1st Sunday in Lent

Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

Luke 13:31-35

³¹ At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to [Jesus], “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” ³² He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. ³³ Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ ³⁴ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵ See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

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God Sees the Other

The same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him (Rom 10:12b).

Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Once upon a time in the history of God’s reconciliation with humanity and all creation – also known as the Bible – Laban the Aramean was going with all he had against Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, who was anointed as a blessing for a multitude of nations for trusting the Lord his God. 

Jacob had tricked his twin but older brother Esau away from his birthright and the blessing of their father, Isaac. Because of this, their Mother, Rebekah, sent Jacob away to marry one of Laban’s daughters and escape Esau’s wrath. Laban was Rebekah’s brother. 

Jacob stops by Bethel, sees angels ascending and descending in a ladder to the skies, and eventually makes it to Padam-Aram, where he serves Laban for seven years for the right to Marry his daughter Rachel, whom he was in love with. On the next morning of the wedding, Jacob finds out that Laban had tricked him and given his other daughter, Leah, instead of Rachel. Now Jacob gets tricked and has to serve Laban seven more years for Rachel. 

By now, Jacob was even for tricking Esau, I guess. So, I wonder if the Lord granted Jacob his excellent herding and husbandry skills. Laban and his sons prospered mightly out of Jacobs’s talents, and after his time of servitude was up, Jacob requested Laban to release him alongside the wages he had earned in the form of livestock, and then Laban tried to trick Jacob out of it. Jacob sees it coming and uses his ingenious breeding techniques to secure his wages. He ends up fleeing Laban’s household, which is now after him. 

Through the process, Jacob makes peace with Laban, fights the angel of the Lord, is renamed Israel, and reconciles with Esau. He also had father children with Leah and Dinah, Rachel’s maid, because Rachel was barren. His last son, however, was a blessing from God, who opened Rachel’s womb. Because Jacob loved Rachel very much all his life, he became a sign of God’s grace for Jacob. He is named Joseph, who gets to be left for dead by his older brother, only to become the most powerful person in the Land of Egypt after Pharao. 

Through Joseph’s ordeal, the Lord allows Jacob and his household to be saved from the mighty famine that struck the land. The Lord spoke to Joseph through dreams, and Egypt was able to stockpile grain. When his brothers came to him out of desperation, Joseph was in a position not only to reveal who he was but to reconcile with them and allow his family to live as aliens in the land of Egypt. 

If you are keeping track, God is still delivering and showing generosity to Abraham’s offspring household through Isaac and Jacob—now Israel—despite some less-than-righteous past acts. Without God’s intercessions and blessings—as God promised to Abraham—they would have perished long ago. God remained faithful. 

Joseph dies eventually, and without his protection, the Israelites, living in the land as aliens, ended up being mistreated, oppressed, and enslaved in mighty Egypt out of fear, for they had become too many and did not belong (Exodus 1: 8-14). That until God heard and saw their affliction, toil, oppression, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, riots, sleepless nights, and hunger (Deut. 26: 7-8; 2 Cor. 6: 4-5). Then the LORD freed them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Spoke nourishment into existence and kept them alive in the wilderness until they could make it to the land flowing with milk and honey (Deut. 26: 8-9). 

Now they are here, God’s people,  generations without knowing what a grape tastes like, instructed to bring the first fruits of their very first harvest as a homage to the Lord because they could not have lived only with the bread they made. It wouldn’t have been enough. The Lord alone protected them when they were being crushed so they could live. The Lord, alone, gave them everything they had. So they are here, God’s people, in the land God allowed to be their new home, celebrating the Lord’s bounty. They must bring along the alien residing among them. They must bring along the stranger and the natives of the land. They were aliens in the land of Egypt, and the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him; there is no distinction. 

God has always heard and seen the other who is different from us. God also hears and sees their affliction, toil, oppression, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, riots, sleepless nights, and hunger. God also hears and see their cry, their mistreatment, their loss of dignity. The same Lord is the Lord of all and when they call upon God’s name, God will save them and not put them to shame. The Lord will rescue and honor them.

My sisters and my brothers, if Jesus refused his own power in the desert. If he tells us that we cannot leave of bread alone, he means that we can only live because of our Lord. The same Lord is the Lord of all. None of us can live only from the bread we ourselves make. Jesus is Lord. He is the bread that gives eternal life to the world. And the Lord is generous to all who call upon him. Thanks be to God. Amen.