Materials for Worship at Home for the First Sunday in Lent

Nerys writes:
Lent for me these days isn’t so much about giving up things but about making time to remember who I am and who God is. Both our Old Testament and Gospel readings today remind us of the importance of being aware that our story is part of God’s bigger story and of allowing this knowledge to shape our lives.

The purpose of the harvest ritual described in Deuteronomy 26.4-10 was to encourage the descendants of the Israelites who had come into the Promised Land, to remember God’s part in their story and not to take the blessings they enjoyed for granted. The instructions, put into the mouth of Moses, call on them to acknowledge God both as creator of the earth and as the one who freed the people of Israel from slavery. They are to fill a basket with the best of their crop, take it to the Temple and, as they offer it, they are to tell again the story of what God did to save their people. The celebrations which follow are to be enjoyed by everyone living in the land – a reminder that it was theirs by God’s grace alone and that they were to be generous as God is generous.

Immediately before today’s Gospel, Luke gives us the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam, reminding us not only that he belonged to the people of Israel, but that, like us, he belonged to the human family and that he experienced the same inner struggles that we do. Then, in Luke 4. 1-13, Jesus takes himself away to a lonely place to try to work out how to use the power and authority he had be given by God at his baptism. In the wilderness, he is tempted to follow the example of other leaders of his day to show who he is with spectacular displays of power and to gather followers by giving them what they want. Jesus responds to the voice of temptation by reminding himself of God’s bigger story. His answers are all taken from the story of the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness centuries before. But, where Israel failed again and again, grumbling for bread, flirting with idolatry and constantly putting God to the test, Jesus succeeded. They kept on forgetting God’s bigger story but Jesus is committed to living according to God’s will, trusting God completely.

Luke’s final words suggest that these temptations were part of a continual struggle within the mind of Jesus throughout his ministry. We are also constantly tempted to focus on our own story and to forget that God who loves us is active in our lives and in our world. In the celebration of the eucharist, we have an opportunity to remember the bigger story and to offer our story anew to God. My prayer for us all this Lent, as war rages in Ukraine, is that our worship together and in our homes would strengthen our resolve to imitate Christ so that we grow in wisdom, courage and compassion.

You are invited to use Stewart Townend & Keith Getty’s song (words and recording below) as you pray today or you may prefer to spend time with the icon of Christ Pantocrator (ruler of all) by the Ukrainian iconographer Yuvenaliy Mokritskiy from the Orthodox Cathedral of St Sophia in Rome.