As we gather, we recognize that we live, work, pray, and play
in the traditional, unceded lands
of the Cowichan Tribes and Coast Salish People. 
We continue to commit ourselves
to the work of reconciliation and relationship-building
with our First Nations neighbours.     

 

Call to Worship:

 We shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word
that proceeds
from the mouth of God.

Matthew 4.4

 

O Come. Let Us Worship. 

 

Gathering

 

Almighty God:
To you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Trisagion

 

Holy God,
    holy and mighty,
    holy immortal one,
    have mercy upon us.

Collect for Today 

 

Almighty God,
whose Son fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are but did not sin,
give us grace to discipline ourselves
in submission to your Spirit,
that as you know our weakness,
so we may know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

The Proclamation of the Gospel:

Luke 4.1–13

 

May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to You, O Lord.  Amen.

 

“A Pilgrimage for Lent: Beginning in the Wilderness”

 

While in my first parish, our bishop went on sabbatical. 

 

The first 30 days of his sabbatical was to engage in a 30-Day Ignatius Retreat. 

 

The Ignatius Jesuit Centre is located in Guelph, Ontario. Not to bore you with details of the Centre, (but) it is a place that people go to, to have a variety of opportunities for spiritual growth, a place of beauty, a place of connecting, and a place of study and prayer. 

 

The Spiritual Exercise they offer is 30-day retreat based on silence, based on the pattern that St. Ignatius of Loyala developed hundreds and hundreds of years ago. 

 

He was a Spanish theologian, and he was a mystic, and he founded the Society of the Jesuits. He was born into a noble family in 1491 in Spain, and he is known for creating the “Spiritual Exercises” used for retreats and individual discernment.

 

The full ‘Spiritual Exercise’ includes 30 days that comprise of an intense preparation and follows with “Appropriation Prayers.”

 

The whole exercise is described as ‘a school of prayer, a means of discernment, a means of growing in relationship with Christ.’ Ignatius’ idea for the 30-day retreat is to assist the retreatant to experience spiritual freedom; to experience the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

 

On Wednesday we were invited to join in a 40-day retreat—to join together in LENT.

 

In the Gospel today we go with Jesus as he travels through his 40-day retreat in the wilderness.

 

(Of course, we get a very abbreviated version of what that experience was like, but we get some idea of how it affected Jesus and his life.)

 

I recall our bishop talking about his experience for the 30 days of a silent retreat. My recollection would be ‘once discovering the ‘rhythm’ of the retreat, the comfort that it brought him.’

 

I think we all need to discover 'the rhythm of Lent' and that is why our worship, our study, all those things are so essential as we journey in this season of Lent.

 

Personally, I can only imagine or question how I would deal with the possible distractions. Then I think of Jesus in the desert, for we have in our English language concept of what desert is like and it’s like a place of total desolation, nothing around us. 

 

Looking on the website of Loyola House it is certainly not a desolate place.

 

When in seminary we held our retreats at St. Michael’s Benedictine Abbey in Muenster, Saskatchewan.

 

It also was not a desolate place. In fact, in some ways, it was an oasis on the prairies—an oasis of beauty, of activity, of farming, of people coming to engage in their spiritual lives. 

 

Part and parcel of entering into a time of Lent, or as our Ash Wednesday liturgy words it with the priest saying: 

“I invite you therefore, in the name of the Lord, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God.”

 

It is interesting, in the 3 Chapters of Luke preceding today’s reading the Holy Spirt keeps showing up in Jesus’ life:

• First of all, the Holy Spirit begins by the announcement of the birth of John.

• And then, the foretelling of Mary’s pregnancy and the child that would be the Son of God, Jesus.

• In the visit of Mary to Elizabeth once again, the Holy Spirit shows up.

• In the presentation of Jesus in the temple—again.

 

Then today, we have this incident telling us how the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness in preparation for his public ministry.

 

It makes me think, how are we led by the Holy Spirit into our journey of Lent?

 

How are we led, by the Holy Spirit, to this place on a regular basis? 

 

This calls us to give thought to the connection we have with Jesus in his calling to confront Satan and how he is called into public ministry.

 

We, too, are called into Jesus’ public ministry. 

 

For indeed, this is what happens at our baptism. We are commissioned and sent out into the kingdom of God. 

 

From one of my favorite camp songs, I love the images in that song: 'If I Had a Hammer'

I'd hammer out danger, 
I'd hammer out warning
I'd hammer out love between
 my brothers and my sisters
All over this land.

