Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A, March 19, 2023

Prayer

O God, the author and source of all light, you gaze into the depths of our inmost hearts.  Never permit the powers of darkness to hold your people captive, but open our eyes by the grace of your Spirit, that we may be able to look on your Son and see the Once you sent to illumine the world, so that, seeing we may believe and worship Jesus as Lord. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.


Some Thoughts on John 9:1-41


"As the fruit of Jesus' vine, we are on display and stand for something Other."

Commentary, John 9:1-41 (Lent 4A), Meda Stamper, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Those who preach faith as the cessation of pain, suffering, poverty, restless nights and turbulent days are offering false comfort."
"Coping in Jesus' Absence," Fred B. Craddock. Commentary from The Christian Century, March, 1990. At Religion Online.

"We cannot be light to the world until we can see that light in the eyes of beggars in our town and in our global village, welcoming that light as Christ's presence among us and receiving each bearer as a neighbor, a brother or sister with a face and a name."
Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Lent 4. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church, 2005.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


God's work is revealed in us. This is the message of the Gospel today. God's work is revealed in our own healing as we come to make our pilgrim way with Jesus. God's work is revealed in our own mission and ministry to others. God's work is revealed in us, both as we are healed and as we get our hands dirty doing healing work.

As we read along John's Gospel, we see that this miracle is the second in a group of three. Jesus is passing by a place where beggars usually gather, and the question about sin and his blindness is posed.

All the scholars I read point to both the social history and the scriptural interpretation of the time, giving evidence that people believed that people's trials were punishment for sin. (We might remember Job's friends.)  Jesus answers that God's works are revealed in this man. The glory of God is revealed. John's Gospel repeats that the work of Jesus, who has come down from above, is here to glorify God. (see John 11:4, “‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it’”.)

The next verses remind us of the imagery of night and light explored last week and are ever-present in this Gospel. We might remember that “I am the light of the world” parallels 8:12, where Jesus says: “‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’”

Like many healing practices at the time of Jesus, he spits in the ground and makes mud. I believe here we see the remaking of humanity by God - the new genesis of life. John's Gospel is a new creation story, and the image here of God remaking this man so that he may see and bear witness to the light is essential to the Gospel and the understanding of this pericope.

The people are divided and amazed, and concerned. Our response to our remaking is clear though we are to “‘Give glory to God!’” This is the response and our work. We might look elsewhere in the scripture to understand the meaning of this. When we do, we see that it is "a technical term meaning tell the truth! It is a formula used when people are to confess their sins. In Joshua 7:19, Joshua urges Achan: 'give glory to the LORD God of Israel and make confession to him'. See also 1 Samuel 6:5; Jeremiah 13:16; Acts 12:23 (Agrippa dies); Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:2. [BlkJn] [NOAB]" (Chris Haslaam's Clippings)

Of course, the religious establishment wants none of this, and so while they are astonished, they react by blaming the blind man. This is a typical response from those in power to those who are left out of the system; this is surely his fault. The man who does not accept the authoritative version of the events is driven out of the synagogue.

The man returns to Jesus and begins a life of following - a life of discipleship. His witness, worship, and proclamation become his work. Just as God is revealed in the healing, we see at the end of the text that God has revealed through man's discipleship. His ability to see, proclaim, and live in the light of the Lord is an important part of the story. Healing and being remade by Jesus Christ is only the first part of one's pilgrim journey. Our Lenten journey is a healing one.

We are turning and remaking ourselves. Through various disciplines, we are opening our eyes to see God's hand at work in the world and in our lives personally. This revelation brings us closer to God as we proclaim and bear witness to the light which is in the world. This is only part of our pilgrim way of lent, though.

 The second half is to remake and reinvigorate our hands in the world. Like Jesus, we are to get them muddy with the primordial clay of creation and be at work in the world around us. We are to be healers: proclaiming release from the powers that bind us and giving sight to the blind. In this way, we participate in the kingdom of God that is becoming and is to come. We live with our eyes wide open to the emerging new creation and light which is already breaking in the world.

Some Thoughts on Ephesians 5:8-14

"Ephesians focuses heavily on discipleship: how we should live in light of the grace that has been given to us in Christ Jesus."

Commentary, Ephesians 5:8-14 (Lent 4A), Margaret Aymer, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"To walk in the light is not to be naive. It is not about being happy. It is about owning a commitment to justice and embracing a stance of compassion for all human beings."

"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Lent 4," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Our passage from Ephesians, in many ways, echoes the passage from John.  Paul tells the Ephesians that they once could not see or understand who God was or the revelation of God in Christ Jesus - they lived in darkness.  Now because God has given them grace, they can see a bit more clearly and live in the light.

Being able to comprehend and understand the way of Jesus comes after the saving act of Christ. It is a response to grace and mercy.  We often get it backwards, believing that if we do the right things, then we get God's love.  We have a kind of modern economic free economy view of God.  Paul is saying you are saved, you receive grace, and you are now to respond. You are to live in the light, and your desire is to respond to the grace by pleasing God.

What is pleasing to God?  Paul would reply as he does to the Ephesians:  "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, 'Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"

Margaret Aymer, in her commentary in Working Preacher writes:

Ephesians is an example of advice to communities trying to find a third way between the realities of Gentile paganism, the majority religiosity of the ancient world, and the church's foundation of monotheism. A majority of scholars hold that this letter is written by a pseudonymous author in place of Paul; if this is the case, then the primary struggle to bring together Jew and Gentile in Paul's early letters has been resolved and a new culture has been born, a culture that is an amalgamation of the two previous cultures. The author counsels his audiences to turn toward this culture rather than to be influenced by the external culture of the world around them, which the author calls "darkness." The advice, here, seems particularly aimed toward Gentiles who have become Christian, those more likely to be wooed back into the "mainstream" of life.

William Loader writes in his Blog:

To walk in the light is not to be naive. It is not about being happy. It is about owning a commitment to justice and embracing a stance of compassion for all human beings. We are still very good at hiding injustices or hiding ourselves from them to our shame. They extend from sexual abuse and exploitation to downright poverty and victimisation of the weak and disempowered. Our author mixes the images when he speaks of the fruit of light, but there is no mistaking what he means. 5:9 makes this clear. Light is goodness and justice and truth. It is not about knowledge or spiritual elevation or mystical ascent, as valuable as these may be.

Paul is clear.  You are part of a new family now.  As a member of God's family - as children of light - you are to resemble your Father, who is in heaven.  This is neither a simple faith nor one that is separated fully from the world. To be a member of God's family is to do the hard work of God. You are to bear light out into the world. You are to do justice and love mercy. You are to engage, yet remember you are always and forever now God's.

Aymer warns that in choosing to preach this lesson, we may "err" in preaching a simplified mystical faith for fear of engaging our cultural complexities, or we may so engage the cultural complexities that we miss the opportunity to preach the Gospel of the children of light.  Our challenge is forever and always to remember that there is a very creative edge in being in the world but not of the world.  The author of Ephesians, our Paul, is trying to shed a bit of light on that murky enmeshment.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Some Thoughts on I Samuel 16:1-13

"...in spite of Samuel's grief and failings, the prophet remains open to God's word and to new possibilities. While this may not provide a comforting 'central Bible truth,' it does offer a realistic picture of the human condition and of the ways in which we might deal with disappointment."
Commentary, 1 Samuel 16:1-13 (Lent 4A), David G. Garber, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"These potent stories raise far more questions than they answer. The authors seemed intent on finding ways to deal with God's activity in the midst of human choices."
Discerning Divine Activity, Reflections on 1 Samuel 16:1-13, John C. Holbert, Patheos, 2011.

