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Welcome: Dear friends, welcome to our liturgy for tonight, the first weekend of Lent. Let us pray together.
Opening Prayer: Holy One, we open our minds and hearts to listen. Speak to us, we pray. Amen.
Opening Song: Be Still by John McCutcheon – video by DHS https://youtu.be/ic3LlVs0bjY?si=OsLBOKBA9dyC3axE
First Reading:
The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground
and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,
and so man became a living being.
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,
and placed there the man whom he had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow
that were delightful to look at and good for food,
with the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,
“Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the garden?”
The woman answered the serpent:
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden that God said,
‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman:
“You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil.”
The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.
This story is passed down to us by our ancestors. We acknowledge the truth living within this story with Amen.
Second Reading: From Faust, Part 1, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Whatever is the lot of humankind
I want to taste within my deepest self.
I want to seize the highest and the lowest,
to load its woe and bliss upon my breast,
and thus expand my single self titanically
and in the end go down with all the rest.”
These are the words of Faust, a character drawn by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. We affirm them with Amen.
Gospel Acclamation: Spirit of the Living God by Michael Crawford-video by MTStreck https://youtu.be/xoJN0owUoWA
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread.”
He said in reply,
“It is written:
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus answered him,
“Again it is written,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him, ""All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
At this, Jesus said to him,
“Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him and, behold,
angels came and ministered to him.
These are the words of the gospel writer we know as Matthew. We affirm these words with Amen.
Homily Starter:
Since the dawn of time, humans have been consumed with the acquisition of power. Evidence from skeletal remains of our Neanderthal cousins shows injuries such as skull fractures and puncture wounds to the ribs, most likely caused by weapons in hand-to-hand combat.
Every war that has ever been waged is somehow based on the greed for power; maybe disguised as land, or resources, but always, at the end of the day, power.
When Eve is tempted by the serpent, it’s not just fruit that attracts her. There’s plenty of that on all of the other trees in the garden. No, it’s not the fruit. It’s knowledge. Because Eve has an inkling, and the serpent confirms, that it is knowledge that is the difference between God and her and Adam. God is powerful, and God has knowledge. The serpent offers the fruit that will convey knowledge, and therefore, power.
In Goethe’s epic morality tale, Faust is offered power in the form of knowledge; unlimited knowledge that would allow him to access magical powers. For Faust, knowledge really was power. And so, he puts his soul up for collateral in his deal with the devil. And it is only Divine grace that saves him from eternal damnation.
Jesus too, is tempted by power. Satan shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and offers him a deal: "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” Jesus is able to resist this master of “the art of the deal” because he has learned the art of life. He knows in his heart what Faust learns the hard way, that to be human, to have a soul, means that he must wish to desire only “Whatever is the lot of humankind.”
We are surrounded today with our own Mephistopheles, tempting people with more and more power. There have been many deals made with the evil lurking in our day, many souls have been sold. In the story of Faust, it is Gretchen, the voice of the eternal feminine, that saves Faust, that calls him back to his humanity and in the end, saves his soul. There are many to be saved today. And many voices, male and female, calling out: “Return!” “It is God alone you should worship, God alone you should serve.” “It is only by loading the woe and bliss of humanity upon your breast that you will live.”
These are the calls that we are asked to both heed and to make during this season of repentance. Calls of “right-making,” of turning around, changing direction. Let’s not get tired. Let’s keep calling, and let’s keep heeding the call.
My friends, those are the thoughts that came to me in today’s readings. What did you hear?
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
Prayers of the community
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 together.
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 path that we are called to.
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 - video by Denise Hackert-Stoner
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.
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 “The power of Love will heal.”
Communion Meditation/Song: America by Peter Mayer
https://youtu.be/H75FyL1Y0-8?si=EZVH2GlwHKbyM8g1
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
BLESSING
Please raise your hands in Blessing:
We are a strong, holy people. Our power is in our faith; in the love we have for one another and for the world. Let us embrace our power, and the energy within us, and use that power to heal the world.
Closing Song: There's So Much Energy In Us by Cloud Cult https://youtu.be/o0bhERhPYZQ
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