Lent 4C

The Fourth Sunday in Lent: Laetare

Introit

Rejoice, Jerusalem and gather round,
all you who love her;
rejoice greatly with her,
all you who were in sorrow.
Delight and be replenished
with the consolation flowing
from her comforting breasts.
Isaiah 66:10-11

I rejoiced when they said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the Lord."
Psalm 122:1

Joshua 5:9-12

⁹ The Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt." And so that place is called Gilgal to this day. ¹⁰ While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹² The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

Halfway through Lent!

This midway Sunday takes a break from penitential purple or violet with vestments and paraments in lighter, brighter rose or pink. It's often called Laetare or "rejoice" after the first word of the introit or entrance prayer. Refreshment Sunday is another name, this Sunday is Mother's Day in the UK and in some other countries.


Readings for Today

• Geography and chronology both are a bit confounded, but broadly, the first reading from Joshua with no more "reproach (disgrace, derision, ridicule, stigma, shame) of Egypt" that scholars interpret as imperial slavery and/or as not being uncircumcised, leads to Israel enjoying crops of the promised land after celebrating the Passover freedom feast.

• Responsive Psalm 32 is about individual confession, forgiveness, and restoration.

• The gospel is the Prodigal Son, Waiting Father, Resentful Older Brother, Surprise Party, Forgiving Father, Family Reunion from Luke 15:11-32. This is one of the stories that's exclusive to Luke. What would you call it?

• In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, the Apostle Paul announces that like Jesus Christ, we are ambassadors who bring the message of reconciliation with trespasses (transgressions, sins, offenses, guilts) wiped out to leave a clean slate. Paul even says we are new creations in Christ!


Forgiveness

With God's forgiveness in Christ and our gifts of forgiveness to each other so central to the Gospel and to the Christian life, it's important to be cautious. Not so much about Martin Luther's "sin boldly, and trust even more boldly in the risen Christ," or avoiding what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace that claims because we know Christ has forgiven us, we might as well keep on sinning because God loves to forgive.

Both as the frequently noted "gift we give ourselves" and for the person or even institution or group that offended us, forgiveness always is an option. You may have lived enough years to realize forgiveness typically is a step by step process. Many times we need some understanding of "why" they did that to us in order to start the process.

We need to be cautious because forgiveness always is possible, but reconciliation sometimes is not possible.


Reconciliation

Like the waiting father in Luke's parable, God in Christ has removed the shame of sin and guilt from us and even called us to be ambassadors of reconciliation. You may long for everything again to be the way it was in the long ago past, but too much may have happened for that to be possible.

Forgiveness always is possible, but reconciliation sometimes is not possible.

To reconcile with an abuser can be dangerous on many levels. To place yourself again in any unhealthy or dangerous situation usually is unwise. If you're uncertain or confused, consult a therapist, pastor, or counselor, who knows you or possibly with a professional (therapist, pastor, counselor) who doesn't know you at all and can assess your history with some objectivity.

Reconciliation may be impossible at this moment, but with prayer, waiting, hoping, and understanding maybe in the future? Or possibly not.


A Few More Notes

The passages from Joshua and Luke are about God's tangible and earthbound provision for us.

Israel had just celebrated Passover before the gifts of manna ended and they feasted on food harvested from the land of promise. Like our sacraments, passover was [still is!] remembrance, real-time reenactment, and anticipation of God liberating, providing for, and shaping the people into a community whose daily life reflects and enables forgiveness and liberation.

God renamed the place Gilgal that sounds similar to rolled away in Hebrew. God rolls away doubts, pasts, fears, regrets, sins, and anything else that's been getting in the way. God rolls in newness and freedom. "Today" "on that very day" "on the day" all are here and now. We need to keep living as if we still were in the desert wilderness where everything is gift; whenever we lose the sense of uncertainty and preciousness of the desert and start to feel comfortable… then we start trusting ourselves.

