A Morning Service for the First Sunday of Lent 2023
HYMN – Forty days and forty nights NEH67 – Aus der tie
1 Forty days and forty nights
Thou wast fasting in the wild,
Forty days and forty nights
Tempted and yet undefiled.
2 Sunbeams scorching all the day,
Chilly dewdrops nightly shed,
Prowling beasts about thy way,
Stones thy pillow, earth thy bed.
3 Let us thine endurance share,
And awhile from joys abstain,
With thee watching unto prayer,
Strong with thee to suffer pain.
4 And if Satan, vexing sore,
Flesh or spirit should assail,
Thou, his vanquisher before,
Grant we may not faint nor fail.
5 So shall we have peace divine,
Holier gladness ours shall be,
Round us too shall angels shine,
Such as ministered to thee.
6 Keep, O keep us, Saviour dear,
Ever constant by thy side,
That with thee we may appear
At the eternal Eastertide.
PRAYER OF PREPARATION
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen
PRAYERS OF PENITENCE
God the Father forgives us in Christ and heals us by the Holy Spirit.
Let us therefore put away all anger and bitterness, all slander and malice,
and confess our sins to God our redeemer. cf. Ephesians 4.30,32
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour,
through our own fault, in thought, and word, and deed,
and in what we have left undone.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For your Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
forgive us all that is past;
and grant that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.
May the God of love and power
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen
THE COLLECT
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen
FIRST READING – Genesis 2.15-17; 3.1-7
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
HYMN – Dear Lord and father of mankind NEH 353/AMR 184 – Repton
1 Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence praise.
2 In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow thee.
3 *O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!
4 Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.
5 Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake,
wind, and fire,
O still small voice of calm!
GOSPEL – Matthew 4.1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
SERMON
So here we are already at the first Sunday of Lent, just 6 weeks to Easter. And that’s the whole point of Lent, Easter. If you ask lots of people in the street what they thought that Lent was all about you’d hear a few ‘don’t knows’, but I guess the majority of people would say that it was about giving something up, usually chocolate or sugar in your tea – I’m not sure how many people could tell you to what purpose.
But Lent is much more than that. It originated in the early Christian practice of encouraging those people due to be baptised at Easter to keep a special period of preparation, a fast if you like, to help them to focus on the momentous step they were about to take. The length of the fast varied from place to place until the biblical number 40 was chosen, not including Sundays. If you check you’ll see that there are 40 days from Ash Wednesday, when Lent began, to Easter Sunday, if you don’t include the Sundays. Sunday was a day of celebration, the day of Jesus’ rising, not a day to fast. The practice of keeping a period of preparation before Easter caught on, and not long after every one in the church was keeping it. Of course, the 40 days became identified with Jesus’ symbolic time in the wilderness.
Jesus, Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell us, was led, straight after he was baptised, into the desert by the Spirit. Matthew then goes on to detail three particular temptations and how Jesus responded to them. The whole scene seems to follow the Israelites’ wanderings in the desert. They were called to learn dependence on God in time of hunger, they were commanded to avoid all compromise with idolatry and the worship of false gods, and, they were told not to put God to the test. All these things they failed to do, and for the last Moses was refused entry to the promised land.
For Israel the desert had been a failure, they had been ‘proved’, they had been tried in the fire, and had failed miserably. But Jesus does not fail, each trial he turns aside with a quotation from the book of Deuteronomy, underlining that he has understood the seriousness of the demands of God as his people had not.
Right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the alternative paths are clear, the choice is his, and the place of choice is the desert.
In the desert, or rather, in a deserted place, there is much that becomes clear. In its simplicity and solitude, in its silence and emptiness priorities become more obvious. Perhaps that’s why a little silence is essential to a healthy spiritual life.
The whole point of Lent is to bring some of the desert into our ordinary lives, to change, if only a little, our routines and indulgences, just to remind us to take a look at our priorities, our choices, what we put first in our lives, what we worship, and what we hunger for.
Because even if what we find doesn’t please us, we know that transformation is possible, resurrection is indeed part of the story. We don’t examine ourselves in a fit of misery and depression, we know that Easter is only just around the corner – and to the God of resurrection all things are possible – even our own forgiveness and renewal, even our own growth in holiness and love.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
Let us declare our faith in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures;
he was buried; he was raised to life on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures;
afterwards he appeared to his followers,
and to all the apostles: this we have received,
and this we believe. Amen. 1 Corinthians 15.3-7
HYMN – Just as I am NEH 294/AMR 349 – Saffron Walden
1 Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bidd’st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.
2 Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come.
3 Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea all I need, in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come.
4 Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve:
Because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
5 Just as I am (thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down),
Now to be thine, yea thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come.
6 Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth
and height to prove,
Here for a season then above,
O Lamb of God, I come.
INTERCESSIONS – Jenny Walmsley
We pray for peace in your world. We remember the people who are caught up in ethnic, religious and tribal conflicts, those living under the threat of random terrorist acts and those in the midst of open war, especially those in Ukraine. We pray for all those affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, for those who lost their lives, those injured and those who were made homeless.
We pray for the powerless, the dispossessed, the refugee, the orphaned, the starving and the asylum seeker. We pray that those with the power to influence the lives of peoples and nations may know of Christ’s love for all and act to protect all those vulnerable people. In this season of Lent may they be inspired by the sacrifices you made for mankind and emulate your selflessness.
Lord in Your mercy Hear our prayer
We pray now for the whole family of the Church of which we are members and especially for our rector William and all who make this church a living ministry. We thank you for the fellowship of the Lent discussion groups which will start next week and hope that we can take this same fellowship into the wider community to build close and supportive links with our neighbours.
When we receive the bread and wine at our communion as well as giving thanks we pray that we may recollect the tribulations of our Lord in the wilderness and ask for help to resist our own temptations
Lord in Your mercy Hear our prayer
Lord Jesus, comforter and healer to those in both physical, mental and spiritual need, we bring before you those known to our congregation here, or to us more personally, who are in any sort of need at this time. We name them in our hearts and ask that your healing touch may be felt in their lives and that they may know your peace.
We pray for the elderly, especially those unable to leave their homes. We pray that they will feel your presence and guiding hand.
We pray for the young people coping with the influences and demands of school, of university, and of work. May they know real love and security in their lives.
We pray for marriages under stress. For children suffering from abuse or the loss of a parent and for those fighting the temptations of gambling, alcohol or drugs.
We pray for those who miss the companionship and care of loved ones, especially the family of Malcolm Clark. We pray that as they journey through this difficult part of their life, the challenges of Lent and the assurances of Easter will bring to them new strength and purpose which will help them bear their grief.
Lord in Your mercy Hear our prayer
Lord help us to see this time of Lent as an opportunity to develop our discipleship and our discipline and as we go out into the world today help us to remember that your son was tempted by the forces of evil but chose faithfulness rather than popularity, service instead of fame, sacrifice instead of power. We are often tempted in our lives and we pray for the strength to resist as He did so that we may serve God and our fellow men. You have taught us to overcome our temptations with prayer and we try to follow your example, but when we fail your compassion for our weakness allows to pray for forgiveness and await with great hope the Easter joy you will share with us.
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers, for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.
BLESSING
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
The Lord God almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
the holy and undivided Trinity, guard you, save you,
and bring you to that heavenly city,
where he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen
HYMN – Jesu, lover of my soul NEH383 – Aberystwyth
1 Jesu, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last.
2 Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on thee;
Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from thee I bring;
Cover my defenceless head
With the shadow of thy wing.
3 *Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in thee I find:
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.
4 Plenteous grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound,
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee,
Spring thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen