Lent - Year B -- 2024
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Lent Year B
Genesis 9: 8-17
Psalm 25
Mark 1: 9-15
As most of you know, last Saturday I conducted a funeral for a man, for whom a favourite activity was to watch the TV Show, Columbo! Wikipedia describes Columbo as an “American crime drama television series”. It first aired in the 1970s and can be found in reruns on Cable. Amazon sells the complete series for under $75, provided you are OK with normal DVDs and not the more expensive Blu-Ray discs! Lieutenant Columbo is a rumpled, seemingly inept, but actually shrewd, blue-collar homicide detective for the Los Angeles Police Department. He drives a 1959 Peugeot convertible. It is dirty and banged up; he occasionally uses it as a ruse to “get inside” various garages that may be harbouring evidence or suspects related to open cases. I’ve read that Peugeot, the car maker, was upset at the way his car was treated on the show. They must have seen it as bad advertising. I suppose they wanted it treated with kid gloves and washed and polished at least weekly!
The cigar smoking Columbo, always appears to be dishevelled and disorganized and asks incessant and odd questions during his interviews of witnesses and suspects. One day he showed a photo of a dead woman to a suspect and told him that the body MUST have been re-dressed because of where the tag on her particular brand of panties should have been. His source of information on where the tags were found on women’s lingerie was “Mrs Columbo”, his never seen wife! Usually, at the end of an interview, when he is almost out the door, he will turn and say, “Oh, just one more thing.” and he will ask a question that will pretty-much solve the case in his mind and give the guilty party plenty to worry about. The guilty realize too late that Columbo is much more astute than he first appears.
In some ways, it seems to me that many of the biblical stories that we read have a “one more thing” twist toward their end. Yet, it is the one more thing that is usually the most important thing. It’s the things we miss that end up being important.
As I said in a previous sermon, Mark Gospel proceeds very quickly. In today’s passage a great deal of ground is covered.
I don’t usually like movies or tv series which jump around in time. For example, we are dealing with some sort of family conflict and all of a sudden we are back in time 20 years to something that happened when the now adult children were young. But that flashback explains the conflict!
That has just happened with the Gospel readings between last week and this week. Last week, Jesus had been with his disciples for some time and they went up a mountain and a heavenly voice lets the disciples in on the secret of who their teacher really is: God’s son. Today, we are back at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry where Jesus alone hears the voice that affirms this identity. It is still a secret and the disciples have yet to be called, in fact. Confusing yes, but that is a quirk of the New Revised Common Lectionary! I was talking with my Anglican colleague last week and he reminded me that the Anglican church observes the transfiguration at another time of year, probably according to a more “historical time-line. However, we are stuck with what we have today.
As I have said before, Mark’s Gospel does not waste time. His story of Jesus covers a lot of ground within the least number of pages of any of the 4 gospels. The 40 day temptation takes just 3 sentences! We are told it is 40 days, but unlike the other Gospels, we have no details! In this passage three events are mentioned in quick succession but it is almost like they are stepping stones to the real meat of the Gospel: Jesus message. In today’s reading Jesus gets to where he needs to be - as soon as possible: proclaiming God’s Good News.
We often think of Lent as a time to give stuff up. It’s supposed to instill discipline; to help us sort out priorities. So we give up a luxury such as chocolate. That is behind the tradition of pancake day. Traditionally, before Lent we were supposed to clean our pantry of meat, butter, eggs, and sugar. So we marked the last day before Lent by making pancakes and sausages.
What tempts us? Chocolate. Ice cream! A nice juicy steak or a lovely plump chicken with all the fixings. What keeps us from focussing on the things of faith? As I was writing this sermon, I got a work-related text message. I read the message and replied. Before I put the phone down though, I was tempted to scroll. As I was scrolling, I hit a link by accident. Then I was sucked into some kind of black hole from which it was hard to extricate myself. It took several minutes tear myself away and get back to the sermon.
When I get going on a puzzle, I make little deals with myself, “ten more pieces”, then it’s “a particular section,” then it’s “I might as well finish it, it’s only 1:30 am.”
I remember a colleague who gave up coffee for lent one year. I could easily do that, BUT that would be dishonest for me; I don’t like coffee, my last cup was in 1985. I don’t usually last long giving things up such as chocolate.
Sometimes giving something up for lent gives us a “swelled head;” we brag, at least to ourselves, “I’ve not had potato chips in 29 days.”
One of my colleagues is giving up his pre-workout energy drink - I did not know they were a thing. He’s giving the money saved to the food bank. I think that turning “giving something up” into “being a blessing” is more along the lines of Jesus and his teachings. Imagine him saying this, “What does it profit you if you give up ice cream for lent if no one benefits - except your savings account? What use is it if you save enough money to buy a really, really nice treat for after lent to reward yourself. I think that giving up something should serve a greater purpose. Giving up TV for example should free time up for something productive -and giving of self, such as driving someone to an appointment or visiting the residents at the nursing home!
The current Pope, Francis is probably one of the first Pontiffs to embrace social media. His best words are often brief, but come across like zingers; ouch!
On Ash Wednesday he encouraged the faithful to go to their “inner room.” As Wednesday reminds human that we are dust, but God loves that dust. In one post I read, Francis advised people to “fast from hurting and say kind words; fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude; fast from pessimism and be filled with hope; fast from bitterness and fill your hearts with joy; and, fast from words and be silent so you can listen.”