Lent 3C

The Third Sunday in Lent: Oculi

Introit

My eyes are forever turned towards the Lord,
for he shall release my feet from the snare;
look upon me and have mercy on me,
for I am abandoned and destitute.
Unto you, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul;
O my God, I trust in you,
let me not be put to shame.
Psalm 25:15-16, 1-2

Isaiah 55:1-9

¹ Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

³ Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. ⁴ See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. ⁵ See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; ⁷ let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. ⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The Third Sunday in Lent

For the third Sunday in this slower, reflective season of Lent when many people cut down on food consumption we hear about abundant water and plentiful food. This comes from the final chapter in the second main section of Isaiah that's often called 2nd Isaiah. Although Second Isaiah mostly wrote during the Babylonian exile, scholars don't know if the prophet(s) wrote this poetry in the later section to people still in Babylon or to those who already had returned from exile to Jerusalem.

Exile in Babylon was devastating political, religious, cultural – and culinary – displacement. The people these promises and questions first addressed were hungry, thirsty, and poor.

Many urban dwellers in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and other cities reside in food deserts where the only food they easily can buy is overpriced and ultra processed. If Federal food programs get cut, the nutrition situation will become even worse. In addition, with armed conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere, food has become scarce for civilians and for the military.


Material and Spiritual

Isaiah 55 opens with a series of commandments, summons, invitations:

come – buy – eat – listen – eat – delight – incline – come – listen – seek – let

Don't waste what has value.
Don't settle for what doesn't fill you up and nourish you.
Take only what is good and enjoy it.

It's sometimes hard to know just where God's offer of necessary material goods ends and where God's offer of the spiritual substance of salvation begins. Does this passage refer to physical provision or spiritual provision? Yes. Both. And.

The Lord's Supper reminds us the food and drink God offers us is both spiritual and material. Eating and drinking can be a means of grace—not exclusively in Holy Communion. Think about it!


God's Thoughts; God's Ways

In 55:8-9 the Hebrew thoughts is closer to our word designs in English than it is to cerebral brain processes.

Our designs, ideas, and thoughts? Because we necessarily live in a world of economic exchanges, we expect to pay for absolutely everything, whether in legal tender, our labor, or in-kind. We don't really believe in free lunches. Nutrition has become commodified, or more accurately, calories people buy and ingest have. Even water, a basic life necessity, has become a commodity with a price attached.

Via Isaiah God asks us, "Why work hard spending energy and hours to buy stuff – food, entertainment, household items, apparel, junk – that doesn't satisfy on any level?" Why do we spend money on fake food instead of real food?


Free Food: God's Thing

If you're thirsty, come to the waters and drink your fill. If you're hungry, come on over and "buy" food that won't cost you anything. The people who first heard these words of promise were hungry and thirsty and very poor.

You remember in the exodus desert God gifted the thirsty and hungry people with water from the rock, food from the sky. In an environment where they couldn't plant or grow anything, Israel learned to trust food – and life – as a gift.

We don't believe in free lunches; God does! God created us in the Divine Image – Imago Dei – and through the Holy Spirit calls and enables us to be God's presence, and provision wherever we find ourselves. Have you noticed how those locations sometimes feel both accidental and providential? Amidst wars, inner city deprivation, even extreme rural poverty, individuals in every kind of setting, organizations of every type, and entire countries provide free lunches, breakfasts, and dinners.

Eating and drinking can be a means of grace—not exclusively in Holy Communion.

Come to the waters. Water is life! Come to the banquet! Come "buy, purchase" without money.


Affluenza

When we discussed this reading during Lent 2016 I mentioned the Curing Affluenza video series Tony Campolo (RIP, 19 November 2024) and Shane Claiborne made in the late 1990s and United Methodist Communications produced. North American Affluenza is the widespread disease of acquiring too much of everything you really don't need, sometimes in response to keeping up with or envying our neighbors.

On Wednesday mornings the East Coast Episcopal church I attended offered Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion Rite 1, breakfast, and discussion. For several weeks we watched the video series during the discussion portion. This page from the Franconia Mennonite Conference's Peace and Justice Committee is the best summary I could find.

Lent 2C

The Second Sunday in Lent: Reminiscere

Introit

Remember, O Lord, thy compassions and thy mercies,
which are from the beginning,
lest at any time our enemies rule over us:
deliver us, O God of Israel, from all our tribulations.
To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul:
in thee, O God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.
Psalm 25:6, 3, 22, 1-2

Luke 13:31-35

³¹ At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." ³² He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, "Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. ³³ Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem."

³⁴ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
³⁵ See, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

• Overview of Luke's gospel


The Second Sunday in Lent

As we prepare for Easter during the forty day long season of Lent, many of us slow down, become more intentional about study and service, possibly take on a meaningful project or activity and often relinquish a sensual favorite such as chocolate, wine, or desserts.

