The opening of the season of Lent is an appropriate moment in which to reflect on Jesus' discussion of financial gifts and prayer. It appears in a trilogy that includes fasting. With the lectionary, we will focus on the first two of this trilogy.

            Many different approaches have been taken to the study of the temptations of Jesus. The stories themselves, like other Gospel stories, can be likened to three great diamonds that need to be examined and slowly turned in order to appreciate the beauty of the light reflected from their various facets. Very briefly, we ill look at a few options for interpretation.

The opening of the season of Lent is an appropriate moment in which to reflect on Jesus' discussion of financial gifts and prayer.  It appears in a trilogy that includes fasting.  With the lectionary, we will focus on the first two of this trilogy.

Teri Peterson has learned the hard way.

The first year she gave up coffee for Lent, she went straight from the sunrise Easter Sunday service to Starbucks.

The second year, she went to Starbucks before the sunrise service and brought the coffee with her to the worship service on the beach.

At the time, "I lived in downtown Chicago, so I walked past a Starbucks every 50 yards," Peterson said. "I called it my personal wilderness -- it was brutal."

This year, Peterson -- now an associate pastor at Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Church in Illinois, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago -- is still figuring out how she observes Lent. She's not likely to give something up -- she figured out she spent more time those years thinking about coffee than about why she'd given up coffee.

From the graveyard of Gadara

and the well of Isaac's son,

sweeping Light and footsteps

the Kingdom Walking, comes.

With Word, touch and gesture;

            muscled arm and steady eye,

the Calling Love of heaven,

            brings Himself to die.

No give up in this moment

            but Consummated Plan

bound there by the nail and rope

            our Lover's Open hand.

Now Open --gates and tombstones

            Open -- hearts of men

              Open to the Love of God

                        And never shut again.

@2006 A. Kirk Johnston

Kirk Johnston

First Presbyterian Church

Paola, Kansas

In all the ancient storied script

Recited for our hungry ears

By priests and prophets in our tents

Rejected we the shock and awe

Of disappointment and of fears

A song of safety and of care

The strong and gentle parent sings

Reminder of what love will bear

To win the world from dark'ning sin

And carry it on eagle's wings

One feather at a time is plucked

One leaf that withers in the heat

One cloud the sun could cover up

One cross cross out eternal hope

One stone could love defeat

by Carol E. Bayma

Dearest Jesus,

      The world is in darkness, 

            the night lasting forever, so it seems.

      And You are  ...  dead.

I saw it, as they hung You on the cross,

      as they waited until You could breathe no more,

      as they plunged the spear into Your side, just to make sure.

I saw it, as the vultures circled above and the soldiers  circled

      below, as some friends took Your limp body from the cross and

      carried You away, preparing Your body for burial.

I felt it, too.

      An emptiness invaded my soul,

            a despair invaded my emptiness.

      A sharp pain of grief stabbed my stomach;

            a dull throb of sadness moved into my heart.

Editor's Note: The following essay is the eighth in a series dealing with topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians.  Author Johnson explains: "The report from the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church provides us both the occasion and the urgency for theological dialogue within the PC(USA). This and succeeding essays are offered as a constructive effort in that direction."

The work of Christ for our redemption (atonement) is another place where the current divisions within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) beg for a better way forward, for three reasons.  (1) The current Modernist-Pietist Church milieu has narrowed the work of Christ largely to the role of example. (2) Many people today put two atonement ideas into false and unnecessary competition with each other. (3) The "classical" view of atonement, neglected by both sides but deep within the Bible and the Reformed tradition, offers a powerful way to reconfigure the total work of Christ for our redemption. This essay explains these assertions.  

Easter 8 Introduction

A lot was going on that first Easter morning. Bewilderment was an emotion shared not only by Jesus' friends, but also by his enemies. Pilate, who had seemed almost skeptical in granting the chief priests' request for a guard to be set on Jesus' tomb, Make it as secure as you can... now finds his ironic words ringing true after all. And what had appeared to be merely the regrettable, yet necessary execution of a rather enigmatic figure he had personally considered harmless, is now threatening to expand into a crisis, perhaps even a potential insurrection. Even as he ponders a plan of action, however, Pilate still finds himself drawn in a curious kind of sympathy toward that strangely dignified and self-possessed victim of whom, just two days before, he had thought he was washing his hands forever.

I grew up loving baseball. Although I played Little League, I was never really very good at it. But I loved the game. 

The season of Lent anticipates Easter, but almost as important for some of us is the anticipation of the baseball season during Lent. Everything is fresh and new. Fresh beginnings. New opportunities. 

Even today, as one in his mid-50s, my heart stirs through spring training as it prepares us for the new season.  What joy! What excitement! What anticipation that game engenders for some of us!

Text: ©2006 Carolyn Winfrey Gillette.

Used by permission.

Tune: BEACH SPRING

(God Whose Giving Knows No Ending)

Listen, sisters! Listen, brothers

To the news that we proclaim;

Spread the word and tell your neighbors:

We have life in Jesus' name.

All because God loves us dearly,

Jesus died for all our sin.

On the third day, God showed clearly:

Love has conquered, death can't win.