March 10, 2019 First Sunday in Lent Deut. 26:1 11 Ps. 91:1 2, 9 16 Rom. 10:8b 13 Luke 4:1 13 Goal for the Session In light of Jesus choices in the wilderness temptations, adults will reflect on choices that test our trust in God. n PREPARING FOR THE SESSION Focus on Luke 4:1 13 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, Sharon H. Ringe In Luke s account of the passion and of Jesus earthly ministry, the meaning of Jesus baptismal commission unfolds, recalling the three tests he has undergone. Though he refused to turn stones into bread, he does feed the hungry (Luke 9:10 17). Though he refused political power, the proclamation of God s empire of justice and peace is the focus of his preaching and teaching. Though he refused to jump off the temple to see if God would send angels to catch him, he goes to the cross in confidence that God s will for life will trump the world s decision to execute him. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Lori Brandt Hale The story is only partly about temptation. Today s text is also about Jesus choice and ours to be obedient to God. Certainly, it is the more difficult choice for him to make, but it marks the beginning and frames the whole of his public ministry, particularly as it is described in Luke from his initial rejection at Nazareth at the end of chapter 4 to his arrest and crucifixion in chapters 22 and 23. Maybe someday we will be able to understand the difficult idea that the way of God is simultaneously the way of obedience and the way of freedom. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Jeffrey L. Tribble Sr. Would Jesus exploit his status and power before God as the Son of God to satisfy his own needs and desires? Would Jesus compromise his relationship with God by failing to acknowledge the ultimate sovereignty of God over all things? Would Jesus accept the bait of Satan, who interpreted the Scriptures outside of intimate knowledge of the ways of God? Jesus intentionality and receptivity to God s grace show us the way to turn toward God, rather than away from God, during our trials and temptations. If we choose the Lenten struggle to be intentional and receptive to the grace of God, we will encounter a faithful God who leads us not only into the wilderness but also through the wilderness. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Kimberly Miller van Driel Jesus prefers to trust God s word alone. Can we truly say that his experience and ours are analogous, or do we often find ourselves tested beyond our strength? The good news, however, is that the one who was tempted in the wilderness is also the crucified and resurrected one, in whom God s new life is made available to those who cannot, by their own resources, withstand temptation. The one who was tempted in the wilderness thus strengthens us in our weakness. 1
FOCUS SCRIPTURE Luke 4:1 13 Focus on Your Teaching Adults know from experience that trust is never a given in life. Trust requires choice. Some adults may come to this session in the midst of pressing choices that involve trust. Relationships can become the proving grounds of whether trust in another is merited. Some adults may presently face a dilemma where one s values are tested by moral or ethical shortcuts. Will the choice be to trust expediency or integrity? Such choices of trust can be complicated, when the decisions are not between good and bad but rather which good will be followed. YOU WILL NEED Bibles battery-powered candle table or bench purple cloth large Bible (perhaps a pulpit or altar Bible) to be used each Sunday of Lent pens copies of Resource Sheet 1 copies of Resource Sheet 2 copies of Resource Sheet 1 for March 17, 2019 For Responding option 1: Resource Sheet 1 option 2: Resource Sheet 2, pens and paper option 3: copies of your church s hymnal or songbook Fill me with your Spirit, O God: in listening to today s passage in preparation for leading this session, and entering the season of Lent. Amen. n LEADING THE SESSION GATHERING Before the session, create a worship center by placing the purple cloth on the table or bench. Place the candle and large Bible in the center, opened to Luke 4:1 13. Repeat this use of cloth, table, candle, and Bible for the worship center throughout the season of Lent. Welcome adults and introduce any guests or visitors. Explain the following continuum exercise. One side of the room represents completely trust, the other side of the room represents absolutely no trust, and the space in between as various degrees of trust or distrust. Ask persons to stand in the room based on their response to each of the following statements. After each positioning, invite brief comments as to why adults stand where they do. P Would you trust a good neighbor to take care of your house while you were on vacation? P Would you trust the solicitation of a financial advisor you met only once to manage your investments? P Would you trust the counsel of your pastor to become involved in a social justice group that often takes positions with which you disagreed? Today s session will use the story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness to explore the connection between our trust in God and our daily choices. Light the candle and offer these or similar words in prayer. Holy God, Guiding Spirit, present Christ: through this passage, guide us in making faithful decisions in the choices set before us. Amen. 2
