Scriptures & Questions for Feburary 10

Second Sunday in Lent, Year A
February 17, 2008

How to use this page:

Print this and read a different passage each day and think about it. Some questions are offered to help stimulate your reflection. You'll find your experience of worship on Sunday will be intensified.

For a method to read and pray with the scriptures you might try to use the ancient practice of Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). I've written some instructions on how to use Lectio with the Sunday Scriptures at the following link: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id272.html

If you would like to comment on these scriptures or have some on-line conversation about them, please click the "comments" button at the bottom.

We use the Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary.
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The Scriptures for this Sunday

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17


The Collect

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Old Testament
Genesis 12:1-4a

The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.
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Abram is regarded as the Father of faith, for he trusted God to love, honor and bless him. What good things from God do you put your faith in?
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The Psalm
Psalm 121 Levavi oculos

I lift up my eyes to the hills; *
from where is my help to come?

My help comes from God, *
the maker of heaven and earth.

God will not let your foot be moved; *
the One who watches over you will not fall asleep.

Behold, the One who keeps watch over Israel *
shall neither slumber nor sleep;

The Holy One watches over you *
and is your shade at your right hand,

So that the sun shall not strike you by day, *
__nor the moon by night.

God shall preserve you from all evil *
and is the One who shall keep you safe.

God shall watch over your going out and your coming in, *
from this time forth for evermore.

St. Helena Psalter

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What would it mean to you to put your trust in God so completely as the Psalmist encourages? Could you, like Jesus, continue that trust even in the face of the terror and death of the cross?
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The Epistle
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
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Is it comforting or a bit unnerving to embrace the notion that there is nothing you can do to accomplish your relationship with God except to accept that God accepts you and blesses you?
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The Gospel
John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
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What is the Good News in this story?
Why is it hard for Nicodemus to understand and to receive?