Genesis 9: 8-17
Psalm 25: 1-10
1 Peter 3: 18-22
Mark 1: 9-15

One day in a grocery store in a small village, the owner observed a young boy come into the store, stand, and look longingly at a large barrel of fresh apples. He would look at the apples for a long time and then quickly glance at the owner. He would then look back at the apples and then glance quickly at the owner. He did this several times before the owner went over to him and asked, "Son, are you trying to steal some of those apples?"

The boy replied, "No Sir! I'm trying not to steal them, but the bigger boys dared me! Adapted from Aha! A preaching magazine published by Wood Lake Books, who quote it from Thomas Pilgrim's Behold the Man, CSS Publishing, 1996.

We have entered the season of Lent. We have begun our intentional journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem and the cross. You could say that, on our lenten journey we are forced to decide both "who we are" and, "whose we are". We are forced to decide how we are going to live out our baptismal identity. In Lent we are called to face the temptations to be less than we are called to be, less than we can be, less than God wants us to be.

As we begin the season of Lent, we are called to follow one who was like us in almost every way. This Jesus was human, as we are; and tempted, as we are. Unlike us, however, he faced each of the temptations, overcame them, and went beyond them to a fuller and more faith- filled and meaningful journey.

However, I am getting ahead of myself. In this passage from the Gospel of Mark we find the beginning of his ministry marked both by his baptism and then by an experience in the wilderness. This wilderness experience followed an affirmation by God. I think that we are mean to notice that this affirmation did not FOLLOW the time of temptation in the wilderness but CAME BEFORE it. Why? I think that God wanted Jesus to know that his love did not depend on the outcome of his wilderness experience, but was there, unconditionally. I believe that it was the certainty of God's great love that enabled Jesus to overcome the temptation in the wilderness.

It seems to me that from the very beginning Jesus was determined that he was not going to take the easy way out. Whatever divine power he had, he elected not to use, to save himself, to bring glory to himself, or to place a gulf between himself and those who followed after him. Thus, the wilderness experience was a real temptation. He could have failed. He could have succumbed to the temptation to be less than God's beloved child. He could have yielded to the temptation to put other things before God's will for his life. He could have decided to take the easy way out and win friends and influence people by grand promises and empty miracles. Now Mark does not give us the details that the other gospel writers do about the temptation, but we have enough in what Mark does tell us to inform and challenge our own lenten journey. For this I rely heavily on Brueggemann, Gaventa, Cousar and Newsome 's book, Texts for Preaching, published by Westminster John Knox Press, 1993 Mark tells us that it was the Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness. It was necessary for Jesus and his ministry to be tested, to endure some struggle around what his ministry would entail. But if the Spirit drove him into the wilderness the Spirit did not abandon him there but, instead stayed with him.

Secondly Mark tells us that it was a period of 40 days that he was tempted. Mark does not go into details but only wishes to note that 40 days of wilderness testing was not something new, and that Jesus did overcome it. Like the period of rain that created the flood, the time the children of Israel spent in the wilderness and the flight of Elijah, the number 40 is a significant one. Mark makes it quite clear that this man, this Jesus, is from the biblical and prophetic tradition and that he will be someone to whom the readers will need to pay attention. Mark asserts, THIS man is from God.

Then we are told that Jesus was with the wild beasts; it was a very real and a dangerous wilderness. The angels also waited on him and served him. Like the prophets of old he faced real danger but God was also with him. Ultimately he was able to show that God's truth was stronger than the temptations to be less than God had called him to be.

All of these statements, short and simple as they are serve to show that this Jesus of Nazareth is God's son and that his message and his ministry will be one of bearing God's message.

Yet we know where Lent is leading. We know what happens on Good Friday. The message of lent is not complete without the message of Easter; that is: with God what looks like defeat can be turned into victory. Death is not the end. Defeat by earthly enemies is not the end. Life as God intended it, will indeed ultimately win. We can count on this.

Yet, the message for us is the same as it was for Jesus. We can't go from the affirmation of God's love at baptism to the glory of Easter. It is only in the real and hardscrabble world of life that the message becomes real. It is only in the paradox of the gospel that we find truth.