There are all sorts of temptations out there, vying for our time and loyalty. Many of them are sitting on your desk or in your purse as you work. These days its hard to stay away from social media, as so much of our work lives are connected to it - to do so may be counter productive.
But what is this Good News that Jesus began to preach as he came out of his 40 days in the wilderness. Some churches focus on the redemption of those who trust in the way of Jesus. Some would focus on the unconditional love of God which presumes a life of showing love to others.
On my way home from Pineview (a nursing home) on Thursday night I heard an interview with Lois Wilson, a former moderator of the United Church. I first met her when I was 18 or 19 and a first year University Student. I have learned the most from Lois when she utters a one sentence zinger. She gets to the truth of the matter and challenges us with a “why have I never noticed that before kind of remark.” I know I have said that we should keep the Gospels separate but I want to borrow a verse from John’s gospel here. Please! In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “For God so loved the world” - he does not say, “for God so loved the church”. On another occasion, in a sermon I heard her say, Jesus said we are to be the salt of the earth, not the whole stew!” Like many modern prophets, Lois (now 96 years old) can sum up a great deal in one sentence. What is the Good News? I have read books the size of pulpit Bibles and I am often none the wiser. Sometimes, one sentence, prompts me to delve into my own thoughts and my own prayers to struggle with my own journey. How do I want to spend Lent.
On Thursday morning, I checked my phone to see if there were any texts or calls while my ringer was turned off and I discovered that a colleague serving in Cape Breton had died. About 40 years of age, she leaves a husband, a two year old child, two saddened congregations and numerous gob-smacked colleagues. She was a kind, compassionate and very skilled minister who was loved and admired by many. Didn’t the congregations she served need her, let alone her husband and son? Why? Aren’t ministers like her supposed to live to be 95? As I write this sermon, I have no idea what her illness was, (I may know by Sunday) but it really does not matter in the end. Human life is fragile; we have our plans but we really only have this moment. Lent calls us to remember that and to make the most of today.
Lent is a time for us to determine what we want to do with our lives and what our goals are in life. What does God’s love mean when we face some of the real life situations in our lives? How do we love our enemies, given that love is a verb and not just a nice feeling.
The word used in the Gospels for repentance is not a feeling word, it is an action word. It is the word a lost traveller might use when they check their road map and realize they need to turn north at the next grid road and then west . Repentance is turning and going in a different direction.
I guess that leaves me with one more question, “in what directions is the Spirit pulling you this Lent?”
Amen!
Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22
Mark 8: 31-38
As you all know, Canada does not have pennies anymore. Perhaps that means the song often called, “The Magic Penny,” will eventually fade into history. Or because of American influence our young ones will learn it and then ask, “Teacher, what is a penny?” Of course, you know it, probably by the chorus:
“It’s just like a magic penny, Hold it tight and you won't have any. Lend it, spend it, and you'll have so many They'll roll all over the floor”
I suppose that when the song was written, in the 50s, a penny was quite valuable to a child. People even younger than I, can remember the joy of “penny candy.” Our grandfather took delight in buying it for us’; he could not pass a country store with a grandchild in the truck. 25 years ago, a penny could still get you a candy at Berwick Camp and a hundred pennies could get you a bag-full. An incentive to return the bag was a free penny candy! In the 25 years since I have been going to the camp, the penny candy has disappeared and the health-conscious parents of today are not giving their children enough money to buy candy by the bag-full. They DO still scoop the biggest ice cream cones I have ever seen!
I recall finding this very old penny in the lane at my family home when I was about 10. (link will show a pristine copy of the penny in question) It’s not in great shape; I cleaned most of the tarnish off a few years ago and its now more brown than green! I don’t know how many years it spent buried in the dirt! It is copper and 2,000,000 of them were minted somewhere in England for the colony of Prince Edward Island in 1871, two years before PEI joined confederation. It was in limited use for years afterwards. My mother told me that a “tree cent,” as they were called, was her Sunday school offering for her growing up years. Her family did not have much money in the depression and war years.
Of course the song about the magic penny is not actually about pennies and how to make them grow into dollars, it is about love and its counterintuitive nature. If you want more dollars than you currently have, you put them in a bank or invest them wisely, with your name on the investment. But, if you want more love, there is no “love account” to invest in, without giving that love away.
The part of the Bible we have tended to call the “Old Testament” centres around the extended family of Abraham and Sarah, whose descendants became a great nation. The “New Testament” in the Bible, centres on one of those descendants, Jesus, from the village of Nazareth and his message of God’s limitless love.
Both stories are counterintuitive. Both Abraham and Jesus would not have been voted “most likely succeed” by their high school student council.
If you are voting for someone most likely to have hundreds of grandchildren and great grandchildren NO ONE would pick someone who had NO CHILDREN, to start with, especially if he was already in his 90s. If you were going to pick an up-and coming political leader, you would not pick someone from a place barely on the map, or from “the sticks” as was commonly said about the place I came from. You pick someone from a well known family, who lived in a well-known place.
When I lived in NB, the second time, I received a wedding invitation for adherents of my congregation, but their wedding was at the Cathedral in the Capital City. Since the bride was not Anglican I asked someone about this and was told that anyone who wanted to be important had to be married at the Cathedral. (I could tell a funny story about his answer when I asked him the same question!) I was just a guest.
When considering having a baby, these days a woman of 35 is considered to be of “advanced Maternal Age;” though waiting to have a family till after that age is becoming more common. A few years ago a woman from Guernsey in the UK, gave birth at age 59, the oldest recorded woman to have conceived naturally. Google tells me that the oldest father on record was 94 which is much closer to the age of Abraham!
However, Abraham and Sarah, were both well past the normal age of procreation. Since the biblical story tries to weave together several separate traditions - the story of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah is a drawn out tale involving years of waiting and a few detours. However, in today’s passage the promise of numerous descendants is delivered, or delivered AGAIN, when Abraham is 99 and Sarah is 89. In another telling of the story we see Sarah listening to the angel delivering the message from behind a tent flap - and LAUGHING. She knew how things worked; she and Abraham had missed the boat on everything to do with parenting - all they could do now was to sit in their easy chair, hold hands, and look at the stars and dream of the things that could have been! In the distant future the biblical text will tell us that the parents of Samuel and the parents of John the Baptist were also recipients of similar divine intervention!
I think that the whole point of the advanced ages of Abraham and Sarah, is to clearly state that this pregnancy was by God’s action. God’s hand was in this entire enterprise; thus a number of descendants to equal the stars was also God’s doing! Even though the child was conceived in the usual way, the whole point of the story of the Hebrew people was God’s call, God’s support, and God’s intervention. This was to be God’s people; the children of Israel. Israel being the other name of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson!
However this people continued to mess up. We as a people who follow Jesus are no better, in that we continue to fall short of our call as those who follow the way of Jesus.
When the people of Israel would go astray, God would call a prophet to challenge them to come back to the ways of God. When the early churches needed help, :Paul and a few other early apostles would write a letter to set them straight.
What were the problems they faced? What are the problems all people of faith face?
Well I think that the much of the problem in the history of Israel came from assuming they were called to privilege and not to mission. One of their core identities of the people of Israel was to be a “light to the nations;” a people who showed others what living in the ways of this calling God was all about. They were given a covenant, beginning with what we know as the “10 Commandments” but did not always follow them. Part of being a light to the nations was to show hospitality to foreigners and others and they failed again and again at this.
Today’s gospel speaks of the friction caused between Jesus and the disciples when Jesus tried to instill in them the idea that he, the messiah , would suffer. The disciples were still under the illusion that following the messiah was going to be a journey of privilege.
They quickly learned that being friends of Jesus set them against the government and the religious leaders who compromised so much to be able to operate the temple system with as little interference from the Rman government as possible.
Almost all of the police procedural TV shows I watch have a few episodes that involve rich kids at prestigious private schools. These are kids who seemingly believe that daddy’s chequebook will solve all their problems. And it does - and it is tried, even when someone has been killed> Evidence is destroyed and an expensive lawyer tries to get charges reduced. The police work against this kind of privilege as much as they can.
In the late 1980s, a family in one of the churches I served, told me that possessing a Nintendo system was needed in order to have friends. If you did not have one, the other kids would not come to your hose after school! About the same time, a colleague serving in one of the suburbs across the river from the nearby city told the group of colleagues about the parent orientation at their children’s new high school. The staff basically told them that the poorer children, who could not afford the “name brands” would be teased, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Another minister I know has always told his children that he is not spending all of his money on his family; strangers in need will always receive some of it. His kids will hav e what they need, but not necessarily all dad and mom can afford.
We talk of churches being places of welcome. I was speaking with a member of another denomination in another community not that long ago and increasing vandalism has meant that they now have to lock their church - no longer can it be an unsupervised haven of peace in a chaotic world.
Revenue Canada rules prohibit charities from charging donors and non-donors different fees for services - such as weddings and funerals. I wish that this practice of charging non supporters extra was something churches never started - rather than having to stop because the Government’s charity directorate told us to stop.
Jesus ministry was one of open arms and open doors. Yet, too often we think of our churches as private clubs. We have to look carefully at our budgets to make sure we can pay the minister’s salary, to keep the building warm in winter and cool enough in summer, and to make sure the roof does not leak. Sometimes this takes so much of our resources that we forget to ask why we are keeping the building open. Why do we do all of that. If it just for us, we are not being the church of Jesus, the Christ.
The Rev Dr John Kirby, an Anglican priest, one of my senior professors in theological school, used to quote this little prayer, in jest, of course.
“God bless me and my son John, John’s wife, my wife, us four, no more. Amen.”
Of course if it were put like that - we would see how misguided it was. We do well here in this pastoral charge, with offerings for the food bank, Matthew 25, and our Relief Fund. We do well with those of you who quietly help neighbours in need - and Im not talking about “stuff”, I mean transportation and services such as snow shoveling and lawn mowing.
However, when was the last time you voted for someone (or something) promising to really help the poor, knowing it meant higher taxes, or a readjustment of some of our privilege?
These days in Canada there is not really any down-side to belonging to a church; others don’t really care one way or the other! Maybe that’s because we kind of blend into the background.
We should not expect privilege either. The United Church has often called its members to take unpopular stands on justice issues, and to ask questions about benefiting the poor rather than creating the best environment for the prosperity of a shrinking number near the top. What if we tried to increase the wealth of those at the bottom; would that not help everyone in the end? Those magic pennies rolling all over the floor will be the clue and sign that you have discovered the joy of “no strings attached giving”.
Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and have it in great abundance.”
Amen.
Exodus 20: 1-17
Psalm 19
John 2: 13-22
When I was a young teen, one of the churches in our pastoral charges was selling church plates at the back of the church. There was a sign at the back indicating the price and the instruction to speak to “Betty Rubble” who was in charge. Pay her and you could have a china plate of your very own to hang on your living room wall. Plate hangers were extra though.
