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During this season of Lent, we'll be sending out to you various resources for prayer, study and action. Below, you'll find a reflection for today, the First Sunday of Lent, by Jim Forest from Pax Christi USA's Lenten reflection booklet from 1990. This year's booklet is Embracing Possibilities: Reflections for Lent 2014, and is available for purchase by download on the PCUSA website.
We have also set up a page for Lent 2014 on the site where we will archive reflections throughout the season and organize additional resources for individuals and groups, including prayers, prayer services, action opportunities, and information on undertaking a Way of the Cross event for Good Friday. You can find the page by clicking here. More resources will be posted in the days to follow.
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REFLECTION FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
By Jim Forest
Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 | Romans 5:12-19 | Matthew 4:1-11
"All these kingdoms I bestow on you if you prostrate yourself in homage to me."
(Matthew 4:10)
Jesus' last temptation was to trade worship for power. Satan is shown as a power broker. His message: "Center your life on the prince of worldly power, and I will let you share in this power."
Making the border crossing into Lent is an opportunity to leave the centers of power behind and to surrender powerful ambitions. At first glance, it seems like opting for weakness. Satan shows Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence" - an impressive, vast, dazzling vision. But the problem with long distance viewing is that the huge swallows up the tiny. From the top of the Empire State Building, human beings look like ants. From the height of a satellite, a city looks like an ant hill. Human beings are lost in the dust.
In the life of Jesus, human beings aren't ants. They are ordinary people with names and faces, some with withered limbs and unseeing eyes, some with dead children, some with half-dead consciences, all wounded, all needing forgiveness. But limbs can't be strengthened, eyes can't be healed, children can't be raised, and sins can't be forgiven from a mountaintop or space station....
To read the entire reflection, click here.
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