RCL Readings Sunday 21 February 2010 (First Sunday in Lent)
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

My week began very early on Monday reflecting on Luke 4:1-13 and preparing the devotions for the District Candidates Committee that was meeting that day (part of the process within Methodism by which we test the call of those offering for ordained ministry). I wrestled with the question of how does this passage speak into that committee and the two people we were meeting to explore their sense of call. There was the obvious connection of wrestling with a call and how it is to be worked out.

We are all called is my starting point. That call is often questioned and undermined in subtle and not so subtle ways - so it was for Jesus "If you are the Son of God ..." I'm sure the two people we met had faced many "If" moments - I have and I still do! While at times I may be shaken, tempted, by those undermining 'ifs' I come back to that deep conviction that I am and you are called. For Jesus the 'If' question sought to question the voice at his baptism which said "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22b). Martin Luther the great reformer we are told was bedevilled with doubts and is reported as countering them with "I have been baptised, I have been baptised". The words spoken over a baby in the Baptism service of the Methodist Church come to mind, the name of the child is spoken followed by:
for you Jesus Christ came into the world;
for you he lived and showed God's love;
for you he suffered death on the Cross;
for you he triumphed over death,
rising to newness of life;
for you he prayers at God's right hand:
   all this for you,
   before you could know anything of it.

At your 'if' moments you might like to say your name followed by those words from the baptism service.

We are called and the 'ifs' will come but the real question we have to wrestle with in the wilderness is the what, the where and the how of discipleship.