1. Good morning. Let’s pray.
O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be
pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: Thanks to Fr. Don y’all have been well
prepared for this Lenten Season. Please
take a look at the handouts in the Narthex for almost all of them talk about
Lent and how to enter more and more fully into it.
The
key words that define Lent are: Prayer, Fasting and Charity. Truly the 40 days of Lent are focused on:
a) Prayer – Primarily Listening
prayer. Listening to what God would tell
us so that we can draw closer to Him.
b) Fasting – abstaining from
something that you like or abstaining from something that isn’t good for
you. And finally,
c) Charity or Giving –
giving sacrificially to the point where it hurts.
Today
we’re going to focus on Charity – the real giving; the giving that costs!
Real
Giving is a Sacrifice!
Another
word for the sacrifice of giving is relinquishment – the letting go of things
that have become or threaten to become idols in our lives!
It’s
in
the hurting
of relinquisment that real contemplation and transformation can also
occur.
More
often than not it’s in the times of pain that we do the most sober and
transformative thinking.
You probably heard this theme of Sacrifice
and Relinquishment coming out of our Scripture readings today:
In our First Reading
from the Book of Genesis we heard about God testing Abraham’s faith and the
test was to ask Abraham to relinquish or
sacrifice his son of promise, Isaac!
Think about that – Abraham was
being asked to relinquish; to sacrifice the very thing that he was thankful for
- now there seems to be a contradiction in terms – to give up the life of his
son as a sacrifice – a Holocaust or burnt offering to God! To be consumed in the fires of sacrifice!
That doesn’t make sense does
it?
What seems to be
being revealed here is that the way to show our commitment to God is through
sacrifice!
Under the Old Testament there were three types of sacrifices:
·
the sacrifice of the sin offering,
·
the sacrifice of the burnt offering, and
·
the sacrifice of the thank offering.
A) The sin offering was an offering of atonement for our sins. When we give the sacrifice of a sin offering
we’re asking that this sacrifice pay for all of our sins and that God will
henceforth look lovingly upon us
B) The burnt offering was an offering of an unblemished first-born animal to
God to display our entire and pure devotedness to Him.
C) And finally the thank
offering was an expression of complete dedication and loyalty to God. The offerer himself might also eat in
recognition of his fellowship with God in this dedication.
In our Old Testament Reading from
Genesis we saw Abraham giving a burnt offering to God thus revealing his entire
devotedness to God. He gave all of
himself to God nothing held back and for this Abraham became known universally
as a man of great faith.
In our Psalm reading from Psalm 116 we heard the
words,
“You have loosed my bonds. To You will I offer sacrifice of
thanksgiving.”
This is a Thank Offering
thus revealing David’s complete dedication to God and his desire for unmitigated
intimacy with Him.
And finally in our Gospel Reading from the Gospel of Mark chapter 9 beginning
at verse 2 we read:
Mark
9:2
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up
a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before
them.
Mark
9:3 His clothes became dazzling
white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
Mark
9:4 And there appeared before them
Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Mark
9:5
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up
three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Peter’s
impulse to erect a memorial of remembrance
of God’s revelation.
He
wanted to erect three new tents of meeting where God could again communicate
with men who gathered there.
It’s
perfectly natural for us to want to memorialize a special encounter with
God. Peter wanted to hold this moment so
that he and others could return to it again – remember it – relish it – delight
in it.
This
was Peter’s way of suggesting that they make a “Thank offering” to God for this
amazing revelation.
Reading
on:
In
parentheses my Bible says - Mark 9:6 (He didn’t know what to say, they were so
frightened.)
Mark
9:7 Then a cloud appeared and
enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.
Listen to him!”
Mark
9:8 Suddenly, when they looked
around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
Mark
9:9 As they were coming down the
mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until
the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Mark
9:10 They kept the matter to
themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
Now we really need to read on
for it’s in the next 3 verses that it all comes together but the disciples
missed it – let’s us not miss it:
Mark 9:11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that
Elijah must come first?”
Mark 9:12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and
restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer
much and be rejected?
Mark 9:13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him
everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”
Did you see it?
The disciples were marveling
over the fact that they saw the resurrected Elijah and Moses and they also
remembered that the prophets predicted that when Elijah came again all things
would be restored:
Listen to the prophet Malachi:
Mal. 4:4-5.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
So in remembering this Old
Testament prophecy the disciples were beginning to grasp something.
Jesus was telling His
unwitting friends that Elijah has in fact come.
John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17) - and
they did to Him everything they wished . . . but no matter – for with the
coming of Elijah the end was coming with the advent of Jesus Himself – the Son
of Man – the Son of God!
But what he said just a few lines later was to confound his
disciples – for the Savior was not to come as a conquering hero but as a
sacrificial lamb!
Listen to what Jesus said:
Mark
9:31 . . . “The
Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him,
and after three days he will rise.”
Mark 9:32 But the disciples didn’t
understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
In these very brief sentences Jesus was telling his
disciples that he was about to become for them and all humanity the
quintessential sacrifice.
He was to become a sin offering and a thank
offering for all human kind!
He was in fact to become the perfect, once and for
all Sin
Offering for all human kind!
But Jesus was in fact not only a Sin Offering but
He has become for us a Thank Offering and indeed a Burnt Offering.
I wonder if anyone can see it?
Remember the definitions of the 3 Primary
Sacrifices on Old Testament Days:
A) The sin offering was an offering of atonement for our sins. When we give the sacrifice of a sin offering
we’re asking that this sacrifice pay for all of our sins and that God will
henceforth look lovingly upon us
B) The burnt offering was an offering of an unblemished first-born animal to
God to display our entire and pure devotedness to Him. Jesus was in fact the first born of God the
Father and He certainly was unblemnished.
