Second Sunday in Lent
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The arrangement of the lessons for the second through the fifth Sundays in Lent is rather confusing; it looks as if all of the pericopes were written on slips of paper and pulled from a hat. There appears to be a haphazard arrangement of the readings; most are essentially the same in the various denominational lectionaries, but they are listed on different Sundays. The reason for the apparent confusion is in the way that Lent is interpreted in the several churches. The Roman Church celebrates the Transfiguration on the Second Sunday in Lent, and employs John 4, John 9, and John 11 for the next three Sundays of Lent. John is the traditional Gospel for Lent and Easter; some Roman exegetes insist that it was written for the instruction of catechumens and the scrutinies of Lent, both of which take different form - again - after Vatican II. In the Roman liturgical scheme, Lent really has five Sundays after Ash Wednesday; Sunday is essentially (and, practically, in the churches of Protestantism) included in Lent; the Week of the Passion concentrates on the final week of our Lord's life, leading up to the triduum (now consisting of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday), the Easter Vigil, and the Easter celebration. The Episcopal Church assigns the John 4, 9, and 11 Gospels to the same Sundays as the Roman Church, but continues to call the Sixth Sunday in Lent Palm Sunday (with two liturgies: one of the palms, the other of the Word). By putting John 3 (the Nicodemus story) on the Second Sunday of Lent, as does the Common Lectionary, the ancient tradition of reading John during Lent receives additional emphasis. The Lutheran lectionary moves John 4 and John 9 ahead one Sunday, inserts Matthew 20 on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, while retaining John 11 on the Fifth Sunday in Lent; the Sixth Sunday is the Sunday of the Passion and, as in other churches, it ushers in Holy Week.
The church year theological clue
Lent is structured so that those who keep it will go through devotional exercises designed to bring about conversion of the penitent to the life in Christ. Lent is really the altar (font) call of the church, at which the believers will find forgiveness of their sins and renewal of the gifts God gives in baptism to those who will have him as their God in Jesus Christ. Sunday is seen in the Roman Church, as always, from a sacramental perspective; some pastors in other churches approach Lent in much the same way; all see renewal of the baptismal covenant as the goal of going through Lent to Easter. The framework is eucharistic and baptismal; this should be kept in mind when preaching through the rest of Lent.
The Prayer of the Day - The first of two LBW prayers for the Second Sunday in Lent, which is quite similar to the single Episcopal collect, strikes the ancient penitential theme of Lent: "Bring back all who have erred and strayed from your ways; lead them again to embrace in faith the truth of your Word and to hold it fast." Repentance, renewal of faith, and obedience on the part of pardoned sinners, are implied in conjunction with this prayer, and mentioned more directly in the Episcopal prayer. The second collect is specifically directed to the use of John 4 on the Second Sunday in Lent, because it speaks of Christ's welcoming "an outcast woman" of faith, asking God to "give us faith like hers" so that we may trust God alone and love one another as we have been loved and accepted by God.
The Psalm for the Day (LBW) - Psalm 105:4-11 - The exhortation of the psalmist, "Search for the Lord and his strength, continually seek his face," suggests that penitents need to be reminded early in Lent that keeping it is a long and arduous task which calls for spiritual strength and perseverance. After reminding people of "the marvels he has done," verse 8 points out the reason that they may have confidence in God; "He has always been mindful of his covenant." By elaborating on how God has kept his covenant with Israel "for a thou-sand generations," the psalmist's words speak - suggestively - to the Christian of the new covenant in Christ, which God gives in baptism. Christians may search for the Lord in Lent because they know that they have already been found by Jesus Christ.
The Psalm Prayer
God our Father, through the death and resurrection of your Son you have fulfilled the promise to Abraham, Joseph, and Moses to redeem the world from slavery and to lead us into the promised land. Grant us living water from the rock and bread from heaven, that we may survive our desert pilgrimage and praise you forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The readings:
Genesis 12:1-8
On a superficial level, this reading might be interpreted as a simple story about faith in God and obedience to his commands. Those are central themes in the tale, no question about that, but there is more to it than finding a model for the godly life in this story about Abram, or Abraham. It is basically about the call of Abram by God to become the founder and leader of a nation, to initiate a community that would be known as the people of God. He left Haran, took his wife and others with him and set out for Canaan, at God's direction, went on to Shechem, "to the oak at Moreh," where God visited him and he heard God say, "To your descendants I will give this land." God raised up and called other leaders for Israel, until he finally called his Son, Jesus, to be the one that would lead all of the people of the world into a new and inclusive promised land, the kingdom of God himself.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Paul puts the Abraham story into the framework of law and gospel, insisting that Abraham engaged in a work that was born of faith, not of the law. Abraham believed in God and trusted him; his faith was a gift from God, therefore, he was justified by faith, not by works of the law. The promise to him that Israel should inhabit the promised land and that his descendants should inherit the world came of God's free grace, not from obedience to the law. This beginning of a covenant relationship between God and the people he created was entirely a work of love and grace on the part of God and does not rest on human merit. When the gift of faith through grace is received and the Word is believed by people, works that describe the life of Christ issue forth abundantly. Obedience, acts of love, mercy, and kindness are expressions of faith, not works done to obtain the blessings of God.