EXPLORING Call attention to the worship center. The purple cloth represents our entry today into the season of Lent, and the candle is a reminder of Jesus presence with us. The open Bible reminds us not only of Lent s discipline of following the narrative of Jesus journey toward Jerusalem but of today s particular emphasis in the passage of Jesus decisions to trust that are grounded in his reading and interpretation of Scripture. Introduce Luke 4:1 13 by reading the Where? excerpt on Resource Sheet 1. Pay particular attention to the sentences about the focus upon choice in this passage, and throughout Luke s Gospel. Spend a few moments talking in general about choices that participants associate with Jesus (those he makes or those he seeks). In line with the concluding sentence in the excerpt: encourage adults to be aware in today s text, and in the Lenten narratives still to come, of issues related to obedience and freedom. Ask for three volunteers to read Luke 4:1 13: one will read the parts spoken by the tempter, one will read the parts spoken by Jesus, and the third will read the rest of the narrative. After the reading, invite general comments or questions evoked by the passage. In light of the excerpt s insight, discuss where obedience and freedom come into play in this passage and its choices. Look at the three choices posed by the devil to Jesus. Discuss: P What goods are posed in the devil s offers? P What greater goods does Jesus choose otherwise? P What later episodes in Jesus ministry might be prefigured in the choices he makes in the wilderness? All three of Jesus quotations of Scripture come from Deuteronomy (8:3, 6:13, 6:16), the story of Israel s time of wandering and testing in the wilderness. The devil s come-on line... could be translated as if you are the Son of God, but most likely means since you are the Son of God. Kimberly van Driel, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, p. 49. Using study Bible resources, identify, look up, and discuss the three verses of Scripture that Jesus quotes, paying attention to the wider context of those verses in Deuteronomy. Have adults consider the words that preface two of the temptations: if (since) you are the Son of God. Note that Luke has already narrated two episodes where this identity has been affirmed (1:35 at annunciation and 3:22 at baptism). Discuss: P What difference of emphasis comes in hearing these words as if you are or since you are the Son of God? P In what ways do Jesus choices reveal what kind of Son of God Jesus will be? Jesus choices have consequences and not just for himself. Ask: P If Jesus choices reveal what kind of Son of God he will be, what do Jesus choices reveal about what it means for those who would follow him? 3
EASY PREP RESPONDING Choose one or more of these activities depending on the length of your session: 1. Just Say No And Yes Jesus temptation experience in the wilderness shows his trust in God makes possible for him to not only say no to some things but yes to others. Read the What? excerpt on Resource Sheet 1, paying particular attention to what Jesus refuses as well as takes on. Discuss the connections between what Jesus refuses and takes on and what individuals and communities today are called to refuse, and take on. Do not limit this to matters of personal morality and choice. What does it mean to be communities willing to say no to popular opinions and shortcuts, and committed to say yes to difficult ministries and witness? In particular, where do adults see Jesus leading them and your congregation to trust, willing to say both no and yes? 2. Wilderness Times and Choices Learning about the choices facing Jesus in the wilderness helps us not only identify with wilderness times in our own lives but also consider the choices that grow out of those experiences. Distribute Resource Sheet 2 (Wilderness Testings... Then and Now) and pens and extra paper if needed. Have participants silently read and reflect on the material there. 