not give us goods for ourselves only, but to be used also by those who are committed to our charge."
From the John Calvin's Geneva Notes.

Clearly, not all identities are the same. Characteristic of Jewish identities and others inspired by the Hebrew Bible are what Dan McAdams calls “the redemptive self.” (Yuval Harari, 1 Lessons for the 21st Century (London, Jonathan Cape, 2018) People with this kind of identity, he says, “shape their lives into a narrative about how a gifted hero encounters the suffering of others as a child, develops strong moral convictions as an adolescent, and moves steadily upward and onward in the adult years, confident that negative experiences will ultimately be redeemed.” More than other kinds of life story, the redemptive self embodies the “belief that bad things can be overcome and affirms the narrator’s commitment to building a better world.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from The Story We Tell (Ki Tavo 5778) 

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We are at the edge of the promised land. Here in this book we have God's teaching about what it will mean to be a people who dwell with God.

God has provided Moses, the greatest of prophets, with words of instruction on the liturgies, life, and community that is to be formed in the new land in which they are to dwell.

The passage is about first fruits. We most likely have an actual liturgy presented in the text. The prayers may be some of the oldest in the whole of the testament. And, it is a description of a national festival. Both the people of Israel and their pagan neighbors are to do this as a thanksgiving. The liturgy follows:

1. You take first fruits as an offering to God
2. put it in a basket
3. Go to the sacred place where God dwells
4. go to the priest who is serving at the time
5. say the following opening words, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.”
6. Then the priest will take the basket from you and set it at the altar
7. Then you will say, “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.”
8. Then you will "set down" and "bow" before God

This is an amazing piece of scripture. It actually is a passage that gives us liturgy - words and actions. It tells us of an actual thing that happened....people who lived in proximity to Jerusalem would bring fresh fruit...others dried fruit. This was a great ingathering for Jerusalem. Rabbi Sacks tells us:

Those who lived near Jerusalem would bring fresh figs and grapes. Those who lived far away would bring dried figs and raisins. An ox would walk ahead of them, its horns plated with gold and its head decorated with an olive wreath. Someone would play a flute. When they came close to Jerusalem they would send a messenger ahead to announce their arrival and they would start to adorn their first-fruits. Governors and officials of the city would come out to greet them and the artisans would stop their work and call out, “Our brothers from such-and-such a place: come in peace!” 

The flute would continue playing until the procession reached the Temple Mount. There, they would each place their basket of fruit on their shoulder – the Mishnah says that even King Agrippa would do so – and carry it to the Temple forecourt. There the Levites would sing (Psalm 30:2), “I will praise you, God, for you have raised me up and not let my enemies rejoice over me.” 

The scene, as groups converged on the Temple from all parts of Israel, must have been vivid and unforgettable. However, the most important part of the ceremony lay in what happened next. With the baskets still on their shoulders the arrivals would say, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” Each would then hold their basket by the rim, the Cohen would place his hand under it and ceremoniously wave it, and the bringer of the fruit would say the following passage, whose text is set out in our parsha... Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from The Story We Tell (Ki Tavo 5778)

The passage talks about liturgy, stewardship, and the nature of the relationship between God and God's people. It was Murray Newman's, my Old Testament professor, favorite text.

I imagine that many people will jump the gun and talk about stewardship if they preach on this text. And, it is about that. It is truly about giving thanks to God who is provider and a deliverer. However, I believe there is more here than that.

But I think the foundation of the passage may not be in the liturgy and stewardship of the narrative. Instead, the deep meaning of the passage is actually found in the words of the prayer that is to be said at the time of the offering - the parsha. (Deut. 26:5-10) That is, "“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor....etc, etc. Here I turn to Rabbi Sacks to help us to pull from the text 5 essential themes.

First, the people of Israel are the first to experience and tell the  story of God. In particular that this God is a God beyond and in the midst of history - and in particularly in the midst of a particular people. Moreover, the people of Israel in their experience, and through the text, reveal to us that the story of history is an overarching theme of God's making. In particular this theme is one of redemption: beginning with suffering; freedom of the people by God's delivering hand; the drama of a people trying to live with god; and finally a homecoming. This story is to be one that moves in this very passage from an account to internal memory. It is to be internalized. He writes, "Those who stood in the Temple saying those words were declaring: this is my story. In bringing these fruits from this land, I and my family are part of it." (Ibid.)

Finally, this is all about identity. More than history, more than narrative, and memory...this is ultimately about being and becoming. Sacks suggests, "History is an answer to the question, “What happened?” Memory is an answer to the question, “Who am I?” (Ibid.)

He gives this example, "In Alzheimer’s Disease, when you lose your memory, you lose your identity. The same is true of a nation as a whole. (David Andress, Cultural Dementia, subtitled How the West Has Lost its History and Risks Losing Everything Else (London, Head of Zeus, 2018) When we tell the story of our people’s past, we renew our identity. We have a context in which we can understand who we are in the present and what we must do to hand on our identity to the future." (Sacks, Ibid.)

As we bring all of this forward into our Christian context we understand then that what we do liturgically, like this prayer, reminds us of God in Christ' Jesus work of redemption. And, that this was the high water mark of what God has done all along. We understand that we are not participating in something that we are disconnected from. We are not merely receiving something. What we do in the liturgy is something more. We are actually claiming ourselves as a particular people, with a particular God, in whose particular narrative we participate. We are internalizing God's story.

What we do each week (not unlike what the people are instructed to do and have done for millennia) is of "immense consequence". We are telling a "collective story" of who God is and how we participate in God's story. It in fact rejects all forms of principalities and powers...it rejects all the "normal bases of identity: political power, shared territory or a shared language of everyday speech." (Ibid.)

All characteristics, all identities, all nations are not the same thing. The American narrative is as Dan McAdams explains it above in the quotation section. Christianity moves beyond the hero and demigod's triumph over evil or circumstance. We instead understand that God has acted and is acting in the midst of our lives today. God in Christ Jesus is not simply a symbolic hero of such triumphs as the wandering Aramean and God. Christ is the God, the alpha and omega of history, who makes us God's people and redeems us (not merely from the authorities and powers of this world) from the sibling rivalry that infects all human relationships - the sin of the world. The Gospel is rooted here in this story of the first fruits for it is a historic memory of God's action that is raised to a greater enterprise in Jesus. For through God in Christ all of creation is redeemed, not just a people. In God in Christ Jesus we become the first fruits of God's salvific act upon the cross. Christ is the one who offers the sacrifice and raises us to God making all of us an offering to the most high God. This is our story, this is our God, and we are the people of his hand - the sheep of his fold.