John 4:5-26 (27-30, 39-42)
John's accounts of Jesus' encounters with people just beg to be told to people today, partly because they may be too long as readings, when they follow two other lessons. This lovely story, which sees Jesus at the well in Sychar, asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water, reveals the humanity of Jesus in his weariness and thirst, and his divinity in his consideration of an "outcast" woman. Jesus turns around the woman's question, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?", by telling her that if she really knew who he was - the source of living water - she would ask him for a drink. She didn't under-stand him until he told her what he knew about her, when she perceived he was a prophet. He not only told her about herself but about things to come "when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (not on Mt. Gerazim or in Jerusalem)." That she understood because she expected the coming of the Messiah, who, "when he comes, will show us all things." The gospel (short form) ends with Jesus' clear declaration, "I who speak to you am he." The longer reading tells the rest of the story about what happened in Sychar. This ought to be included in a sermon, especially a biblical story sermon, on this Gospel.
A sermon on the Gospel, John 4:5-26f - "A Woman, A Well, and a Man with Living Water."
To appreciate fully the importance of water to one's life, it is probably necessary for a person to come close to dying of thirst, or, at least to live in a land where water is scarce. Antoine de St. Exupery once observed that Arab children of North Africa, where water was in extremely short supply when he wrote Wind, Sand and Stars, begged for a drink of water rather than pennies. After he was rescued from certain death after five days under the blazing sun of the desert, he wrote about water:
Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses. By thy might, there return into us treasures we had abandoned. By thy grace, there are released in us all the dried-up runnels of our heart. Of the riches that exist in the world, thou art the rarest and also the most delicate - thou so pure within the bowels of earth! ... A man may die though he held in his hand a jug of dew, if it be inhabited by evil salts. For thou, water, are aproud divinity, allowing no alteration, noforeignness in thy being. And thejoy thou spreadest is an infinitely simple joy.
The Gospel for the Day is a story begging to be expanded into a biblical story sermon by interweaving our stories with the story in this pericope.
Jesus, when he reached the well at Sychar, was not dying of thirst, not even like he must have been at the end of his forty-day fast in the wilderness, but he was thirsty. The woman he asked for a drink of water was not thirsty, but she was dying of thirst - and Jesus knew it. After all, her condition was that of all sinners, of everyone who has made the wrong choices in life and wound up alienating himself or herself from communion with God and other people. Jesus knows that most people are really dying of thirst.
Despite the fact that she was one of the despised Samaritans, Jesus offered her the living water that he had to give to spiritually thirsty people. She didn't know what her real thirst was, because she requested, "Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." She thought Jesus was going to provide her with some sort of an artesian well that would never run out and would eliminate some of her daily labor. She was partly right; she wouldn't thirst if she drank the water he offered. He is the living water, and he offers it to people through the gift of himself in his Word and the sacraments of the church.
The woman, after Jesus confronted her with her marital immorality and talked to her about the age when people would worship God "in spirit and in truth," not only demonstrated her belief in God but also revealed her expectation of the coming of the Messiah. Then and there she came to understand what Jesus was talking about all the time, and she received another precious gift when he said to her, "I who speak am he." In and through his word, Jesus actually gives himself to the world.
The rest of the story also needs to be told - and relived by people who have heard the Word and received Jesus Christ, the living water. When the disciples returned and wondered what was going on, she dropped her water jar and ran back into town to tell everyone the good news about what had happened to her at the well. It turns out that there were lots of thirsty people in that city, so thirsty that they invited Jesus to stay with them - and he did, for two days, assuaging their thirst with himself and the water of life. The one who cried out, "I thirst," on the cross, always answers the cries of those who are dying of thirst.
A sermon on the First Lesson, Genesis 12:1-8 - "When God Calls, Some People Obey."
1. That's what Abram did; he heard God's promise of what he would do for the people to be known as Israel - and he believed what God told him.
2. He acted on his faith, gathered up his family and possessions and set off for the land God had promised to him and his people. He obeyed the call of God.
3. Abram built two altars to God, one on the land and the other on the mountain after God had said, To your descendants I will give this land; he claimed it in the name of God.
4. He lived by the covenantal promise God had made to him, much as we are to live out the covenant of our baptism in our lives. Lent exists to get us back on the right path of faith and action when God calls us in Christ.
A sermon on the Second Lesson, Romans 4:1-15, 3-17 - "How Faith and Works Go Together."
1. Abraham is a good example of how faith and works come together and operate in our lives. Abraham had faith; he lived by faith and did the work God assigned to him.
2. His faith was a precious gift from God; it saved him. He was not saved by works but by sola fides, faith alone, that was his through God's grace. Don't we always like to believe that we deserve salvation, because we have earned it through our good works? That attitude condemns us as much as any sins we commit.
3. As a forerunner of the old covenant, Abraham shows us how to live as people who abide in the new covenant in Jesus Christ. We, too, live by God's gracious promises, which we try, through the grace of our Lord, to complete in our lives.
4. Jesus, not our works, makes us righteous before God. Lent won't let us forget that. The cross always reminds us that God loves us and blesses us beyond anything we think we deserve or merit.
The church year theological clue
Lent is structured so that those who keep it will go through devotional exercises designed to bring about conversion of the penitent to the life in Christ. Lent is really the altar (font) call of the church, at which the believers will find forgiveness of their sins and renewal of the gifts God gives in baptism to those who will have him as their God in Jesus Christ. Sunday is seen in the Roman Church, as always, from a sacramental perspective; some pastors in other churches approach Lent in much the same way; all see renewal of the baptismal covenant as the goal of going through Lent to Easter. The framework is eucharistic and baptismal; this should be kept in mind when preaching through the rest of Lent.
The Prayer of the Day - The first of two LBW prayers for the Second Sunday in Lent, which is quite similar to the single Episcopal collect, strikes the ancient penitential theme of Lent: "Bring back all who have erred and strayed from your ways; lead them again to embrace in faith the truth of your Word and to hold it fast." Repentance, renewal of faith, and obedience on the part of pardoned sinners, are implied in conjunction with this prayer, and mentioned more directly in the Episcopal prayer. The second collect is specifically directed to the use of John 4 on the Second Sunday in Lent, because it speaks of Christ's welcoming "an outcast woman" of faith, asking God to "give us faith like hers" so that we may trust God alone and love one another as we have been loved and accepted by God.
The Psalm for the Day (LBW) - Psalm 105:4-11 - The exhortation of the psalmist, "Search for the Lord and his strength, continually seek his face," suggests that penitents need to be reminded early in Lent that keeping it is a long and arduous task which calls for spiritual strength and perseverance. After reminding people of "the marvels he has done," verse 8 points out the reason that they may have confidence in God; "He has always been mindful of his covenant." By elaborating on how God has kept his covenant with Israel "for a thou-sand generations," the psalmist's words speak - suggestively - to the Christian of the new covenant in Christ, which God gives in baptism. Christians may search for the Lord in Lent because they know that they have already been found by Jesus Christ.
The Psalm Prayer
God our Father, through the death and resurrection of your Son you have fulfilled the promise to Abraham, Joseph, and Moses to redeem the world from slavery and to lead us into the promised land. Grant us living water from the rock and bread from heaven, that we may survive our desert pilgrimage and praise you forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The readings:
Genesis 12:1-8
On a superficial level, this reading might be interpreted as a simple story about faith in God and obedience to his commands. Those are central themes in the tale, no question about that, but there is more to it than finding a model for the godly life in this story about Abram, or Abraham. It is basically about the call of Abram by God to become the founder and leader of a nation, to initiate a community that would be known as the people of God. He left Haran, took his wife and others with him and set out for Canaan, at God's direction, went on to Shechem, "to the oak at Moreh," where God visited him and he heard God say, "To your descendants I will give this land." God raised up and called other leaders for Israel, until he finally called his Son, Jesus, to be the one that would lead all of the people of the world into a new and inclusive promised land, the kingdom of God himself.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Paul puts the Abraham story into the framework of law and gospel, insisting that Abraham engaged in a work that was born of faith, not of the law. Abraham believed in God and trusted him; his faith was a gift from God, therefore, he was justified by faith, not by works of the law. The promise to him that Israel should inhabit the promised land and that his descendants should inherit the world came of God's free grace, not from obedience to the law. This beginning of a covenant relationship between God and the people he created was entirely a work of love and grace on the part of God and does not rest on human merit. When the gift of faith through grace is received and the Word is believed by people, works that describe the life of Christ issue forth abundantly. Obedience, acts of love, mercy, and kindness are expressions of faith, not works done to obtain the blessings of God.
