First Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the 1st Sunday in Lent are:

1. Genesis 2: 7-9, 3: 1-7
   
2. Psalms 51: 3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
   
3. Romans 5: 12-19
   
4. Matthew 4: 1-11
   

• Avoiding sin
  
• Most of us know some of our weaknesses, and have the sense to avoid them.  The alcoholic avoids parties that they know will be swimming in alcohol.  The person who lashes out in anger will avoid those who perversely seek to arouse that anger.  Down through the ages, folks have wondered what Adam and Eve could have done to avoid bringing sin into the world.
• What is something that you do to avoid the occasion to sin?
• How did you come to that practice?
• Do you think that God would ever call you to set that avoidance aside for a greater good?

• Awareness of sin
• Sin in our lives is easy to miss.  Just the daily challenges of survival can occupy all of our available energy and concentration to the point that we miss our own yearnings for closeness to God, we settle for something less than what He has to offer us, and we die a little inside.
• How do you tell when you're straying from God's best for you?
• How much effort does it take to be sensitive to those messages?
• How might you be more sensitive to those warning signs?
• What can you do to make that increased sensitivity a part of your daily life?
  

• Receiving the abundance
  
• Presumption and despair are two sins that seem unrelated.  Presumption tells us that our sin is not that great, that it is not mortal, that God would never exclude us for what we have done.  Despair tells us that God's mercy is not wide enough to cover our sin, that God could never admit one such as us into heaven.  God offers hope.
• What is it in heaven that you hope for?
• How has that hope matured, deepened, evolved through the years in your life?
• Do you think that your hope is better founded now than it was in the past?
• What can you do to deepen that hope further?
  

• Temptation strategy
  
• The enemy of human nature (as Ignatius terms Satan) is nothing if not clever.  Tempting us with our basic needs, calling into question our identity before God are hard things to turn away from.  But the hardest temptation might be seize what we had once, and have given up for something even better.
• What are some things that you've given up in your walk with Jesus?  Maybe a promising job so that you could be close to your kids or to care for an aging relative, moving from one ministry to take up another, giving up the freshness of your youth that you might be more seasoned.
• How do you feel about that decision?
• If you had it to do over again, would you?
• How did you make that discernment?

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Am I putting myself in sin's way?
2. Where is God calling me to be more aware of myself and my sin??
   
3. How strong is my hope?
   
4. Am I too attached to anything in my life?
   

Where are you?

I looked for you in our garden today.
The one that we have tended together.
Hand in hand, heart to heart,
Gently coaxing the fruit of the field,
That you might live abundantly.

Through you, I could feel the soft, yielding loam
The eager soil, ever ripe for fertilization.
I felt the sun on your back,
The gentle coolness of spring water,
Refreshing you as you drink, and give thanks.

In your eyes, I could see the sun's abundant rays,
And know that it was all good,
All fertile, all life-giving,
All a celebration of my love poured out
To and for you, and all the cosmos.

And now, now you have banished me.
Your pride has severed our communion
You and I no longer able to touch,
To hold,
To listen, each to the other's heartbeat.

My grief is as great as my love.
My heart is consumed in an ache,
That I can find no cure for -
As I longingly watch you stumble
In the darkness that you have chosen over me.

In your confusion,
All that you can think of is who to blame.
You don't even miss what you've thrown away.
You don't even know where your nakedness comes from,
Just that you no longer know where home has vanished to.

Down, down, down through the centuries,
I call your children telling them:
Come back to me, with all you heart,
I am merciful, merciful is your God.
I offer you light and wholeness.

Just tear down the walls of indifference,
Pride, greed, fear.
And trust that I Am who, what you have always needed.
Come to your true home
That's been there for you from eternity to eternity.

Shalom!