Lent - Year A -- 2017
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Lent Year A
Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7
Psalm 32
Matthew 4: 1-11
Welcome to the season of Lent. Here are some fascinating (or not so fascinating) facts about Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days, immediately before Easter. The number 40 is common when counting time in the overall biblical story. We can think of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness which we heard today. The people of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, and the flood during the time of Noah happened because of 40 days and nights of rain. Not that long ago we heard of Moses spending 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai when he received the Ten Commandments. Now, if you take out your calendar and employ your counting finger you will discover that there are more than 40 days left in Lent (and we started on Wednesday) and that is because it does not count Sundays! Sundays are not counted because even in Lent every Sunday is like a little Easter; Easter being a day of resurrection!
For generations of Christians, particularly Roman Catholics, the season of Lent was a time of abstinence and self-denial. It was a common practice to “give up something for Lent”. “Fat Tuesday” or “Pancake Day” developed so that you could eat up all of the “good stuff” in your pantry you could not eat during Lent. Fasting of one kind or another is a spiritual practice whose aim is to bring one closer to God. Remove the clutter; hone and improve the focus.
When I was very new in ministry, on the Saturday night just before Easter I attended Easter Vigil at the Catholic church which was behind my first manse. One of the elderly members of the parish smiled and said to me on her way out, “now you can eat your Easter eggs.” I didn’t tell her that I had been dipping into my stash for a couple of weeks already. I guess that part of my ecumenical theological education did not rub off on me! We Protestants have never really placed a great deal of emphasis on giving up something for Lent. (For most of our history, we haven’t put a lot of emphasis on Lent, either. ) And I find it hard to resist chocolate! That being said, a colleague gave up coffee during Lent, last year and this year as well. So far, he says, “it’s a work in progress”. I could easily give up coffee for Lent - but that would be cheating, as I have not had a cup of coffee in over 30 years! It’s impossible to give up something you don’t have in the first place!
As I suggested earlier, I think that the purpose of giving something up for Lent is to make room for something else! Most of us live very full lives without much leeway for free time or free money. This Lenten practice allows us the space to delve deeper into our Christian walk and make decisions about the next part of our journey.
The Lectionary reading for Lent 1 leads us into Lent by accompanying Jesus into the wilderness.
In the wilderness of Lent we are called to live a life of complete trust in God. In the wilderness we are called to focus on our relationship with God and showing this to others in our words and actions. The question for us is, “How much room can we make for God in our lives this Lent?” To do this is to trust that when we do so we will be in a better position to grow in faith.
On this day, as we begin Lent we journey with Jesus into the desert. According to the gospels Jesus went from his baptism to be tempted in the wilderness without passing “Go” or “collecting $200"! When you compare how Matthew tells this story with how Mark does there is one interesting difference right off the bat. Mark tells us that the Spirit DROVE Jesus into the wilderness but Matthew tells us that the Spirit LED him! Luke uses the word “led” as well! It’s an interesting difference and gives some food for thought. Spirit led, or Spirit driven, it seems clear that this wilderness journey was something that he was supposed to go through. It was something his faith journey needed. He had to get away and remove all the distractions in order to both focus on God and rely on God. That’s what 40 days of total fasting is supposed to do for you - force you to rely on God.
For as long as the church has been around Christians have had difficulty with the idea that the “Son of God” was tempted by the devil. Yet that is part of being fully human. It is also helpful to note that this “Satan” is more like the “tester” in the book of Job than the personification of inherent evil we usually associate with the “devil”.
We’ve all seen cartoon depictions of a person with a devil-like character on one shoulder and an angel-like one on the other These characters represent the competing voices that play in our head when we are trying to make a decision; usually something relatively monor. Do I eat dessert or don’t eat dessert. Do I go for a walk or watch tv. Do I tell the neighbour off because of her barking dog or just grin and bear it. Or do I tell everyone but the dog’s owner! But, sometimes the temptation is to do something that most people would say is wrong - such as shoot the dog AND the neighbour when the barking starts! We may be tempted to lie, cheat, steal, or to do something worse!
The temptations faced by Jesus are much more subtle.
Part of what is going on here is the making of decisions that will serve to guide his future followers. What is proposed by the devil, or the adversary, will tempt the church time and time again.
In a sense there is only one temptation here; with three variations.
As he is tempted the first time - remember Matthew tells us that Jesus “is famished.” 40 days and nights without food and water would do that! The temptation is to make the stones become bread. Later in the gospels Jesus was said to have done something very similar, in the feeding of the thousands. Yet that was different, somehow.
Perhaps the temptation was one of using his power to ensure his own security. Now that sounds only “smart” at first. These days, smart people save for their retirement and reap the benefits at retirement.
For the gospel story, in each of the temptations, the issue is this: who or what controls our lives? Is it self-protection; is it self-aggrandizement, is it selling out to a force other than God?
Movie after movie tell the story of the spoiled rich kid, the privileged and entitled youth with the private school education, who feels that somehow the rules of the world do not apply to him and they can do what they want, especially to the vulnerable, to the weak, to the poor or to women.
Thinking we are “special” the church can sometimes act like a spoiled, entitled, upper class elitist. The truth us that the world does not exist to serve us and make our lives easier! We exist to serve God in the world in which we find ourselves. We exist to serve the world God loves, particularly those parts of the world that have been forgotten and marginalized.
Time and again, beginning with these temptations, Jesus refuses to be who popular culture wanted him to be. He would not sell his soul. Jesus had his own agenda; people wanted a warrior king who wanted to make their nation great again.
The title son of David is another title for the Messiah. When the people hoped that the Messiah would come and emulate the “great King David” they conveniently forgot what a deeply flawed person he was. To hope for someone to emulate King David was a dubious hope at best. They wanted to be on top of the world- and not under the thumb of Roman imperial power. The cost to their nation was great for the short time that David led them to greatness, and it did not last long!
The early church came to terms with the fact that being God’s servants in the world would get them into trouble with Caesar and it would cost them; it would cost them big, in fact. It was a price they were prepared to pay.
What is our goal as a a community of faith? How will we achieve that? Are we tempted to sell our souls or cut corners in order to achieve that. Or are we, like Jesus, going to commit ourselves to rely on God.
To conclude with the words of Patrick Wilson I read in a commentary last week, “Jesus’ 40 days have concluded, ours have just begun”! Feasting on the Word, WJK Press.
Amen.
Genesis 12: 1-4a
Psalm 121
John 3: 1-17
A number of years ago I was in the hospital on my way to a patient’s room. I was most likely wearing a clerical collar. I got on the elevator and came face to face with a pastor from a more evangelical church. I knew who he was anyway! Without even saying “hi” or “how are you today”, he asked me, “Are you saved?” I said, “Of course!” and was very glad to get off the elevator at the next floor. To me, as a Christian minister, it verged on being an offensive question. How dare he? At best I was annoyed!
Having grown up in the United Church it was not the kind of language that I was accustomed to using, but I had lots of experience with such questions when I was at university. For some of my evangelical friends, you had to be able to name the “day and the hour” you “accepted Jesus into your heart” in order to be considered a “real Christian”. For me, as a young adult, it was a narrow interpretation of what I knew was not a “one size fits all” experience.
Embedded in today’s passage is the verse beginning, “for God so loved the world...”; which seemed to be the “pet verse” of my evangelical friends. I got kind of tired of that verse being tossed around, and interpreted very narrowly.
All that being said, for today’s sermon I am going to focus on the contrasting images of light and darkness in the story rather than a specific verse or verses.
Today’s passage tells the story of an night-time encounter between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. This pharisee was referred to as a “leader of the Jewish community”. The story is so well told that even though we are not accustomed to the names of the social groups that were common in that time its not hard to get the intended nuances. This guy was an important man.
It would be safe to say that it would not look good if his colleagues found out he was talking to Jesus. So Nicodemus, the Pharisee, comes to see Jesus, the itinerant preacher under the cover of darkness and comes away realizing that he has much to learn!
In the passage we are told Jesus can’t understand why Nicodemus doesn’t “get it”. Perhaps, like many of us, Nicodemus is caught in old thinking. To use a modern metaphor - he can’t “think outside the box. ”
In many aspects of life, getting caught in old thinking can kill innovation.
If we change the context to that of technology it is easier to explain. When I was a kid all telephones had wires; unless someone thought of a telephone without a wire, the cell-phones we take for granted would have been impossible.
Nicodemus come to Jesus, but Jesus cuts to the chase and speaks of the necessity of a re-birth. Though connected to the past, Jesus’ way is entirely new.
His conversation with Jesus is full of misunderstanding and words and images with double meanings. They are using the same words, but the meaning is entirely different.
Every language has words with more than one meaning. English has many of them. Just think of the word “hot”. It would refer to a pan of lasagna just out of the oven, or to a bag of habanero peppers right out of the fridge, or to that certain person who sat in front of us in the 12th grade!
I don’t know about the Aramaic which would have been spoken that night, but these ambiguities certainly exist in the Greek language in which the Gospel was written.
The central image and central misunderstanding of this passage involves a re-birth. The Greek words used can mean “born again”, “born from above” or “born anew”!
When Jesus tells him that he needs to be born in this way, Nicodemus assumes that he is speaking of a real, physical birth, of the kind that has happened to everyone; once. Even with modern advancements a person can only be born once.
Surely, he must have known that Jesus was using some kind of metaphor! Yet, he immediately objects to this teaching of Jesus!
I think that what this passage is saying is that he needs to take his faith from the hidden places and times into the light of day; into the public sphere. He needs to take his immature faith and allow the winds of the Spirit to take him to new heights and places he could hardly have imagined previously. He needs to let the light of day shine on his timid faith and transform it to full adult bloom.
As many of you know, late last year I had cataract surgery. Combined with the poor vision I have always had, the cataracts were making some tasks difficult. Now, I can see to drive WITHOUT GLASSES, day and night! I can also see the clock radio if I waken in the night without reaching for my glasses and I can read the tv guide from across the room. Now that I see clearly for the first time in my life, it is, also as if I have been reborn.
Just to be clear, I don’t mean that LITERALLY, but my life has changed in significant ways.
I am sure that if newborns had the ability to articulate themselves in ways we could understand they would be able to tell us how shocking it is to be thrust from a dark, warm, heartbeat infused environment where all their needs were met into a cold, bright hostile world where they have to ask for just about everything they want and few, if any, understand them.
The passage calls on me to reflect on the changes we have been called to make from time to time; changes which rock the world and call us to make very fundamental changes to how things are viewed.
When we look at faith in the public sphere there are two ways this is usually exhibited. One is the way of the so-called “moral majority” which is imposing a certain set of standards on everyone and the other is I believe “seeking justice”, “opening windows”, allowing people to develop and express themselves as they feel called or led to do.
International Women’s day was this past week - it is a day which celebrates the women who have made great strides in various fields; those who have advocated for and succeeded in bringing about change in large and small ways. These changes are not unlike a rebirth or a realization of the hopes and dreams of half the population.
Dr. Emily Stowe and Dr. Jennie Trout were granted licenses to practice medicine in Canada in the mid 1870s but they received their medical degrees in the USA. Trout transferred out of the Toronto school of medicine because of the behaviour and attitudes of the professors and other students.
In many cases these women had to challenge conventional assumptions about what was appropriate for women. Indeed it was not until 1929 that women in Canada were granted the status of “persons” and this because of the “famous five” who took their case, on behalf of all Canadian women, to the Privy Council in Great Britain.
In 1946, Viola Desmond, our own Nova Scotia activist was ousted from the whites only section of a New Glasgow movie theatre. The crime was an obscure tax violation; she had not paid the tax to sit in the section for whites! This year her picture she will appear on the ten dollar bill!
Feminist, Carol Etzler speaks of having eyes opened in a song that speaks of the feminist awakening - that once it happens you have the responsibility to act on the new knowledge.
“Sometimes I wish my eyes hadn't been opened Sometimes I wish I could no longer see All of the pain and the hurt and the longing of my Sisters and me as we try to be free”
Once you know there are hungry children in the community you can’t “un-know” it! You can’t “un-know” that there are abused women and children in these local communities. When our experience has been challenged by the discovery of something previously thought impossible we must either change our beliefs or deny our new experience.
John’s Jesus would say that the work of the Spirit is essential in such change - it is not something which is entirely of our own doing - often, it happens almost against our conscious will.
Maybe its not our belief that Jesus is our saviour that needs to change - but perhaps we need to reassess what that really means for our lives. We are invited to let the Spirit work on us and in us for what remains of the 40 days of Lent and re-birth us into someone new. There may sometimes be labour pains, and stress. Sometimes like a “literal” birth it will be quick, at other times, slower, yet when it happens, it changes everyone in the family.
One of the “heroes” of WWII was not a soldier, but a theologian who opposed Hitler and the Nazis and was executed by them, just before the end of the war.
Bonhoeffer’s biographer, in summarizing his theology, wrote “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”
We are invited to come into the light and be born from above. We are invited to courageously advocate for and do God’s will.
Amen.
Exodus 17: 1-7
Psalm 95
John 4: 5-42
A number of years ago, long before cell phones became common, a friend of mine had car trouble and she was stopped by the side of a busy road. She tried to flag down a car and finally, a car pulled to the side of the road a good distance ahead. She had written the number of the auto-club on a piece of paper and gave it to the well dressed middle-aged couple, along with a quarter and they agreed to make the call and drove off. She went back to her car to wait. By and by a guy driving a beat-up pickup pulled up behind her. She opened her window a crack to talk to him because he did not look like a trustworthy sort. She smelled the alcohol on his breath almost immediately. He offered to call the auto-club for her and off he went. By and by the tow truck came and hooked her car up. As she got in the cab the driver said, “Ma’am, I almost didn’t come, the call centre said that the guy who called it in sounded drunk or stoned or something and that it was up to me if I responded”.
I guess the moral of that story is that sometimes, help comes from the least likely source and sometimes those who look the most trustworthy just take your quarter!
I don’t think it’s any accident that John’s gospel places today’s story of the Samaritan woman just after he tells us about Nicodemus. The contrast cannot be any greater, but each story compliments the other and serves to tell the readers more about Jesus, which is what John is writing for in the first place!
Nicodemus was a man, a pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, a leader of the community. He came to Jesus by night and they were at home, in Israel. Oh, don’t forget, he is named! Names are important, they identify us and give us a place in history.
By contrast this woman of Samaria has no name; women were not particularly important and she, like most of her sisters, has no name and no specific place in history. She is a woman in a man’s world. Many commentators have surmised that she is at the well alone because she has no women friends.
Water carrying is hard work - water is a kilogram per litre, (or for us folks who were taught all that stuff before we went metric, it’s ten pounds to the gallon). FYI US Gallons are smaller There were no plastic jugs back then, so add the weight of a pottery jar. Women usually did this task in groups; I suppose they would help one another to draw water from the well - they didn’t have that little “roof” with the winch over it, common at least in story books, to make it easier. It was an important social activity in their long days. They usually did tasks like this before it became ht; long before noon. So, here she was, in the heat of the day, and she was alone. We’ll get to why that might have been in a few minutes.
As a man and a rabbi Jesus should not have been talking to her; he should not have been talking to any woman alone - out in public where anyone walking by could see them! We have assumed that Nicodemus came at night to avoid being seen.
She is also a foreigner of the worst kind. Samaritans and Jews had been enemies for many generations. Jews looked down on Samaritans regarding them as “half-breeds” and “heretics”. Jesus should not have asked her for a drink because, as they both knew, Jews and Samaritans don’t even share drinking cups. As the story notes he had no bucket, or water bottle to fill so he would have had to use hers!
I well remember haying time when there was a jug of ice water and one glass sent to the field for a whole crew of people. We thought nothing of it; I guess germs weren’t invented until after the 70s.
In contrast to the story of the encounter with Nicodemus, this story takes place in Samaria. The Jewish people hated the Samaritans so much that they went to great lengths to avoid even going there. We are told some Jewish people literally cleaned their shoes after leaving Samaria.
Since you could get from points A to B without going through Samaria it is interesting to have John tell us that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria. Perhaps the only reason was to show his followers that Samaritans were also God’s people and were worth Jesus’ time and attention.
In the Canadian comedy show, Corner Gas, Dog River residents harbour an intense dislike for residents of the community of Wullerton - apparently because they are so “nice and so squeaky clean”. This dislike is so intense that when the people of Dog River mention Wullerton, they spit on the ground. We don’t know what people of Wullerton think of those from Dog River!
The feelings between Israel and Samaria WERE mutual.
Like the encounter with Nicodeus in which the misunderstanding between “born” and “born anew” takes place; in this encounter the misunderstanding develops between “water” and “living water”. If I picked up a glass of water and it appeared to be alive, I certainly wouldn’t drink it! Canadians travelling abroad are cautioned against drinking the water and advised to get vaccinations for hepatitis - often spread by bad water.
A few years ago the presbytery in which I was serving raised enough money to dig a well in a community in Guatemala. When a delegation went to that village from Canada, the Canadians were told the water that had given new life to that village water was not safe for them to drink .
Apparently, one of the marks of a prophet must have been that they knew things about people without being told. Sounds like one of those tv shows about criminal profiling or reading minds. This passage shows that Jesus had this ability.
But Jesus’ knowledge of this woman’s past came with no judgement. It did not change his opinion of this person as a child of his father, as a person worthy of receiving the good news.
Her story is certainly noteworthy. She seems to be the real life version of the story told in the other gospels about an encounter between Jesus and some Sadducees who asked him a hypothetical question about life after death using a woman with 7 husbands as their “example. ”
In other words she could have been the very unlucky woman who lost her husband and was then forced to marry his brother in the hopes of having a child to continue the family name. Then this husband died and so did next and so on. Or she may have simply been “unlucky in love”.
The story ends with amazement. The disciples are amazed that he is talking to a Samaritan woman - or is that SAMARITAN woman or is it A SAMARITAN WOMAN. The woman, amazed at this encounter goes to the town and tells everyone her story and apparently, everyone listens. She becomes one of the first evangelists and was the first woman evangelist.
The point of this very well told story revolves around water. Like the misunderstanding of Nicodemus, this unnamed woman thinks only of literal water, H20. Dihydrogen oxide, “Adam’s Ale.” She thinks only of that clear, colouress liquid that is essential to life, falls from the sky, fills our lakes and streams and comes from a well if you have a rope and a bucket.
Water security is a big issue in the world today. Some big companies want to make water into a commodity and don’t see a safe and secure water supply as a human right, just as a service or product to sell. These companies want the rights to sell this water and make a profit from it.
When the water source for a community is polluted it makes the news. Walkerton, Ontario is the big one we will all remember. Agricultural runoff is blamed for many fish kills and industrial pollution has added toxic levels of mercury to much fish habitat.
There are some places, most of them First Nations Communities, which have been under boil water advisories for years on end. One quick internet search found three IN CANADA communities on permanent boil water orders for 15 years or more. To me this is unacceptable in a nation as resource rich as Canada! It is a national tragedy.
Jesus seems to promise a water supply that permanently quenches the thirst with one drink! That sounds appealing, in a way, especially if I had to carry it all home in jugs but, as the woman finds out, that’s not really what Jesus is talking about!
Using water as a metaphor for spiritual nourishment seems to be as old as human spiritual awareness. Psalm 63 begins:
“O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
It is one of those metaphors that makes complete sense. We know what thirst feels like! I am told that thirst is a sign of dehydration; you should drink enough that you are never thirsty. We know what it feels like to be so thirsty that we can’t drink enough to make that thirst goes away.
In Lent we are called to pause in our regular lives and drink of the spiritual water that is Jesus. We are called to allow the Spirit to quench our thirst for meaning and connection and purpose in life. We are called to allow God to fill our “Spiritual well”. So let us pause from time to time in this lenten season and ask to be given the water that does not run out, water that can meet our deepest needs from the source that will never run dry. It does not matter who we are or how long we have been a person f faith; we are promised that all who ask will have the water they need and have it in abundance.
Fill our cups, O God.
Amen.
1 Samuel 16: 1-13
Psalm 23
John 9: 1-41
Do you remember when Sunday was really a day of rest? When there was nothing open so you pretty much had to stay home? Or visit your grandparents? Are you glad Sunday is almost like any other day now? Are you glad you have another whole day to buy groceries and stock up on other essentials? Or would you like to go back to a time when you had to plan ahead to make sure you had food in your fridge and gas in your car for Sunday trips or guests?
We could argue till the cows came home (which is when they show up at the ban doors for their evening milking) about the pros and cons of Sunday shopping or Sunday anything. We are unlikely to come to any kind of agreement. If I were to call most people on a Sunday afternoon, even most church people, they would not be home. They would most likely be out doing something with family; something that required someone else to work. That is, unless they had to be at work themselves!
Some argue that part-timers get more hours with Sunday opening. However, when Sunday shopping came about in one city, the hours of the stores in the malls were cut back the other days of the week to make up for the “extra” hours and thus eliminate the need for extra wages. The stores knew that Sunday shopping was a convenience and that overall sales would not increase.
Some people argue against Sunday shopping because people need “family” time but unless the families sit at home they are going to do things that make the members of other people’s families work, who are employed in other sectors! The pros and cons come together in a never-ending circle.
I once heard a story of a farmer who was so committed to keeping Sunday as a day of rest, even at harvest time, he refused to work on Sunday. He, his family and all his employees would stop whatever piece of equipment they were operating, at exactly midnight on Saturday and be back to pick up where they left off 24 hours later!
However, even the most die hard Sunday resters would not make someone wait up to 23 hours and 59 minutes to have their broken arm set, their house-fire put out, their wood-stove fire lit or tended to, their lost child found, or their robber nabbed.
Today’s gospel story seems to centre on a violation of the Sabbath and we could go round and round on that point, but it would muddy the waters and would detract us from the point of this story. The story is about Jesus, his identity and his mission. The people who opposed Jesus were using it as just another excuse to discount the work he was doing and to try to turn the people against him. They just could not fit Jesus into their “moulds.” For them it was like putting a round peg into a square hole!
I once heard a story about a man who was convinced that he was dead. No amount of argument by his friends would convince him otherwise. Finally, a trusted friend said to him, “Hal, you know that dead people don’t bleed.”
Hal conceded that this was true.
“So prick your finger and you will find out that you are alive,” said his friend.
Hal pricked his finger with a needle and it bled. He looked in amazement at his bleeding finger for the longest time and then exclaimed, “Whadda you know! Dead people DO bleed.”
Today’s passage is the third in a series of passages which have a “misunderstanding” around which revolves the meaning point of the passage. When Nicodemus was told he had to be “born anew” he interpreted that literally, and thus as an impossibility. The woman at the well was probably so tired and thirsty from carrying water that she totally misunderstood the metaphor of “living water”. Eventually the unnamed woman understood who Jesus was, was spiritually refreshed, and became an evangelist. We know from other passages that Nicodemus eventually came to faith and is featured in some of the events around the time of Jesus crucifixion!
In today’s story, Jesus heals a man who had been blind from birth. As we heard, it was the Sabbath. Some could argue that it was not an emergency and Jesus should have made an appointment for later, when it was ok to formulate a medication and apply it. How much difference would one more day make for a man who had been blind all of his life!
It would seem though that the men who opposed Jesus would simply have found another excuse. These days the medical society or the pharmacists association might have him charged with practising their craft without a licence.
Yet, that’s not the real point! The irony is obvious to the writer of John’s gospel. This writer intends for his readers to see it as well! The men who opposed Jesus had perfect physical sight but didn’t recognize what was in front of them. They were caught in “old school” thinking. They could see but were blind. The man whose physical sight was a new thing, knew more about Jesus than they did.
They simply could not comprehend Jesus’ powr. To them, a Jewish messiah would have to follow all of the rules they thought were important in the day to day living of their faith. Someone who would dare to work on the Sabbath could not possibly be healing by God’s grace and power. They just could not see it!
As I have already said, herein lies the misunderstanding or the irony of this passage. Some people simply can’t comprehend some things. The powerful people who opposed Jesus were blind to the truth of Jesus identity and message or they refused to see it. Unlike, the man who had BEEN BORN BLIND they could see physically, but didn’t have a clue what they were looking at.
As a Canadian, I find the American debate on publically funded health care, to be missing something. I guess I take it for granted that it should be a shared cost, that health care should not be, as far as is possible, a “for-profit” enterprise. I take it for granted that a childhood illness should not make someone un-employable because they can’t be insured. Or that paying for a operation should not cost a family their life’s savings and that doctors make medical decisions, not insurance companies.
This is similar to the clashes between “old” and “new” thinking where technology is involved. I mentioned a few weeks ago about the seeming impossibility of “cordless” telephones and cell-phones. Some things that used to be standard practise in medicine are now thought to be unnecessary or even dangerous. Farmers used to think that getting fall plowing done before the snow fell to be a good thing; in some areas now it is discouraged because it increases soil erosion and runoff which harms fish.
How do you teach a child to read? How important is spelling and phonics. I hated phonics and memorizing my multiplication tables but I think both are important. Ask a new teacher and a retired teacher the questions about math and reading and expect to get a lively debate.
In the end, I suppose, it’s the results that count! On the day in question the grumblers were more concerned with the facts that Jesus should not have been healing on the Sabbath and that HE was not supposed to be healing at all - while all the man who had been blind could say with certainty was “I can see.” He could now see physically AND as the story ends, he could see spiritually as well.
As the story began, the disciples’ initial question of Jesus centred around responsibility: whose sin is responsible for this man’s blindness? I think that what Jesus is saying in his answer is that sometimes, an illness, a misfortune, a tragedy just is, and can be an opportunity for the faithful to reach out and show God’s love and power. The poverty of a particular person or family may or may not be abyone’s fault, but our response can be a temporary measure to feed hungry families or give them soap and toothbrushes. It can also be an opportunity to find solutions to the root causes of poverty.
Our lenten journey each year is not just about re-living Jesus’ last days but it is also about dying and being re-born ourselves - it is about receiving a tall glass of cold, fresh water - it is about seeing those things that we always in front of us, but seeing them in a new way. Once we have been re-born, had our thirst quenched and have new sight, we have to live a changed life.
In Lent we are called to come to our own decision about Jesus and his place in our lives and then we must live out of our truth. The truth about Jesus must make a difference to us.
Has your life been changed? If so live in the light of that change.
Amen.
Ezekiel 37: 1-14
Psalm 130
John 11: 1-45
One summer day a woman was driving down a country road enjoying the summer day and the music coming from her stereo. Just then a wild rabbit hopped part-way across the road and she felt a sickening thud.
She pulled off to the side of the road, got out of her car and stood there looking at the little lifeless body with a tear in her eye. A battered sedan pulled up behind hers and a man got out and asked if he could help. She explained what had happened and asked if he had a shovel in his car so they could bury the poor dead bunny.
“No, but I have something better. I bet it will solve all your problems”. He went to his car, popped the trunk and came back with an aerosol can. He knelt down, sprayed the bunny with a couple of sweeps of the spray from the can and stood back.
Slowly, at first, the bunny hopped up, stretched out its legs and then headed for the ditch. At the side of the road the bunny stopped, turned to the man and waved its paw. The bunny turned and headed for the woods and half way there stopped and turned to the pair standing at the side of the road and waved again! Then, just as it was about to disappear into the trees, it turned once again and once again it waved.
“What IS in that spray can?” asked the amazed woman.
He handed it to her. In big letters were the words, “Hair restorer”. In smaller letters was the claim: “Restores dead and lifeless hair and gives it a permanent wave.”
Yesterday was April Fool’s. Did any of you fall for a joke? Just after noon I received an email from Swiss Chalet. It looked like a normal communication advertising a special on ribs, chicken or appetizers. I receive at least one a week! Yesterday, it advertised cologne that smelled like their famous dipping sauce! The video featured a sensuous looking woman with a handsome man coming up behind her, getting a whiff of her perfume and then, instead of kissing her as you might expect, gnawing hungrily on a roasted chicken! My reaction? This is the 21st century - I texted my sister! She had not seen it!
In 1996, after a promotion in the Globe and Mail, The CBC aired a documentary about a mysterious illness that hit areas of Upper Canada in the early 1800s. The victims of this mysterious illness appeared to have died but were really just in a coma like state. As I recall, (it has been 21 years) so great was the fear of being buried alive that many people, when they began to have symptoms, would head for the woods in the assumption that they would not be found until they had come through the illness and were very much alive. Worried relatives would hide their dead until they were certain they were actually dead. It was called “Sarner’s Disease” or “The Lying Down”. Various theories about it’s origins were investigated including a theory that people caught it from eating bear meat - after all - bears hibernated!
The following night, the host, Lister Sinclair, had to confess that it was was an elaborate April Fool’s joke.
Death on a mass scale, or on an individual scale, is no joke, no laughing matter. Epidemics are serious business. Wars cause death, destruction and division that lasts for decades if not generations. We are about to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Some of our congregation are going to the commemoration. Our “victory” at Vimy came at a high cost; 3, 598 Canadians were killed and 7,004 were wounded. The German Sixth Army suffered an unknown number of casualties but around 4,000 of them became prisoners of war.
WWI continues to kill. Some areas of the western front are so filled with poison from the war that virtually nothing will grow there - even after 100 years. Small metal artifacts are being found all the time and, on occasion, human remains. In 2014 two people died trying to dispose of a previously unexploded shell from that war. I read that some Belgian farmers plow with armoured tractors to protect them when they hit a live shell. They regularly pile shells they turn up when they plow (like PEI farmers turn up rocks every spring) and they place them by the side of the road for pickup. They ALL know the number of the bomb squad.
They are grim reminders of a dark time when the world was at war and the map of Europe was redrawn. The war to end war was simply another in a long chain of conflicts that has yet to end. Where is hope to be found in a world that continues to be divided and destroyed by war and division and other kinds of conflict?
Today’s passage from the book of Ezekiel describes an extraordinary vision. Imagine a battlefield where the dead were not buried and the area is now just a field of bones. You may have seen footage of modern atrocities in which the skeletal remains of thousands have been uncovered. Cambodia. Rwanda. Chechnya. If you can’t imagine it, Google can help you out!
I can’t imagine anything more desolate and devoid of hope than a field of bones; bleached white in the sun, lying just where they perished.
This field of bones was a symbol of the dashed dreams of their nation and the hope that had dried up. The dialogue between the prophet shows us the impossible task Ezekiel thought he was facing. Preaching to the people was like preaching to a crowd long dead! Yet the vision shows the power of God to give life where there is no life, to give hope, were there was only despair.
Remember, it’s a vision; it is not meant to be a depiction of an actual or a possible event; it’s a statement on the power of the God of life. It’s a statement about the power of a word from God to bring hope to a people in despair.
Turning to the passage from John’s gospel we have what is depicted as an actual event from the ministry of Jesus. The message is much the same. The power of God working in Jesus is able to bring life and hope into situations where there was none.
We all heard Sandra read this story. One of the intriguing things in this story is Jesus’ lack of urgency; he acts as if there is no hurry. Occasionally, as a minister, I get a call to “come quickly” and I try to ascertain if I have enough time to finish my meal or do whatever else I am doing or if I actually have to drop everything and just “go”.
“Do I have time to eat”, I may ask. Sometimes people say, “sure that will be fine” or they say, “can you come right away.” One personal rule I have though is to never go to an emergency in my “jammies”!
Jesus seems to delay deliberately. In that time there was a belief that the soul hung around for three days before it finally departed. This and a few other hints let us know that, by the time he arrived, Jesus’ friend Lazarus was actually dead; he was really and truly gone. Martha is understandably upset that Jesus’ delay has sealed Lazarus’ fate. That does not surprise me a bit! I know that blaming a delay in treatment is a common complaint. “If only the ambulance had not gotten here sooner”, “If only the doctor had done this or that test” “If only he had gone to the hospital when he first got sick”. “If only”.
While this story is presented as a real event, and not like Ezekiel’s vision, we can get hung up on whether or not it is believable. If we dismiss this story as “impossible” we rob the story if its power.
It is clear that this event did not go unnoticed in the community. Now if I had attended someone’s funeral and then saw them in the street the next week, I would notice! In John’s gospel it is one of the last actions of Jesus. This event has a direct connection in the Gospel of John to Jesus’ death.
The powers that be simply had to get rid of Jesus. They could not have that kind of power running around loose and getting people all excited. They could lose control of the populace if this Jesus became too popular. If death held no fear for them, if death held no power, then they had nothing to hold over the heads of the people.
The early church found strength in these stories. The gospel is a dangerous thing, if you want people to be ruled by hate and mistrust and fear.
In 1914 the world was at war. The troops that had thought it would be “all over by Christmas” were sorely disappointed. On Christmas Eve though they did get a brief respite from the war as peace broke out along sections of the Western Front. Singing Christmas Carols in several tongues, sharing a game of soccer, teats from home and pictures of loved ones were a few of the features of the famed truce.
The generals on both sides knew that this was no way to run a war; the participants were punished. By the next Christmas too much harm had been done for it to happen again but it does speak to me of the power of the Good News of Jesus to cross boundaries and to overcome barriers that humans erect to cause fear and mistrust of “the other”.
As we come closer and closer to good Friday and the death of all of the hopes the people had for Jesus, we see these hints, these glimpses of the power of life over death.
Time and again in the Gospel story Jesus is seen shaking his head at the disciples. They don’t “get it”. They don’t “see”. They continue to prefer the way of death to the way of life. Like the people throughout the generations, they refuse to embrace the message of the prophets who tell the people to live and trust in the ways of God and not the ways of empires.
The way of empire talks about might being right and wealth being everything; the way of the prophets and of Jesus talks about giving and finding life in community and crossing boundaries and showing love. The way of Jesus is counter-intuitive to the way of the world, but it is the only true source of hope and life in the midst of a world that constantly seeks to deny its power.
The way of the God of Life is the way of Jesus and it has the power to transform everything - to bring life from death.
So, in all the ways we are dried out and lifeless we are offered hope and life. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
NO SERMN - We are reading the Passion Narrative
No sermon
NO Sermon