February 14, 2016 - First Sunday in Lent - Baptism, Little Easters and Wilderness School

Matt, Jon and Shirley lead the congregation in a faithful God Will Make A Way and a longing Bind Us Together during Creator Praise.

This is the First Sunday in Lent. The Gospel is Luke 4:1-13 Jesus Tested in the Wilderness.  In the announcements  Pastor Michelle encourages us to notice Baptism and the Water of Life appearing in worship today.  Potent association for me to Creator's January 10, 2016 Baptism of Our Lord celebration and worship.

On Ash Wednesday Pastor Michelle mentioned reading scripture as a contemplative Lenten discipline choice for this time in the church year.  Today she announced Creator's Adult Forum Animate: Bible series starts next Sunday which revolves around how scriptures are or can be read.  The series suggests approaches to scriptural readings that invite passages to dwell in our hearts and points us to the Living Word.

Jesus Tested in the Wilderness continues a narrative arc in the current Revised Lectionary Year C  Gospel Readings.  This narrative arc is more important to me this year than my usual thoughts about how the temptation of Jesus relates to will power and my Lenten discipline.  Pastor Michelle placed great importance today on the Baptism of Our Lord which chronologically.happens just before the spirit moves Jesus to this wilderness

There is another chronology we are following with teh Lectionary.  Last week's Transfiguration Gospel reading illustrated for me how Jesus might be tempted and here is the Temptation story for the very next Sunday's Gospel Reading.  The Third and Fourth Sundays in Epiphany tie in as well with Jesus quoting scripture and how important this was to him during his testing in the wilderness.

During the test the devil quotes scripture to Jesus to tempt him.  Jesus did not yield to cherry-picked passages the Devil used to put God to the test.  The importance of mining for the word (which is the topic of the next Animate: Bible) with God's help, prayer and flashes of intuition is made evident with this passage.

Pastor Michelle used the term Wilderness School for Jesus as he grew in wisdom and stature during the forty days.  As an aside she let us know that the forty day count does not include Sundays because they are celebrated in church as Little Easters.  She also brought up that the Jordan river, where Jesus is baptized, is the boundary between the wilderness and the Promised Land.

When truly accepting Jesus as man, as well as Jesus as God, part of the good news we have to tell is that God gave the blessing to Jesus "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” before Jesus embarked on his ministry or did any good works in God's name.  God loved Jesus, and by extension us, without condition or action to fulfill.  To dramatize this in worship today we followed Pastor's instruction and each of us made the sign of the cross on the forehead of a person sitting close.  We repeated the Baptismal blessing and it did feel like a blessing.

There was a first time visitor sitting next to me who did not look like he planned to attend worship today.  I followed him taking Communion and that difference made a big difference in some special way while the congregation sang a very compassionate and inviting Come to the Table and a stately Give Me Jesus.

The service closed with a joyous, but firm and determined Lead Me, Guide Me.