Deuteronomy 26: 1-11
Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16
Romans 10: 8b - 13
Luke 4: 1-13

What is Your Story?

Many of us can trace our ancestors back to the first settlers of this province. We may have at least a vague knowledge of the factors that forced them to make an dangerous ocean voyage to a new life in a new land. For some it was the “highland clearances” and for others it was the “Irish Potato Famine”. And some did come by choice; as a means of seizing an opportunity that could not be had at home. Some of us have only come recently, within our own generation. (Pause) And to be completely truthful, some of us just aren’t all that interested in why our ancestors came here.

However, our passage for today from the book of Deuteronomy begins by telling their story which is to be at the core of a ritual of thanksgiving It is a passage which talks about the necessity of remembering and telling their story. This particular story is one of migration; a story that was to be told year after year. It is the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; a story that had brought them that land “flowing with milk and honey”; a story which was to remain “their story”. It is a story of both hope and despair; a story of slavery and freedom; a story that had a beginning, however shadowed in the mists of time, but a story that, at the time our passage speaks of, was still being written.

Like many other tribes, the people of Israel were a people on the move, nomads, but they believed that it was God’s will that they were not to be that way forever. They spent years and years believing that some day, they would be able to settle down in their own land. This passage comes just as they were to enter that land and it COMMANDS them to remember that time of wandering; and above all they were to remember the guiding hand of God; the God of their ancestors; their God.

The story of the people of Israel proves (among many things) the saying that, “hindsight is 20-20". Looking back on their wandering it was easy to see when they had ignored God’s guidance and when they had followed it; it was much harder to do so when they were right in the midst of those day to day struggles. It was also easy to forget the hard times, the times when God’s grace was very much needed, when the times were good.

I think that this ritual was at least partially designed to address this tendency to ignore God in the good times. This ritual was not just a mindless and rote action, but promoted a way of looking at life that would inform their whole lives - not just the good parts, or the not so good parts. It was a way of looking at life that put God in the centre and forced them to see God’s grace as what was most important. It enabled them to put things into the proper perspective and not to fool themselves into thinking that they were the authors of their own destiny.

You see they were about to a transition that involved much more than “location” when they entered the promised land. Even though Moses was not going with them, he wanted to prepare them to respond appropriately in faith.

It was not just a move from a nomadic desert existence to a settled life. You see, in the desert they KNEW that they lives depended on a whole lot more than their own efforts; or at least they should have known. After all, they were nomads. They didn’t plant crops and watch them grow and then harvest them. They ate the manna from heaven. In the desert food was a gift and life itself was a gift. They lived so close to the edge that they were never given the luxury of forgetting that they had much to do with their success, except to go out and pick up or kill the next meal.

Soon though they were going to a place where they could settle down. The manna was no longer going to fall from the sky. They were going to have to plant and tend and harvest. It would be a great deal of work but there would be more certainty - - more security. Yet there was also a danger, as Moses saw it. The danger lay in the fact that they would have to learn about planting and weeding and harvest and develop skills in raising animals. It would require work and learning new skills. The danger was that they would forget that it didn’t ALL depend on them; the danger was that they would forget about the “gift” and think that they were “entitled” to the blessings of their now settled life. The danger was that they would forget about God and God’s grace in their lives.

So they are asked to select the first and best fruits of their first crop, EACH AND EVERY YEAR and take it to the temple, and remember OUT LOUD the story of their journey from wilderness to promise; the story of how God had blessed them in the past and how God was continuing to bless them.

The passage also says that the “aliens” or foreigners must benefit from this time of thanksgiving. Because they had been slaves in Egypt, they were to treat the foreigners in their midst with compassion and generosity. That was simply part and parcel of being a thankful people.

So, all these thousands of years later we are asked to remember that all of life flows from God. In a sense the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was about forgetting God and God’s call and role in his life. Simply put, Jesus was tempted to put other things in the place of God. Jesus was tempted to rearrange his priorities for his own advantage and forget the ministry to which he was called.

