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First Sunday in Lent

Baptism and Temptation

 

9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Mark 1:9-15

 

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The Baptism of Jesus

MOYERS, Mike

Contemporary

United States

 

This is an older work depicting Christ as he leaves the river to venture into the wilderness and begin his ministry. It's a moment of fulfillment and new beginnings.

https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/illuminations?lightbox=image_2tr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never let anyone be humiliated

in your presence.

~ Eli Wiesel

 

 

 

 

 

  True religion is the life we lead,

not the creed we profess.

~ Louis Nizer

 

 

 

 

 

Ash Wednesday

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We had a wonderful Ecumenical Ash Wednesday Service at Evergreen Lutheran Church. 

Pastor Rita Argus of Risen Lord Lutheran Church in Conifer, Pastor Terry Schjang of Evergreen Lutheran, Pastor Richard Aylor of Church of the Hills, and Pastor Sarah Clark of the United Methodist Church of Evergreen

 

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Betty Astle, Ginny Boschen, and Carolyn Alexander.  Only three of us, and we had a wonderful book discussion at Betty’s.

(Dottie and Jack, you can see that I took your tasty nut assortment!)

 

Bible Study Group

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Joann Burnham, Laura Mehmert, Dee Demming-Kressner, Vicky Hildreth, Dianne Palmer, Judy Wonning

(Two of our members were out of town.)

 

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Rikka Ikebana by Robin Alexander Sakamoto in Tokyo, Japan!

 

 

 

 

The three temptations in the desert were precisely to choose the “upward way.”

·   Be relevant: do something that the world can praise you for like making bread out of the stones.

·   Be spectacular: jump from the tower so that everybody can see you and you can be on television because you’re so influential, so important.

·   Be powerful: kneel before me and I will give you dominion over all the lands.

But Jesus said, “No,” because he knew that God’s way is not to be relevant, to be spectacular, or to be powerful.

~ Henri Nouwen

https://archive.org/stream/HenriNouwenTheSelflessWayOfChrist/Henri%20Nouwen-%20The%20Selfless%20Way%20of%20Christ_djvu.txt

 

 

 

 

 

February 21, 2021  First Sunday in Lent Year B

 

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

 

 

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

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

 

 

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Noah’s Ark
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The Ship of the Church

KOENIG, Peter

20th Century

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20240217205341597&code=act&RC=58490&Row=25

 

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LECTIONARY

Genesis 9:8–17 

Psalm 25:1–10 

1 Peter 3:18–22 

Mark 1:9–15

 

Summary


Jesus gives us the theme of Lent in Mark 1:15: “repent and believe the gospel.” Every deprivation and discipline we go through is for this purpose. There is an explicit connection between the 40 days of lent and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, and we can participate in Jesus’ deprivations. The important thing about “wilderness experiences”—oft invoked, rarely understood—is to rid ourselves of distraction and pleasures so that we can subsist on God alone such that one overcomes temptation.

Reading about Jesus’ resistance to sin when under the worst temptation, rightly leads us to feel ashamed of our own performance under much less serious conditions. But this turns believers to repentance instead of despair, because the same Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness and sustained him also drives us to repentance and sustains us through its stings. Christ himself accompanies us through our temptations, strengthening us by the Spirit so that we can turn in a good performance.

The first and second readings show the trajectory of judgment, hope, and salvation. God’s judgment on sin is as total as the flood, but he is slow to that kind of anger, offering every opportunity for escape. For Noah, that escape was the ark. For Christians, Peter tells us, it is our baptisms. As Noah and his family were brought through the waters of death, we too are brought through the waters of baptism and into eternal life.

It is important to start the season with these themes of hope and supernatural accompaniment, because it gives believers the reason to endure the convicting pangs of penitence.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

THE WORD:

Every liturgical year, the Lenten season begins in the wilderness.  Mark’s brief account of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness takes place immediately after Jesus’ baptism.  “Driven by the Spirit,” Jesus’ going to the desert is an act of obedience to the Father.  This is a time for contemplation and discernment regarding the tremendous task before him.

The word Satan comes from the Hebrew word for adversary.  Satan serves as the “adversary” of God, advocating those values that contradict and oppose the love and mercy of God.  Mark’s portrait of Jesus in the desert is one of a Messiah coming to terms with the paradox of the human condition.

Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee proclaiming “fulfillment”: God’s long-awaited promised Messiah has come.

HOMILY POINTS:

These 40 days of Lent are the Spirit’s call to us to a “desert experience,” to re-connect with God, to dare to wonder if our lives are all they could and should be.  

Lent calls us away from business as usual (the real motivation behind fasting from one’s favorite confection or past time) in order to decide, in the depths of our hearts where God speaks to each one of us, what it means to be a person of faith, what values we want our lives to stand for, what path we want our lives to take on our journey to God and Easter resurrection.

As Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness to discern what God was calling him to do with the next part of his life, Spirit calls us to our own “wilderness experience” to confront the hard choices we must make in our lives – choices between the values of God and the far lesser things of the world that can isolate us, hurt others and diminish God’s creation.  

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#feb18

 

 

 

First Reading Genesis 9:8-17

8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Psalm 25:1-10

1   To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 
2   O my God, in you I trust; 
          do not let me be put to shame; 
          do not let my enemies exult over me. 
3   Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; 
          let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

4   Make me to know your ways, O LORD; 
          teach me your paths. 
5   Lead me in your truth, and teach me, 
          for you are the God of my salvation; 
          for you I wait all day long.

6   Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, 
          for they have been from of old. 
7   Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; 
          according to your steadfast love remember me, 
          for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!

8   Good and upright is the LORD; 
          therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 
9   He leads the humble in what is right, 
          and teaches the humble his way. 
10  All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, 
          for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

Second Reading 1 Peter 3:18-22

18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you — not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Gospel Mark 1:9-15

9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”