C) And finally the thank
offering was a expression of complete dedication and loyalty to God. The offerer himself might also eat in
recognition of his fellowship with God in this dedication.
What’s another name for our Communion Service? It’s also called the
Eucharist! – which is Greek for what?
Yes, it’s Greek for Thanksgiving!
Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross became for us a Thank offering to God
Almighty. His sacrifice on the Cross was
and will always be the most magnificent of all Thank offerings!
In celebrating the Eucharist today we will be thanking our Lord that He
has taken away our sin and has restored us to absolute intimacy with and
devotedness to Him.
Jesus suffered was rejected
and died and buried and THEN was
resurrected! He came back and turned
what the devil meant for evil into something infinitely good! Life conquered death! The final enemy has been conquered!
Every time we come to the Communion
Table we should come with a profound sense of THANKSGIVING in our hearts for Christ’s once and for all sacrifice
that fulfills all sacrifices and in so doing brings us eternal life!
Now that’s something to be thankful for!
But this magnificent gift THAT
HAS BECOME the most perfect THANK OFFERING comes to us through THE sacrifice OF
SUFFERING!
To come to thanksgiving we
must pass through sacrifice.
The difference is that Christ
made the ultimate sacrifice and we, today, simply get to add our sacrifices to
His to complete his sufferings (Luke 1:17) for the world so that His redemption
may come to its completion at which time all suffering will cease and the
Kingdom of Heaven will fall to earth – world without end, Amen!
And so today, the second
Sunday of the Season of Lent, we’re reminded that we are in the last days of
this earth. Elijah came and prepared for
Christ’s coming and then He came and left us a Memorial Thank offering
– the Eucharist, to remember and be sustained for His final coming
when all suffering - that the Great Fall ushered in - will come to an end.
Let us not then shy away from
our Lenten sufferings but rather offer them up as Thank offerings
to God the Father as Jesus Himself did to the end that The End will come sooner
than later
Application: Let me very
briefly explain in more explicit terms what was just said.
As Abraham was prepared to
relinquish all of his hopes for future generations in the life of His son Isaac
so too must you and I offer God all of our hopes and plans and desires for a
future we want and believe is God’s plan for us. As we offer this up in thankfulness for
Christ’s sacrifice of His all for us we join with Christ and His offering and
in so doing our offerings are transformed, as was His, from death to life –
Thanks be to God! Amen!
The sufferings that Lent
encourages us to take on are to be taken on to the end that we don’t become
puffed up in our petty piety but rather to the end that we then offer them up
as Jesus once offered up His sufferings for the restoration of the world! For in our sufferings we’re saying to God, “Thank
you so very very much for the great gift of your Son. We love you this much!” And so we join our beloved Lord in bearing
the sufferings of His world in thankfulness!
In Colossians 1:24 St. Paul
wrote:
Now I, Paul, rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my
flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of
his body, which is the church.
Ah! Can you see it – suffering when offered up in
thanksgiving becomes a sacrifice of thanks – A Thank offering to God
Almighty! And so as the Eucharist is a
constant reminder and nourisher for us so too can our sufferings become
sacramental offerings of thanksgiving!
In voluntarily taking on the sufferings of the world we’re saying to our
Lord!
“Thank You! Thank You!
Thank You! We love you this much! Amen!
Let us pray . . .
PRAYER
Andrew Murray
My Father, Thou
callest me to Thy table to participate by faith anew in the sacrifice of Thy
Son: I cry to Thee, in turn, to make me partaker of the power, the inclination,
and the spirit of His self-sacrifice, that I, in fellowship with Him, may in
like manner offer myself up to Thee. Through the Eternal Spirit He offered
Himself up to God. My God, let the same Spirit make me also, on my part, a
complete offering to Thee.
My Father, grant
unto me to see that self-offering constitutes the essence and the worth of His
sacrifice. Let the surrender of my feeling and will to the will of God be the
mark of my piety. Yea, Lord, let me live as one who offers himself wholly to
the desire of God and man to further Thine honor and their salvation.
My Father, at the
Supper I desire truly to present myself as a living, holy sacrifice, well
pleasing, to God; an offering that shall be wholly consumed.
For this end I
entreat Thee for grace to prepare myself for this sacrifice, as Thy Son
prepared Himself for the sacrifice on Golgotha by saying in Gethsemane: Not My
will, but Thine be done. So would I offer myself as a sacrifice to Thee with
the complete surrender of my will: may Thy will be all in all to me, O my God.
Lord enable me to say in truth: I live only to do the will of God. In the strength
of Jesus Christ, who liveth in me and in whom I offer myself to Thee, I venture
to make His language my own: Lo I come to do Thy will, O God!
Lord, prepare me
also to say: I desire here before Thee to renounce every known and unknown sin.
All self-seeking and self-will I desire to abandon before Thee. I take Jesus
Christ as my holiness, my strength, my victory; and in virtue of the new nature
which He has prepared for me, I say: Father, no more sin, but Thy will only, Thy
will wholly, Thy will always and in all.
Lord Jesus, who
didst give Thyself for me, I give myself to Thee. Yea, Lord, in this very
moment, where I in solitude am this morning preparing myself for the Supper, I
say before heaven and earth: Jesus, Son of God, I will give myself wholly to Thee,
to live now and henceforth only for Thee. Lord Jesus, I do this now. And as one
who is offered to the Father and to Thee, I will go to the Supper table, there
to be confirmed in the faith and confession; I am no longer my own I have been
bought with a high price: I will glorify God in my body and my spirit, which are
given to God Amen!