When the early church was called stand upon the proclamation: “Jesus is Lord” what was unsaid, but very obvious to both them and to their enemies, that: “Caesar was NOT lord”. We forget that “Jesus is Lord” was a dangerous proclamation and many died because of it.

In Lent we are given the opportunity to step back from our normal, day to day lives and to reflect on our own story. We are called to reflect on what it is that we really and truly believe. We are called to look at where we have placed God and the things of God in our lives and in our own personal journeys. This is also true of our church community as well.

We are asked the question: “What is our story?”

What is our story as a church community? Where has God led us in the past? Where is God leading us in 2007?

What is our Church’s story? It is the story of migration and immigration. It is the story of setting down in a new and sometimes harsh land to learn new ways of farming and fishing and working with neighbours who were different from those encountered in the “old country”. It is the story of both disappointment and success; it is the story of coming to call a new land, home. It is the story of countless generations going down the road to Upper Canada or to the “Boston States”. It is the story of Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists deciding in 1925 that there was more to unite them than there was to divide them and that in working together more could be accomplished for the gospel than by working separately.

It is the story of a church community who have seen amalgamations and changes (such as the closure of Chalmers United and that congregation coming here to worship at St Andrew’s) (such as when the Harcourt Mission Field was disbanded and amalgamated into one congregation and then that congregation joined to the Rexton Pastoral Charge). After time passes it we sometimes forget how hard these changes were. However, when we can see the presence of God walking with our ancestors or with ourselves, in those changes in the past, we are better equipped to see this guidance and presence in the present. W, we are asked to but above all it is the story of a people who have sough to be the people of God. It is the story of those whose names have gone from our local mailboxes but whose memory is preserved on the stones in the cemetery and in church records. It is the story of a rich and wonderful past, but like the people to whom Moses spoke, it must continue to be the story of the present.

We are called to remember that God goes with us and that we are to be a people of thankfulness. It is to be God’s call we follow and not our own.

Of course this is easier said than done because the way things have always been done becomes second nature. The people of Israel had looked for manna every morning for their entire lives, now they would have to work for their food, YET they were still to proclaim that it was God’s grace that was holding them up and leading them through.

As we look over our lives personally, as a family, and as a church and wider community we are called to remember the grace and presence of God in our lives and to give thanks for all that God has done and is doing for us.

Amen!

Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13: 31-35

Have you heard the story of the farmer who went to the convenience store to buy some supplies? (pause) Well, this farmer goes up to the cashier and after putting down his other purchases, asks for an “Insta Pik ticket. (local, government run lottery) The teller punches the required button on the lotto terminal, hands him the ticket and says to him, “Say, Charlie, what WOULD you do with all those millions?

Charlie thinks a bit and then says, “Well I suppose I’d just keep on farming till it was gone!”

(Pause)

For a long time that has been truer than many of us would like to admit about the reality of the economics of farming. It may be a way to make a living but you can’t make much money at it! On the other hand, it speaks volumes about the nature of farmers whose ties to the land and their animals are hard to explain to someone who does not understand it and even harder to give up.

In today’s passage Jesus is warned not to travel to Jerusalem because Herod, the king, is out to get him. The warning comes from a somewhat surprising source. We should accept this warning at face value. These Pharisees are on Jesus’ side. Their warning is genuine. They know that plans to get rid of who some see as a troublemaker are afoot. Maybe if Jesus would just hide out for a while, things would cool down. They were probably seeking to protect themselves as well, for if their alliance with Jesus were ever to be found out, they would suffer the same fate.

Jesus reference to Herod in his response is very interesting: he calls him a “fox”. We are not really sure what it would have meant to the disciples as the words rolled off of Jesus’ tongue. Some have suggested that it was because foxes were devious and cunning but if we read between the lines in the text we find out that Herod was only so in his own mind. Perhaps, like foxes, Herod was seen by Jesus as more of a “varmint” bent on mindless destruction than a creature that posed any real threat to his ministry. Clearly, Jesus was not going to let Herod stop him!

As many of you know I have an almost pure black cat named Sarabi. I adopted her from an animal hospital in Truro Nova Scotia and she came to me already named. A homeowner found her in her backyard and the stray had apparently been nursing a litter of kittens, which were never found. It took Sarabi a long time to get over losing her kittens. The name, Sarabi comes from the Disney movie, The Lion King. In this movie, Sarabi is Mufassa’s mate and Simba’s mother. It is the story of a young lion cub named Simba, who goes from being a small and fear filled lion cub to being “king of the jungle”.

We often associate Jesus with similar images of might, power and kingship. Yet most of our most eloved images of Jesus are ones which accord him far less power than that of a king! In fact, most are images of vulnerability. In today’s passage, as a response to a warning of danger and the acknowledgement of the presence of foxes, Jesus does not refer to himself as an even stronger animal, but as a simple, vulnerable hen. When Jesus uses the image of a hen protecting her chicks when referring to himself, it is clear that while there is protection for the chicks here, there is impending danger for Jesus in the interaction of these two images: the fox and the hen.

Episcopal (Anglican) priest and seminary professor, the Rev Barbara Brown Taylor, in her sermon “As a Hen Gathers Her Brood” , makes this point:

“Jesus won’t be king of the jungle in this or any other story. What he will be is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first.” 

That’s hardly any kind of king that we have ever heard of, is it? Yet, that is the kind of kingship Jesus models and lives in his ministry. Brown Taylor, in her wonderful turns of phrase put Jesus’ (and our) choice this way: “you can live by licking your chops or you can die protecting the chicks.” In Jesus aptly named “lament over Jerusalem” contained in today’s gospel passage Jesus sorrow centres on the fact that the chicks have forgotten to listen for the voice of the hen and have gone their own way. Yet, neither fact serves to deter Jesus from his mission: neither the dangers of the fox, or the fact that the chicks will not seek his protection. Brown Taylor, in her beautiful turn of phrase puts it this way:

“(The fox) slides up on her one night in the yard while all the babies are asleep. When her cry wakens them, they scatter. She dies the next day where both foxes and chickens can see her -- wings spread, breast exposed -- without a single chick beneath her feathers. It breaks her heart, but it does not change a thing. If you mean what you say, then this is how you stand.” 

Paul Gibson, liturgical officer for the Anglican Church of Canada, has tried to persuade people that Lent is not preparation for Easter, but preparation for Baptism. quoted in Aha! A preaching journal published by Wood Lake Books. This was in the gospel reflection for March 8, 1998 by Jim Taylor Indeed, many churches use Lent as a time for confirmation classes. In Lent we learn that Jesus journey toward Jerusalem is our journey. In Lent we learn that our journey is not about success, but about faithfulness.

About 15 years ago one of the senior officers of our Church died suddenly, and much too young. The title sermon that was preached at his memorial service was “Hallelujah Anyway!”

Somewhere the disciples got the idea that following Jesus was going to be about success and prestige and when it became clear that Jesus has other ideas they scattered.

We too sometimes get the idea that if we follow Jesus properly, we will be protected from harm and sorrow and that life will be much better than if we were not followers. Then, for most, our experience shows us that our faith is not a protection from the sorrows of life. We still have family difficulty. We still make mistakes that hurt ourselves and others. We still experience tragedy. We even can find ourselves teased our criticized because of the stances our faith commands of us.

When that happens, what is our response? We can be like many who followed Jesus, but who abandoned him when the going got tough. Or we can be like Jesus himself, who fastened his will and resolve upon the love of God and in his certainty of God’s ultimate vindication, that he was able to walk to road to Jerusalem in faith and courage.

There are many times in our lives when we are faced with choices between right and wrong and we know that doing the right thing will cost us: money, or time, or a friendship. We have a decision to make - do the right thing or do the easy thing.

There are times in our lives when we wonder where God has gone and why our life seems to be falling apart. We can either blame and reject God and religion as useless or we can decide that no matter what happens we will continue to stand with the God who has been revealed in Jesus of Nazareth: not because we were promised immunity from sorrow, but because we were promised a saviour who knew what we know in terms of sorrow and rejection and pain. We stay on that road because we know that it is the way of Christ, it is the way of God.

Sometimes, we WILL need to alter our course, when we have discerned a more appropriate path, but it is not a simple mater of success or failure, in the way that the world sees those things.

It’s not a numbers game, its not a money game, it’s about much more than that. It’s about discerning our path and then following it as faithful servants and disciples.

Because of this we can, for example, reach out to others who are in pain because that is all that we can sometimes do. We cannot take away another’s sorrow, but most often it really does help just to “be there and to “listen”. When we are the ones who need a listening ear we can indeed discover the presence of God in those who come to us in caring and compassion.

Because of this we can take a stand on a social issue which may make us unpopular, but which we believe is the right stance. It may cost us, but we know it to be right.

It’s hard to explain, in any logical kind of fashion, but faithfulness is not about logic or even common sense, faithfulness is about commitment. Faithfulness is committing ourselves to the Way of Jesus of Nazareth. This is the Jesus who was so convinced of God’s never ending love that he was prepared to risk everything to follow the path that he knew he must take - and if the fox got him, so be it.

As Lent progresses, may we listen for the call of the Spirit, beckoning us to the path of Christ, despite the obstacles in our way. We do this not because of our ultimate reward but because, as people who seek to be faithful, we can do nothing less than offer praise and loyalty to God in all the times of our lives.

Amen!

Isaiah 55: 1-9
Psalm 63: 1-8
1 Corinthians 10: 1-13
Luke 13: 1-9

Like most war-time armies, the army of Napoleon had a rule that deserters would be shot at sunrise. It so happens that there was a young soldier who was about 17 years old who had seen many of his friends die in battle and he became so scared that he ran away. He was caught and, as expected, sentenced to die at dawn. It so happened that this young man was the son of Napoleon’s cook. She went to Napoleon to plea for mercy. After hearing her out, Napoleon ordered her out of his sight with these words, “Woman, your son does not deserve mercy.”

To this she replied. “Of course not. If he deserved it, it would not be mercy!”

Of course, just as a gift is not a gift if it is deserved; mercy is not mercy if it is deserved. Paraphrased from item found on the internet as “Gosepl Reflections by Father Gerry Pierse, C. Ss. R. March 14, 2004.

In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the ruthless money-lender Shylock takes generous, kind-hearted but naive Antonio to court over an unpaid debt of 3000 ducats and demands the fulfilment of a contract which will by its nature mean the Antonio’s death; he demands his literal “pound of flesh”, his “justice”. Portia, the new wife of Antonio’s friend disguised herself as a lawyer and delivers a speech in court in which she says, “though justice be thy plea, consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation. We do pray for mercy and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy’. Merchant of Venice, IV I

The gospel lesson for today begins with another of those “what about” questions designed to trick Jesus; this time it was about the justice or injustice of God. As usual, Jesus turns the question on the questioner and makes it, not about “those people” but about the questioners themselves. As usual, he avoids the trap and uses the trick as an opportunity for teaching and leading his listeners toward greater spiritual growth.

