First Sunday of Lent

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. CW

Heavenly Father, your Son battled with the powers of darkness, and grew closer to you in the desert: help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer that we may witness to your saving love in Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading Deuteronomy 26 v 1 - 11 

Moses spoke to the people, saying: When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘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.’ When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, you shall make this response before the LORD your God: ‘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. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour 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.’ You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house. NRSV

Second Reading Romans 10 v 8b

What does scripture say? ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ NRSV

Gospel Reading Luke 4 v 1 – 13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’ Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. NRSV 

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. CW

Commentary 

 Our passage from Luke today tells us about the temptations of Jesus but let’s remember what has happened before this episode. John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness and he baptised Jesus. When Jesus was baptised a voice came from heaven saying 

‘This is my Son the beloved with whom I am well pleased.’

It was after this that Jesus in Chapter 4 is led by the Holy Spirit for forty days in the wilderness. We are told that he fasted and at the end he was hungry and it was at that point that the devil came and tried it on.

If you read Luke you will see that between the baptism and the temptations there is a passage which is essentially a family tree in which Jesus is shown to be a descendant of Adam. A descendant also of King David, also of Isaac and Abraham. We know that when the Gospel writers organised the material in their Gospels they did so carefully and so of course does Luke. So what is Luke saying by showing the history of Israel ?

Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days, the number 40 is symbolic in the Old Testament.

• God caused it to rain 40 days for the flood.
• 40 days were spent in the desert by Elijah and
• 40 years by Moses when he killed the Egyptian
• Israel were 40 years in the desert wandering

So Jesus is being connected to all of this past tradition of his people. It is a history of Israel which had been one of repeated failure. The people of Israel had been in captivity and then God led them out in the great Exodus which defined them as a people. It is still fundamental to Jewish people today and celebrated at the Passover. God had declared that he would bring ’His people out of Egypt’ Exodus 3:10, but it had all gone wrong! They had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness during which time they had let God down

• They had built idols
• They had rebelled against God through lack of bread
• They had even declared their desire to go back to Egypt!

The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron..."Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you have led us into this desert to die of famine!" (Ex 16:2-3)

It is after this history of failure that Luke tells us God in Jesus is doing a new thing. Now there is a new beginning and with Jesus we will see that a new covenant is being introduced between God and not just Israel but with all humankind who are descendants of Adam.

As Israel had spent 40 years wandering in the desert, in another symbolic journey through the wilderness Jesus is going to correct the years in which the religion of the nation of Israel had gone remarkably wrong. Jesus in his ministry would challenge the old failed order and introduce a new way. Israel had been God’s people and they had let God down. Now there was Jesus, God’s son who would put things right. Luke tells us that the voice of God came from the cloud ‘You are my child the beloved’

As Jesus goes into the desert all eyes are on him to see how he will behave. Israel was tested and tempted in the wilderness, so too Jesus will be tempted and tested. Will Jesus like Israel disappoint and let God down? Would he betray his calling and follow a path which was different ?The answer was that Jesus showed faithfulness and he refused to be tempted away from God. 

There are three temptations which Jesus faces and we know them all well.

1. To turn stones into bread To speak words to create materials things for himself. To change the natural order of things, look after himself, create things for himself, a little greed never hurt anybody who is going to miss a few stones?

2. To have power in earthly kingdoms of his own. We all know the allure of power. The ages of civilisation have been characterised by human desire to own other people and their land. We see it today worked out in Ukraine and Gaza

3. To throw himself off the high point of the temple in Jerusalem. To cease to be mortal and defy death. This would have been completely the opposite of offering his life on the cross for others. He would challenge God to protect his life by making him immortal.     

It is interesting that in the Lord’s prayer Jesus will specifically pray to reject all three when he prays

• Give us this day just daily bread
• May God’s kingdom come
• May your name be hallowed

This is not just about Jesus being tempted, this is about contrasting the old way of doing religion, which had failed, and the new way which Jesus was bringing about. Jesus conquers temptation and he is faithful to God.

What is the significance of temptation ?

The actual temptations in themselves are not very important. Jesus could have been tempted in lots of others ways. It was not so much what he was drawn towards as that he was being drawn away from God. The Devil was looking for something which would enable him to drive Jesus off course. Famous figures throughout Biblical history have had their points of weakness.

1. King David was tempted by Bathsheeba and his desire for her.

2. King Ahab was jealous for the vineyard of Naboth

We all have weak points, to pursue beauty, to have youth, great money, fame power, whatever, we are all different . This is the human condition, things which seek to pull us of course and derail our lives and cause us to turn our backs on God. If I asked you to think how you are tempted you might have something which is an issue for you. There are all manner of addictions from drugs to gambling. However you might think about those sorts of things and think that you are not really tempted at all, because you do not do bad things, you are not tempted to do evil. So let me put the question in another way, in the same way that Jesus was tempted ‘What stops you from doing what God wants you to do?

Jesus was challenged as to whether he would follow the path God set out for him. Each one of us is challenged as to whether we will follow God’s choices for our lives or our own. So we should ask ourselves, What holds me back from serving God ?

Lent is a time when we ask ourselves not so much about what we can give up, but rather what might God want us to do and what is stopping us. After this episode Jesus went out and spread the good news of God throughout the country and he went to Nazareth and stood up in the synagogue and said

 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

That was what the Devil was trying to stop him from doing, trying to knock him off course. 

Lent is our wilderness time when we think about new ways in which God might want us to be his messengers of good news and what is stopping us from being better used in his service.    Charles Royden

 Meditation

In the passage from Luke, we see Jesus doing battle with the Devil. Jesus is tempted, challenged and made to engage in spiritual combat with evil possibilities. Our human lives too are a battleground, each one of us is conflicted, seemingly surrounded by beasts 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 to 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 in which we might have behaved to be better Christian people. We all know the error of our ways and so perhaps Lent should be more affirming. I have memories of sitting in draughty old Anglican churches reciting the 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 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. 

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 beasts 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

Let the enemy rage at the gate, 

let him knock, let him push, let him cry, 

let him howl, let him do worse; 

we know for certain that he cannot enter 

save by the door of our consent. - 

Francis de Sales 1567-1622

Hymns

1. Lead us heavenly Father lead us (Mannheim)
2. Forty days and forty nights
3. As the deer
4. Through all the changing scenes of life
5. Lord of the Church (Londonderry Air)

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

God of wilderness and water, your Son was baptized and tempted as we are. Guide us through this season, that we may not avoid struggle, but open ourselves to blessing, through the cleansing depths of repentance and the heaven-rending words of the Spirit. Amen.

I pray that you 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.