About the same time The United Church Observer had a regular feature called ‘the Question Box” and someone wrote in to ask about this kind of situation. They wondered if it was ok to sell stuff in church in the light of the passage about Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple. I think the answer suggested that it was ok so long as it was not disruptive to worship and the price was fair.
Some of you may remember the children’s hymn, “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild,” from the Hymnary. It has not been in a United Church hymn book since. Written by Charles Wesley only 4 of his original 14 verses made it into the book.
There is probably nothing wrong with teaching children to emulate Jesus’ gentle and mild nature. However this hymn speaks more about what adults at the time thought appropriate for children, rather than a hymn that would appeal to children. It is the same class of ideas that proper children should be “seen and not heard in church.”
One of the issues with this hymn is that we forget the scriptures contain other stories about Jesus and they present a Jesus who was far from “meek and mild.”
We tend to treat children gently and mildly, and so we should, BUT when we see children going hungry, or being de-valued or suffering in some way, we need to SAY and DO what is necessary to reverse this situation and make it right.
In some situations, we must put that gentle Jesus aside when we see injustices, and take a good look at Jesus’ other side; the “angry, temple clearing Jesus.”
We need to make it clear that as Jesus followers we DO NOT ACCEPT children being abused, or going hungry, or receiving a sub standard education. We do not accept children being targeted in wartime, used as human shields, or made to become soldiers. We do not accept the sexual exploitation of children.
Marcus Borg is one scholar whose work really appeals to me. In one book he wrote a great deal about the “domination system” of Jesus’ day.
It can be clearly seen at Passover, for one example. It was a yearly festival to mark the release of the captive people of Israel from Egypt. Your probably remember the story; Moses led the people of Israel, who were slaves, across the Red Sea, to freedom. Well part of that same event involved everyone eating a meal of roast lamb. This eating of lamb was part of Passover in Jesus’ day. This festival was celebrated every year in Jerusalem, and those who could went to Jerusalem. One of the regulations was that you had to present a lamb without blemish or, if you were poor, a pair of doves without blemish, as a sacrifice. As I understand it, you also had to pay a yearly temple tax.
But, within those simple regulations, there was a problem. If you lived at some distance there was a chance that your healthy lamb could have ended up with a blemish on the way to the temple and when you got there your lamb would be rejected. So, local merchants in the know provided “certified sacrificial lambs and doves.” For a price.
Since most people would have carried Roman Coins, or the legal tender in their own places of residence, they would have had to exchange that money for proper Jewish money; the kind without the Emperor’s image on it. It was available, for a price. Those “prices” were part of that domination system!
The last time I saw a video of a stock exchange, it looked like mayhem. I’ve never been to a lamb sale but I remember VERY WELL the last time there were 2 live lambs at a Christmas Eve service. The first lamb, sitting in her little pen was cute and very, very quiet. As soon as the child shepherd carried in the second lamb though, they started bleating to one another. This church had good acoustics and the noise they made was unreal. The congregation would not stop laughing; I am sure the rest of the service was inaudible. Now, think of the noise of dozens.
So combine the noise of the stock exchange and the sale of lambs, and remember it was taking place in the only part of the temple where Gentiles could come and pray. Think of the markup on these “certified lambs” which were, in all likelihood, no better than the ones you had at home. Think of the noise of the discussion and haggling.
We are told that Jesus came, took a look, and decided “this stinks.” He made a whip and drove them all onto the street. In John’s gospel this event occurs early in his ministry but in the other gospels it occurs within a week of his death. It is implied that the powers behind the whole temple enterprise needed Jesus gone! They were afraid that their sweet deal would get dismantled.
What was wrong with what was going on? I believe Jesus saw exploitation, corruption and the way in which good and reasonable forms of faith expression had been twisted to that someone could profit handsomely from them.
You may remember the great Canadian Toilet Paper Shortage. As Covid began some folks began to hoard toilet paper. Some psychologists said that the hoarders were trying to exercise some control over their lives. It wasn’t like COVID had anything to do with needing EXTRA toilet paper but in a flash, stores were having to ration it. The same happened with disinfectants but at least that was something that you were told you needed to have more of. Then out came the entrepreneurs; those who had stocked up and wanted to “cash in.” Some would argue that this was just “business.” Sellers are allowed to charge what the market will bear but the difference was that the public who had not seen this coming were DESPERATE and were being taken advantage of in a time of little, or no, competition.
Sometimes in the midst of a crisis such as a bad snowfall or ice storm, some people will go around offering their services for a cost many times greater than normal. Some would call this good business while others would call this kind of gouging, STEALING.
During this time, there was a church offering a “toilet paper amnesty;” and would take your excess TP, no questions asked, and distribute it to those in need.
When my oldest nephew was in Grade 1 he went on a farm tour. Receiving visitors to see his pigs had been a delight of his for several years; he was finally one of the kids getting OFF the bus rather than being the little kid who helped his father welcome the older ones. As always a field trip must be educational so an essay was required for the next day. What did I learn about farm safety on the farm tour? Remember these kids were 6. This little boy who had followed his father around the barns as soon as he could walk, wrote his essay in terms of things NOT to do, things such as, “Stay away from the PTO”. “Don’t touch an auger.” I don’t remember the entire list but the vast majority was in the negative. That may be how we have to teach children to be safe, but children grow up.
A professor at my theological school, took a secular job after university. He then decided to follow the call to ministry and went to the boss with his resignation. The boss read the letter an then said to him, “you don’t drink, you don’t smoke, you don’t run around with women;” you’ll make a great minister!” Too often, I think, we focus on the Christian life in the negative.
But doesn’t Christian faith involve more than NOT breaking rules. With regard to the clearing of the temple I suppose a lawyer would be able to strike down any objections to what was going on in the outer court of the temple and successfully argue that there was noting wrong going on!
In terms of how we live our faith, it would seem that having a comprehensive list of right and wrong would be easier. Having a comprehensive list of what is exploitation or not exploitation would not really make things easier. We are called to do our own discernment in regard to such things. The one thing we are not called to is silence.
To remain silent in the face of exploitation and suffering, is, in a way, to condone it. So let us carefully discern what we see that dominates and oppresses and call it what is. Let us make God’s world a place of prayer and praise.
Amen.
Numbers 21: 4-9
Psalm
John 3: 14-21
Once upon a time there was a young man who joined a silent monastic order. It was all about simplicity. They worked hard. They ate what they grew. They prayed in silence, a lot. AND no talking! However, once a year there would be audience with the head of the monastery and the opportunity to utter 2 words.
The first year was an adjustment but the young man persevered. At his first yearly meeting he said to the Abbot, “bed hard.” The next year seemed to go by very quickly and at the audience with the abbot the man said, “food bad.” The third year dragged on and on. By the time of his meeting with the abbot, he was at the end of his rope, and his two words were, “I quit.” The Abbot replied, “It does not surprise me, you have done nothing but complain since you arrived.”
The biblical story you just heard read is one of the lesser known stories which come from the time spent in the wilderness; the time BETWEEN the spectacular crossing of the Red Sea and their entrance into Canaan with the Battle of Jericho.
Now, you would think that the former slaves would be so happy to be out of Egypt that everything would be just peachy. NOT! They were very much the normal human beings you and I are; it does not take long, after a change occurs, even a welcome change, that people begin to gripe and complain.
They really did have the ideal leader. While Moses had grown up in Egypt, he had spent many years in the desert as a sheep herder. He had probably existed on more than his fair share of miserable food. He knew all there was to know about deadly snakes.
Wasn’t it good enough that they had their freedom? Wasn’t it good enough that their prayers had been answered in the affirmative. Wasn’t it good enough that they were free.
Well, it just wasn’t.
Moses is frustrated, but perhaps he forgets that the people were used to Egypt. Slaves worked hard and did not have much agency but at least they did not worry about where their next meagre meal was coming from and there was not much worry about snakes. It may be interesting to note that, 12 centuries or so after Moses, Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, would die from a snake bite.
The story from the book of Numbers is an odd story; it’s a really odd story. It does have a few good details; details that tickle my funny bone! I get a kick out of this one, “The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ “ Did you hear them contradict themselves, in the very same sentence? They complained that they had NO food, they take a breath and complain the food is terrible. Which was it?
Have you ever gotten off the sofa because you are hungry and want a snack, but when you opened the fridge and all the cupboards you ended up saying, “I’m not hungry for any of that”? If your craving was bad enough, you went to the store for something else.
I remember visiting a family and the oldest child, who was about 4 was having difficulty with his mother. Nothing had gone right for him all day, even though he insisted, over and over, that he was not behaving badly. Somehow, in his mind the adult expression about getting up “on the wrong side of the bed” morphed into him insisting that he had gotten up on “the bright side!” The mom sensed that all he really needed was a nap, so finally he was sent to his room. He stomped up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door. His brother was an infant so there was a baby monitor in their bedroom and we could hear everything he said to himself before he fell asleep. The baby brother was downstairs, with us! The older child was muttering to himself about how he was being good and his mom was mean and he was going on and on. His mom and I were listening and laughing. A few hours later he came down to the kitchen and he was a completely different child, in a different frame of mind, and his day went just fine after that. You could say that he had been re-set.
Every so often my computer, or my cell phone, aren’t doing what I tell them to do, so I save what work I can and re-boot. When I log in again, everything has gone back to where it should be, and it is as if nothing had gone wrong. I few years ago, I saw a cartoon which expressed that same sentiment about life; wouldn’t it be great if we could do that with a bad day!
In this story from the Book of Numbers, the people were in the desert and the people could not be “sent to their rooms,” “they were in a deep hole, mostly of their own making,” and they needed a re-set. They needed to remember that freedom from Egypt did not mean that they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They were freed FROM their taskmasters with the whips and the back- breaking brick-making quotas. But this freedom meant they were FREED FOR following the God of their ancestors Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. They were freed to become the people of a covenant. When they were bitten by the snakes, a common desert hazard, they went to Moses, realizing that they had messed up. They read the situation correctly; the snakes were a divine punishment. God directs Moses to fashion a pole with a snake curled around it - and when a person bitten by a snake looked at this, they did not die, but lived.
Wait a minute! Didn’t the Ten Commandments forbid images, idols and other such objects. Well, yes, but strangely, this does not seem to apply! Odd! Many years later, King Hezekiah had this object destroyed because he thought it was an idol.
The image of the snake wound around a pole has not faded into history; it is very much a part of our lives today. I found a website the other day that explained some of the imagery. We may think of the caduceus, which come from a Greek word meaning “herald’s staff,” a winged staff with two snakes twined around it, and it became the mark and sign for the printing profession in England. They saw themselves as the heralds of knowledge, through their printing of books. One such printer produced medical books for the American market and one recipient mistakenly connected the symbol for the books’ printer with their subject: medicine. In 1902 the Surgeon General of the United States was convinced to use this staff of Hermes as the official insignia for the US Army Medical Corps and it spread within the medical community.
The current accepted symbol for medicine, which has been used for centuries in other countries, is the Staff of Asclepius, a stick with one snake wrapped around. Asclepius was the most skilled physician in Greece around 1200 B.C. He was so revered that be became a god.
There is a direcrt connection to a common treatment. During ancient times, infection by parasitic worms was common. Apparently there was one worm, known as “the fiery serpent” which would crawl around the victim’s body, just under the skin. Physicians treated this infection by cutting a slit in the patient’s skin just in front of the worm’s path. As the worm crawled out the opening the physician carefully wound the pest around a rod, ending up with a snake on a stick.
I have seen many ambulances, as have you, with a blue X, and a snake on a stick at the centre of this X.
Pause
Many years ago a popular TV show was The Bob Newhart Show. (Not to be confused with Newhart, where the same actor played, Dick Loudon, an innkeeper) In the show I am talking about, the show’s main character was a psychologist, Dr. Bob Hartley. In one episode he was treating a group of people who were afraid of flying. Their last task was book a ticket so they could fly on a commercial plane, as a group. As I recall, one would-be passenger could not go through with it and remained on terra firma!
I suppose that this therapy was based on the principle that we as humans have to face our fears in order to overcome them. One of the 12 steps in AA and similar groups is to come to terms with your wrong doings and apologize to those who have been hurt by your addiction. It seems to me that this is a large part of what is going on in the story from Numbers.
Of course, the early church remembered this story and connected to the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus was lifted up and this sacrifice, offered salvation to those who believe.
I suppose that this is why this story is read during Lent, but the story from the book of Numbers has its own value. For this reason we have, as our symbol for today, a snake. There may be garter snakes around Nipawin or Codette but I think that in March they are fast asleep somewhere, so we had to make so with a rubber one. I remember buying a similar one for my oldest nephew when he was 5 or 6 and that he was quite happy to have it, for a time. I don’t think any of the snakes native to the Maritimes are dangerous; some people are just “creeped-out” by them!
Imported snakes are a different story. A little over ten years ago a massive python killed two boys in New Brunswick after escaping from its cage. The boys were visiting a friend for a sleep-over and that boy’s father owned a pet store that sold snakes. This snake does not bite, but is still deadly because it crushes its prey. The owner of the snake was eventually charged with criminal negligence but found not guilty by a jury.
Pause
The people of Israel were unhappy and grumbling. They wanted to have a much more direct route to their land of promise. They are like the whining back-seat passenger, “Are we there yet?” They wanted the milk and honey to flow immediately.
Many young children want to grow up, move out on their own and enjoy all the freedom of adulthood but when the young adult does move out they discover the freedom of paying rent, doing their job to the satisfaction of their employer, buying groceries and cleaning their apartment or house. They have to obey the traffic laws and the other laws of the land. They are free to eat potato chips for breakfast and chocolate bars for lunch, if that is their wish, but eventually most people discover that their parents knew far more than they thought and when they have their own children they realize how smart the old folks actually were.
So here we are, on a journey that is not quite what we thought it would be. Some of the things we are going through are exactly what we wanted; some are not. We can learn from Moses attempts to show the people under his leadership to appreciate the gifts of God they were receiving in the moment. Moses reminded them to trust in God’s goodness and to follow in faith.
Amen.
Jeremiah 31: 31-34
Psalm 51
John 12: 20-33
Seeding the Heart
I can smell spring in the air; it’s almost here. The sun has a real warmth to it and we can almost see what snow we did get disappearing before our eyes. There is nothing predictable about our weather this year. I don’t know if you are accustomed to a “St. Patrick’s Day storm or not! I was. Despite the warm days, it still goes well below freezing at night and all of the water on the sidewalks, and the water pooled at the ends of crosswalks, freezes, making the sidewalk and transitions to the cross walks a treacherous sheet of glib ice! Maybe the storm drains will thaw and the streets will dry up.
It will be time to seed in about a month or so. Even though farmers around here do not plow, harrow and disc their fields, seeding takes planning, time and money and whether the crop grows or not, it goes without saying that the seed you plant is gone. The farmer can’t get that specific seed back. A farmer could play it safe and store the seed, but there is no multiplication in that; there is no crop, there is no income.
Farming is risky business. When I was in a pre-teen, PEI was hit with an early summer hailstorm which destroyed the newly sprouted grain. I remember it because we were outside at a park taking “conservation” or “boating” depending on our swimming level, and it took what seemed like a very long time for the school busses to return and give us some shelter from the wind and rain. My dad drove around to have a look at the damage. Some partially constructed buildings were blown over, trees were uprooted and all kinds of other damage was done! Just about everyone had to sow their grain all over again.
I was at Pineview a few years ago, just before harvest season, and one of the residents, a retired farmer, said that many acres in the area he used to farm had been hit by a “plow wind.”
I used to pass by a large field on my way to and from one of the local hospitals and I saw that the field had a low spot that the farmer did not harvest. I thought that perhaps they tried and ended up with a stuck combine! The next year it was not planted, nor any year after that. It was just a triangular shaped chunk of the field, growing nothing but weeds.
Most of Jesus’ listeners, even those who did not have a direct connection to farming, would have understood the metaphors Jesus used as he preached about God’s kin-dom. No one but the very rich could be oblivious to these important activities of sowing and harvest.
