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Third Sunday of Lent, Year C, March 11, 2007 Celebrating RCIA? Click here for Notes on Year A readings.

A digest for the congregation: Arrange with your liturgy committee to have these brief historical introductions read to the assembly before you do each reading. The presider may speak these before the first and second readings, and before rising for the gospel acclamation. Print this page, cut it at the blue lines, and give the introduction paragraphs to the person who will speak them.
Third Sunday of Lent, Year C, March 11, 2007
Before the first reading: The Hebrew descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had become slaves in Egypt, and lost their memory of the Lord. Here the Lord startles and reintroduces himself to the Hebrew who will later lead the people back to their homeland.	Between psalm and second reading: Today's second reading is Paul's homily based on the Exodus story begun in the first reading. Paul's audience in Corinth was a rather disorderly bunch, so the Apostle's interpretation of the Scripture is stern.	Before the gospel acclamation: Jesus, too, gives his audience a stern warning about the need to repent. He cites two contemporary events now lost to history. The closing parable alerts all not to take their status with God for granted.
To pay for use of the words above, please subtract an equal number of optional words from other places in the liturgy (click here for some suggestions).

First reading, Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

That all explains why Moses is in the desert, why both Moses and the other Hebrews back in Egypt need to be re-introduced to the God of their ancestors, and why God wants to lead them to "a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

Trisecting and Proclaiming this Passage: It will help your proclamation if you divide the passage into three sections (which may not match the paragraph divisions in your lectionary):

• God's astonishing self-revelation and Moses' ritualistic responses (removing his sandals and covering his face). Read slowly so that your listeners can let the images form in their own imaginations, but treat these vivid images, even the image of the burning bush, only as fanfare for God's solemn self-description, "I am the God of your fathers, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob."
• God's announcement of the plan to rescue the Hebrews, from "I have witnessed the affliction ..." to "a land of milk and honey." Pause before you start this section. In the plan of the book of Exodus, this sets the stage for all that follows. In the plan of modern Christian Lent, this prepares us to hear, at the Easter Vigil, the chapter of Exodus that fulfills the promise, and to let the same God lead us out of our bondages into a new life in the risen Christ.
• The dialogue about God's name and its meaning. Pause again, to let the solemnity of prior promise sink in. Using a different tone of voice, represent Moses asking an innocent, practical question, "What should I say is your name?" When you assume God's voice again, sound like God saying something mysterious (it is; see below). Say distinctly, slowly and solemnly each of the three variants of the name (your translations may differ):
  • I AM WHO AM
  • I AM
  • The LORD

A Theological Reflection about that Name: The English expressions "I am who am" and "I AM" are two of several possible translations of an essentially untranslatable Hebrew expression. They give God a name without putting God in any ready category, without removing any of the divine mystery. That the name is a sentence, not a noun, is suggestive: This is a God who does things, who acts, who intervenes in human history, who saves, who cares. It's also instructive that, both before and after announcing the mysterious name, God insists he is the God of Israel's ancestors. This is to prepare the slaves to reclaim their free and noble heritage. All this is appropriate for early in Lent, because it begins the story that will climax so dramatically in our required reading on Holy Saturday, when Moses finally does lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

The Apostle's Literary Method (and allusions to our great liturgy of baptism at the end of Lent): Unusual for a second reading, this passage is Paul's commentary on today's first reading. For the sake of his unruly, sorely tempted converts, Paul summons up a cautionary tale. The Israelites, led by Moses, passed miraculously through the sea when they escaped Egypt. They were led across the desert by a cloud. (Their encounters with these watery elements amount to baptism, Paul says.) God gave them water from the rock when they were thirsty. (Paul depicts Christ retroactively present in this event.) Despite all these wonders, many were still faithless, so God let them die in the desert without reaching the Promised Land. The Corinthians are in the same danger, and Paul warns them sternly, "Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care lest he fall."

Your Proclamation: The first few repetitive sentences, up to "and the rock was Christ," all prepare the recipients for the bad news, "God was not pleased ..." So, unusual for Lector's Notes, I recommend you go through those sentences in a repetitive pattern, but break the pattern at "Yet God was not pleased ..." which should sound conclusive.

In the remaining sentences, don't be afraid to sound stern (Paul wasn't). Pronounce the last sentence slowly and with foreboding. Someone's life may depend on hearing this warning and taking it to heart.

Several other commentaries on these passages. All are thoughtful, all quite readable, from the scholarly to the popular. Links may be incomplete more than a few weeks before the "due date."
Father Roger Karban of Belleville, Illinois, USA, writes a newspaper column about every Sunday's readings. Here are his essays for today's passages, from: 1998 2001 2004 courtesy of The Evangelist, official publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York, USA. And here's a link to his twenty-five most recent columns, courtesy of the Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity.	Saint Louis University's excellent Sunday liturgy-preparation site Father Frank Cleary's column on the first reading, from 2004, courtesy of the Saint Louis Review.
The Text This Week; links to homilies, art works, movies and other resources on the week's scripture themes	Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group Dan's undated page has the heading "Lent 3," and treats Isaiah 55:1-9 as first reading this Sunday.

The Lectionary selections in the frame at the left, if any, are there for your convenience. The publishers of the page in that frame have no connection, except for membership in the one Body of Christ, with the publisher of this page. Likewise the publishers of the pages on the links above.