(In St Andrew's this morning we celebrate the sacrament of Baptism. We celebrate with the parents of these 2 children that God's love is stronger than all of the forces in the wold that seek to call us other names, that seek to define who we are in other ways. We welcome these people into our faith community, not as a people who have arrived, once and for all, at some mystical, magical, goal, but as a people on a journey. We are a people on a journey of faith, seeking light and life and truth. We are a people seeking to follow wherever it may lead us, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but always knowing the love and care of a God who names us as his own and calls us to journey in hope and faithfulness. To the children and to the parents we promise our support and our presence as we journey together. God is with us, no matter what happens.) This is our baptismal proclamation)

So if you have come to church today looking for glory, go home. If you have come to church looking for an easier life, go home. If you have come here today looking for fame and fortune, go home. If you have come here to be told you are terrific and to have nothing whatsoever expected of you, then you had better leave now.

On the other hand, if you have come here to find a meaning in life beyond the superficial, you have come to the right place. If you have come here to find bread for the journey of life and if you have come here to commit yourself to higher ideals and to eternal truth, you have come to the right place. If you have come to put your hand in the hand of the one who can show us the way through the temptation to be less than we are, then you have come to the right place. If you have come here to face your deepest fears and deepest longings and know that you will be able to come out on the other side, then you have come to the right place and you will be on the road to the Easter moment. Amen.

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22: 23-31
Romans 4: 13-25
Mark 8: 31-38

In Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic, Anne Of Green Gables , Matthew Cuthbert, a quiet and painfully shy bachelor, returns to the house referred to locally as Green Gables, from the train station at Bright River with a skinny red-headed girl, not the strapping boy his spinster sister Marilla had expected. Marilla, never at a loss for words, objects strenuously, but Matthew says defensively, "I had to bring her hone. She couldn't be left there." In desperation for an adequate explanation of the sad state of affairs, Marilla turns to the child and begins the interrogation by asking, "What's your name?" The girl replies, "Will you please call me Cordelia?" Turns out that the child's name is not Cordelia, but rather Anne, Anne with an ‘e' that is! Marilla, of course insists on calling her by her real name, which is, after all, a good and sensible one. Anne ends up staying at Green Gables continuing to mystify and confound the decidedly un-romantic Marilla Cuthbert.

Even at the young age of 11, Anne was already familiar with Juliet Capulet's musing that a "rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Anne's paraphrase of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare (IIii 43-44) While Anne is defending her choice of names to Marilla, she counters, I don't believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage." She continued, "I suppose my father could have been a good man even if he had been called Jedediah; but I'm sure it would have been a cross." Names were obviously very important to Anne Shirley.

It's not just Anne Shirley who worries about the appropriateness of his or her name. Many people, when the feel that they have ‘grown up', or achieve a professional status drop the childhood names by which they were know. I know that my brother prefers to be called Fred but its hard for me to remember, as all the time growing up he was always Freddie!!!!

Names are VERY important in the biblical record of God's dealings with the people. The middle eastern culture of biblical times, like many other cultures, saw names as important. A person's name was often changed after a life changing experience. In today's encounter with God, Abram and Sari were called, once again, to venture forth in faith. It was essentially the same promise: that Abram would be blessed by being the father of many. Abram had been called before, but on this day it was the both of them who were to be the recipients of God's promises and when the covenant was renewed in the passage read today they received new names, names which spoke more accurately of the promises which God had made to them. The name Abram meant ‘exalted father' while the name Abraham meant, ‘father of multitudes'. Its not so much a change in character, but a change in the way he identifies with God's purpose or will for him. Sarai's name is changed to Sarah, which unlike Abraham did not signify a change in meaning, but was rather, a more modern version of the same name. Sarah remained, ‘a princess'.

Throughout the Christian scriptures the issues of names and naming are also important. Jesus is referred to by various names: Son of Man, Messiah, Son of God, the Christ, good teacher. To call Jesus by one of those names was to make a statement of faith. To refer to Jesus as ‘the Christ of God', for example was to say something about the deeper identity of this son of Mary and Joseph, this carpenter from Nazareth. To name Jesus as Lord was to align oneself with the community of believers. The proclamation of this community was eventually, to bring it into conflict with the status quo. To profess that Jesus was Lord was to live life dangerously, it was to signify that one was no longer a part of one's own human family, but rather, a part of the family of the Christian church. For those who came to belief in Jesus in the very early church one had to be prepared to be rejected by one's own flesh and blood family. To name oneself as Christian was to take a big and life changing step.

