First Sunday in Lent (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, March 13, 2011
This text is the rough notes and list of biblical passages that I intended to use in tracing the promise of salvation through the Old Testament. I ended up not using all of them in my sermon, but I have preserved them here for study. I didn't write a full manuscript for this sermon.
Today’s reading from Genesis, well, it explains everything, it explains everything about why we are entering Lent, why we’re entering a season of repentance, a season of remembering our sins. The whole reason we have Lent is because Adam and Eve fell into sin causing all of us to be sinful, causing all of us to be separated from God.
That would be completely disheartening if that was the only message in today’s reading from Genesis. If we only found out that we’re all sinful and separated from God, if we only found that out, well, we’d be without hope. But in the middle of the whole fall into sin, in the middle of punishment for sin, God steps in and speaks the first Gospel, the first words of Good News for sinners, the first words that promise forgiveness and salvation. God steps in and says that Satan will be crushed.
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.
(right side of the chancel (my left))
Points to Jesus
Points to what Jesus did for us
Today’s reading is just the beginning—resists the temptation of Satan, but will crush Satan through defeating death on the cross
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
(moving a little towards the right side of the chancel (my left))
Genesis 9:8-11 – NO FLOODS
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” [RAINBOW]
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Hosea 14:4 – ANGER TURNED AWAY
4 “I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
(right side of the chancel (my left))
JESUS
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
(moving a little towards the right side of the chancel (my left))
Genesis 12:2-3 – BLESSING TO ALL
2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
[TO ABRAHAM, REPEATED TO ISAAC & JACOB]
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Exodus 3:7-10 – OUT OF SLAVERY
7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
[TO MOSES, REPEATED TO JOSHUA]
(right side of the chancel (my left))
JESUS
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
(moving a little towards the right side of the chancel (my left))
2 Samuel 7:11-16 – FOREVER KING
“‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” [TO DAVID]
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Isaiah 9:6-7 – RIGHTEOUS KING
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Zechariah 9:9-11 – RIGHTEOUS KING
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the war-horses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
(right side of the chancel (my left))
JESUS
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
(moving a little towards the right side of the chancel (my left))
Ezekiel 34:11-16 – LORD AS SHEPHERD
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
(right side of the chancel (my left))
JESUS
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
(moving a little towards the right side of the chancel (my left))
Joel 2:28-32 – SPIRIT POURED OUT
28 “And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
32 And everyone who calls
on the name of the LORD will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the LORD has said,
among the survivors
whom the LORD calls.
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Jeremiah 31:31-34 – COVENANT IN HEARTS
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
(right side of the chancel (my left))
JESUS
(on the left side of chancel (my right))
Genesis 3:15 – SATAN CRUSHED
(moving a little towards the right side of the chancel (my left))
Nahum 1:15 – GOOD NEWS PROCLAIMED
15 Look, there on the mountains,
the feet of one who brings good news,
who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, O Judah,
and fulfill your vows.
No more will the wicked invade you;
they will be completely destroyed.
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Zephaniah 3:14-17 – DO NOT FEAR
14 Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
16 On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
(moving towards right side of the chancel (my left))
Lamentations 3:21-26 – MERCIES NEW EVERY MORNING
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
(right side of the chancel (my left))
JESUS