First, I’ll give a bit of explanation about the situations underlying the question - It seems that some worshippers had been massacred by Pilate’s troops and that some others had been killed in a building collapse. The specific details of these events, while likely well known at the time, are lost to us. Some commentators have suggested that the worship was actually a protest against Pilate’s confiscation of temple funds, an action which is well documented by historians. Obviously, in the eyes of some these protestors would have been seen as heroes and deserving of God’s protection. In addition, it has been suggested that the tower that fell was part of Pilate’s infamous aqueduct project; a project that was paid for by the money that had been seized from the temple treasury. Even though this was a necessary infrastructure project for the benefit of the whole city, these workers may have been regarded as traitors for working on a project funded by stolen money! Perhaps many folks felt they “got what they deserved”! Found on the internet at "Why Does HE Even Use Up the Ground?" Jerry Goebel, One Family Outreach. Jesus response, however makes such speculation interesting, but in the end, almost completely irrelevant.

Jesus is saying that it’s not about who is deserving or undeserving. The “big picture” is really far too complicated for any of us to truly know the real causes of much of what happens.

Who deserved to die on September 11, 2001 in New York City, at the Pentagon, or in the field in Pennsylvania? The hijackers? That may be an easy question to answer but let’s turn that question on its head and ask instead, “Who deserved to live?” Only those ones who missed their flights that morning or only those who stopped for a chat and a coffee at Starbucks and were late for work? Were all of those who died worse people than those whose “luck” allowed them to see another sunrise?

As was usual with these kinds of situations, Jesus tried to move the question to anther level, which at first seems a little harsh, but in the end provides the only practical or ultimately satisfying answer” “Life is short, and for some it may be very short.” As such we only have this time to be faithful and productive. We have only this time to make amends - if that is what we need to do. We have only this time to produce the fruits of the Spirit. Like it was for those folks who died while at worship or on the tower, sone day there will be no tomorrow and we must have our house in order. It’s not that we must live with a feeling of our immediately impending demise, but that we must live in the interim, realistically, appreciative of the gift that we have received and living accordingly.

The image used is that of a fig tree, given a second chance, given one more year in which to produce fruit but this mercy is still offered in the context of coming judgement. When we focus on the judgement, rather than the mercy, we miss the good news of this text.

I think that Jesus questioners were seeking an assurance that they were “better”, or “more faithful” than those who had died in these situations. They wanted Jesus to let them off of the hook and tell them that they were safe from harm.

I suspect that one of the most frequent questions that ministers are asked is: “Why me?” When tragedy strikes us or a loved one, we may wonder what we did to deserve it. Were we any worse than that other person who seems to be doing just fine. Then again, we rarely ask the same question when we are blessed: do we deserve that outcome? We just assume that it is God’s reward for our good behaviour. Jesus answer is that it just isn’t that simple and God does not pull the strings of the world to punish some and reward others.

We can make ourselves somewhat safer by following the rules of the road, by maintaining our car’s tires and brakes, by making sure we follow basic fire safety rules, by eating a diet low in fat and high in fibre and balanced in terms of the basic food groups, and all of that, but the reality is that in the end there are no guarantees. Just because we live to be 110 does not mean that we are better than someone who dies at a young age. Just because tragedy seems to befall us at every turn is no reason to suppose that we are being punished by God for our sin. The relationship between human behaviour and tragedy is rarely direct or guaranteed. What we need to recognize, says Jesus, is the presence of God in our lives, seeking our best and giving us the opportunity to bear the fruits of the Spirit.

This Good News of Jesus is that these tragedies are not God’s doing. In a world where life is not fair, in which the evil seem to prosper and the good suffer, we are called to rely on the mercy and grace of the God who has loved us and who has given himself for us.

The season of Lent is a time for us to come to terms with the temporary and fragile nature of this life and to make the best use of the time we have been given; this moment, this day, this hour.

This time is not to be spent living like the man who said, “let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die’, but rather to say and to live, “This is the day that God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” This is the day that God has called us to a life of prayer, praise and service. This day God calls us to turn to him and seek him with our whole hearts. That is what repentance actually means. It is not a feeling of sorrow at things we have done, but a resolve to go in a new direction. So on this 3rd Sunday of Lent let us turn to God and reaffirm our intention to follow in the way of Jesus of Nazareth.

Amen!