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Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

We have entered the solemn fast of Lent. Lent is, for many of us, a time of soul searching; a time of spring cleaning when, through Gods help, we seek to overcome some of the more undesirable practices and attitudes in our lives. Unfortunately, many among us view Lent as a low season in which the hymns are mournful and there is much talk about sin and repentance. We get bored by the talk about sin and we hope the forty days will pass quickly. But Lent does not have to be a low season for us. It is an opportune time for us to become better Christians by engaging in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and charitable giving. In this season we can become better Christians by reconsidering our stewardship. As we engage in this soul searching we may ask ourselves: How do I care for others? How do I treat my neighbours? How do I treat my own body? How do I treat Gods creation?

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

Do I live as if I am accountable to God? Lent is, indeed, a gift to the church; a time to take stock of our own fruit bearing. It is not the season of gloom that we have made it out to be but a time of renewal and this renewal comes through our acts of penitence. Those of us who have come to see Lent as a time of gloom may be in for a surprise this morning. If we came here with the memory of sack cloth and ashes and a funeral song foremost in our minds this morning, we may have been puzzled after hearing the first reading. In the lesson from Deuteronomy, there are instructions for celebration. Celebration in Lent? Israel was about to enter the Promised Land. Moses told them when you get to this land which God is giving you as an inheritance to possess and you take possession of it and settle in, there are some things which you must do.

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

You must be accountable to Yahweh. You must be a faithful steward of Gods bounty; of God s creation. Moses instructed Israel to take a portion of all the first fruit from the grain harvest into Gods temple to offer to God. As Israel entered the land of promise, they encountered abundance and so they faced the temptation of becoming careless and complacent. They were delivered from Egyptian slavery wherein they experienced oppression, affliction and hard toil. They were now entering the Promised Land which overflowed not just with milk and honey but with precious minerals, fertile hills and valleys, olive oil and numerous watercourses. It was indeed a blessed land. They faced the temptation of forgetting that God had mercifully delivered them from this bondage. They faced the temptation of forgetting that they had a responsibility to protect and preserve and use this abundance wisely. They faced the temptation of forgetting about their stewardship.

They were entering this land not just as tenants or residents but as stewards; caregivers. And Moses commanded them saying: take the first fruits from your harvest into the temple, say to the priest: today I declare to the

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give to us, when the priest takes the basket from your hand and places it before the altar of the Lord, this is what you will say to the Lord your God: A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, has given me. You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord has given to you and to your house.

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

We are a people who are used to liturgy. Whenever we come together for corporate worship we participate in liturgy as we offer thanksgiving to God. For us this elaborate liturgy is a veritable feast for the imagination! The Israelite must present his offering and bow before God and make a particular response. He is to recall his suffering in Egypt and Gods mighty deliverance. Why does Moses give the Israelites such an elaborate liturgy? Is there a lesson in it for us today? Our stewardship, our response to God, is founded upon our memory of Gods saving acts. God has saved us through our Lord Jesus Christ and has commanded us to be good stewards. Furthermore, it is only through this close relationship with God and the acts of devotion which comes with it that we can be empowered to overcome temptations. Thankfully, we have the season of Lent in which to examine our own ways of dealing with abundance and wealth and comfort.

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

Moses even commanded the people to celebrate but they could only celebrate after they had given an account of their stewardship. Like Israel, we are called on to live as Gods stewards. Interestingly, their celebrations could not be complete unless they included the alien who lived in the land. Our stewardship is not acceptable to God unless it seeks to meaningfully help the poor and powerless. In Lukes account of the temptation of Christ, Jesus entered the wilderness as he is led by the Spirit of God. He spent forty days there fasting and being subject to the temptations of the devil. At the end of the forty days he was so famished and so exhausted. The devil thought it was now a perfect time to get Jesus to dishonour the Father. He showed Jesus instant gratification turn these stones into bread. You are hungry. You need food. Turn these stones into bread. Jesus is tempted to seek an easy way out. He is tempted to succumb to the sinful desire for instant gratification. With our fast paced lives, we are used to instant gratification. Nothing has to wait. We can punch in our coins and get our coffee in an instant. We can pick up our dinner on our way home and microwave it when we get home. We cannot wait for any process to bear out in our lives. We

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

want what we want and we want it now. But such an approach flies in the face of good stewardship. Presently, this rush for instant gratification is painfully reflected in our poor stewardship of the environment. In Jamaica, we have always viewed our seas as an endless source. We cannot wait for the fish in the sea to mature or reproduce so we yield to the temptation to overfish. Right now, we import much more fish than we export. Our unquenchable desire to be satisfied instantly has led us to overfish our seas. [The devil quotes the scriptures to Jesus when it suits him. Not everyone who knows the Bible is necessarily an authentic interpreter or proclaimer of the word.] Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and promised to give them to him if he would only fall down and worship him. Because of a lust for power, many of us willingly yield to the temptation to make power and material wealth our gods. Such an intemperate lust for power flies in the face of good stewardship. In an effort to get worldly power some yield to the temptation to have other gods in place of Yahweh. In an

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

effort to get worldly power and the fame and prestige which comes with it, some are more than willing to trample upon, oppress and crush the poor and the powerless. But Jesus says to the devil worship the Lord your God and him only. What are some of the idols that we need to separate ourselves from at this time? The devil even went further. He took Jesus up onto one of the highest points of the temple in Jerusalem and challenged him to throw himself off if he is Gods Son since God promised to give his angels charge over him. Jesus answer was do not put the Lord your God to the test How do we respond to the manifold temptations which we encounter moment by moment? Do we have the spiritual maturity which it takes to stand up against the devil? In this season of Lent we are invited to pray, in a special way, for Gods grace to endure in the spiritual warfare which we must

Lent 1

Christ Church Moneague

February 17, 2013

necessarily be engaged in since we encounter evil at every moment. Our Lenten fast urges us to think seriously, among other things, about how thankful we are for Gods grace each day that we live; about the extent to which we are able to confront our own sinfulness and turn to Christ in repentance; about the extent to which we are being responsible stewards of Gods creation and of our own bodies and possessions; about the extent to which we are willing to shut the busy world out of our lives and allow Gods Spirit to pull us closer to God.

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