2510AFC030725 – 1st Sunday of Lent – Repent! Believe! Confess!
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Luke 4:9-12 – 9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you,’
11 and
‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Romans 10:6-11 – 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
Psalm 91:14-15 –
14 Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honor them.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Adelphos, we are finally here! It is the 1st Sunday of Lent. This incredibly rich Season of Scripture and Praise, and Service and Love is NOW, so we bring out all the purple, violet, orchid, thistle, and plum colors to signify our willingness to recognize the necessities of introspection, repentance, preparation, meaningful sacrifice, transformation, and restoration. Boy! That’s lot of things to work on. Holy Mother Church wisely gives us 7 weeks – 40+ days of recapitulating Israel’s 40 years in the desert, and Jesus’ 40-day time of prayer and preparation in the desert. What a glorious opportunity to get down to basics and resume our daily face-to-face, heart-to-heart, communication with our Creator. I want to begin today by telling why I refer to all of us as earthlings. It has a direct connection with Ash Wednesday.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” or “Repent and Believe the Gospel.” Those ashes coupled with these words remind us that we come from the Earth, from the fiery act of creation, from the patient molding of all creatures, space, and time as an integral part of the Universe. I am, you are, we are created from the Earth. Have we ever reflected on what that means? Pick up a handful of soil and look at our origins. And remember that God made the Earth to be our origin and our home and the rest of the universe to teach us how incredibly Great and Majestic and Powerful our God is! This scripture is a special passage I want to share with you because it is a great way to open our daily prayers with the sacrifice of praise. Imagine looking over to God and saying these words from 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 – 11 Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. God himself told us “Let Judah (Praise) go up first,” [See Judges 1:2,(GNT)][1] so Judah (God is to bepraised) is – in effect – the spearhead of our prayers, and God says when Judah goes first, he will assure the victory. Way cool! I mean, that’s exciting stuff!. Now, I want to look at the Gospel Key Verse a bit.
Old Scratch told Jesus he would give him the Earthly kingdoms and power that were (and still are) under his control. He needs a copy of a book like “Temptation Strategies for Dummies” because he was (as always) using his DIY plan because he hated the APP. Can you imagine offering The King of the Universe a puny little gift like a ball of dirt and water? That Evil One led Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on the parapet – the highest point of the Temple – and said, in effect, “go ahead and jump from here. Your Father’s Angels will catch you and then you can have all this mess.” Jesus left behind even greater Powers and Grandeur than that for one simple reason: Love. I’ll ask you to listen to one hymn here. It was my dad’s favorite, and I’ve sung it many times. If you’re reading this on the blog site, you can follow along with the image of a page from the hymnal we used when I was a kid. Scroll down to the Prayer Request line) It’s called “Out of the Ivory Palaces.” (↔ Music Link) Jesus gave up everything so he – as the Second Person of the Trinity – could fully experience the condition of being made from the Earth (which he created, BTW!) and do that without sinning. That is breath-takingly astonishing. Jesus’ answer shut down the Devil’s sketchy plan and so he left … for a while. Alrighty then, what does the Key Verse from The Apostle Paul tell us? This is one of the most quoted passages of New Testament Scripture. Romans 10:9 (AKJV) [2] – 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The NRSVCE has it as above – 9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So, adelphos, we have to actually say it out loud, Jesus IS Lord, AND then believe in your heart – in the from your lips and eyes all the way in to the very Core of your Spirit, the Life God put into you with HIS OWN BREATH (Ruach, Spirit), then anchor the belief in Hope, and that is Praise that goes up to God first!
Always, always, all ways remember this: John 14:15 – 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And also Those who love me, I will deliver. Loving Obedience is extraordinary Praise. Obedient Loving is extraordinary Praise. Praise is extraordinary Obedience to Love. That gives us reasons to give God our permission to love us, and to save us. For that we sing Praise To The Lord, the Almighty (↔ Wowzer Music Link!) Lent, the season that teaches us to patiently lovingly, and to peacefully wait for the Passion, death, Resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ of God. What a privilege and humbling honor it is for a bagful of mostly-water with some dirt made of stardust dirt to express wonder, awe, Praise, Worship, Adoration, and Consecrated Service to El Shaddai-Olam. Why, in this amazing creation of God, are we invited to acknowledge his Generosity, faithfulness, Mercy and Grace? What can we tell him that is at least a small step toward adequacy?
Here’s an idea. You know I’ve told you there is always at least one song going on in the back of my head. At this very moment it is this hymn – I kid you not – that is guiding my clumsy arthritic fingers: Great is Thy Faithfulness (↔ Music Link). I am sorry, my dear friends, to submit you to my Scripture Juke Box, but I do so in part to encourage you to find some little thing – a daily occurrence or an unexpected blessing – you can chip in to make Lent even more beautiful for each and all of us. See a pretty flower? Praise the Lord! A gust of wind refreshes you? Praise the Lord! Your spouse or your kid or your friend or your coworker blesses you with a kind moment? Praise the Lord! You wake up and get out of bed in the morning? Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
During Lent, we should use the Gift of our imagination to see what Jesus sees in the daily readings during Lent. There are some amazing opportunities to enter in to that face-to-face encounter with our Creator. Jesus would not ever miss that for the World even if the Devil threw in half of the universe too. NEITHER SHOULD I, NEITHER SHOULD YOU, NEITHER SHOULD WE. It’s time to get down to what really matters – Walking with Jesus (↔ Music Link) straight to Calvary.
Repent! Believe! Confess! Experience the Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link) of God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan which he made just for you when he Loved you and me so much that he created us to Love him, to serve him, and to Live forever with him in Heaven. Say it out loud! Sing it even louder!
Who shall we choose for person of the week? Today I chose one of the three sons of Abraham who ended up being Patriarchs of three great nations. The first of these sons was יִשְׁמָעֵאל Yishma`e’l {yish-maw-ale’} in English, Ishmael which means “God hears” because Hagar called out to God in her labor pains. Ismael is a good example of a bad example. Abram’s wife, Sarai, knew God had promised her husband that he would be the “Father of many nations.,” and yet, Sarai had not yet gotten pregnant. She became impatient, and decided she would take the matter into her own control. That is a classic example of how we earthlings choose the “DIY route” instead of LG&LG – let go and let God. Sarah decided to skip a few steps in the APP and sent her maidservant, Hagar, to Abram in the hope that she would conceive. Sarai mistreated Hagar and Hagar hated Sarai. Abram listened to the voice of Sarai, and so the progenitor of the Arabian Peoples came into being. However, he was the child of slavery and disobedience, and not the Child of Promise.
Sarai wanted to short-circuit the APP and use her DIY idea to speed up the process of getting Abram a son. Abram “listened to the voice of Sarai,” and agreed. Hagar did get pregnant, and treated Sarai with contempt. Sarai kicked her out of the camp and into the desert. She ran out of water and fear she and her child would die. The Angel of the Lord appeared to her and ordered her to go back and submit to her mistress, and to name the child Ishmael. She delivered a son, and Abram named did him Ishmael because God had her the cries in the desert. The angel told her (See the whole story in Genesis 16) Genesis 16:9-12 – (GNT) 9 He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” 10 Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. 11 You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”
The expanse of their territories was eventually quite large. They were nomadic people and Ishmael’s sons also became leaders of large tribes. Even today there is tension between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac. One of the many lessons we can learn from this story is that it is always better to keep God in control instead of taking the DIY path against his Will. It is said, and it is True: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.“
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
[2] Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV) KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.
