1st Sunday in Lent

Do you ever feel like your Pastor's sermon speaks so directly to your life that you wonder if he's been a fly on your wall?

When I feel like that, I have to remember that our Pastor is the vehicle that the Lord has chosen to speak His Word to us. Isn't that amazing? It's beyond my comprehension that the Lord cares so deeply for each of us that He can orchestrate such finite details.

Well, today was one of those days when I felt that our Pastor has peeked into our lives and spoke about it in his sermon.

We started the day with singing the hymn "A Mighty Fortress" which most of the congregation knows by heart and listening to the sweet voices around me made me so appreciative of my church family. Gosh, but I love those folks!

The Old Testament Reading was from Genesis 3:1-21, and the passage that clung to my conscienciousness was "she also gave some to her husband who was with her." Adam was with Eve when the serpent was tempting her and inducing doubt.

Then, from the Epistle Reading, Romans 5:12-19, the passage that jumped out at me there was "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteiousness leads to justification and life for all men." Although Adam and Eve sinned, Christ has redeemed us all.

The Holy Gospel reading from Matthew 4:1-11 included this passage, "Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.' "

Pastor's sermon was on the Gospel reading and was about temptation and how we each face multiple episodes of temptation throughout our lives, and even daily. Jesus was subjected to temptation in the wilderness. Satan enticed Jesus to compromise His identity, just as Satan tempts us today to compromise our baptismal identity. Satan generates self-doubt by inviting us to be somebody else rather than who we are, just as Satan tried to get Jesus to leave behind His identity as the Son of God. But Jesus, He quotes Scripture back to Satan and rebukes Satan.

Because we are called through baptismal waters to sow faith where there is doubt, we will be tempted. The best arsenal against that is to say, "It is written..." thereby censuring Satan.

Now there's a pretty good reason to not only be familiar with Scripture, but to learn it by heart.