"In fact, his extraordinary gift for charismatic leadership evoking loyalty and trust seems to be felt by most who surround him. Whether that gift ends up benefiting anyone, including David, remains an open question. For better or worse, Samuel’s seemingly straightforward action changes an ordinary youth’s world. It tickles a hidden ambition that will grow in magnitude throughout his life, and in all history that follows. Ancient Israel’s self-understanding, and consequently that of both Judaism and Christianity, flow from this moment of David’s first affirmation from the outside world."
1 Samuel 16:1-13 (Lent 4A), Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

It has been a while since we introduced the book of Samuel, so let’s begin with a refresher. The whole text includes both books (they were not divided until the Greek translation). The book itself tells of the life of the prophet Samuel and how he comes to anoint the first king of Israel and then the second.

Today’s passage picks up as the spirit of God, we are told, is passing from Saul, the king, to David, the successor. We get to see that Samuel himself is searching for the new king in the house of Jesse. Samuel is a bit nervous about all of this and goes. Samuel imagines all kinds of physical representations of the new king – for he doesn’t know David yet. And, he is continually mistaken. Samuel is seeking not who he thinks should be king but is looking for the one upon whom God’s spirit is resting and who God is making king. Samuel eventually will find David not in the house but in the field as a shepherd – this is a call of the rulers of Israel to be shepherds. The metaphor here is linked throughout the Old and New Testaments from this time forward.

When Samuel anoints David, the Spirit of the Lord falls on him. Everyone is a witness.

Having accomplished what he came to do, Samuel returns. Let us simply say, “King Saul is not a happy camper.” After King Saul’s death, for which Samuel grieves, David brings together the kingdoms of the North and the South to become the first ruler of a united Israel.

Gospel writers play on Jesus not only as the new Adam but as the successor to David’s kingdom – uniting all the people of faith. But this passage is not used for that at a particular point in the Gospels. For the inheritor of the Davidic kingship in the is the world and the next, the Gospel authors will draw on different passages. The hallmark of this passage for the first Christians was the powerful statement, the realization that Samuel has in his search, that God does not see as humans see. God sees differently.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is dealing with what is called a halakhic controversy in the very beginning of the narrative (Mark 2:23ff). (Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 49.) This is part of the story where Jesus and his companions are challenged because they pick grain on the Sabbath. Jesus is also challenged to heal on the Sabbath and feed people on the Sabbath. The halakha controversy is a debate about the collection of religious laws in Jesus’ day, which at times were in conflict with one another. The Gospels are full of attempts by the people and religious leaders to trip Jesus up with questions about these conflicting laws. Richard Hays, scholar and theologian, points out that in Mark’s Gospel, he first leans on the idea that, like David in our passage from today, Jesus is anointed, but his full authority is not yet recognized by the leaders all around him. But the Gospels go a step further.

In the Gospel of John, our author uses our I Samuel passage today to show that God sees differently than human beings. In so seeing, God solves the conflicting religious laws by setting out priorities. John’s Gospel will pick this up in chapter 7. Here too, we see the conflicts in the play. Jesus is making a case that because God sees the world and humanity differently, God’s love may “override” other commandments.

Let me end with Hays’ brilliant words for us on the use of I Samuel by Jesus. Hays writes, “This implies that the law’s fundamental aim of promoting human wholeness and flourishing can in some instances, override its ritual prohibitions. This is certainly not a negation of the law; rather, it is an argument profoundly respectful of the law’s own inner logic, an argument that operates within well-established Jewish hermeneutical precedent… That this is so is underscored by the subtle scriptural allusions in the final thrust of Jesus’ rejoinder to his critics, ‘Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with just judgment.’” (Hays, Scripture, 298)

Third Sunday in Lent, Year A, March 12, 2023

Prayer

O God, the living fountain of new life, to the human race, parched with thirst, you offer the living water of grace that springs up from the rock, our Savior Jesus Christ.  Grant your people the gift of the Spirit, that we may learn to profess our faith with courage and conviction and announce with joy the wonders of your saving love.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 4:5-42
[Some lectionaries may have Matthew's transfiguration - 17:1-9. Please see last Epiphany A for this text commentary]


"What gives me life is the knowledge that there is someone who loves me unconditionally, irrevocably, and absolutely. That assurance is liberating, it's healing, and it's invigorating." 

"Life Giving," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer.


"She is not a prostitute. She doesn't have a shady past. Yet when millions of Christians listen to her

story this coming Sunday in church, they are likely to hear their preachers describe her in just those terms "
Misogyny, Moralism and the Woman at the Well, David Lose, The Huffington Post, 2011. 

"This text suggests in a number of ways that it is not about what we know but who we know."

Commentary, John 4:5-42 (Lent 3A), Meda Stamper, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


It is probably good to remind ourselves that the Samaritans are the Israelites who were not deported during the Assyrian occupation. They did not go with Isaiah to Babylon. They settled in Palestine with the Gentiles. They had recently been a fight between the Jews and the Samaritans and the Romans had intervened. (Chris Haslaam points us to Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.6.1-3 118-36; Jewish Wars 2:12.3-5 232-46). [NJBC]

Shechem was a real place, maybe called Askar. The geography is important as a revelationary vessel of who Jesus is. Chris Haslaam does some great research and reminds us that "in Genesis 33:19, Jacob buys land at Shechem. In Genesis 48:22 he gives land to Joseph and his brothers, giving Joseph a double portion. In Hebrew, portion sounds like Shechem. See also John 1:51, where Jesus tells Nathanael, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”. Jacob, with his ladder to heaven, is the type (forerunner) of Jesus. [NOAB] [NJBC]" So we cannot underestimate the power of the place in memory and prophecy within the tradition of the first followers of Jesus. 

Jesus begins by breaking down the barrier between them by asking her to give him a drink. (Jews and Samaritans did not share things in common.) This invitation though leads into the revelation of Jesus as not only the Son of God, who has come down and is with us, but also as the one through whom all things come. Jesus is the gift.  Jesus is the living water for those who thirst. Jesus is the one who will give the Spirit of life. 

We remember then also that the water rose to the top of the well for Jacob, that in Jeremiah 2:13 God is the fountain of living water. As Christians, we see the revelation clearly and powerfully, but for her, in the midst of this story, she asks the questions that many must have been asking of Jesus. We might well remember that for those still seeking God or in the midst of a dark place on their pilgrimage the question she asks is important and worth hearing again - even if we have not asked them yourself in a long time. She questions, "Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 

Jesus then responds. While the well obviously had been enough for the great herds of Jacob, and his family, one will always thirst again. So Jesus is speaking of a different thirst the thirst and hunger for God. He is the bread of life who has come down from heaven. Like the words of God to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you." (Exodus 16:4) Here I am so very struck by the beginning of a switch. The place, the earth, the well, the water, and the bread...are earthly physical things. Jesus is holding up a mirror to our human condition in some manner and saying that while you have the need and desire for these basic things your soul hungers for something different. 

