First Sunday in Lent (Year C), February 21, 2010
BCP: Deut. 26:(1-4) 5-11; Psalm 91 or 91:9-15; Rom. 10:(5-8a) 8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
RCL: Deut. 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Rom. 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
Our Sunday readings in Lent recall the season’s ancient focus as a time for preparing candidates for baptism. Many of the readings illuminate different aspects of the paschal mystery that we celebrate in Holy Week and that stands at the center of the baptismal liturgy.
Today’s texts focus on the confession of faith, the statement of belief in God and his purposes that the grace of baptism seals and brings to life. Both our Old Testament and epistle texts contain creeds, perhaps the earliest and most fundamental statements of faith in the two parts of the Bible.
Moses’ directions in Deuteronomy are part of a liturgy for the harvest thanksgiving. As the worshiper presents the first fruits, he tells an ancient story. “A wandering Aramean was my father,” he begins, tracing the story of his people back to Jacob. The growth of the nation is recalled, the slavery in Egypt, God’s great miracle of deliverance and the gift of the land. Every worshiper, at every harvest points back to the great story of salvation that is continuing in the grace shown by God in this new gift of fruitfulness in the promised land.
In the same way, Paul points back to the core of the Christian gospel: Christ as the Lord of all, risen from the dead. Perhaps it was the first baptismal creed, a simple statement of loyalty by a new believer. “Jesus will be my Lord as well,” the new convert was saying, “I place my trust in that love of the Father that brought him back from the dead.”
Creeds are not bare statements of abstract religious truths. As Diana Eck has pointed out, the language of faith is “heart language.” Credo literally means, “I give my heart” and believe comes from the Old English, belove. The confessions in today’s lessons (like the Catholic Creeds) are stories — stories of God who has given his heart to us, who has reached out in love to save and deliver us. They are the stories that give meaning to our own stories, the convictions that give us joy and purpose. We confess the creeds because we love the God they describe, and we want to be loyal to him. We need our creeds. We need to confess our faith every Sunday, every day, even, to turn our focus back to the truth, to discover again that God loves us and saves us.
Look It Up: Can Jesus’ responses to Satan in our gospel lesson be understood as a kind of creed?
Think About It: Is the phrase “non-credal Christian” an oxymoron?
Next Sunday
Second Sunday in Lent (Year C), February 28, 2010
BCP: Gen. 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27 or 27:10-18; Philip. 3:17–4:1; Luke 13:(22-30) 31-35
RCL: Gen. 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philip. 3:17–4:1; Luke 13:31-35
