Sunday February 21 Lent 1
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Psalm 63
I delight in the certainty of God’s protection and victory over evil. The violence in verses 9 and 10 can be understood as an expression of our intense desire that all evil will come to an end.
Psalm 98
The people, the nations, and the whole of creation delight in God’s victory and rejoice when God comes to put all creation right. This psalm is used at Easter, and is often used on Sundays, mini-anniversaries of Easter. There is some lovely imagery of the sea deliberately making a noise with its waves and rivers doing the same by clapping their hands.
Deuteronomy 8: 1-10
Moses continues to speak to the people as they are about to enter the land God promised them. Even in difficult times, don’t forget that God’s generosity is greater than you can imagine. You knew this generosity in the past (when God was generous in the wilderness) and you had difficult times (which were to strengthen you), but God’s generosity in the future is even greater.
Jesus quotes the verse about bread alone not being enough when he is being tempted in the desert. Early Christians thought of Jesus as going through the same experience as the Israelites in the wilderness when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Lent is our participation in that experience.
Mark 2: 18-22
Technically, it is forbidden to fast on a Sunday, even in Lent, because that would be to refuse to experience Jesus’ resurrection. This passage is chosen for this first Sunday in Lent to remind us that the point of Lent is not to fast as much as we can, but to prepare for Jesus’ resurrection. To do that will draw us into a whole new way of living in joy. That will be very different from what is usual in society—just as unshrunk cloth is different from shrunk and new wine can burst old wine skins.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are but did not sin, give us grace to discipline ourselves
in submission to your Spirit,
that as you know our weakness,
so we may know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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