 We welcome everyone to our services at Yetholm (10am) and Morebattle (11.15) on the first Sunday of Lent. Please stay for refreshments after the Yetholm service.
Call to Worship We are beginning our journey through Lent. God is with us on the way. We come to find light in the shadows and strength in our weakness. We remember God’s faithfulness. We seek God’s mercy and truth step by step, day by day. We trust in God’s steadfast love, so we worship with grateful hearts! Hymn 93 – Let us with a gladsome mind Prayer of Adoration and Confession Good and gracious God, Creator of earth and sky, Maker of rainbows and raindrops, we praise you for the beauty of the world us, and for the hope of life with you now and always. We praise you for your faithfulness and loving kindness throughout all generations, for your promise of grace, for your compassion and redemption revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Receive our prayers and praises this day and teach us how to live by your love. Wise and Merciful God, you made a covenant with us in faithfulness, but we confess we are not always so faithful to you. We grow tired and restless when things don’t go our way. We lose patience with others. We lack compassion for our neighbours in need, and forget to express love for those closest to us. Forgive us. Make us prisms of your love, making rainbows of your light, creating beauty and deepening hope wherever we go. Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid. I love you. You are forgiven. Go sin no more’ Lord’s Prayer Readings – Genesis 9:8–17 (Pg 10) Mark 1: 9-15 (pg 1002) Hymn 337 – Forty days and forty nights Weekly Prayer Heavenly Father, help us to see this time of Lent as an opportunity to develop our discipleship and discipline and as your Son Jesus showed us how to reject temptation, fill us with grace to be faithful to his example in this Lenten season and the years ahead. Amen Sermon Satan had a problem. The Good news of Jesus was just too popular, and people were being changed by the message and the truth it contained. They were paying less attention to Satan. Now I think there was something of the Presbyterian in Satan, for what did he do, but call a meeting. He called all his demons and presented the problem to them. ‘How do we stop people listening to the good news Jesus offers. What lie can we tell them to confuse them. I will give you 48 hours to come up with a plan’, he said. So 48 hours later they reconvened, and Satan asked them what they had come up with. One demon immediately said, We can tell the people that there is no such thing as right, then no-one will be inspired to do anything good or beautiful, for nothing is right. But Satan wasn’t convinced. But then a shy demon raised his hand and said, ‘Let us just tell humans that there is no hurry’. Satan clapped his hands and said, ‘Perfect. We will tell them that there is no hurry.’ And we humans have been listening to that lie ever since. There is plenty of time to change, to do what Jesus is asking of me. But there is no hurry. I will be more serious about prayer, I will volunteer, I will up my giving - but there is always tomorrow. We keep procrastinating, and we are all very good at it. But this is the 1st Sunday of Lent, and Mark’s Gospel tells us that there is a hurry. Whereas Matthew and Luke go into a lot of detail about the temptations, Mark is terse and leaves a lot to the imagination, but in these few verses Jesus goes from baptism to temptation to ministry. It leaves you out of breath. There is a Greek phrase he uses, kai euthys, which means ‘and immediately, and Mark uses this phrase 49 times. There is a real sense of urgency. There is no procrastination in Mark. We start at the Jordan River, where Jesus has come to be baptised by John. Like at the Transfiguration last week, there is a voice from heaven, affirming ‘You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased’. What special words. It is what every child longs to hear – that they are loved, that they are special, that they are valued, that they belong. Sometimes we can be shy of telling our children or the people around us that they are special. Valentine’s day last week maybe saw an increase in people sending cards or flowers to loved ones, but we should be doing it all the time. As children of God, we need to know that we are loved by God and by our brothers and sisters in the faith. Dripping wet still from being immersed in the Jordan, Jesus is ‘immediately’ driven by the Spirit to the wilderness. No time to revel in the words spoken at baptism, but Jesus rather finds himself in the wilderness for 40 days, biblical shorthand for a very long time. The season of Lent lasts 40 days to represent this time in the desert. We remember how the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years; it was a place of trial and danger. They were tempted to complain about the boring manna from heaven; to worship the Golden calf; to ignore Moses’ leadership, and they fell straight into these temptations. The desert is a dangerous place, but Jesus spent time struggling no doubt with who he was and the way he had to go, but although the temptation to go back to the carpenter shop in Nazareth and a normal life must have been strong, he resisted it. Mark’s story about the temptations is so short, but it ends with a lovely phrase that wild animals were with him, and angels ministered to him. There is a picture by Stanley Spencer of Jesus in the wilderness playing with a scorpion. Did the dangerous animals become tame like the lions in Daniel’s den? Our Old Testament reading was the culmination of the Flood story, when the animals went two by two into the ark and seemed not to fight. But the reading was of the gift of the rainbow, God’s love letter in the sky. It was a sign that God would not destroy the earth again – though we do a jolly good job ourselves. Jesus’ time in the wilderness gave him the strength to go ‘immediately’ to Galilee to offer a new start for all humanity. Satan’s lie was to say that there was no hurry, but Jesus gives the message of God’s love, and we are called to respond, not to shove it into a safe place called ‘tomorrow’. As we begin this season of Lent, let us know ourselves beloved children of God, but let us show it by acting out the Gospel here and now. Hymn 557 – O love that wilt not let me go Prayers of Dedication God of courage and compassion, we bring our gifts to you in Jesus’ name. This year the world badly needs both his courage and compassion. Bless our gifts so that they bring hope to others in these challenging times. Amen. Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession As we enter this holy season, Lord God, we give you thanks for your promise of new life that sustains us, encouraging us when in the trials and tribulations of life. We come with our thanks for all the good things; for the beauty of the natural world, glimpsed in mountains and sunsets, and in the abundance of snowdrops and the stirring of spring bulbs; for the warmth of human love, whenever we find it and whoever we are stirred to love; for the thrill of discovery and curiosity, of new things learned and gifts we can share; for the pleasures of life, known in laughter and company, in good food and the tiredness of a fulfilling day. For all that merits our heartfelt thanks, we express now our gratitude and joy. In sorrow, we recognise that life is not always joy, and that many; human beings, creatures and all things, may suffer injury, hurt, and pain. We pray for all those who do not ever see much beauty; those in prison, or working in buildings with little light, people deep in depression or those abused by others. We pray for those who live in the pain of grief, or who have suffered such a trauma that they are afraid, for all whose days feel beyond their control. We pray for those for whom hunger is physical and painful, those made poor by ruthless economies or cruel wars, all enslaved to hard and relentless labour. God of the garden and the desert, of all pain and every joy, be with each of us in the wild places and send your angels to bless us. Give us grace and courage too, to accompany those in any kind of wilderness and to offer blessings where we can. We offer these prayers, in the name of Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, Amen. Hymn 519 – Love divine Benediction As we begin our journey through the season of Lent, May God’s loving kindness comfort you, God’s justice inspire you, And Jesus walk beside you in humility and hope.
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