A Lenten Reflection

 

SERMON

March 10, 2024

John 3:14-21

Well, here we are right, smack in the middle of Lent, a time that demands consistent commitment to the tasks of reflection and repentance. Tasks that each of their own accord present enormous challenges both historically and in the present moment. Yet, however challenging, mandatory tasks for a Lenten journey in which we clear the decks for long periods of time to reflect on the ways in which we have succumbed to temptation and turned away from God. Time in which we reflect how we might resist the pull of temptation by turning to God for help and for forgiveness.

Time in which we begin to understand the true meaning of repentance.

In the Hebrew Bible repent means “to return,” especially “to return from exile.” The roots of the Greek word for repent mean “to go beyond the mind that you have.” To repent is to return from exile (falling away from God) and to embark on a way that goes beyond the mind that you have. A mind that has lost its focus on God.

So also, the ancient meaning of the word “believe” has a meaning quite different from our common understanding. “Believe” has to do with trust and commitment. “To believe in the good news,” means to trust that the kingdom of God is near and to commit to that kingdom.

Our Lenten journeys are the “time out” needed for our return from exile. These reflective times of prayer and repentance provide the possibility to go beyond the minds that we have. They provide the faith foundation that is absolutely necessary if we are to “believe” – to trust and commit to - the good news given to us so lovingly, so powerfully through the gift of the incarnation.

The gift of the good news proclaimed by Jesus whose teaching and healing offer us ways in which to return from exile, ways to go beyond the minds that we have. Ways in which it becomes so easy to attain God’s forgiveness, God’s love, God’s salvation. Ways in which to repent.

Today’s brief reading from Numbers tells a graphic story of repentance. The Israelites after 40 long years continue to wander in the desert wilderness. They are tired and hungry, fed up with the tasteless manna that they receive each day. They cry out to God, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food, no water, and we detest this miserable [manna].”

This disruptive anger causes God to react quickly and quietly. He sends venomous snakes to infest the camp. Many of the Israelites are killed by the poisonous snake bites. They are terrified and cry out to Moses, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.”

Moses gets to work praying for the people and, as always, God responds. He instructs Moses to “Make a poisonous snake and put it upon a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”

The people took heed. Whenever a snake bit them they rushed over to the pole and gazed up at the evil-averting bronze snake that had been attached to it, and they were cured. Some biblical interpretations speculate that the Israelites were in fact looking upward beyond the bronze snake to heaven. In any case, looking up at the bronze snake was the antidote to death. Those who were bitten were healed.

I am struck by the fact that in this story of salvation God did not remove the evil, death by snakebite; but he did provide the alternative to death, looking upward to the evil-averting bronze snake. An antidote of God’s making. The people had a choice. Death by snakebite, or belief in God’s almighty power to heal, to save.

Thousands of years later, John writes, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Does this sound familiar. The world is in trouble, in exile. People were living in exile and loving darkness rather than reaching for the light. God recognizes this and as a response sends the most unimaginable gift of his Son, Jesus. God provides a light that enters the world to dispel the darkness of exile. A light to illuminate ways of being that go beyond the minds of those in exile. Ways in which it becomes so easy to attain God’s forgiveness, God’s love, God’s salvation. Ways in which to repent and return to God.

“Those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” Those wandering in the desert of darkness now have a glorious alternative. The possibility of God’s forgiveness, God’s love, God’s salvation.

Look up. Return from exile and think in ways that go beyond the mind that you have. Have faith in the light of Christ.

But is this message of salvation just for us? For our personal benefit? I think not.

Many theologians agree that all Scripture is missional in nature. In other words, the Old Testament, the Psalms, and the New Testament each in their own way provide ample clues as to the ways in which we as Christians have been called first by God, and then by his Son, and now by the Spirit to be a missional people. A people generously spreading the light of Christ and the love and salvation offered by God to all those throughout the world who live in darkness

In his book Transforming Mission, David Bosch, one of the foremost mission theologians of the twentieth century wrote, “The classical doctrine of the missio dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit (is) expanded to include yet another “movement”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God…Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument of that mission…There is church because there is mission, not vice versa.” (pp.492-96)

God expects us to carry his light into the world. We are called to be a light to the world. A light that causes church to become church. As one of my colleagues so succinctly put it, “Unless we speak for God who else will speak.”

So, in these last few weeks of Lent as we reflect on our lives as Christians and consider ways in which we must repent if we are indeed to be the light of Christ in the world, I would encourage us to start by having a good look at the overwhelming needs of the world. A world that as Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, said last week “has come unhinged.” A world besieged by darkness. A world so very much in need of Christ’s light.

The war in the Ukraine has just passed the two-year mark. Over 10,000 people have been killed and as of the end of December 2023, 5.9 million refugees from Ukraine were recorded across Europe, most unsettled and awaiting the possibility of a return to their homeland.

The death toll in Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 30,000, roughly one person for every 73 who live in Gaza. The United Nations recently warned that famine is immanent for more than half a million of Gaza’s residents, and that one in six children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza is suffering from acute malnutrition. 

In Sudan 17.7 million people—37% of the population—are experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity. Hunger and starvation are a daily occurrence with over 13.6 million children urgently needing life-saving humanitarian assistance. Over 3 million children are facing severe acute malnutrition.

Climate change is contributing to humanitarian crises where climate hazards affect vulnerable populations. About 3.3 to 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change because of the location and circumstances in which they live.

Just here at home thirteen million children are food insecure and experiencing hunger. Homelessness in America spiked in 2022, reaching a record high of more than 650,000 people, all of whom were living in shelters or outside in tents or cars. 

There are millions upon millions of people who live and suffer in darkness, who need the light of Christ to illuminate the hope that can be generated only by being assured that they are loved by God.

What might our repentance this Lenten season look like then. We might ask the question, “In light of so engulfing a sea of darkness where is God’s mission, the church?”

I would suggest that prayer generated by a greater awareness of whatever it is we are praying for is a good start. Seizing upon a particular issue, reading a bit about it, talking to others about it, getting other points of view, and then developing a prayer based on educated awareness, compassion, and love. That is a good first step.

Of course, there are many other steps. But knowledge bred of educated awareness, continual self-reflection based in humility and the search for repentance, and prayer are a good place to start.