By the Rev’d Lucy Nguyen

Season: The First Sunday of Lent

Readings: Deuteronomy 26:1-11 | Romans 10:8b-13 | Luke 4:1-13

We’re going on a journey – you and I and we three – all. And the journey has begun with or without you and I and we three – all … We marked it here on Wednesday night, With some two hundred and fifty people – with or without you and I and we three – all … Yes, we may have started without you, but you are here now, and the journey has begun – you and I and we three – all … How’s that for the start of a journey? I know it doesn’t quite compare with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, … (1)

Or “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: … (2) But it is the truth – the journey has begun and only you will know for yourself where the journey takes you and you may not know that until some 40 days from now.

The journey is a churchy thing it’s true. It is self-constructed drawn on historic stories and documents, not dependent on nature but reflected in nature if you choose to stop and consider it. The actual journey once started is self-determined though there are guides along the way.

It’s not exactly an easy cruise of a trip, you may find yourself cornered at times, needing to stop and reconsider some major and minor life choices as you contemplate the direction of your journey. For while we may all end up at the same place our experiences will vary and that’s okay. There are bonds that hold us together in a shared communion of being.

Today in the 21st century church is so countercultural that most people will know nothing about “all this ritual”. They will not have sets aside last Wednesday for Ash Wednesday though perhaps they did manage pancakes on Tuesday.

Is everyone here familiar with these traditions? What do you know of them? ….

Are they significant to you? …. How ….

How do we as individuals and as a community view this morning’s readings through the lenses of Ash Wednesday and this season of Lent?

The first reading the passage from Deuteronomy shapes our perspective – quite simply perhaps:

Despite our spiritual wanderings, God has remained faithful and through Christ has brought heaven now and to come – unfortunately, our failure to remember this truth puts it all at risk.

So the Deuteronomy reading reminds us to bring first of the fruit of the ground that God has given us and set it down before God. bow down before God and then celebrate with the “others” Levites and aliensthe beauty that God has given us! (3) What does that mean for you perhaps over the next Forty days – how might you bring a thanksgiving God to start you day? Lent has this deep component of coming before God and acknowledging the gifts of your life. Paul in the excerpt of his letter to the Romans, also calls us to bow down before God and acknowledge God acknowledging, confessing is the word used in translation that we believe in God and the power of God to save – to bring life to all, again no distinction of people. (3)

What on earth does that mean for us? …

Finally, the Gospel – the verses we heard today are not placed at the end of Jesus’s ministry to test his faith. Rather this account is part of Jesus’ baptismal confession as he prepares to go into his ministry … reading forward in the Gospel we will learn that while Jesus refused to turn stones into bread he does in fact feed the hungry (Lk 9:10-17); Though he refused political power, the proclamation of God’s empire of justice and peace is the focus of his preaching and teaching. And though Jesus refused to jump off the temple to see if God would send angels to catch him, Jesus goes to the cross in confidence that God’s will for life will surpass the world’s decision to execute him. (3)

All 3 readings promise in one way or another that God will be with us even in the wilderness.” (3)

Do you believe or understand how the disciplines of lent prayer fasting almsgiving are the means to receiving more deeply the gift of God’s presence in our lives already and in our world.

When have you felt God’s presence in your own wilderness?

What will be your practices this year and how will they help you to worship God?

How will they shape you that others may know God’s love?

What’s the opening sentence for your Lenten story?

How do you start your Lenten journey today?

We’re going on a journey – you and I and we three – all.

1 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

2 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865) 3 Daily Feast Year C. pg 169-170 (2012)