3. Songs of Trust The church s hymns form a source for liturgical exploration of themes of choice, temptation, and trust. Distribute your church s hymnal and have participants look up hymns that weave together Lenten themes of choice, temptation, and trust in God. Explore how the lyrics connect these matters in our lives. If possible, sing a verse or two of several of the hymns. (Examples: Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days, Bless Now, O God, the Journey. ) Encourage adults to pay attention to hymns used in Lent that lift up and perhaps weave together these same themes of choice, temptation, and trust in God. CLOSING Gather at the worship center. Lift up the large Bible, and invite participants to call out what they will remember most from this story, as it connects to their lives and the life of this congregation. Setting the Bible down, note that the Lenten journey has only just begun. If you used Responding option 3, sing one of the hymns explored in that activity. Invite participants to turn in their Bibles to Psalm 91, which is the psalm appointed for this day. For a closing blessing: read verses 1 2 aloud to the group, and invite the group to respond by reading in unison verses 14 16. Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 1 for March 17, 2019, or e-mail it to the participants early in the week, so that they have adequate time to reflect on the Scripture passages and the excerpts throughout the coming week. 4
March 10, 2019 Adult Resource Sheet 1 Focus on Luke 4:1 13 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, Sharon H. Ringe In Luke s account of the passion and of Jesus earthly ministry, the meaning of Jesus baptismal commission unfolds, recalling the three tests he has undergone. Though he refused to turn stones into bread, he does feed the hungry (Luke 9:10 17). Though he refused political power, the proclamation of God s empire of justice and peace is the focus of his preaching and teaching. Though he refused to jump off the temple to see if God would send angels to catch him, he goes to the cross in confidence that God s will for life will trump the world s decision to execute him. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Lori Brandt Hale The story is only partly about temptation. Today s text is also about Jesus choice and ours to be obedient to God. Certainly, it is the more difficult choice for him to make, but it marks the beginning and frames the whole of his public ministry, particularly as it is described in Luke from his initial rejection at Nazareth at the end of chapter 4 to his arrest and crucifixion in chapters 22 and 23. Maybe someday we will be able to understand the difficult idea that the way of God is simultaneously the way of obedience and the way of freedom. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Jeffrey L. Tribble Sr. Would Jesus exploit his status and power before God as the Son of God to satisfy his own needs and desires? Would Jesus compromise his relationship with God by failing to acknowledge the ultimate sovereignty of God over all things? Would Jesus accept the bait of Satan, who interpreted the Scriptures outside of intimate knowledge of the ways of God? Jesus intentionality and receptivity to God s grace show us the way to turn toward God, rather than away from God, during our trials and temptations. If we choose the Lenten struggle to be intentional and receptive to the grace of God, we will encounter a faithful God who leads us not only into the wilderness but also through the wilderness. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Kimberly Miller van Driel Jesus prefers to trust God s word alone. Can we truly say that his experience and ours are analogous, or do we often find ourselves tested beyond our strength? The good news, however, is that the one who was tempted in the wilderness is also the crucified and resurrected one, in whom God s new life is made available to those who cannot, by their own resources, withstand temptation. The one who was tempted in the wilderness thus strengthens us in our weakness. 2019 Westminster John Knox Press
March 10, 2019 Adult Resource Sheet 2 Wilderness Testings... Then and Now Lenten Reflections For Christians observing Lent, the forty days (not counting Sundays) of fasting, penitence, and prayer that mark the season will echo the forty days of Jesus wilderness wandering.... Jesus sojourn in the wilderness recalls Israel s forty years of wandering a point underscored by his repeated quotation of Deuteronomy. In the harsh environment of the wilderness, habits formed by slavery in Egypt are discarded and new ways of complete trust in God are formed. P In what ways have we experienced wilderness in our lives; as a congregation? P Where have we experienced God s faithfulness in the wilderness that transformed us? P What old ways tempt us to return, or exchange, trust in God for what we can control? Dynamics of Testing and Temptation The text tells a story about how evil works on the basis of distortions and lies. P Where do we hear lies today that sound truthful, and what do they seek of or offer to us? P What most puts your trust of God to the test? Create a prayer for the Spirit s leading, and use it daily this week. 2019 Westminster John Knox Press