Second Sunday of Lent - Hearts Burning Within

The Season of Lent

Lent is intended to be a joyful walk toward Easter, a progression of the Church toward the summit of the liturgical year. The focus is on uncovering and rejecting everything that tarnishes or warps Christ’s image within us, all that keeps us from being closer to Christ. In this time, we are all focused inward but it is very much a communal journey.

The purpose of Lent is to prepare the people of God for the Paschal feast. So of every reading we might legitimately ask: how does this prepare me for the Paschal feast?

Lent is a time for the fiery love of the Holy Spirit to burn away what we do not need, releasing new energy for growth. It’s not about becoming a better person but rather becoming more and more consumed by the love of Christ.

Lent is a time we naturally begin to think of the things we have done wrong and the ways we have separated ourself from God. This is important and we must root these things out of our lives. But we must also balance this with God’s love. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more just as there is nothing we can do to make God love us any less. We must be secure in that love, have faith in it. Lent motivates us to draw ever closer to a God who loves us.

Lent, The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation

Genesis 12:1-4A

All the Old Testament readings stand alone in Lent, unlike Ordinary Time when they are chosen to complement the gospel. But all the Old Testament readings from Sunday to Sunday form a chain that’s important to pay attention to.

Last Sunday was about suffering – the fall, being tested. This Sunday is looking upwards and forwards. Embracing suffering to be sure, but looking forward, not backwards. We acknowledge the painful past but we do not dwell in it.

One of the things I love about the Abraham story – like many Old Testament stories – is that God has the initiative. Abraham wasn’t sitting around with a family planning committee to determine the next move in order to make God’s plans happen. Like many others in scripture, he was going about his daily life when God intervened with a plan, inviting him to cooperate with the work God was already doing.

Last week we read the story of the Fall. Not included in the lectionary were a series of curses related to the sin: curse of the serpent, pain in childbearing, cursed is the ground. Verses 2-3 in today’s reading give seven promises to offset those curses, seven being a number of perfection and completeness:

Make Abram a great nation
Bless Abram
Make Abram’s name great
Make Abram himself a blessing
Bless those who bless Abram
Curse those who curse Abram
Source of blessing for all people on the earth

After Adam’s sin, God cursed the ground in particular. This passage is a reversal of that. But not just a tit for a tat. The curse is narrow but the blessing is abundantly wide.

In verse 4, Haran is in modern day Turkey. I find it interesting that scripture doesn’t record a lengthy response from Abram – no speech about how he’s going to be faithful or trust God. Instead, he just “went.” And by the way, he was 75 when he set out on this journey!

Is God calling you on an Abram-like journey? To leave comfortable familiarity and follow God’s call to something new and unknown?

Take some time this week to enumerate and be grateful for God’s many blessings on you.

2 Timothy 1:8B-10

This reading comes from a section in the letter “Power Enables the Endurance of Sufferings” 1:8-12

In the original text, this is one long sentence. Although 2 Timothy post-dates Paul and was written by a later disciple, long rambling sentences are definitely in the Pauline spirit!

Verse 9 connects us back to the Old Testament reading. We just read about this journey that Abram is beginning and we know it’s a journey that will ultimately position him to become the father of many nations and begin the Jewish people. This is not Abram’s doing, but is rather God’s plan and God’s design.

And then in verse 10 we look forward and get the connection to the gospel: “now made manifest”. A manifestation of God’s presence through the transfiguration – revealing of who Jesus is.

What is your share of hardship for the gospel in this season of life?

Matthew 17:1-9

Two things to ponder from this story. First the command to listen to Jesus. Second is the pronouncement that God is pleased with Jesus.

Sometimes it’s tempting to think God couldn’t possibly be pleased with us, flawed as we are. But that does not reflect a loving God. God is well pleased with each of us simply because we are his creation and he loves us. Take some time to bask in the pleasure of God in you.

There are many parallels in this story to the stories of Moses. You could read Exodus 24 and 34 and see what parallels you pick up on.

At the beginning of Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, he says very simply that “Jesus was transfigured before them.” He uses the Greek word metamorphoó which comes from meta meaning (among other things) “change” and morphoo meaning “form embodying inner essence.” It suggests that Jesus’ form was changed in a way that defies explanation. A better English translation would be transformed. The term transfiguration comes to us from the Latin Vulgate: trans which means across and figura which means shape.

Verse 3 references Moses and Elijah. You can read relevant scriptures about them in Deuteronomy 34:5-6 and 2 Kings 2:11. Both had experienced God on holy mountains and both had some uncertainty surrounding their deaths – mystery and speculation about what happened to them and what their future roles might be.

Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets. Throughout the Old Testament, the people are commanded to listen first to the Law and then to the Prophets. In Verse 5, we are now commanded to listen to Jesus. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus is the fullness of everything that had come before.

Also in verse 5 there is reference to a cloud. In the Old Testament, the cloud always signifies God’s presence. Remember the cloud that led the way each day of the desert wandering in Exodus 13:21.

There is a beautiful detail in verse 7: Jesus touches them. After the resurrection he will do the same to prove to them he is not a vision, that he is real.

Where and how do you make space to listen deeply to Jesus?

Questions to ponder

Is God calling you on an Abram-like journey? To leave comfortable familiarity and follow God’s call?