First Sunday in Lent: Old Testament, Deuteronomy 26:1-11             

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Lent is given to us by the Lord, through the church and her history as a season of repentance and preparation. Advent is precisely the same, although perhaps because of its nearness to the established cultural marks of Christmas it isn’t experienced that way. But Lent is known as the season of self-sacrifice and although there is no biblical requirement to abstain during these forty days, looking to the cross of Jesus brings that motion to our practice.

Whether or not you choose to “give something up” for Lent, I want to direct you to a phrase in our Old Testament reading for this first week. Moses is giving instruction to God’s people for sacrifice to the Lord following their arrival in the Promised Land. An offering of the firstfruits of the ground is required and Moses offers this: “ … you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there” (v.2, emphasis mine). Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord chooses where he will dwell, where his name will be “placed.” Here, and later in the tabernacle and temple. Then under the New Covenant, God promises to be where two or three gather for determining church discipline and Jesus promises his name and presence in the preaching of his Word, Holy Baptism, and the Holy Supper. At his ascension he promises to be where we are as we disciple the nations by his grace.

Now one might say, “God is everywhere,” and in one sense that is true. God is omnipresent. But when God promises to be somewhere specific, he places his name there and with his name comes his very being and his limitless power to save. Moses is directing the Lord’s children to come to him that he might bless them. Not because of their offering, but to remind them that it is his blessing that grants his children fruitful fields. Here and for all eternity.