John 4:5-26 (27-30, 39-42)
John's accounts of Jesus' encounters with people just beg to be told to people today, partly because they may be too long as readings, when they follow two other lessons. This lovely story, which sees Jesus at the well in Sychar, asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water, reveals the humanity of Jesus in his weariness and thirst, and his divinity in his consideration of an "outcast" woman. Jesus turns around the woman's question, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?", by telling her that if she really knew who he was - the source of living water - she would ask him for a drink. She didn't under-stand him until he told her what he knew about her, when she perceived he was a prophet. He not only told her about herself but about things to come "when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (not on Mt. Gerazim or in Jerusalem)." That she understood because she expected the coming of the Messiah, who, "when he comes, will show us all things." The gospel (short form) ends with Jesus' clear declaration, "I who speak to you am he." The longer reading tells the rest of the story about what happened in Sychar. This ought to be included in a sermon, especially a biblical story sermon, on this Gospel.
A sermon on the Gospel, John 4:5-26f - "A Woman, A Well, and a Man with Living Water."
To appreciate fully the importance of water to one's life, it is probably necessary for a person to come close to dying of thirst, or, at least to live in a land where water is scarce. Antoine de St. Exupery once observed that Arab children of North Africa, where water was in extremely short supply when he wrote Wind, Sand and Stars, begged for a drink of water rather than pennies. After he was rescued from certain death after five days under the blazing sun of the desert, he wrote about water:
Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses. By thy might, there return into us treasures we had abandoned. By thy grace, there are released in us all the dried-up runnels of our heart. Of the riches that exist in the world, thou art the rarest and also the most delicate - thou so pure within the bowels of earth! ... A man may die though he held in his hand a jug of dew, if it be inhabited by evil salts. For thou, water, are aproud divinity, allowing no alteration, noforeignness in thy being. And thejoy thou spreadest is an infinitely simple joy.
The Gospel for the Day is a story begging to be expanded into a biblical story sermon by interweaving our stories with the story in this pericope.
Jesus, when he reached the well at Sychar, was not dying of thirst, not even like he must have been at the end of his forty-day fast in the wilderness, but he was thirsty. The woman he asked for a drink of water was not thirsty, but she was dying of thirst - and Jesus knew it. After all, her condition was that of all sinners, of everyone who has made the wrong choices in life and wound up alienating himself or herself from communion with God and other people. Jesus knows that most people are really dying of thirst.
Despite the fact that she was one of the despised Samaritans, Jesus offered her the living water that he had to give to spiritually thirsty people. She didn't know what her real thirst was, because she requested, "Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." She thought Jesus was going to provide her with some sort of an artesian well that would never run out and would eliminate some of her daily labor. She was partly right; she wouldn't thirst if she drank the water he offered. He is the living water, and he offers it to people through the gift of himself in his Word and the sacraments of the church.
The woman, after Jesus confronted her with her marital immorality and talked to her about the age when people would worship God "in spirit and in truth," not only demonstrated her belief in God but also revealed her expectation of the coming of the Messiah. Then and there she came to understand what Jesus was talking about all the time, and she received another precious gift when he said to her, "I who speak am he." In and through his word, Jesus actually gives himself to the world.
The rest of the story also needs to be told - and relived by people who have heard the Word and received Jesus Christ, the living water. When the disciples returned and wondered what was going on, she dropped her water jar and ran back into town to tell everyone the good news about what had happened to her at the well. It turns out that there were lots of thirsty people in that city, so thirsty that they invited Jesus to stay with them - and he did, for two days, assuaging their thirst with himself and the water of life. The one who cried out, "I thirst," on the cross, always answers the cries of those who are dying of thirst.
A sermon on the First Lesson, Genesis 12:1-8 - "When God Calls, Some People Obey."
1. That's what Abram did; he heard God's promise of what he would do for the people to be known as Israel - and he believed what God told him.
2. He acted on his faith, gathered up his family and possessions and set off for the land God had promised to him and his people. He obeyed the call of God.
3. Abram built two altars to God, one on the land and the other on the mountain after God had said, To your descendants I will give this land; he claimed it in the name of God.
4. He lived by the covenantal promise God had made to him, much as we are to live out the covenant of our baptism in our lives. Lent exists to get us back on the right path of faith and action when God calls us in Christ.
A sermon on the Second Lesson, Romans 4:1-15, 3-17 - "How Faith and Works Go Together."
1. Abraham is a good example of how faith and works come together and operate in our lives. Abraham had faith; he lived by faith and did the work God assigned to him.
2. His faith was a precious gift from God; it saved him. He was not saved by works but by sola fides, faith alone, that was his through God's grace. Don't we always like to believe that we deserve salvation, because we have earned it through our good works? That attitude condemns us as much as any sins we commit.
3. As a forerunner of the old covenant, Abraham shows us how to live as people who abide in the new covenant in Jesus Christ. We, too, live by God's gracious promises, which we try, through the grace of our Lord, to complete in our lives.
4. Jesus, not our works, makes us righteous before God. Lent won't let us forget that. The cross always reminds us that God loves us and blesses us beyond anything we think we deserve or merit.