Today's gospel reading happens after Luke reports Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem—the cross and the empty grave. Does that information help your Lenten considerations?


At That Very Hour

In Luke's gospel, the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross is particularly focused and incessant. Jesus first "set his face toward Jerusalem" in Luke 9:51.

Immediately before this, Jesus told a series of parables, and he went teaching from town to town. The narrow gate or door as entrance to the reign of heaven was among those teachings, followed by what's sometimes called "the great reversal" when those typically first will be last, the last surprisingly first. "People will come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and recline at table at the banquet of kingdom of God."

Commentaries are divided on the pharisees' warning Jesus about Herod being out to get him. Although we tend to put pharisees and sadducees into a single category, sadducees were the bad guys in collusion with the Roman empire, while the pharisees were serious about being ultra-observant and faithful; Jesus and pharisees dine together at several places in Luke. I'd call it a friendly warning that Jesus is well aware of.

As Luke records this pair of incidents, Jesus still is in Galilee, not yet in Jerusalem. Matthew doesn't include the exchange between Jesus and the pharisees, but he does quote Jesus' lament over Jerusalem: Matthew 23:37-39.

Similar to Jesus giving almost identical talks at many places, he would have grieved over Jerusalem at several – if not many – junctures along the way. In fact, as soon as he reaches and observes the Holy City in Luke 19:41-42, he again weeps and laments, "if only they'd known the things that made for peace."


The Jerusalem Temple

The Temple was the center of the world, a home for the God who filled heaven and earth. I know, a strange perspective because Israel well knew the peripatetic divinity who journeyed with them and always remained alongside them. But with other Ancient Near Eastern divinities being attached to a particular location, wouldn't Israel's God desire similar or even better? In any case, aside a place for God, the temple was the destination for the three pilgrimage festivals—particularly for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that reordered and realigned creation. So it was central to the worldview of any observant Jew, and because the temple was essential, so was Jerusalem, the city where the temple resided.

Jesus took his identity and his calling seriously; from conversation and scripture he would have known many of Israel's prophets didn't fare well. Although saying prophets get killed only in Jerusalem isn't factual, Luke may have been making a broader observation about justice and the nature of raw imperial violence. Martin Buber points out the prophet rather than the priest had religious primacy for Israel, but the Jerusalem temple would have been the center of Jesus' world as an observant Jew, so prophets and priests both belonged to his tradition.


Where We Live

Weeping, hoping, and dreaming over cities. Peering anxiously or with confidence into the future. Weeping, hoping and dreaming over the people that live in the city, that ideally make a city of, by, and for the people, and not for the billionaire elites. Sorrow about broken and compromised infrastructure, because no individual or community can function without streets, roads, stock exchanges, air traffic controllers, and internet. Grief over what used to be, what could have been right now.

Jesus took his identity as Son of God and his calling to model and help create a just, compassionate society seriously. As people preparing for baptism or to renew our baptismal promises on Easter, we take our callings and identities seriously, too. God placed the first humans in a garden and charged them to care for it; God promised Abraham a land where people could settle and thrive as they nurtured the agricultural bounty surrounding them.

Jesus wept over cosmopolitan Jerusalem that was the religious, cultural, economic, and political center of his world. We live in a world that has become almost unimaginably flat. For example, very few non-Ukrainian people are not sorrowful, concerned, and prayerful about Russia's invasion and undeclared war on the smaller country. We grieve for places because we celebrate places. We celebrate places and locations because we need them.

Are tears, prayers, and actions for the cities we love, the world we cherish, and the hopes we hold especially appropriate during Lent as we anticipate Easter and the possibility of a new creation?

Lent 1C

The First Sunday in Lent: Invocabit

Introit

He shall call upon me, and I will hear him; I will deliver him,
and glorify him; I will fill him with length of days.
Psalm 90:15-16

He that dwelleth in the shelter of the most high
shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.
Psalm 90:1

Luke 4:1-13

¹ Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ² 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.