Believing that the world will give to you what is needed for spiritual things is misguided. Jesus is offering to this woman and to us “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." We might remember furthermore that in 10:10, Jesus says: “‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly’”. So just as last we and this week we see the reoccurring themes of the incarnation. Jesus comes from above. So too we see the imagery of spiritual life flowing from God, in Jesus, to the Holy Spirit and out into the world. Jesus continues: Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The theme continues then as Jesus offers a vision that worshiping God then is not located to geography. 

Here in this Holy place, which offers us a revelation of who Jesus is, is not the only place where Jesus is found. Those who follow him and those who are filled with the Spirit find and discover that God is worshipped and followed in all places and in all times. A disciple does not have to make their pilgrimage to a place but that God is with the pilgrim everywhere. Likewise, the responsibility of the pilgrim is to make God known and to worship God in all places of their daily life. These are revolutionary and revelationary words. 

 Humans from the very earliest of recorded history have desired to mark out sacred space in the world, to separate the sacred and the profane. Our desire to continue to build altars in the world and churches and sanctuaries illustrates this fact. The reality is though that as Christians we believe in a God in Jesus Christ who came and walked with us and left the holy places and went out. It is this God that beckons us still. Clearly gathering that Jesus is different and special she says, “‘I know that Messiah is coming’” There is a lot of conjecture about who the Samaritans thought and how they thought about the messiah's coming. Most agree it was something like a hope for a new prophet, a great prophet, like Moses. This is partly based upon the fact that they used the prophetic books, while most Jews only used the first five books of the scripture. Chris Haslaam writes about the next verses: “I am he”: Perhaps Jesus points to his divinity, in an echo of God’s self-identification in Exodus 3:14: “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you’'”. 

This is the first of a series of self-revelatory sayings, all echoing an Old Testament formula This is particularly striking in those sayings (6:20; 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5-8) in which Jesus uses the words I am without any predicate. This verse is in striking contrast to the synoptic gospels, where Jesus tells his disciples not to disclose to anyone who he is. Perhaps he felt he could say openly in Samaria what would have seriously impeded his mission in Jewish territory. [BlkJn]

So what we have just witnessed, like the conversation with Nicodemus, is that Jesus is continually in conversation with those who do not yet believe. As Lent is a time for new converts to be prepared for baptism and confirmation, and the whole of the church is to be renewed in its faith, the message of the woman at the well and her conversation helps us to remember the power of conversation with those who do not yet believe. We are to listen and reveal who Jesus is. We are to be out in the world. We are to engage and make holy all the places we make our pilgrim way. To make places holy through conversation with all people, perhaps even those who are the most separated from us by either wealth, or status, or ethnicity.

Look at what happens in the text: Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” When we dare to do this we will find and discover that the converts zest for new life, living water, and the holy spirit will renew the greater community and draw others to Jesus Christ. We too will be renewed and have the opportunity to leave our buildings and go with them out into the world. 

All receive not from our testimony but from God's empowering Spirit that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. What happens is that the disciples show up and they are all upset for many reasons, most of which probably escape us today. (I think we spend a lot of time on the woman's background and on why they are upset because Jesus talks to her. This seems less important than the conversation about conversion and evangelism) Jesus responds to them with a proverb and teaching. Jesus begins with this proverb: Four months more, then comes the harvest? In everyday language, the proverb may have simply meant, "what's the rush?" You have to remember when you sowed seed, instead of drilled seed into the ground, you had to wait for the seed to take root. So we have this beautiful image of Jesus saying just be patient. It is a parallel conversation with the actions of the townspeople. See the seeds are taking root in the people's ears and hearts. Sowing and reaping are the work of the disciple. And, sometimes the disciple does not get to see the fruit of their labors. We live in such an instant society we want to see the change now! 

We want to see new disciples made by our proclamation now! The reality is that if we are like the sower, and are focused on the work of the sowing we will have a great harvest - though someone else may be the one to harvest for us. In fact, Jesus is saying that part of living in the kingdom now, part of living in the reign of God, is the proclamation of the word. When we do this both the sower and the reaper rejoice together. As we think of our own Christian story between John and Acts, we can see that while Jesus stays with them for a few days, it is Philip in Acts who returns sows some more and reaps. (see Acts 8:5-17) This is a great passage to talk about evangelism, conversion, the work of the church in the world. It has images of how we meet people where they are in the world where they live. I hope you enjoy exploring what is a very full passage, it is itself a deep well from which much living water can flow.

Some Thoughts on Romans 5:1-11

"So for Paul peace is about being in a right relationship with God, not as some distant judge nor as someone who is trying to draw us up into himself, but as one who is expansively living love out into the universe."
"First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Trinity, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"The past and the future. Memory and expectation. Remember and hope. Remember and wait. Wait for him whose face we all of us know because somewhere in the past we have faintly seen it, whose life we all of us thirst for because somewhere in the past we have seen it lived, have maybe even had moments of living it ourselves. Remember him who himself remembers us as he promised to remember the thief who died beside him. To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping."

"Hope," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.Justification, from Whistling in the Dark

"In the space of five verses, the second reading for Trinity Sunday mentions God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit."

Commentary, Romans 5:1-5, Mary Hinkle Shore, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Paul is clear that humanity was not doing so well on its own and that now because of the work of Christ we have a mediator with God.  He is very clear that this particular work of mending the relationship resides at the foot of Jesus upon the cross.  

Paul writes, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us."

So it is here that we find the key to Paul's understanding of the atonement.  For Paul, we are spared what we are truly due to pay to God for our sinfulness only by Jesus' action on our behalf. We are given grace, we are restored, we are united once again.  There are many debates about this and many scholars will go on endlessly about the meaning of this passage. In its very essence what we know is that Paul believes (as I do) that the crucifixion is the cross-roads of the salvation narrative.

Paul writes, "But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."  As John Newton reminds me reconciliation is always and foremost a vertical action that takes place between humanity and God through the work of Jesus.

We are in fact unable to do the reconciliation work between us, that horizontal work if we don't recognize that it is always dependent upon the vertical work of Jesus. Why? Because as Paul says, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die."

It is this vertical work that is our grace. It is this work that justifies us. It is this work that brings peace. It is always God's work and God's work in us that enables these things. It is never by our own merit. It is God's faithfulness in us that provides endurance and produces the character and the hope.  It is the very fact that God's love for us is constantly poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And for Paul, it is poured out from the cross.

Some Thoughts on Exodus 17:1-17

"The mutual testing in the wilderness yields a people with a uniquely articulated faith, along with a unique, fundamentally counter-cultural god, both of whom have inspired countless generations of people to follow them."
Commentary, Exodus 17:1-7 (Pentecost +15A), Amy Erickson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Exodus 17 records the fourth occurrence of 'complaining' by the Israelites in the early days after the exodus from Egypt."
Commentary, Exodus 17:1-7 (Pentecost 20), Nancy deClaissé-Walford, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"The people's quarreling and testing is born of a stressful environment, and we would do well as preachers to be as compassionate in our treatment of the people's plight as God is depicted as being."
Commentary, Exodus 17:1-7, Callie Plunket=Brewton, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"Following Yahweh in the wilderness, however is not the life of the salon or the drawing-room, sipping from fine china. It is a hard-scrabble, risky existence whose practitioners have to drink directly from the rock."
"The Politics of Water," Timothy F. Simpson, Political Theology Today, 2014.