 

Hammer out Justice. Hammer out Freedom. Hammer out Love. Then the writer tells us he/she has a hammer, and they are going to hammer out Justice, Freedom, and Love.

 

It’s not if, but they have and they’re going to do that!

 

So, to summarize the Baptismal Covenant on p.159 of the BAS,

"the baptized and all Christians are called to trust God,
to proclaim God through word and deed,
to care for others,
to care for the world that God created,
to work for justice and peace." 

 

And, so we receive that Gift!

 

The question is: What do we Do with it? 

 

Well, first of all—it is a gift! And so, we need to treasure it. Gifts are to be treasured.

 

During lunch on Wednesday there was a discussion about a certain gift: the gift was a short step-stool. 

 

Yes, it belonged to me. It is a gift from a friend when responsible for the closure of the local “Beaver Lumber Yard” gifted it to me.

 

It is well over 100 years old. It shows its age well. Some may think it not safe for standing on, but I trust it with the same confidence that I received it in (metaphorically) from my friend Joe, a 'dad- figure', who gave it to me.

 

It is the same trust we need to present and share and experience in our ministry that comes from our baptism.

 

It is the same confidence that Jesus trusted in when he accepted to enter into the wilderness experience in his preparation for his public ministry.

 

It is a similar confidence our Bishop experienced in accepting the call of the Holy Spirit to engage in a 30-day silent retreat based on the guidance of Ignatius of Loyola. 

 

If you were baptized as an infant or in your more mature years, that same confidence was either in the life of your parents, or yourself. 

 

It was not about me, the priest doing the baptism, it’s about the experience.

 

It’s about the Holy Spirit.

 

To share with you, it’s about a 60+ year-old person I that baptized, yet the obvious experience on that person’s face told the whole story.

 

As we begin today, in what may feel like a time of wilderness, the “Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy for Ash Wednesday” gives us this:

“We are created to experience joy in communion with God, to love one another, and to live in harmony with creation. On our journey to this Edenic promised land, we travel in a way the “contends against evil and resists whatever leads us away from the love of God and neighbour.” 

 

Lent is our journey through these forty days to the Three Great Days of Jesus death and resurrection.

 

Believe me, we will soon be out of the wilderness with Jesus leading us through our ministries.

Thanks be to God, Amen.

 

Let Us Pray

 

Led by the Spirit, let us turn to God in prayer for the church, the world, and all in need.
(Silence)

 

Gracious God, 
speak your word anew to your church.
Strengthen us to withstand the temptation of turning inward in fear, complacency, or self-preservation. Embolden us, your church, to turn toward the self-giving love of Jesus. 
God in your mercy
receive our prayer.

 

Mothering God, 
speak your word of life into the wild places and over fertile fields. Grant us the wisdom to resist the practice of stripping and depleting lands and resources. Enable us, instead, to conserve, preserve, and steward this bounty in trust to our future generations. 
God in your mercy
receive our prayer. 

 

Almighty God, 
speak your word of wisdom to all in positions of power—elected officials, leaders and monarchs, law makers and judges. Enable them to discern your voice of guidance, and resist temptation to misuse their powers. 
God in your mercy
receive our prayer.

 

Steadfast God, 
speak your words of courage to all who journey perilously. Protect refugees, migrants, and homeless people. Grant them safety and place within the human family and just share in your bounty.
God in your mercy
receive our prayer. 

 

Loving God, 
speak your gentle word to all who are alone and overlooked. Bless those who minister to all who are vulnerable, and through them, pour out your love and shelter for belonging. 

We continue to pray for all in our parish, particularly Sheila S., John R., Geoff E.; and those on our hearts.
God in your mercy
receive our prayer. 

 

Loving God, 
we give thanks for all the faithful who have gone before us. Guide us who are yet pilgriming to follow your footsteps in wisdom. 
God in your mercy
receive our prayer.

 

Receive these our prayers, Gracious God, drawing all things together in your love, in the name of Jesus who leads us from death to life.  Amen.

 

And your people faithfully pray:

Our Father,
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven. 
Give us today our daily bread. 
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us.
And lead us  not into temptation,
but deliver us fom evil.  
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power and the glory,
forever and ever.  Amen.

 

The Blessing: 

The peace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and
love of God, and of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

May we be your Church in the world.

 

And the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be with you, and remain with you, always. 

 

May we go forth into the world in this time of Lent and in our journey, may we be that bread and that wine which gives us life and give life to the world. 
Amen.