³ The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." ⁴ Jesus answered him, "It is written, "One does not live by bread alone.'" [Deuteronomy 8:3]

⁵ Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ 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. ⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." ⁸ Jesus answered him, "It is written, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" [Deuteronomy 6:13]

⁹ 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, ¹⁰ for it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' ¹¹ and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" ¹² Jesus answered him, "It is said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" [Deuteronomy 6:16]

¹³ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

• Overview of Luke's gospel


Lent

The Church's year of grace has moved from the season of Epiphany into the 40-day long season of Lent. "Lent" is an old word for springtime that refers to lengthening days and more daylight (clocks spring forward this Sunday). The music tempo lento is a leisurely slowing-down pace. Lent is one of the church's oldest observances that probably began not long after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. Throughout the centuries Lent has had different lengths ranging from a few days to our current practice of forty days minus Sundays—Ash Wednesday through Wednesday in Holy Week. Sundays are In Lent but not of Lent, because every Sunday is a festival of resurrection.

Like seven, forty is a famous biblical number. Moses spent 40 days of Mount Sinai; Elijah spent 40 days on Mount Carmel. Israel trekked through the exodus desert for 40 years. Jesus spent 40 days of being tempted or tested in the wilderness.

With purple and lavender, lenten practices and observances emphasize repentance and baptism. Just as with baptism, the turning around, repentance aspect of Lent is about living bathed in grace. Lent is a time of preparation for baptism at the Easter Vigil; it's also a time for those of us already baptized to remember how in grace God claims us and names us.


Lent 1

Every lectionary year (A, B, and C) for the first Sunday in Lent the gospel reading is Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Synoptic gospels Mark, Matthew, and Luke all include an account of Jesus' testing by the devil – ha Satan – traditionally the prosecuting attorney in Judaism. Mark provides no details; Matthew and Luke reverse the order of the second and third temptation or test.

Luke places this passage about Jesus, son of God immediately after his version of Jesus' genealogy that ends with "Adam, son of God."


Today's Gospel Reading

Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness immediately follow his baptism with the announcement of his identity and calling as Son of God. The Holy Spirit filled Jesus, and then the same Spirit of Life led him into a place more extreme than the wilds alongside the Jordan River.

The late Henri Nouwen points out the devil accosted Jesus with three of the world's greatest temptations; in his rebuttals, Jesus asserted his baptismal identity. Here are Nouwen's ideas followed by my comments on each one:

• To be relevant: Turn these stones into bread? Luke 4:3

But Jesus himself is the bread of life, he is far more than basic survival food, Jesus is The Stuff of ultimate revival, a.k.a. Living Bread, nutritious grain that won't rot or mold or decay!

• To be powerful: Have authority over all the kingdoms of the world? Luke 4:6-7

Jesus is Lord over and against the insufficiency of temple sacrifice, the dehumanization and violence of Roman or Russian or Washington, D.C., or any other imperial rule. In Christ Jesus all the world possesses the cross of Calvary, the power of life over the death-dealing, life-negating pretenses of too many ecclesiastical, institutional, and earthly governments.

• To be spectacular: Throw yourself down from the temple spire? Luke 4:9

But Jesus himself is the temple; Jesus is more than the temple. In fact, each of us is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so no further need for a brick and mortar structure because we have and we are living temples.

Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy, with words that point to the neighbor, the other, and not to himself. Jesus had spent a lifetime attending synagogue and being instructed in Torah, so he embodied the substance and meaning of scripture. We've mentioned Mary praying the Magnificat recorded in Luke 1:46-55 – "My soul magnifies the Lord, and spirit rejoices in God my savior" – that's roughly based on Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Being raised an observant Jew meant learning and knowing scripture.


Where We Live: Baptismal Identity

Lent is a time of preparation for baptism during the Easter Vigil and an opportunity for those of us already baptized to remember how in grace God claims us, names us Christian, calls us to live out our baptismal identity in witness and service, and in the power of the Spirit sends us filled with the Spirit into the world to be the gospel, to live as good news to everyone everywhere.

In today's passage, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy with words that point to the neighbor, the other, and not to himself. Jesus carried the words of scripture in his heart.

How about us? What about us? Martin Luther reminds us God has redeemed us from the "unholy trinity" of sin, death, and the devil. What scriptures, prayers, hymns, do you rely on to reclaim your baptismal identity when the going gets rough and tough? Maybe especially over the past half-dozen years?

When you're confused or uncertain about that next move? What scriptures do you recall when life is glorious and you want to thank and acknowledge God?