Oremus Online NRSV Text 

The people of Israel are wandering in the wilderness. They grumble and they camp here and there. They quarrel with each other and God. And, they want something to drink.

It is one of three "grumbling episodes" during the flight and wilderness pilgrimage. It is interesting to note that Robert Alter in his translation points out that part of the frustration isn't just the lack of water but it is God's itinerary that brings them to the lack of water. (Exodus 17; note 1) This is an important part of the story. We as Christians often think of this desert time as a time of lostness. I have addressed this in some of my writing. God is directing, leading, and continuing to go before them. This is especially clear in this particular passage. Why is it so hard? They are learning to depend upon God.

Alter also points out that there is no separation between the leadership of Moses and God implied here. They are one and the same. So, it isn't merely that they are grumbling at Moses and Aaron, but because this is God's itinerary they are grumbling to God. (note 2)

Here is the complaint - that God has brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert.

So, Moses went to Horeb and struck the rock and water flowed from it. Moses renamed the place, not for God’s providence of water, for the people’s quarreling and testing of God.

There one last piece worth noting here. First, the staff itself is a sign of God's beneficence. It is a type of sacramental instrument of God's provision. It provided engagement with Pharoah, it provided the parting of the sea, water from the rock, and in the very next verse deliverance from an army's attack.

The tradition of this rock and its ever-flowing and refreshing water is held throughout Midrash teaching and very interesting. Here we see a tradition that the rock was carried with them. That God led them to the rock, water was brought forth from it, and then they took the rock on their pilgrimage. In this way, the rock was with them to bring water at all times and in all places.

The Targum Jonathan on Numbers 21:19 describes the well this way:

"From the time that the well in Mattanah was given them, it was made again to them brooks that were overflowing and violent; and again it went up unto the tops of the mountains, and went down with them into the valleys...". (The targums were early Aramaic paraphrases of the Bible; Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel On the Pentateuch With The Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum From the Chaldee, (London: 1865), p.300)

In the Tosephta, it is written:

"It was likewise with the well that was with the children of Israel in the wilderness, it [the well] was like a rock that was full of holes like a sieve from which water trickled and arose as from the opening of a flask. It [the rock-well] ascended with them to the top of the hills and descended with them into the valleys; wherever Israel tarried there it tarried over against the entrance to the tabernacle" (The Tosephta or "additions" to the Mishnah were compiled near the 5th century A.D. Sukkah 3.11 ff., cited in Strack and Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, vol. 3, p. 406; cf. Neusner, p.220)

The Midrash on Numbers suggests this explanation:

"How was the well constructed? It was rock-shaped like a kind of bee-hive, and wherever they journeyed it rolled along and came with them. When the standards [under which the tribes journeyed] halted and the tabernacle was set up, that same rock would come and settle down in the court of the Tent of Meeting and the princes would come and stand upon it and say, Rise up, O well, and it would rise." (Midrash Numbers Bemidbar Rabbah 1.2)

So, the rock brings forth water and it does so forever - it flows in an everlasting way.

Switching to the first Christian understanding and usage of the text we find that this passage is referred to in the Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 when the Devil tempts Jesus. Jesus’ reply is that God is not to be tested. This relies on Deuteronomy’s and Number’s account of today’s passage. See in particular Deuteronomy 6:16. 

The religious leaders of the day have put God to the test by asserting themselves into the powers and principalities of this world. They have put God to the test by actually doing the things the devil tempts Jesus with. They have sought to be part of the powers, they have sought to feed their greed, they have claimed God’s sovereignty over their actions. Jesus rebukes this way of being in the world and he rebukes the devil in Matthew. He rebukes this way of being by reminding that God is not pleased with this “self-assertion” or “self-enrichment”.

The Sinai God invites instead a different way of being in the world one that is about neighborliness. The Sinai God invites love and love of neighbor as the highest commandments. God in Christ Jesus fulfills such with his own obedience in the face of powers, principalities, wealth, and self-protection. Instead, Jesus shows his obedience to the Sinai God of Moses by keeping the commandments, loving others, and being obedient. God in Christ Jesus reveals a complete dependence upon God.

As John reminds us everlasting water which quenches all kinds of thirst will be given by God through Jesus (the one through whom all waters spring). This Christ is with us forever as with the woman at the well.

We also cannot miss the typological conversation going on regarding this rock, water, Christ as rock, and the water flowing from his side at his death. These are typological plays of importance to the first writers and theologians in Christianity. While there is a great deal of argument between Jewish apologists and Christian apologists we should not miss the point that there is an overarching story being woven by those who first experienced the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The everlasting and ever-present quality of the rock reflects God's presence in the wilderness with the freed Israelites as it reflects Christ's presence with us in our wildernesses today.

Shall we grumble and quarrel or shall we be obedient to the command to love each other and love God by doing so? Jesus, in the end, shows the way through the wilderness in a manner that is foreign for the humanity that confronts Moses. Regardless of the typological history, we have in Christ someone who leads as Moses led, who like the staff provides, who like the stone gives living water, who like the early motifs of the stone in Midrash becomes the chief cornerstone and is ever-present, who delivers us from the enemy of death then as today.

Second Sunday in Lent, Year A, March 5, 2023

Prayer

To Abraham and Sarah you called out, O God of mystery, inviting them to journey to a land of promise.  To us also you call out, inviting us to pass through Lent to Easter's glory.  Open our ears, therefore, to listen to Jesus, the Beloved Son in whom you are well pleased, so that, embracing the mystery of the cross, we may come to the holy mountain, to immortal life, and a share in Christ's transfigured glory.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 3:1-17
[Some lectionaries may have Matthew's transfiguration - 17:1-9. Please see last Epiphany A for this text commentary]

"Nicodemus had heard enough about what Jesus was up to in Jerusalem to make him think he ought to pay him a visit and find out more. On the other hand, as a VIP with a big theological reputation to uphold, he decided it might be just as well to pay it at night. Better to be at least fairly safe than to be sorry, he thought, so he waited till he thought his neighbors were all asleep."

"Nicodemus," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog. "Born Again," from Beyond Words.

"When we become too sure of what we know about Jesus (or indeed the Trinity on this particular Sunday), when we believe that we have grasped him at last, that is when we can perhaps expect to be undone like Nicodemus."

Commentary, John 3:1-17, Meda Stamper, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


So we begin our Gospel lesson today with Nicodemus. We know that he is only mentioned in the Johannine account and appears later in the story insisting on a trial and anointing Jesus' body for burial. We are told he is a leader of the Jews.  Much is made of him arriving at night. Perhaps he came in the darkness because he was fearful of people seeing him, or perhaps he came at night because he was a devoted teacher and studied always. (Chris Haslaam offers this latter connect based upon the Qumran Community Rule of life).

Heavy too is the symbology of light and dark in this particular Gospel and we may be given this reference to illustrate the teachings of Jesus over and against the pharisees. Immediately, as in the other parts of the Gospel of John, Jesus is recognized, proclaimed as being from God. Nicodemus a little less humble also recognizes Jesus as a teacher on par with himself.  Jesus then offers him the vision of God's reign/kingdom where in individuals are brought in not by moral achievement but by the transformation of God.

 There is a scholarly argument about the translation "born from above" and "born anew." I like both. They give that true sense that our ability of living in the kingdom of God comes from God, and is made possible through God's providence and grace. Such an understanding about the potential of life being transformed is not something that comes from our ancient roots in Israel but is more in keeping with the emerging thought of Hellenism. Nevertheless, Jesus' revelation is clear. People are transformed by God and God's spirit. They are transformed and have the potential of living new life. People have the opportunity to be different, act different, live in community in a different manner - if they are but opened to the inner workings of the Holy Spirit.

Chris Haslam puts these two pieces together for verses 5 and 6:Verse 5: “born of water”: 1:33 says “... John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’”. See also Ephesians 5:26. [NOAB]Verse 6: “Spirit”: In Ezekiel 36:25-27, Yahweh promises through the prophet: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your un-cleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances”. See also Titus 3:5. In Jubilees 1:23, cleansing by the Spirit is associated with the coming of the Messianic Age. [NJBC]Verse 6: See also 1:12-13: “... to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”Now what is also happening is that Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus in the plural. So we get the sense that Jesus is speaking not only to the man before him but also to the whole of the the religious establishment of the day...perhaps even to our religious institutions today.

Jesus says, "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.” I am sure much of this historic meaning may be lost; it sounds very much like a common saying here used to describe the Holy. It does that very well and I think challenges those who lead to be present to the spirit's work in the moment. How often do we worry about where something is coming from and where it might lead. We try not to discern God's invitation in the moment but figure out how to control God's spirit for our own ends. Is this not perhaps what Jesus perceives Nicodemus is doing? Perhaps he is challenging the pharisees to stop their machinations about who Jesus is and what he is up to and to see that God is moving in that very moment and inviting even them into a transformational moment.

As a church (a denomination, diocese, and individual churches) we have spent the last two decades attempting to control political events in and around our communities. In the midst of this we have completely lost our sense of mission. We have some how become so discerning that we have lost the ability to present for one another and those who come to us in the dark night of their own spiritual journey. Following this Jesus and Nicodemus' relationship seems to change. It is as if Nicodemus' eyes are opened and he is transformed.

 We can read that the conversation continues with Jesus doing as he hopes we shall all do, meet one another on our journey and be transformed by the Spirits presence in our midst. Jesus meets and helps Nicodemus discover what he has been looking for... Some small part of that is Jesus' own recognition of the goodness that is in Nicodemus and a willingness to engage with him.I am always struck by the conversation that is taking place. On the one hand Jesus is treated as an equal by Nicodemus. But Jesus does not correct him. On the other hand the more important lesson may be that Jesus treats Nicodemus as an equal and so the engaging conversation is able to lead to transformation. What would it be like if we as church people were so very comfortable in our own faith and understanding of God that we could treat all those who come to us as Jesus treats Nicodemus?

The last part of our Gospel is an assumed continuation of the conversation, though Jesus is the only one speaking. It is a vision of the future of God's work through Jesus. It is the Gospel in miniature as Martin Luther once said. It is powerful foreshadowing of the cross and the Christian call to follow.I think too there is an important distinction being made in the Gospel of John about the resounding impact of God's work through Jesus. First is that "eternal life" and the "kingdom of God" synonymous. I don't want to get into a debate about "realized eschatology." I am merely pointing out that when a disciple of Jesus begins to make real the kingdom of God by participating in the life of the Holy Spirit that disciple is participating in eternal life. Transformation in this world is very real and that health and vitality of community life is dependent upon the individual transformation that is taking place. The kingdom is made real as people are transformed by it. Furthermore, there is a distinction we might often miss by reading the Gospel in the lectionary.

The synoptic Gospels speak of this transformaton more through a lens of eschatological theology; that is they think of this work of the kingdom as urgent work prior to the end times and fulfillment of God's creation. John sees this as ontological or being work. In other words it is the individual change which serves as the lens. It is the Holy Spirit's moving in the life of the individual and thus the community of the faithful (always a communal view) that leads to the reign of God emerging in the creation. This means that today as we look at the work that God is doing in the world we cannot separate the transformation of the faithful community from the work in the world. I might say, if we are only concerned with social justice and are not transformed and changed and deeply rooted in the study of scripture we are only a social service agency.

We do the work in the world around us because we believe in our individual and corporate change; and we believe that we are called through proclamation of word and deed to be about our father's work to transform the structures and communities around us into the reign of God through the partnership of the Holy Spirit. We are, as we follow Jesus, reorienting our understanding of the way things are to be and to whom we belong. In our transformation (which comes from Jesus who himself claims us, and the Holy Spirit who baptizes us) we are no longer the head of the family but members of God's family.

The blogger Chris Haslaam has this great way of looking at it: "Whereas in Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Spirit descends from heaven onto Jesus; in John, it is Jesus himself, the Son of Man, who has descended from and ascends into heaven. (Verse 3:13)"We are transformed as Nicodemus is transformed by being welcomed and accepted so that we may welcome and accept others into the very real and very present kingdom of God. That we might experience life eternal here on heave and along our pilgrimage and not only at the pilgrim's rest.

David Ewart, a blogger, captures this well when he writes: ...And so, salvation lies in being born anew; in being born from above - in re-defining one's "family of origin." John really means that we become God's off-spring, children of God, and in that way we receive from God the same honour and character that God has; and owe God the same loyalty that blood relations show one another (or ought to)."  David Ewart summarizes the overall text with these words: 1. The Son is sent. 2. Those who trust and bond with the son, become part of the Son's family (being born anew from above), and as equal status siblings, 3. Become heirs to the family estate: heaven, Spirit, light, truth, love, salvation and eternal life. 4. Those who don't trust and bond with the Son, don't become part of the family, and don't becomes heirs. To be more clear. The logic of John is NOT: If you believe, then God will love you and save you.

God's salvation is not a reward for belief. Nor does God withhold God's love, forgiveness and salvation until we believe.On the other hand, since love is not coercive, we do have to accept the invitation in order to actually be part of the family.I would conclude that being apart of the family means traveling in the light of day and not the dark of night as did Nicodemus. And, that it is intentionally about glorifying God. John's Gospel is nothing if not clear that the work of the family of God is to glorify God. God does not withhold his love, forgiveness, and salvation. Once the invitation to become members of the family is accepted one works with the family to receive others and to make the world (with Jesus) reflect the beauty and Holiness which is God's alone.There is a lot of meat in this passage and I would think the most difficult part will be preaching one message and to not overwhelm the listener with too much material.

Some Thoughts on Romans 4:1-17

"Lent is a time to 'LOOK RIGHT'. It is a time to look for the amazing "things that do not exist" in our lives; those throw-you-to-the-ground, awe-filled moments that God is offering us every day."

Commentary, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, Lucy Lind Hogan, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"God did not and does not wait for us to become a people. 'While we were yet sinners,' as Paul will say later in this letter, God brought us into relationship, gave us the gift of the Spirit, showed mercy, and in all that acted faithfully to the promises long made and never forgotten."

Commentary, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"The nature of justifying faith must be seen as a wholehearted confidence in God which manifests itself in ongoing obedient trust in God's promises of a future 'most complete cure' of all the remnants of sin which so afflict us in this life...This is 'faith working itself out in love' -- a faith which counts on God for everything, from initial justification through spiritual healing to final glorification."

"Justification as Healing: The Little-Known Luther," Ted M Dorman, PhD.Quodlibet Online Journal, 2000.


Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Here is the key idea to this passage: God is and has always been a God of grace.  This is true in the proclamation of Jesus as it was for the prophets before him.  It is true in the Torah as it is true in the letters of Paul.

So he turns his attention to Abraham.  Abraham believed and was faithful. He is determined righteous by God not by what he does but by the faith that is in him.  It is not because he was circumcised or because he was part of a particular family.  These were simply signs of God's grace working in him.

The ultimate purpose of the Gospel and it proclamation is to make ancestors of faith.  The promise God made to Abraham was to be faithful and it is God's faith that works in him and is even now working its purpose out in creation.  It is God's faithfulness that makes one a member of the family.

Paul says that what is also true today was true then as well, "If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation."

"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, for 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."

In this final statement Paul insures that all understand that we are given the inheritance of Abraham, and grace counts us faithful participants in the family of God.



Some Thoughts on Genesis 12:1-9

"'What really matters is not whether Abraham is good or bad or cowardly or heroic, but that God pursues His design for the welfare of the human family with people like that -- in other words, people like us.' - Lewis Smedes."
"Call and Promise," program highlights, discussion & reflection questions and more from the Bill Moyers PBS series Genesis: A Living Conversation.


"'Vocation' is distorted by two disastrous misunderstandings: a secularized idea of 'career' and a monastic concept of the religious life."
"The Meaning of Vocation," A.J. Conyers, (other resources at) "Vocation," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2004.


"God tells Abram to leave the comforts of home and go out to repair himself--and the entire world.""Birth of a Covenant," Torah Commentary by Rabbi Shai Held. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV Text


Whole books could be written that detail the various invitations God made to this or that person in the Old Testament. There are the creation stories and God's invitation to Adam and Eve to work in the Garden. There is the calling of Noah to restart creation. Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) are called to leave the land of Ur of the Chaldeans--the beginning of generations of God’s people. There are the judges and the prophets. Jacob is called and renamed. There are women: Miriam--a leader who brings Israel out of slavery in Egypt with Moses; Deborah--a judge of Israel; Huldah--a prophetess who helped Josiah; Ruth and Naomi; and Esther--the Queen of Persia, to name a few. The sheer number of called people is too many to number, but we will examine a few of these crucial stories.

This lesson is about Abraham and Sarah, originally called Abram and Sarai and renamed for their faithfulness. In many ways the story of their calling begins the narrative of God's people. Abraham and Sarah were frequently cited by the early Church as examples of God's expansive promise to all people. God said, "Go," and all of their worldly plans were set aside as they left their homeland for God's wilderness. Their lives were disrupted by God's invitation and their response. Theologian Walter Brueggemann says Abraham

. . . is caught up in a world of discourse and possibility about which he knew nothing until addressed, a world of discourse and possibility totally saturated with God's good promises for him and for the world through him. (Genesis 12:1) God’s call propels Abraham into a reality that refigures his life and removes him from any purpose or agenda he may have entertained for himself before that moment.[i]

Abraham and Sarah offered themselves faithfully to the journey and became a blessing to the world.

God’s invitations are very persuasive. Through visions, voice, and the advice and counsel of friends, God invites God's people to go. The specific circumstances of this going vary across different contexts, but there is always purpose behind God's invitation to go. People are always being sent. There is a hinge here in the language--a double meaning: going and being sent are about both the invitation and the purpose.

For instance, God called Abraham and Sarah to become a people that bless the world, which is a habit of God’s throughout all of scripture. Faithfulness is the act of accepting the invitation and opening oneself to becoming the blessing. Those whom God invites, God also blesses, in order that they might bless others. God said to Abraham and Sarah, "By you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3) Their promised family would outnumber the stars of Abraham's counting and be a blessing to the world. Brueggemann ponders the meaning of this blessing and says, "'Blessing' is not a religious or moral phenomenon in the world," it is a "characteristic feature of creation that is fruitful and productive."[iv]

Creation was separated from God because its communal structures were organized around itself as opposed to God. These inwardly focused structures perpetuated a mimesis, a repetition, of violence that created a dark shadow over the kingdom of God. Abraham and Sarah were called to show how human community could be different. God made a point of rejecting religious violence by refusing Abraham's offer of Isaac as a sacrifice. God undid the human drive to sanctify murder. God was interested in a shalom that broke the repetitive, violent cycle of Cain and Abel. Abraham and Sarah's call was to heal the violence that separated humanity from God. Yet, the feud continues, and so does the division between God and humanity.

Even with all of religion’s great gifts to society, we must acknowledge that disunity and tribal grievances still exist. God continues to invite us to go as peace bearers and we continue, often, to reject the invitation. It is religion that calls for the sacrifice of Jesus. His is one name among the many who have been scapegoated for the sake of political and religious peace. Religions have a propensity to scapegoat others. 

God's invitation to Abraham and Sarah was an invitation beyond this history of sacrifice. God went further and sent the peace bearers to dwell in the midst of the other.

The relationship between Abraham and God is typological of God’s relationship with all whom God invites into mission. Abraham was invited to be in community with God, and to take that community on the road. God’s call removes us from the realm of self-definition: we begin to define ourselves as creatures in relationship with our Creator. This movement dissolves the idea of the "other,” for the only true other is God. We no longer divide the human community into friends and others. Instead there are only friends along the way. When we obey God’s call to go, there are no strangers or aliens. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that our invitation to journey with God means confessing and rejecting the notion that,

. . . for there to be an ‘us’ there must be a ‘them,’ the people not like us. Humanity is divided into friends and strangers, brothers and others. The people not like us become the screen onto which we project our fears. They are seen as threatening, hostile, demonic. Identity involves exclusion which leads to violence.[v]

To journey as Abraham and Sarah did is to reject our inclination to protect ourselves by force. In their going--in our going--we embrace our vulnerability and forsake our tribe in order to journey with God and God’s tribe, pronouncing God’s blessing upon the world. Brueggemann says, "Abraham is called to exist so that the general condition of curse in the world is turned to a general condition of blessing, life, and well-being. Israel's mission is to mend the world in all its parts." God's people are to be a blessing in the world. God intends the world to be "generous, abundant, and fruitful, effecting generative fertility, material abundance and worldly prosperity-- shalom in the broadest scope."[vi]

The importance of being a people bringing about peace and blessing in the world is affirmed in the teaching of the early Church. 

Paul used God's call to Abraham and Sarah and their blessing as a paradigm of the expanding mission of God. Paul read the blessing and invitation of God as being fulfilled in the great expansion of grace to all people regardless of ethnicity, gender, and social class. (Galatians 3:8) God will not be limited to a religious or ethnic "us vs. them," but instead imagines a kingdom where we are all beloved of God. This kingdom is founded upon the rejection of violence for the sake of nation, and faith in favor of shalom for God. Our presence and participation in God’s creation is our invitation into the community of blessing – this community of shalom. We are rooted in it by our very nature. The mission is not about nation-states, or making people members of religious institutions; the mission is a journey into a new community of being.

This is an excerpt from my book Vocãtiõ which is about our vocation as creatures of God.

---

[i] Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 122.

[ii] Brueggemann, 123.

[iii] The Roman Catholic document the Lineamenta, n15, defines vocation in this way: “Vocation is broader than mission because it is composed of both a call to communion and a call to mission. Communio is the fundamental aspect destined to endure forever. Mission, on the other hand, is a consequence of this call and is limited to an earthly existence.” Kenyan B. Osborne, Ministry: Lay Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, Its History and Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2003) 597.

[iv] Brueggemann, 125.

[v] Jonathan Sacks, "Bereishit (5769) - Violence in the Name of G-d," Office of Rabbi Sacks, 04 Apr. 2016, Web. 19 July 2017. <http://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5769-bereishit-violence-in-the-name-of-g-d/>.

[vi] Brueggemann, 125. This is how Gideon experiences God, as pure peace, shalom. Gideon was one of Israel’s judges and built an altar and called it, “The Lord is Peace.” (Judges 6:24) God's work is this shalom, and God calls upon God's people to enact it by going. 

First Sunday in Lent, Year A, February 26, 2023

Prayer

Because you formed us from the dust, Lord God, you know well how deeply sin has scarred our human nature. Strengthen us, then, as we set out on the lenten journey. Make us victorious with Christ over the deceptions of the tempter, so we may come at length in the joy of the Holy Spirit to the celebration of the Lord's glorious Passover. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 4:1-11

"To be Christian is not to have that hole, that need, that awareness of finitude erased once and for all. Rather, to be human is to accept that we are, finally, created for relationship with God and with each other."

Commentary, Matthew 4:1-11, David Lose, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"He did not use the power of the spirit to claim exemption or to avoid the painful difficulties of the path of service. He did not use God to claim something for himself. And it was this serving, suffering, dying Jesus whom God vindicated by raising him from the dead. A church too fond of power, place and claims would do well to walk in his steps."

"Testing that Never Ceases," commentary by Fred B. Craddock from The Christian Century, 1990. At Religion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

..."The concern of the passage is not so much whether the devil can lure Jesus into this or that sin as it is the portrayal of Jesus as God's Son.' who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.'" (Harrington, Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 68). 

We cannot read this text without having in mind these verses from Deuteronomy 6.13, 6.16, and 8.3).

6.13 The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.
6.16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah
8.3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

These statements come just as the people of Israel are about to enter into the promised land. They are given in the desert to the people by Moses.  These are from Moses are the final testing of the Israelite people's desert pilgrimage.

In this light, we see again the Matthean revelation that Jesus is Son of God who fulfills all righteousness. Jesus also is the new Israel.  We then as his followers are also to be the body of Christ incarnate in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit and in this way we too are to be faithful as Jesus and as the people Israel - choosing to serve God, not testing God, and humbling ourselves before the tasks that are before us.

The scholar Harrington writes: Understanding this text against the background of Deuternomy 6-8 allows one to go beyond the narrow themes of fasting and temptation to the level of Christology.  As in the case of all the material in the opening chapters of Matthew, the focus of attention is the identity of Jesus.  Understanding it as the testing of God's son allows one to see the nature of Jesus' divine sonship and its relation to Israel as God's Son." (Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 70)

Taking this even further we see that as individuals marking our own pilgrim way of Lent that we are to be the new Israel birthed out of the resurrection and Pentecost.  We are to be faithful in our work and in our mission.  And, to do so we must recognize, name and overcome the temptations and liabilities of human existence.

If we step back we see an important order to the events occurring in the life of Jesus.  We see a movement from wilderness to Temple to mountain and out into the world - a new creation.  Our Exodus themes are powerfully present foreshadowing Jesus' own deliverance and the deliverance of the world.  Lent is a good time to hold our lives up before God and to ask for clarity about that work of honesty and intentionality.  It is a time for us to accept clearly as Christians what God's will is for us.

Some question this and will be tempted to say we don't know what God's will is for us.  That simply is not a fact.  Christians for centuries have understood God's will for us and it is rooted in scripture.  We cannot escape the scripture (the canon, rule, or measure of life).  As Episcopalians we know we are tempted to test God, to not be humble and to seek our own wealth and ego satisfaction over others. As Episcopalians, we often begin our Lenten liturgy with the ten commandments: God's will for us.

I encourage you to turn to the back of your prayer book and see in the catechism of the Episcopal Church how we interpret the ten commandments and how they are a good mirror to a holy and full life lived as God intends. Here is how our Book of Common Prayer Catechism speaks about the Ten Commandments:

Q. What do we learn from these commandments?
A. We learn two things: our duty to God, and our duty to our neighbors.

Q. What is our duty to God?
A. Our duty is to believe and trust in God;

I. To love and obey God and to bring others to know him;
II. To put nothing in the place of God;
III. To show God respect in thought, word, anddeed;
IV. And to set aside regular times for worship,prayer, and the study of God’s ways.

Q. What is our duty to our neighbors?
A. Our duty to our neighbors is to love them as ourselves, and to do to other people as we wish them to do to us;

V. To love, honor, and help our parents andfamily; to honor those in authority, and to meettheir just demands;
VI. To show respect for the life God has given us; to work and pray for peace; to bear no malice, prejudice, or hatred in our hearts; and to be kind to all the creatures of God;
VII. To use all our bodily desires as God intended;
VIII. To be honest and fair in our dealings; to seek justice, freedom, and the necessities of life for all people; and to use our talents and possessions as ones who must answer for them to God;
IX. To speak the truth, and not to mislead others by our silence;
X. To resist temptations to envy, greed, and jealousy; to rejoice in other people’s gifts and graces; and to do our duty for the love of God, who has called us into fellowship with him.

Q. What is the purpose of the Ten Commandments?
A. The Ten Commandments were given to define our relationship with God and our neighbors.
Q. Since we do not fully obey them, are they useful at all?
A. Since we do not fully obey them, we see more clearly our sin and our need for redemption. 

We are not simply people after peace and justice but we are people who are deeply rooted in a tradition that seeks to tell our story through virtuous action.  We know God’s will for us and for creation. We know what we are to do... We are to be virtuous citizens not only on Sundays, not only within the walls of our homes; we are to be virtuous citizens at work in the political and social environs of our community. And, when we don’t follow these commandments we are to repent and return to the Lord and begin the work again.

As we make our way through Lent let us be truthful enough with ourselves to honor the fact that we have put our needs above God's desires. We have tested God and we have failed to answer the questions put to Jesus as with the people of Israel as faithful sons and daughters of the most high God.  And, in our truthfulness let us be humbled to seek to change our lives and our ways to better reflect the people we were created and saved to be.

Some Thoughts on Romans 5:12-21

"While Paul's statements about the Law here are all too brief and appear to pose alternatives which may be too sharply drawn (is not the Law, the Torah, also a gift of grace?), the focus on grace and love rather than law and rule as the basis for human transformation takes us to the heart of the good news and of hope for humanity."

"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Lent 1," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"To describe the Christian community in Rome at the middle of the first century as diverse is an understatement..."

Commentary, Romans 5: 12-19, Lucy Lind Hogan, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

The universe of Romans that Paul imagines has three primary actors: sin, death, and the law.  Paul marks time in this universe as a progression proceeding from Adam to Jesus.  In between is the era of Adam to Moses which predates the giving of the law. Then the time after Moses to Jesus wherein people are liable for the law given at Sinai.  And that the failure of this law was to bring life; and its shadow side was death.

Jesus is the last Adam, he is the one who is setting the world aright.  Jesus' followers are reconciled by Christ to God and are saved.  They share in freedom from the law's death by virtue of Christ's redemptive act of resurrection.  Their sin, inherited from Adam, is washed away.  

We receive a free gift.  We are unable to correct our nature, our humanity, we are unable to see the value which is inside of us.  God justifies us in Christ's righteousness.  God imputes our value.  God loves us.  Through Christ's faithfulness, we are given life - we are acquitted if you will.  We are given the opportunity to see ourselves as God sees us.  Then we are given the work of responding.

Now that we are freed and have received this grace we are sent (we are apostles) to share this grace and good news with all people - with the Gentiles.  Paul sees that our work is to share what we have received and what we have experienced in the freedom gained by Jesus.

On this first Sunday in Lent when we may be all too ready to accept the rule of God and our failure, our reading from Romans reminds us that God has redeemed us.  We are free through God in Christ Jesus to respond. I think sometimes Lent actually grounds into the human psyche the notion that we can in fact (through our disciplines) keep the law.  Paul's letter to the Romans reminds us that it is purely out of God's one-way love that we are redeemed.  

Some Thoughts on Genesis 2:15-3:21

Endless volumes have been written declaring the woman as somehow inherently second class, less than, inferior to the man because of the time lapse between creation of the two beings. These assessments, I suggest, miss the point. Rather than representing a relationship of superiority/inferiority, use of the rib represents the idea that “you can’t have one without the other.” The rib is an indication of the closeness and connectedness of the two human beings.
Working Preacher, Alphonetta Wines


In her essay “The Soil That Is Scripture,” Ellen Davis advocates reading the Bible with the virtues of humility, charity, and patience. She describes a “patient” reading of Scripture as akin to reading poetry, “ ... slowing down to ponder each phrase, to wonder why this word was chosen and not another, how this line or paragraph or story builds on what precedes and leads into what follows.” The story of the garden is a wonderful place to practice this discipline of reading with patience.
Working Preacher, Cameron B. R. Howard

"What is radical about biblical monotheism is not just that there is only one God, not just that He is the source of all that exists, but that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. God knew the loneliness of the first man before the first man knew it of himself. That is what the second creation account is telling us. Creation of things is relatively easy, creation of relationships is hard. Look at the tender concern God shows for the first human beings..."

"The Genesis of Love" by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks



Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Our Old Testament reading today is the story of the fall. It is an origins story. The sweeping creation of all things includes the making of human beings. Many scholars of the text will tell you that there is a second creation tale woven in. This tale seeks to tell us why we are the way we are.

I am reminded of the ancient Norse myth of where poetry comes from. The story though is entitled something akin to where bad poetry comes from. This genesis, this beginning, story is about where our bad poetry comes from - if you will. It is about the wisdom that pulls us from our intended relationship with God and death.

The text itself speaks of God's desire to walk in the garden with his creatures. God has created these trees. one is of good and evil and the other is life. Formed from dust we are created as images of God. But the humans are tempted to understand and to know. They are tempted to have life. There is a creature who is crafty, walks on legs, and helps the humans along their path. 

You well know the rest of the story and how they eat from the tree and discover they are naked before one another and God. So it is they receive a bit of punishment from God...the creature will be like snakes we know today...the woman is going to have pain in childbirth...the man will have to work. And, finally, we are told that the snake and the humans will be enemies.

Episcopalians do not espouse biblical literalism and so we dismiss this and the other story as a factual account of creation. Episcopalians do espouse that the scripture contains all things necessary for salvation. So it is that as we consider the passage we wonder what this has to do with salvation.

Now, what is curious about this text is that it never is used by the writers of the Gospels or the letters in the new testament. It is referred to as in passing in some of Paul's writings. He frequently compares being led astray by the serpent to being led astray by those who wish to offer a contrarian view to the Gospel. Cross-references will lead you to other passages regarding sin, lust, and death...but that is a way of looking back into the passage and seeing there what we want to see.

This passage would be referred to endlessly by the early church fathers as a text on modesty, lust, and the veiling of virgins. By the Reformation, Calvin writes this, "The design, therefore, of Moses was to show, in a few words, how greatly our present condition differs from our first original, in order that we may learn, with humble confession of our fault, to bewail our evils. We ought not then to be surprised, that, while intent on the history he purposed to relate, he does not discuss every topic which may be desired by any person whatever." (Commentary on Genesis: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom01.ix.i.html) 

What I want to point out here is that while we have inherited the notion that God's rectifying act is rooted deeply in a midcourse correction of Adam and Eve, there is barely a mention of it until we get to more modern times. 

It is clear that the Gospel authors saw Jesus in the frame of Adam. The Gospel was to be a new beginning...a re-genesis if you will. Moreover, the gospel this week of Jesus' own tempting is in some way to give a nod to previous temptings of others. Most especially the temptations of the Israelites while wandering in the desert and maybe a small nod to the creation story.

But the creation story is our topic so let's stick with it a bit more. The first thing is that I want you to put out of your mind all that business of somehow there was perfection in the story prior to the eating of the tree.  I am not sure where we all get that...but it is not the case. Now, I am leaning on my Robert Farrar Capon here (Genesis the Movie, 287) I am taking this, like Capon and Paul (for that matter - Galatians 4:24) as allegory. They did not have anything on...meaning that they were literally and figuratively naked before God. The idea here is that their goodness and badness were all out in view. Creation was a folly of revelation wherein humans were known by each other and by God. Their "foibles" were out there in the open. (Ibid) There was innocence and most importantly...no "criminality". (Ibid) You see the story doesn't say they were perfect to each other, or that they didn't make mistakes, or even that somehow they were innocent. It just isn't in there. What is clear is that there was no knowledge of their follies and foibles...there was no knowledge or shame of their sin. 

We human beings want to sanitize the text and make the garden of Eden a world of perfection and in so doing live out the story itself. That world was perfect, this world is not = sin. So... God does not like sin and wants us to live in a perfect world and be perfect and so we must create a lot of morality dances and laws so as to recreate the perfect sinless world. But that really isn't the story nor the case at all. 

I am going to leave you with this to ponder. God's saving act, by one who knows no sin (that pre-fall nod I talked about), is an act that removes the shame from us so we might return to the arms of our beloved - God. Capon says, "God makes shamelessness his supreme virtue." (293) God in Christ Jesus came to save the shameful, shaming, shamed, and all the rest. He hung out with them and he hung out with the religious doing the shaming as well. Jesus' death on the cross does not return us to perfection but instead makes our imperfection our way back in.