Return to Notes Year A
Return to Lectionary Notes
Page
Return to Home Page
Lectionary Notes
- First Sunday in
Lent
(view
sermon or sermon for this text)
Readings for
First Sunday in Lent, 2/10/08:
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Psalm 32, Romans 5:12-19,
Matthew 4:1-11
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7:
- I love the story-telling quality
of this text. Growing up, going to Camp
Aldersgate, the then-director Rick Stackpole used to tell this story about
the creation of the world, about how the turtle had to swim to the bottom of
the water to pick up sand to make the land. I loved those stories, and loved
camp, and was shaped by experiences there. So then, I read this story, with
phrases like, "now the serpent was more crafty than any other," and I can just
hear the intonation of a story-teller sharing this with people thousands of
years ago. And no doubt, as we have it to read today, this story shaped the
people, and their faith, as they sought to understand God at work in their
world.
- For other great creations
stories, check out two of my favorite C.S. Lewis books: The Chronicles of
Narnia: The Magician's Nephew and from the space trilogy: Perelandra.
- Read closely and carefully: compare what the snake says
God says, with what Eve says God says, with what God actually says. It's like
a game of telephone, where the truth gets slightly altered in each telling.
- Nakedness. Today, perhaps it
seems no one has shame in nakedness, if we look at media images... but
emotional nakedness - perhaps we fear that now more than ever. What does it
mean to be naked before God? What are you ashamed of God seeing?
Psalm 32:
- Watch for the change of voice in
verse 8-9. It threw me off for a couple minutes. First the psalmist is talking
to God, then God to the psalmist. "I will counsel you with my eye upon you,"
says God. What an image! Being a Lord of
the Rings fan, the big eye of Sauron comes to mind first, but
that's not exactly how I like to imagine the eye of God! Think perhaps instead
of those pretty "God's Eye" craft projects you might have completed in
elementary school.
- There's a Hide and Seek
theme going on here. The psalmist talks about hiding and not hiding
our sinfulness from God. But the psalmist also talks about God being our
hiding place. God is the one seeking us. We can hide from
God or hide in God. Which will it be? God will cover our
sin.
- Note the theme of clean
slates - God is wiping out our sins.
Romans 5:12-19:
- Make sure to read the beginning
of chapter 5 to pick up Paul's whole conversation here.
- Paul is taking about Jesus being
the one through whom grace comes, just as through Adam our sin comes. I have
questions about original sin and substitutionary atonement for myself, but
what I like is this verse: "the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the
many died through one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace
of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ." (emphasis
added) It always makes the most sense to me to hear about the limitless nature
of God's gift of grace. That "much more surely" phrase is
repeated in this passage. With God, with Christ, it is always much more surely
that we are given!
- "one man" is another phrase Paul
repeats here. He says if one man's actions leads to death, so also one man's
righteousness leads to life. Obviously he's speaking of Adam and Christ, but I
think we can also apply this to ourselves: one person's actions can have
significant impact, for bad or for good. We can control what kind of actions
we want to share with the world: what results do you want your influential
behavior to have?
Matthew 4:1-11:
- Good to compare this passage with Luke and Mark's
version of the temptation - Matthew has some different order to the trials,
and he also fleshes out some of the scriptures that are quoted. You can decide
if the differences are significant!
- Jesus is tempted by the devil.
It's easy to get caught up in an argument about who the devil is, if the devil
exists, if the devil is a being, etc. But I think if we get stuck in that
argument, we miss the actual point of the story. Point is, Jesus went through
a time of testing and tempting and trial before he began his ministry. Point
is, Jesus could have chosen many paths of action that would have left him
better off, but instead he chose God's path. Point is, Jesus, a human,
faced the same tough decisions we face, and remained faithful - so, so can
we.
- Jesus is tempted in three ways:
in the first, he resisted using his powers to meet his own needs. In the
second, he resists putting God to the test, demanding of God to meet his
needs. In the third, he resists using his power to be a dynamic leader of the
type that seeks fame and glory.
- It's interesting - the devil tempts
Christ by using the scripture from Psalms. He takes the words of
the Holy Book and twists them into a wrong meaning. It's not just bad theology
when we do the same things with "proof-texting" and other abuses
of God's Holy Word - it's actually evil when we use the word in this way!
Pastor’s Note: (I use the Greek-English
Lexicon from Liddell and Scott, the “little Liddell”
and the Metzger et. al Greek New Testament in my translation work.)
Return to Notes Year A
Return to Lectionary Notes
Page
Return to Home Page