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| South Dakota Badlands |
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Welcome: Good morning and welcome to all on this first Sunday of Lent. We begin this season with a devilish invitation to understand and cope with all the shortcomings of our world. May what frustrates us most help us to grapple with what really matters in our kin-dom of God.
Opening Prayer: We gather to celebrate the Spirit of God that breathes everywhere within us, just as in the beginning, filling light places and the dark…roving over the green earth and the dry desert. Thus does God renew the face of the earth and the heart of the faithful. God will break through at our weakest points where we least resist. God’s love grows, fullness upon fullness, where we crumble enough to give and to accept what is most dear. Amen
(adapted from Joan Sauro)
Opening Song: “Coming Together” by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/N9HDjzi-Q5c?si=00XfUBBhLiMLsXU6
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Reading 1: Excerpt from “Finding Ourselves in the Wilderness” by Bishop Mariann Budde
There is nothing easy about being in a wilderness, particularly when it is thrust upon us by circumstances beyond our control. Yet there is strength and hard-won wisdom that comes to us there, and gifts that God longs to give.
The first—and perhaps hardest—wilderness task is to accept that we’re there. Acceptance doesn’t come easily, and in my experience, there are always setbacks. One reason why acceptance is so hard is that we don’t know how long our wilderness time will last.
Those who have been through years of wilderness teach us that it’s best to begin with the sober realization that we may be here for some time. Acceptance gives God more room to work within and through us, changing us in the process, that when we leave, we will have grown in important ways.
Something about the wilderness stops normal life in its tracks. We can see and hear truths we would otherwise miss, which may broaden our understanding and deepen our compassion.
The Benedictine author Joan Chittister puts it this way: “Courage, character, self-reliance, and faith are forged in the fire of affliction. We wish it were otherwise. But if you want to be holy, stay where you are in the human community and learn from it. Learn patience. Learn wisdom. Learn unselfishness. Learn love.”1 We can let go of some of the things that, in the end, don’t matter. In the wilderness, our focus becomes clear on what we have time for and what we don’t. “
Most importantly, the wilderness is where we learn to place our trust in God—not because we are suddenly so spiritual, but because there is no other choice. We can’t see our way; there are hard days when nothing goes right, and we lose things that are precious. Yet somehow, we are still here, and by grace, we keep going.
These are the words of Bishop Budde and we acknowledge them with Amen.
Gospel Acclamation: Spirit of the Living God by Michael Crawford
Gospel: A reading from the gospel writer known as Matthew (Mt. 4: 1-3, 5-6, 8-11, 13-17)
Jesus was led into the desert of the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for 40 days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry. Then the tempter approached and said,
“If you are the Only Begotten, command these stones to turn onto bread”.
Next, the Devil took Jesus to the Holy City, set him on the parapet of the temple and said,
“If you are the Only Begotten, throw yourself down for Scripture has it ‘God will tell the angels to take care of you; with their hands they will support you that you may never stumble.’”
The Devil then took Jesus up a very high mountain and displayed the dominions of the world in all their magnificence, promising.
“All these I will give you if you fall down and worship me.”
Jesus said to the devil, “Away with you, Satan! At that the Devil left, and angels came and attended Jesus.
Then Jesus heard that his cousin John had been arrested, so he returned to Galilee, near Zebulun and Naphtali. In this way, the ancient prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled:
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
The way to the sea on the far side of the Jordan:
the people who lived in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow, a light has dawned.”
From that time, Jesus began proclaiming the message, “Change your hearts and minds, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
These are the words of the gospel writer known as Matthew and we acknowledge them with Amen.
Homily Starter
Hear the pin-dropping silence of the wilderness, smell its earthiness, see the beasts and ghosts that haunt the pitch dark, touch the infinite grains of desert sand and taste the salt of rushing waves. Here, in the wild, we admit our dependence on nature, concede the emptiness of our much sought-after perfectionism.
“Wilderness is where we learn to place our trust in God” writes Bishop Mariann Budde. We shed our pretensions, sift through big questions and face what it means to be bereft and longing for grace
And so, welcome to the first week of Lent, a wilderness time of being present in our faith, our worries, our losses, and our wonderment that we might grow more compassionate, more accepting, more faithful to the best angels of our nature, to the holy discipleship that is ours.
We have an abridged gospel in which we hear the devil without the well-known lines of Jesus from Deuteronomy (i.e. man does not live by bread alone, do not test God and worship only your God); isn’t it the devilish doubts that send us into the wilds, the presence of evil and cruelty and temptation that make the promise of the Kin-dom appear at times so quaint or distant.
Of course, Jesus is newly baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit from his desert sojourn. He triumphs over devilish tempting. He rejects promises of worldly power. He refuses bread for himself because his call is to God and serve others less fortunate than he.
Temptation is part of being human. Many of us have known the heartbreak of grief, the betrayal or neglect of our childhood church, the disappointment or estrangement from love that promised so much and yet gave so little, and the difficulty in being our most authentic selves. We live with a cruel and corrupt government that has militarized our cities and trampled on human rights and due process. Chittister calls all this the “fire of affliction”.
Let us pray to rescue ourselves from the fires and temptations to resignation, conformity, depression and fatigue. Let faith reign. The next verses of Matthew come from the poet-prophet Isaiah— “on those living in the land of the shadow, a light has dawned”. Let there be light.
If ICE really leaves Minneapolis because of the protests by extraordinary citizens and the terrible martyrdom of Good and Pretti, we see a light in the heavy shadows. When grand juries refuse to indict on felony counts the man who threw a Subway sandwich at a national guardsman or Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and others for publicizing soldier’s constitutional duties, the light of dawn may be rising. When love disappoints and loss breaks our hearts, may we reach out to serve and love one another.
Jesus asks us to persist and to believe with a very Lenten-like advisory: “Change Your hearts and minds, for the kin-dom is at hand”! During these six weeks in the solace of the company of Jesus and the Divine, let’s take that advice all the way to Easter.
Sources
: 1Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2004), 33.
Mariann Budde. “Finding Ourselves in the Wilderness”. https://edow.org/author/mebudde/ Mar 6, 2025
Joan Sauro. Whole Earth Meditation. Ecology of the Spirit. Jan. 1992.
Statement of Faith
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One’s
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
As we prepare for this sacred meal, we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our prayers for the community.
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Presider: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer for Lent.
Blessed are you, Holy One, source of everything that has ever existed. Through your goodness you set this universe in motion. Through ages and eons, you have called your creation to become, and we are becoming.
You called our brother Jesus into the wilderness of the desert, and there you revealed to him his own path of becoming, and he called his friends to follow. During this season of Lent, let us enter into the wilderness of our own lives. Let us rest there with open eyes and hearts, as you reveal to each of us the paths to which we are called.
In great joy and gratitude, we join with friends living now and with those living in eternity. Together we celebrate the continuing evolution of our becoming, as we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy by Peter Mayer (shortened)
We thank you for Jesus, who in word and action reminded us of who we are, and who we are called to be. Through his compassion for the least among us he showed us what love looks like. We know there is always love with a reach greater than division, greed or temptation.
Presider: Please extend your hands in blessing.
The bread and wine on this table have been blessed by air, water, and soil to become the gifts before us today. We bless them together once more, and gratefully receive them, for they come from you, Holy One.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like a household slave, he washed their feet, so that they would remember him.
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat, this is my very self.
(pause)
Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
(pause)
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives. As we share communion, we become Communion both love’s nourishment and love’s challenge.
Please receive Communion with the words….I wish you a fruitful, wild Lent
Communion Meditation/Song: “There is Only Love”
Sung by Karen Drucker, Written by Gary Eisenberg
https://youtu.be/MLRcGBAIccQ?si=NKsP3kNZXqIG9RVH
Prayer after Communion
Holy One, like Jesus, we are willing to enter the wilderness of our lives, opening ourselves to you and to the path of our own becoming. Like Jesus, we want to be the people you created us to be.
We want to live compassionate lives, bringing hope to many, simply by being true to our best selves.
We open ourselves to your Spirit, especially during this holy season of Lent, and we call on that Spirit to fill us with your life and purpose, as we join with our brother Jesus in giving you unending gratitude. Amen.
Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
Holy One, you are within, around and among us.
We celebrate your many names.
Your wisdom come; your will be done,
unfolding from the depths within us.
Each day you give us all that we need.
You remind us of our limits and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us,
now and forever, Amen. -Adapted by Miriam Therese Winter
Presider: Please raise your hands in Blessing:
May you be embraced by the steady love of Jesus
May you be led to a changed heart through love of the Divine
May the sunrise ease your worries and the wildfire of the Holy Spirit shelter you in joy. Amen.
Closing Song: “Change our Hearts” by Rory Cooney
http://youtu.be/5xGdAxcLcJU?si=ylctqU3iOLEN1PT