In the passage I read a little while ago people, referred to as “some Greeks” came to Phillip and asked to see Jesus. Now, this is where it gets a little comical! He goes and finds Andrew so that they can approach Jesus together - but Jesus turns down the request. Perhaps if it was a request for healing it would have been granted to them but Jesus was busy. Jesus had only a short time to get his message out there. It was becoming very real. He knew that his time was short. He could read the writing on the wall; he knew the authorities had branded him as a troublemaker; like his cousin John before him, Jesus’ days were numbered.
So what does Jesus do? Well, essentially he tells a parable. It gives those Greeks something to chew on, I think! Of course, a seed must die to bear fruit. A grain of wheat has to die so that a harvest can happen. Traditionally this story has been interpreted to mean that Jesus is speaking of his own death. This is why the lectionary puts it in the middle of Lent.
Yet, I would like to look at it a little more deeply. When Jesus was living, his Bible was essentially what we have often called, the “Old Testament.” He had the Psalms and the prophetic writings as we do.
He had the book of the prophet Jeremiah and its beautiful images, images based on family relationships as they should be. He would have pondered the images of a caring God who despairs when the beloved turns away and stops following; stops caring; stops listening. How sad. God’s disappointment is so very human here. If we think of God in terms of love, can we think of God being hurt and disappointed?
The passage has God referring to his relationship with Israel as that ofa “husband”. Even though it was once good, by Jeremiah’s time, it was a relationship that has soured. We know that this happens. I think of young couples walking hand in hand along the beach, or on a path through the woods. I think of those who have known each other so long and so well that they can finish each others sentences. I think of couples holding hands and shedding a tear or two at a grandchild’s graduation or wedding. These couples know about their love being written on their hearts and their words and actions reflect this heart tattooing.
THEN, I think of those who are no longer speaking except through lawyers and I wonder where that love went; there are many reasons, but it is always sad. I think of the couples who looked into each other’s eyes so deeply during their vows that I thought they would never part, but they did and some, fairly quickly.
I was speaking with a woman in my congregation one day; I believe we were planning the baptism of her third, adopted child. She was telling me of a beautiful poem a friend had sent her - it was a woman’s words to her newly adopted child, and it basically said, “you did not grow under my heart, but you are growing in it.”
Of course being written in or on the heart is a metaphor - surgery of one kind or another had been around for at least 1,000 years before Jeremiah - but Jeremiah is not talking about actually tattooing a living, beating heart. Heart surgery has come a long way, even in my lifetime, but I don’t think anyone has seriously contemplated heart tattoos. I have seen some very extensive and detailed tattoos; there are some really skilled artists out there. I wonder though how Betty feels when she snuggles up to her new husband who has “I ♥ (heart) Veronica Forever” tattooed across his chest? You can get almost photographic quality skin art these days.
The older we become the more we understand the risks of love. Young people tend to think of love as brightness and light and its all very rosy and perfect. As we age we realize, from experience, that love is intertwined with pain and sadness. When our loved one rejoices, we rejoice with her; when our loved one despairs, we are with him in that emotion. When our child learns to tie her shoes we are as happy as she is. When a child’s heart is broken by a teenage quarrel we are sorrowing with him. The feelings are the opposite sides of the same coin. If you are in a marriage type relationship you are vulnerable to being hurt, not just by willful acts of your partner, but by life itself. Those of you who have lost a spouse to illness, or divorce, know this; its similar but different. Some people would shut themselves off from relationships which could leave them vulnerable but in so doing they shut themselves off from a joy which can transform the heart and the life.
In 1849, after the death of his best friend, from a brain aneurism, the great Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote these famous words:
“I hold it true, whate’er befall,
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.” (In Memoriam)
In one of the later Anne of Green Gables movies, Anne and Gilbert are married for mere days before Dr Blythe goes off to the Western Front to patch up the soldiers wounded in battle, so that they will be better cared for before they are sent home. He is reported as missing in action. Anne refuses to believe it, saying, “He must be alive. If he were dead, would I not know that in my heart?” As the movie goes, she goes to France and does find him well and treating the horrific injuries that are part of any combat. The movie does not follow the time line of the actual novels which are dated a generation earlier.
It seems clear to me that Jesus was challenging the Greeks to move from philosophy to action. Jeremiah is challenging his people to see just how invested God is in this relationship with the “Chosen People.”
The message is that God seeks us out. The message calls us to take the risks of being hurt for the greater good of knowing that we have helped to further God’s purpose of showing unconditional love to a weary and hurting world. In this world there is the promise and guarantee of a bumper crop.
Amen.
Mark 11: 1-11
Psalm 118
When we start considering the events of what we call, “Palm Sunday,” we need to consider the visions and assumptions people might well have had “in their heads” when they shouted, “Hosanna.” In what way was Jesus “saving them”, which is what the word, “Hosanna” means. First though, we need to look at what we know and assume about political power.
Everyone in Canada has an opinion about the government; everyone had an opinion about the last one and everyone will have one about the next one. There were plenty of people who had negative opinions about the Rt Hon Brian Mulroney when he was in office, but since he passed away recently, I have heard nothing but praise. I guess that is the benefit of being a dead politician!
If we are unhappy about the government, and enough people share our views, the government will change. Yet, there has to be more than just you! A few federal elections ago, the member who held the seat for the constituency in which I lived, faced a challenger whose main reason for running was that the incumbent had been there too long. The constituents did not agree; several elections later, person still has a seat in Parliament.
There was a great deal of coverage a few weeks ago about the so-called “election” in Russia. Of course, Russia is not a democracy and what just happened there is not what we would call an election. Everyone knew Vladimir Putin would “win.”