When I meet with people to discuss their own baptism or the baptism of children I make the point that at baptism we are not so much naming children (we do that on government forms we send to Fredericton) but we are accepting our other name, the name of "Christian". In the Old English it was "cristnian" and meant ‘to make Christian'. It is at baptism that our decision to follow God's way in Jesus is sealed with the water of life. It is in baptism that we make the promise to take up the cross and follow. To take up the cross is to respond with all that we have and all that we are, to the name we have been given.

This brings me to a somewhat troublesome act of naming in the gospel lesson. The disciples are hearing, as if for the first time that Jesus mission will involve suffering and even death. Peter objects to this. Jesus reaction is swift and strong. He calls Peter, "Satan". Now that is certainly strong language. Jesus had a lot at stake. He did not have much time to teach the disciples the truths he had come to know about following the will of God. While he doesn't say why it was necessary that he would suffer and die, Jesus was telling them, simply and directly, that it was. Peter, on the other hand, was likely looking at it from what he thought were the eyes of faith, but he was not. No doubt Peter thought that God should protect the faithful. No doubt Peter thought if Jesus, or any of them had enough faith, that they would be protected from suffering. Jesus knew better. Jesus knew that instead of a protection against suffering, righteous and faithful actions sometimes, brought on suffering. Yet Jesus also knew that his earthly suffering, freely chosen, would bring other people into a relationship with God. He knew that his earthly suffering could change the hardest of hearts. He knew that in the midst of the suffering and beyond, that God would be with him, and that he would have the deep and sure knowledge that he was fulfilling his calling, and being true to his name; the name of God's precious child.

As we continue in our lenten journey we are called to take a hard look at our identity conferred upon us by our baptism. We are called to take seriously what it means in our lives to follow in the way of Jesus. We are called to decide, in the world in which we live, whether we will chose the easy way, or the way we know to be right. We are called to choose whether we will serve our own interests or broaden our perspective to work and give to the well-being of more that just our household, or our friends. We are called to name and stick by our faith even if we are called names, or if we lose friends, or opportunities for personal advancement.

And of course, on occasion, and for all of us there will be those occasions when we will feel that we have betrayed our Christian calling. But like Peter we will know God's love and presence and forgiveness even in those moments. We live by grace and it is this love and this grace that enables us to continue the journey despite the pitfalls and despite our own failures and reservations. The message of the gospel is that we will be strengthened to continue the journey of faithfulness, no matter what causes to stop or pause from it. We will be enabled to continue on with Jesus as our companion, guide, friend, and window to the power of Almighty God.

This God has names us as his own; Jesus has named us as friend and follower and we have accepted these names. May we live up to our high calling as we journey toward Jerusalem.

May we know the truth of the concluding words of our United Church faith statement: "In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, We are not alone. Thanks be to God.

Amen

Exodus 20: 1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1: 18-25
John 2: 13-22

A number of years ago one of the major oil companies offered a prize promotion at its gas stations. Printed on each entry form was a multi coloured circle which looked like a bunch of coloured dots to the naked eye that is. But when viewed through the special coloured lens that the gas station owner kept behind the counter, the amount of your discount, or your prize was revealed. During the story time (this morning) (today), the children were able to see the world around them in a different way when viewed with my special, super-duper orange bristol board rainbow glasses.

In most cases, glasses, that is prescription ones, are designed to give the wearer vision as close to those who don't need glasses as it is possible. I am one of those people who need glasses in order to be able to function.

However, whether or not we wear prescription glasses we all view the world through our own set of lenses which were shaped and formed by our own beliefs and experiences. For some of you these lenses were shaped and formed by the Great Depression; for some of you they were formed by farm life; for others it was raising a very large family, often on next to no money; for others it was the choice of coming to this place from another country, so that you could make a life for your children, or a life more in line with your values and ideals.

For many of us the lenses we wear were formed by our parents ways and habits and our parents advice burned into our memories; and for many our lenses are still being formed, changing and being changed by the experiences which come our way and those we choose.

The passage from today's epistle to the church at Corinth is about two different ways of looking at the world of faith. The author of this well known passage contrasts the way the ‘world' looks at the cross with the way it can be seen by people of faith. Of course, the cross is symbolic of the whole body of teaching by and about one Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, the whole life of faith has been described as a paradox, a way the world often finds hard to understand. Where else would failure be success, death be victory and giving be the ultimate act of receiving. It has also been said that it is in truly and fully serving Christ that we find perfect freedom. Book of Common Prayer This Christian lens is formed by the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and thousands of years of tradition. The scriptures read today are a large part of that formation. Once can hardly overestimate the place of the so-called ‘10 Commandments' in the life of faith. These 10 words from God form the basis of life together as a community. They became the framework on which the community based their life. The God who brought them out of Egypt called them to be in covenant; called them to see law as one of the ways in which the community was freed for service. This God called them to be a light to the nations. The Christian church believes that this same God called Jesus of Nazareth to proclaim the Good News that this God was continuing to offer the people an opportunity to be in covenant with God and with one another. He taught in new and fresh ways, always basing his words and actions upon the word of God as he saw it.

