Saint Alban's Anglican Church

Committed to sharing Christ's Commandments: To love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves, through worship, education and outreach.

The Second Sunday of Lent

03/12/2017 - Sunday Service

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Old Testament Lesson

Genesis 12:1-8
^12:1 Now 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. ² 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.³ 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.''

⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother''s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, ''To your offspring I will give this land.'' So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD.

Psalm

Psalm 33:12-22
12	Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD! *
	happy the people he has chosen to be his own!
13	The LORD looks down from heaven, *
	and beholds all the people in the world.
14	From where he sits enthroned he turns his gaze *
	on all who dwell on the earth.
15	He fashions all the hearts of them *
	and understands all their works.
16	There is no king that can be saved by a mighty army; *
	a strong man is not delivered by his great strength.
17	The horse is a vain hope for deliverance; *
	for all its strength it cannot save.
18	Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon those who fear him, *
	on those who wait upon his love,
19	To pluck their lives from death, *
	and to feed them in time of famine.
20	Our soul waits for the LORD; *
	he is our help and our shield.
21	Indeed, our heart rejoices in him, *
	for in his holy Name we put our trust.
22	Let your loving kindness, O LORD, be upon us, *
	as we have put our trust in you.

New Testament Lesson

Romans 4:1-17
^4:1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the scripture say? ''Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'' ⁴ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵ But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶ So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of works:
⁷ ''Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
⁸ blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.''

⁹ Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, ''Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.'' ¹⁰ How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. ¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, ¹² and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹³ 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. ¹⁴ If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

¹⁶ 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, ¹⁷ 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.

Gospel

John 3:1-17
^3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² 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.'' ³ Jesus answered him, ''Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.'' ⁴ 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?'' ⁵ Jesus answered, ''Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ""You must be born from above."" ⁸ 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.'' ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, ''How can these things be?'' ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, ''Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ ''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. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ ''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.

¹⁷ ''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.

Sermon

_{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 Ameria. Used by permission. All rights reserved.}