Lent 1 2025

Of course we in this room understand we have arrived at the 46 Day season called lent (46 vs 40). And so many of us are prayerfully seeking God in this time. As a church we are seeking wisdom of how our second into 3rd year should look. Many of us are asking God to reveal our sins to us that we might repent. That is turn from sin and pursue righteousness. And hopefully all of us are preparing for Easter.

The main readings any given week, like the Gospel Reading, or the Epistle are pretty fixed amongst REC Anglicans and those who use Older prayer books. But the OT and Psalm are somewhat fluid from one prayer book to the nest. Our editor wanted us in the OT to head the warnings of God about Going through the motions of worship without posturing our hearts.

Some Christian Denominations take these Old Testament warnings to mean that we should walk away from Tradition entirely. That seems a little like over correction.

Main Point: The rituals of our tradition are meant to be done with a transformed heart and they are meant to continue transforming our hearts.

The Text.

We have done some Isaiah recently so we remember that the second half of Isaiah are words spoken to population in the Israels future that would be coming home from exile. And that there would be a suffering servant in these oracles that would make the people righteous.

Today is back to Oracles of warning

The Word Oracle…Different kinds…this is one of judgement.

Verse 1: God is commanding his Oracle to speak his word to the people. It is too urgent to soften, give them the full strength thing.

Verse 2: The Observation of God that they are worshiping according to the Laws of Moses.

Verse 3: They brag about their worship inquiring of God: Did you see how well we are doing.

But still in verse three, God is reminding them that they are not worshiping as changed creatures that care about the things God cares about. They care about pleasure, opressing workers.

Verse 4: the accusations of God Continue. That of quarreling and fighting

Verse 5: So if their ritual is empty what kind of ritual should we do. Gods answer, worship in humility, not bombastically. Worship by giving care to the poor and those on the Margins. All the hits the oppressed…

Verse 8: This will have an outcome. Rear Guard, Answers from God. the presence of God in our midst.

Verse 10: if we are transformed into that kind of community, God’s glory will be seen by the nations. and the land will heal.

Verse 11: obedience brought by worship will heal the people and the land, rebuilt cities and the laughter of children.

Verse 13: The right worship of God will mean that we correctly keep the sabbath…

Verse 14, the oracle ends reminding us of the authority of God in his speaking.

So what pastoral words can I give us.

We have to fight to rightly worship God, MO/EO/HC. Fight the good fight of giving God and his repentance true attention.

The only way a person could rightly worship God in our day would be to have God assist us and fix our hearts to worship.

Collect of Purity

Repentance is both NT and OT. Allow God to change your behavior.

Do the rituals of the church: This Text and Jesus do not put an end them.

Look we are all going to fail here. We are not fundamentalists, and we are not liberals, we are evangelicals. We look for these things to meet on Calvary.

And because Jesus goes to the Cross we are then able to do what this Text asks us to do. That is worship in righteousness. We are friends of God and invited to his table. Come taste the goodness of God. See how even if we fail his perfect standard we are still his creatures.