Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday February 14, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
O Lord God, you led your people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land.
Guide us now, so that, following your Son, we may walk safely through the wilderness of this world toward the life you alone can give,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Deuteronomy 26: 1 - 11 (NRSV)
1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it,
 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you,
and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.
3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that
I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us."
4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God,
5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God:
"A wandering Arame'an was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien,
few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.
6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,
7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power,
and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me."
You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God.
11 Then you, together with the Le'vites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with
all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 91: 1 - 2, 9 - 16 (NRSV)
1 You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
2 will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust."
9 Because you have made the LORD your refuge,
the Most High your dwelling place,
10 no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
14 Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honor them.
16 With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Romans 10: 8 - 13 (NRSV)
8 "The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart"
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
11 The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame."
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.
13 For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Luke 4: 1 - 13 (NRSV)
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,
2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."
4 Jesus answered him, "It is written, "One does not live by bread alone.'"
5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.
6 And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me,
and I give it to anyone I please.
7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."
8 Jesus answered him, "It is written,
"Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.'"
9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him,
"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
10 for it is written,
"He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you,'
11 and
"On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
12 Jesus answered him, "It is said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

Our readings from Scripture week by week through the Church Year
are on a three year cycle.
We are in year C, as it is called,
and the Gospel readings are mostly written in the Gospel according to St. Luke.
I have spoken previously about how Luke wrote 22 percent of the whole New Testament in his two volume work, Luke and Acts.
His is a unique Gospel, from a unique point of view.
He was a companion of st. Paul on at least one of the missionary journeys that Paul made.
He was clearly a Gentile believer, very likely a convert from the preaching of Paul or one of Paul's helpers, such as Barnabas.
Church tradition also tells us that St. Luke was a physician.
If you want some fascinating reading about Luke,
I recommend the novel by Taylor Caldwell,
_Dear and Glorious Physician_.
It is full of speculation, of course,
but Taylor Caldwell wrote beautifully and in a most fascinating and vivid manner
about life in the ancient world.
Her description of the ancient port of Alexandria on a sunny day
will give you the feeling of having been there.
If you choose to read the book, you will feel as though you are now acquainted with St. Luke.
One of the recurring themes in Luke's Gospel
is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of our Lord and His disciples.
It is Luke, after all, who, in the book of Acts, gives us the clearest and fullest account
of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
Luke and Luke alone tells us that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit
as He went out into the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit,
and so able to face the temptations of the Enemy.
Jesus fasted for a long time in the desert.
Forty days simply means a long time.
Don't press the details as though they recorded literal facts, a literal passage of time.
It is simply a colorful figure of speech.
Just imagine fasting for forty days!
In fact, in that length of time, one would starve to death.
However long it was,
our Lord was famished at the end of His fast.
The Enemy tempted Him to use His almighty power for His own benefit.
That was something He simply would not ever do.
His wonder working power was only for the service of His Father.
He performed miracles as signs pointing clearly toward the kingdom of God.
In the desert,
who but Jesus and the Enemy would see a sign or be able to follow it?
By faith, our Lord knew clearly who He was.
The Enemy knew as well.
The test of His temptation was useless for our Lord,
but He submitted to it,
as to all the experiences of His life and even His death,
for us.
He was tempted for us.
We also are tempted,
and we fail, over and over again.
He was tempted, and He overcame the temptations for us.
He did not use His almighty power to do good for Himself,
not even when He was facing trial at the hands of His enemies,
and not even when He was unjustly executed by them.
He accepted the full experience of being human,
and He lived the one and only perfect, fully human life,
not only showing us how we could be,
but also lifting us up by His grace
to His own level.
All of the temptations of our Lord were of the same pattern.
The Enemy tried to get Him to be a different Messiah than He was meant to be.
He could have so worshipped power in this world
that He would have been made king of the world
ahead of the time that God intended.
He alone could have led a successful revolt against Rome,
and He could have established a Kingdom of God on Earth.
He could have enforced the will of God
by the power of Law,
but that was never His way, to this very day.
He could have jumped off the highest pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem
and demonstrated to the world Who He was,
but that was not His way, either.
People even now must come to Him by faith
or not at all.
He will never give up calling to us in our hearts and minds
by the power of the Holy Spirit with Whom He was filled.
Because He overcame the power of the Enemy by whom He was tempted,
we ourselves are able to trust His power to save us from our own failures and sins.
Because He was willing to be God's suffering servant,
not His conquering Messiah,
we can trust Him to return
to usher in His glorious and gentle rule
in God's own time.
Then we will all live forever
under His loving care
in the new Heaven and the new Earth
which God Himself will make to be our perfect Home.
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever,
Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +