LENT 1 A    March 5, 2017                                                      

SCRIPTURES     

• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7. Adam and Eve eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. True wisdom resides in knowing that which can rightly be taken. 

•  Psalm 32

• Romans 5:12-19. Adam and Christ — "Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all."

• Matthew 4:1-11. Matthew's story of Jesus tempted by the devil in the wilderness.

SCRIPTURE    Matt.4:1-11 

•   stones into bread = material temptation
•   Throw self off cliff = security temptation
•   Have dominion  =  power temptation 

-But Adam and Eve are not our only ancestors. There is someone else who has claimed us

-The Garden of Eden and the Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness: two stories central to our faith because they answer the question, "Who am I?" Through metaphor and poetic image, they remind us where we come from and who we are.

-The source of our temptations is almost always our own legitimate, normal, natural desires. The desire for food, sexual intimacy, approval of others is not from the devil. These are wholesome, normal, legitimate desires. How do they become sinful?

-The devil may not be a cartoon character sitting in a red suit with a pitchfork on your shoulder. Maybe could replace the word "devil" with the word "temptation," a word which, presumably, is grounded for most of us in tangible experience.

- Temptation,  a "flirtatious reality"

-the heart of Jesus’ temptations was to misuse the power that he had

-Lent is a great and graced time to face our temptations and deface them gracefully. Larry Gillick

-In essence, the devil says to him, "Be both in this world and of this world.  de Jong

-Jesus could play God or he could remain human

-Wherever it comes, the tempter/tester does not have the power to make someone do something. Temptation is not coercion.  Tempters can't make someone do something bad, but try to make the temptee want to do something bad. They don't take away the will. Rather, they try to change one's will.

-This duration of forty days ymbolically represents the forty weeks a child remains in its mother's womb in preparation for a new birth

-At the root of all temptation lies the so-called capital sins: pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and laziness

QUOTES

-The temptation is not to become human, but to become a dysfunctional human,

-In his autobiography entitled Confessions, a young Augustine was in the wilderness struggling with life's carnal temptations. St. Augustine wrote, "Give me chastity and continence, but not just now." 

-"Where Humanity Fails, Jesus Prevails!"   Rev. Alex Stevenson

-  "A triumphant cry: It is accomplished!  and it was as though he had said:  Everything has begun."  Nikos Kazantzakis

--From the beginning in the Garden, to Jesus' temptations, and ours; the Liar entices us with things that appear to be good. Stoffregen

-To err is truly human

-"To err is human; to forgive is divine." "The devil made me do it." "I'm only human." “I couldn’t help myself.” These phrases suggest that when temptation comes along we are merely the victims

- I made the mistake of telling my father, "But Dad, I'm only human.!  He wisely answered, "No, the problem is you are not human enough."  Lindy  (Jesus was human enough

-- Compare Jesus struggle with 'survival' in the desert with The CBS program "Survival".  Do the ends justify the means?  Apparently on T.V.,  they do.  Rev. Beth Quick

- I wonder what Jesus would have been tempted by in the 21st century? Power?  Materials? Security?

-Vocation  is not a voice "out there" calling me to become  but it is a voice "in here" calling me to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.

-The temptations are like a table of contents to all the decisions that he would make, the miracles that he would work, and the teachings he would utter. 

-It is in times of testing or trial we are called upon to prove our true identity and character, who we are and whose we are.

-Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell

LENT

1. If something is worth giving up, it should be for more than just the few weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

2. Lent and Advent are both preparation times before a big event

3. Lent = "Lencten" meaning spring time (Old English)

4. If sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end. (Buechner)  

5. Buechner suggests that during lent we ask these questions:

     a. When you look in the mirror what do you see you most like...you most want to deplore

     b. What last message would you give to a handful of people most dear to you. (25 words or less)

     c. Which thing you have done would you most like to undo?

     d. What person, or cause would  you  die for?

     e. If this were the last day of your life, what would you do?

   Answering these help  us to  see who we are and what we are becoming.

6. Fill communion cups with water so we can taste the “almost nothing” that is living.

9.  Ash Wednesday is a kind of baptismal branding.

10. Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than if we succeed for its purpose is not to confirm us  but to bring home to us our need for salvation.

11. Even our TVs assure us that if we get it right, wear the latest styles and gather the most toys we will have arrived.

ILLUSTRATIONS

 1.  Pretzel -- an ancient bakery item.  Used to be eaten only during lent.  Goes back to 5th century.  Shape is made in the form of two arms crossed in prayer.

HUMOR

- "Some people will change when they see the light. Others change only when they feel the heat.

-A London newspaper sought the help of its subscribers in addressing the problem of evil.  Readers were invited  to send in their responses to the question,  What is wrong with the world today?   The best response of all was also the briefest.  It read,  Dear Sir, I am.  Yours faithfully, G.K. Chesterton

-I generally avoid temptation, unless I can't resist it. Mae West My Little Chickadee

--"Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn. 

   Fulton Sheen

-"How come opportunity knocks only once, but temptation beats down the door every day?"

-A brilliant magician was performing on an ocean liner. But every time he did a trick, the Captain's parrot would yell, "It's a trick. He's a phony. That's not magic." Then one evening during a storm, the ship sank while the magician was performing. The parrot and the magician ended up in the same lifeboat. For several days they just glared at each other, neither saying a word to the other. Finally the parrot said, "OK, I give up. What did you do with the ship?"  (The parrot couldn't comprehend what was happening and neither could Peter.)

CHILDREN

- Bring in a remote controlled car and have some fun with it and then tell how we are not like the car....we have choice WE make.  Adam and Eve had choices.  End with the fact that even if we make a wrong choice,  God forgives and helps us start over. 

• Play the game, Simon Says and then replace "Simon Says" with the Bible Says.  Elaborate on this.
• Tell story of why pretzles are used during Lent. (illustration above) 

PRAYER PHRASES

• In our weakness, come to us in your strength. 
• We cannot reach to thee; reach thou to us. minister to us all, not acccording to our ability to ask but according to your  insight into our neeed.
• If we are blind, your light still shines. If we are deaf, you continue to speak.  If we pray, you are there, if we do not pray you are there. In our sifulness and in our righteousness you ar there….You are always there for us.  

 Comment at:  lindyblack@me.com