Throughout the ages women and men of faith have sought to bring to life these teachings from the law and the prophets, from the gospels and the epistles. They and we have sought a word from God appropriate to a unique age and situation. Sometimes things happen which appear to shake the very foundations upon which our lives are built; things happen which may shake the foundations of our lives of faith.

We are in one of those situations today. On Wednesday a coalition of at least the United States and Great Britain began a campaign they have dubbed ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom'. Without United Nations approval, bombs and missiles are being fired, troops are moving, soldiers are killing and being killed, buildings are exploding in flames or collapsing, some oil wells are aflame, apparently whole divisions of the Iraqi army are surrendering or preparing to surrender; hospitals are filling up. As always, families all over the world are worrying and praying for the safety of loved ones. In response, the UN Security Council is meeting; candles for peace are being lit; blue ribbons are being worn, pro-American and anti-war demonstrations are being held. All of this is taking place in almost surreal fashion on international television, and on the internet, with the reality of the war interpreted through the lens of the network or organization responsible for the broadcast.

As Christians we are looking for some guidance as to what to do and what to believe. Should Canada have sone to war in support of the USA? Is this war really a ‘just war', out of concern for the lives of the innocent people who suffer at the hands of the Iraqi regime, or is it based on fear, racism, and a greed for middle eastern oil? What does it mean that three Canadian warships are in the area supporting the coalition led ‘War on Terrorism'.

Where is the word from the Lord for this time. Interestingly our lectionary passages for today provide much food for thought, and much challenge. In times like these is it possible to live out the belief that strength lies in weakness. In times like these is it possible to live out of a view of community that rises above killing and greed and materialism.

A great deal of the conflict and division among people in the last few days and weeks has centred on whether or not the war against Iraq can really be justified. While searching the internet yesterday I found a self- administered test that allowed the surfer to determine if this current conflict was indeed a ‘just war' based on the commonly accepted criteria for a ‘just war'. The questions were not easy because there is no conclusive proof for some of the questions. It is much easier to look at conflicts from the past, where history has provided irrefutable proof.

We do not yet have the benefit of hindsight, so what we have to do is to do what we feel in our hearts is the right thing, whatever that is. And then we have to live with that, trusting in the God of grace.

In all of this struggle I am filled with a profound sadness; a kind of hazy bewilderment takes over my mind. I have a fear that it may not end quickly; that the conflict may escalate and more and more innocent people die needlessly. There is no question in my mind that Saddam Hussein should be removed from power but I don't think his is the only country in the world that needs to be liberated from an evil dictator and I don't think that this is the way to do it. Yet I know that for many people this ‘what if' is not a luxury they have. They are living in a war zone. Many are people of faith, a faith related by history and tradition to our own. They are also praying for an end. They are even more vulnerable to government propaganda than we are. They have lived with far more war and killing than most Canadians could ever imagine. They may be wondering if it, "will it be this strike or the next one that kills a friend, or a relative, or kills me"?

Eighteen months ago I watched the World Trade Centres burn and watched the American news and knew deep down that the killing of the innocents was not over; that it had just begun. The current administration of the USA sees Iraq as connected to those attacks awhile many do not.

How do we know what to do?

In all of my confusion I struggle to hold onto the belief that he power of God is greater than our power; that we live by grace; that the decisions we make are transformed by grace into righteousness, not removing our responsibility, but allowing us the freedom to make mistakes, in faith and trust.

We may burn a candle to show the world we pray for peace or to remind ourselves to pray for peace or we may burn a candle for those who are participating in the war to depose Saddam; or we may take part in a public vigil; or, we may wear a blue ribbon as a sign of our hope and prayer for peaceful and diplomatic means of working for peace and justice in the world, or we may do all three.

What is also important that we need to maintain a respect for those whose opinions differ from our own as we all eek to live out our call to follow Jesus of Nazareth.

So let us go from here in the courage that only God can give us; for God's will for all of us; Christian and Jew and Muslim alike is wholeness and peace, shalom and Salaam. May we work with all that have and all that we are to allow God's will to come about here and around the world.

Amen.

Numbers 21: 4-9
Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2: 1-10
John 3: 14-21

Death or Life

1666 was the year of the “Great Fire’ of London. It destroyed more than half the city, including three quarters of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren, the original architect of the Cathedral was commissioned to design and supervise its restoration. 35 years later the project was completed and Queen Anne visited St Paul’s. She complimented the work, telling Wren that the cathedral was "awful, artificial and amusing." Sir Christopher was delighted! Why! Well, in those days awful meant "full of awe, awe-inspiring," artificial meant "artistic" and amusing, from the muses, the Greek and Roman goddesses of the arts, meant "amazing."

While those meanings of artificial and amusing are lost today, the old meaning of ‘awful’ while more obscure, is still with us. Without too much effort, we can think of events or things which are awful, in both senses of the word; as in ‘too beautiful for words’ and ‘terrible’, as in ‘dangerous’ or ‘very undesirable’. For example, I think of an ice storm. The morning after such a storm the trees are shimmering in the sunlight and one could hardly think of a more beautiful sight in nature. At the same time, however, that ice has most likely done great damage to those same trees, to the power transmission grid and, if you park your car outside, you are in for a long siege of scraping and melting before you can go to find a grocery store so you can replace the food spoiled in the power outage.

Today’s stories are full of images and words with double meanings. In the story from the wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel, the snake came to have such a double meaning. At the outset the snake was an object of divine punishment and death, while at the conclusion of this episode, the snake is the object of divine salvation and life.

In the gospel Jesus has a clandestine conversation with the Jewish leader Nicodemus and he tells him that he must be born ‘anothen ’, which is a Greek word with a double meaning. It means both ‘again’ and ‘from above’. Maybe I should have read it that way! Nicodemus heard only one of those meanings and immediately objected to it as being impossible, which, if you accept the ‘born again’ meaning, and take it literally, it is impossible! Each and every English translation has decided which word to use and which word to relegate to a footnote, making the reader think one is better than another. Both need to be there because both are intended. While it may be difficult to hold these alternate meanings together in our heads we have less trouble holding them in our hearts. Nicodemus was depending too much on what seemed impossible rather than what his heart could have told him.

Nicodemus problem, and our problem, is trying to force the good news of the gospel into too small a box, trying to define it too narrowly.

Jesus then talks about being ‘lifted up’, making a direct reference to the story from the book of Numbers. The lifting up of Jesus can be seen as a reference to Jesus being ‘lifted up’ in the resurrection, a dramatic and glorious symbol of God’s power. Of course it is also referring to his being raised in crucifixion. It is hardly glorious, to die a criminal’s death on a cross, but it was seen by Jesus as a necessary step in the plan of salvation. It was the only way he could show God’s great love for the world. This term then takes on two meanings, seemingly opposite, but also intertwined. Both his death and his resurrection can both become a means of salvation.

So in this one chapter we have ‘born again’ and ‘born from above’ and we also have ‘lifted up’ as both crucifixion and as the church came to experience later as resurrection. Through faith, this experience of Jesus being lifted up showed them God’s love in such a powerful way that they could not ignore it.

This is the fourth Sunday of Lent often called Laetare Sunday, which means ‘Rejoice’. While the overall theme of Lent is penitential and sombre, because of the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross, the fourth Sunday gives us a break from that mood by pointing quite deliberately, and with great emphasis to the joy of God’s saving actions and presence. Of course we are still talking about the cross but it is encircled with the message of God’s overwhelming love.

What is love? What is God’s love for the world. Love is such a difficult word in our culture. I could say that I love chocolate, my family, my friends, and God but those kinds of love are each quite different. Some languages have more than one word for love, and some, while they know the concept and the reality, have none.

The following story came to me via the internet this week. Midrash@joinhands.com mail list A missionary was living in South America in a place close to the mountains, far from cities and other villages. This missionary was learning the language so that she could translate the Bible into this language. After many months, she discovered that the people did not have a word for “love.” There was no word that would translate as “Love.” It was such a vital and important word in the Bible. It was a real struggle for her. How was she going to translate the word “love” when no such word existed in their language?

One day, as she was coming out of her house, she met a nine-year-old girl. Her mother had gone to the other side of the mountains to care for a sick relative. She asked the little girl, “How have you been doing, without your mom in these past few days?” The little girl told the missionary that she was suffering, without her mother. Beginning to cry, she said, “Lady, my heart hurts for my mom!”

Suddenly the Bible translator knew that she had discovered the word, or rather the phrase, for love: “My heart hurts!” When she translated John 3: 16 she wrote, “For God’s heart hurt for the world...” .

Both the passage from Numbers and the passage from the gospel talk of God as hurting because of the people turned away and complained, even though their lives were surrounded by blessing and grace. The people in the wilderness were not living in the lap of luxury, that is for certain. But they were free. They had complained to God about their oppression and they God called Moses to lead them out of Egypt. They had been slaves in Egypt, and their lives there had been downright miserable, but in the wilderness they seemed to forget all of that. The little food theuy did have back then looked good to a constant diet of manna. In this passage the snakes were seen as God’s punishment on an ungrateful people, on a people who needed to learn how to trust in the God who was with them and who was leading them. God’s punishment was not carried out in its entirety, because Moses stuck his neck out and persuaded God to provide a means of salvation. All the people had to do was to look at the serpent and they would live. They had to face the object of their destruction; they had to come to terms with their lack of trust in God. They had merely to turn to God in trust and in faith.

In the gospel of John, this lifting up is related to God’s love for the world. God’s hurting heart resulted in God’s gift of Jesus ‘lifting up’. Notice that the text does not say that God loved only those who were good. It does not say that God loved only those who were of a certain racial or ethnic group. It does not say anything about limits. It is simple and all encompassing, “God loved so that the world might be saved.” As a people of faith, we RESPOND to this love, we don’t attempt to earn it!

Now, what about the rest of the story? As this episode closes, Nicodemus goes away, no doubt scratching his head about all of the double meanings and seeming contradictions in the life of faith. He had worked all of his life to do things the right way, to follow God’s law, so that he could be right with God, only to discover that God loved him anyway. But Nicodemus wasn’t quite like the rich young ruler who went away sad because he would not give up his great possessions. We do indeed meet Nicodemus later in the Gospel story, and the writer wants there be no mistaking that he is the same one. In once episode he is sticking up for Jesus’ right to a fair trial and in the second, he is one of those who cared for Jesus’ body.

So what does all of this have to do with us. We live in the midst of great uncertainty and turmoil. A coalition of a number of nations including the United States is at war with Iraq. It is not going as they had originally planned. Our media and the American media are each giving us a different slant on what is happening and what it means. We are left with the question, “What is the real truth?” Of course the real question is: “What will happen next?” Will the war be won soon, Saddam be killed, imprisoned or exiled, and democracy come to Iraq, or will the entire region be destabilized for a long time to come? What will happen to Canada/US relations because of our government’s decision not to join the coalition?

And, of course, in each of our lives, there are other worries, other concerns. We have jobs to go to, children to raise, courses and grades to pass and lives to plan.

I think that these passages speak to situations just like this. These passages talk about the care and power of a God whose presence and claim on our lives we sometimes ignore. The gospel passage emphasizes God’s love and God’s plan of life for all the world. This eternal life is not just ‘life after death’ but also ‘abundant life in this world’. Its another one of those double meanings. Its two meanings are held together in the context of a world where God’s love is timeless and where God’s time is not our own. It is held in the tension between what is already a reality and what is becoming a reality. It defies rational explanation. It can only be lived and responded to.

This great love compels us to respond in kind as we seek to live out the life we have received. Just as Jesus’ lifting up emulated that of the serpent in the desert so we can live our lives lifting up this great love which God has for all of us. We can do this despite the tensions of the time in which we live; we can do this because of the tensions of the time in which we live.\

We are called to know and to show the love of a God who sent Jesus to bring us abundant and eternal live. We may not be able to do much about peace in the world, but we can do something. We may not be able to do much about racism and ethnic strife, but we can do something. We can be open to God’s call and at the very least we can respond to it in our own lives where we live, here in Kent County, New Brunswick.

We can learn a great deal from the people of Israel who were called to look death in the face, and as they gazed at the bronze serpent, a symbol of their greatest dangers and fears, they acted out their trust in the God, who was always present. God is with us. But this is not a “God is on our side’ kind of thing; God is with all the people of the world. I’m sure that God weeps over the world when people are at war, when famines go on without relief and when diseases such as AIDS threaten to destroy families and even entire countries. Last week I talked to the children about the rainbow, and God’s promise of love and hope. That promise is just as real today. Let us respond to it with all that we have and are. God loves us. Thanks be to God.

Amen.