I don’t know the Canadian statistics on this matter but it is clear that only very wealthy people, with very wealthy friends, have a chance to sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.
Royal or political power looks very different depending on your own personal experience. If our “go-to example” is someone with the power of life or death over her subjects, we would see it very differently than those of us who live in a country where the death penalty has been abolished for almost 50 years.
The Holy Land, in the time of Jesus was certainly not a democracy. Ruled by Rome, sometimes through a puppet king, the people knew too well about power and its abuses. The entire system was stacked against common people. People such as fishermen and carpenters, as well as those who worked by the day, had no power even though they did all of the work by which the wealth was generated. Jesus, and his followers would be in that grouping.
The hope for a Messiah had been part of their culture for generations. When they heard or used the terms, “Messiah” and “King of the Jews” they would have thought of the legendary King David, who seemed to be the “go to” image of divinely guided power. Despite all of David’s flaws, and he had many, he was regarded as the “model” for their hopes. When David had been King they were a small but mighty nation. Their survival was a result of God’s favour! Their prophets drew a direct correlation between their faithfulness to their God and their independence and strength as a nation. Since their defeat by one larger and stronger power after another they longed for the good old days and wanted a leader to lead them to greatness once again. Their religious and political hopes were completely intertwined. There was no such concept of a separation between “religion and state.”
To Rome, Jesus was a dangerous force. These movements popped up from time to time and were quickly “dealt with”. Rome liked to keep the peace, not by winning the people’s hearts, but by ensuring that anyone who might lead any kind of opposition was taken out of the picture and the people who might have been tempted to follow were too afraid to say or do anything that might be considered treasonous.
I believe that Jesus, who knew the people saw him as this kind of Messiah, was actually trying to teach the people a different definition of the term. He based his own identity in the teaching of the prophets who had called the people back to the centre, back to the ways of God. Jesus did not want to become a King in that sense; he did not want to overthrow the government. Jesus’ centre was the counterintuitive one about the inside out world of strength being found in what seemed like weakness and wealth in whata seemed like poverty. His world was about the lion lying down with the lamb. His vision was about everyone having enough and the rich not taking advantage of the poor. In one gospel story he was told to silence his followers and he responded that “if he silenced his followers, the stones would cry out.” His vision was so strong and so right that the whole of creation was groaning to hear it.
A few years ago I read that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, on what we now call Palm Sunday, was not the only one that was happening that day. I read that, on the opposite side of the city, there were Roman legions, with horse drawn chariots and the other symbols of war in that era such as spear carrying soldiers. Such a display of force was meant to keep the peace during Passover, solely by the fear that this kind of power would instill.
So we are here in this church in Saskatchewan, waving Palm branches and holding in our hands a stone - as symbols of this journey of holy week- as symbols of that first holy week where the crowd went from “save us now” to calling out, “crucify him.” The question we need to answer for ourselves during Holy Week is how the people went from praise to crying for Jesus’ death in just a few days. This, of course, leads us to reflect on how we do that when the going gets rough. Reading these biblical stories is not just about past events, they are meant to shine a light on our own actions.
What is it, within us, that moves us away from our journey with Jesus - to going against him? If it was just about personal salvation; what is often called, “Pie in the sky by and by,” we would have no reason to turn away. But it’s not about that. When we realize how much our discipleship will cost, we may well be tempted to turn away or to limit Jesus to safe realms, such as the purely spiritual.
I don’t think that Jesus died because God designed a way to get generations of people not yet born, into heaven. He died because he came up against a power that would not tolerate anyone who challenged their power and their control and he was unwilling to compromise his vision of God’s rule.
When we limit religious devotion to the purely spiritual we forget that the abundant life that Jesus came to bring includes an experience of justice. When we allow it to become purely spiritual what we are really saying is that we do not care if the poor eat, if women have fair employment, if miners and construction workers have safe workplaces. We do not care if some people make an obscene profit at the expense of those whose work made that profit possible.
When we see the protests about the 1% taking so much of the money and the resources for themselves, we need to be able to see that as an affront to the Gospel not just a political reality we may want to oppose.
I give to the poor because of what Jesus was talking about. When I shout, “Hosanna,” I do so because I want to remind myself that the world in not just about the global West. When I when I look at what Jesus can do for me, I want to also think about how to use my power for those who live on the other side of the globe. How can I not think of the people who are suffering because of melting sea ice, eroding shorelines and climate change affecting so much. How can I not care that the West consumes a much larger share of what goes toward these emissions.
When I read John’s gospel about God so loving the world, I need to remember that John did not just mean the people of the world, or the powerful people of the world, or the Christian people, or even just “people”, but the whole of creation. And I say to myself, “If the God I meet in Jesus is concerned about the world, then I should be too.
In Lent, we come up against the cost of following. In life in general we come up against the cost of doing the right thing. While we cannot help everyone, by ourselves, Jesus did not call us “look after our own and no one else.” Jesus did not live in a democracy and probably could not have imagined the power we have in the ballot box; we must make our own bridges between his teaching and our actions - in worlds 2,000 years apart. I do not believe that “save us” should ever have meant, “save just us!!”
Whether we are living in a democratic country or not we are not called to support the aims of the powerful whose only goal is to run roughshod over people against whom the deck is stacked.
When we pray this lent, and this Easter let us not scream at God to feed the starving; or make justice a reality; let us hear the starving screaming at us, “Why are you letting this happen.”
The next move is ours.
Amen.