Second Sunday in Lent

Grace

 

1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

John 3:1-17

 

Nicodemus Came to Jesus by Night

RANE, Walter

Contemporary

Private Collection

United States

 

As is the case with Lazarus, the figure of Nicodemus is not found in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and is only mentioned in the gospel of John. As one of the Pharisees, Nicodemus did not want to jeopardize his position and his reputation by being seen publicly with Jesus, so he surreptitiously visited Jesus after nightfall. Nicodemus, an educated man, was moved by Jesus’ teachings and hungered for a deeper knowledge of the Lord.



Walter Rane (b. 1949) is an American artist who began his career as primarily a book and magazine illustrator but now specializes in religious art. Rane was raised in Southern California and received his B.F.A. at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. There he found the traditional approach to drawing and painting that he desired. That discipline, combined with an emphasis on the human figure, remains central to his art today. Following graduation from the Art Center, Rane worked as a freelance book and magazine illustrator in the New York area for twenty-one years. In the late 1990s Rane began to paint scriptural themes in a classical fashion. These subjects continue to be an important part of his work, along with still lifes, landscapes, cityscapes, and scenes of contemporary life. Rane and his wife currently live in New York City.
http://www.walterrane.com/

 

https://ccca.biola.edu/lent/2023/?utm_source=The+Advent%2FLent+Project&utm_campaign=0dfa858d56-ccca_lent_2022&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_78cecb2370-0dfa858d56-280033956#day-feb-27

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grace, then, is grace, — that is to say, it is sovereign,

it is free, it is sure, it is unconditional,

and it is everlasting.

~ Alexander Whyte

 

 

 

What I want in my life is compassion,

a flow between myself and others

based on a mutual giving from the heart.

 ~ Marshall B. Rosenberg *

 

 

 

 

Celebration of Life

James C. Leonard

Memorial Dinner after the Service

Lariot Lodge

Evergreen, Colorado

Sunday, February 28, 2023

Sharron with their children, Scott Leonard and Juli MacDonald

 

 

Chew and Chat

Monday, February 27, 2023

Marilee Ross, Carolyn Alexander, Sondra Kellogg, Karla Byrd

 

 

 

7th Anniversary Party

The Laundry

2701 Lawrence St.

Denver

Wonderful re-purposed building.

From a huge commercial laundry to offices including a law firm.

 

 

Carolyn with Anna Marie Nelson, her son Matt, and her granddaughter Lauren

 

Lauren Nelson and her boyfriend, Cameron.

Lauren works for the law firm.

 

Many contemporary paintings inside and outside along the street.

 

 

 

 

Our lives are fragmented.  There are so many things to do, so many events to worry about, so many people to think of, so many experiences to work through, so many tasks to fulfill, so many demands to respond to, and so many needs to pay attention to.  Often it seems that just keeping things together asks for enormous energy.  Different powers pull us into different directions and our sense of unity and togetherness is constantly threatened.  This fragmentation is probably one of the most painful experiences of modern man and women. … Life has become so busy … that it is hard to keep the pieces together.  Underneath… lurks the nagging feeling of being disconnected, alienated and bored. … And so while we are busy we feel an inner emptiness.

~ Henri Nouwen **

 

 

 

February 26, 2023      Second Sunday in Lent Sunday in Lent - Year A

 

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

*  Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg  

 

** Henri Nouwen in the Foreword to The Practice of the Presence of God

       

 

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

Christian Wallpaper - Hills n Lake Psalm 121:1-2

 

 

 

 

LECTIONARY

Genesis 12:1–4a 

Psalm 121 

Romans 4:1–5, 13–17 

John 3:1–17 or Matthew 17:1–9

 

THE WORD:

The Pharisee and teacher Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the middle of the night (in John’s Gospel, night/darkness symbolizes the lack of faith/light).  A man of learning, Nicodemus is one of the Jewish elites who were favorably disposed toward Jesus but were struggling to grasp the full meaning of his teachings.  For the writer of the Fourth Gospel, Nicodemus represents exactly the kind of timid disciple the evangelist seeks to persuade to come forward and openly profess his/her faith in Jesus as the Christ.

In their exchange, Jesus explains that the kingdom of God he proclaims transcends time and place, that God’s reign is a state of being: to enter the realm of God demands an interior transformation in the Spirit.  Invocating the image of Moses’ staff of a bronze serpent raised to save the Israelites from the bite of poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:9), Jesus foretells his own crucifixion, when he will be “lifted up” for the glory of God and the salvation of humankind.  And, in one of the most famous verses in John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of a God who is motivated by love so great that the Father has given the world his own Son not to condemn but to save.

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#march5a

 

 

First Reading Genesis 12:1-4a

1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.

Psalm 121

1   I lift up my eyes to the hills — 
          from where will my help come? 
2   My help comes from the LORD, 
          who made heaven and earth.

3   He will not let your foot be moved; 
          he who keeps you will not slumber. 
4   He who keeps Israel 
          will neither slumber nor sleep.

5   The LORD is your keeper; 
          the LORD is your shade at your right hand. 
6The sun shall not strike you by day, 
          nor the moon by night.

7   The LORD will keep you from all evil; 
          he will keep your life. 
8   The LORD will keep 
          your going out and your coming in 
          from this time on and forevermore.

Second Reading Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

1What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 

13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Gospel John 3:1-17

1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”