At the beginning of Passover Week in Jerusalem around 33 ace, Jews from around Jerusalem and from the whole Greek Roman world began gathering for Passover, in the City of David, the home of the Temple. Pontius Pilate, local Roman Ruler, called in Roman Army reinforcements to the city to police and control the crowds. From the West gate of the City, Pilate led an army of Roman soldiers in full battle dress, weapons on display, riding on war horses as a show of force to the City demonstrating Roman was in command. This Pilate did each year during his reign¹

Later, at the beginning of Passover week, Jesus came to town. We just re-enacted this entry this morning. Jesus rode in through the East gate of the City riding on a donkey, and a donkey colt, with his disciples following behind him. They and some of the crowd beside the street waved palm branches, symbols of “liberation” while others threw their cloaks on the road ahead of Jesus as a sign of jubilation and kingly respect. No army, no weapons, no war horses. Matthew notes that the Hebrew prophets of old foretold this very scene, donkeys and all, that this would be how the Messiah would enter Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9).

So, what is the symbolism here? Jesus rides donkeys. Donkeys were symbols of gentleness and humility, as opposed to Pilate riding in on a war horse, symbol of power and military might. Donkeys: Donkeys are gentle creatures, affectionate, cute, and rather funny to be around. Linda Blagg, who has two donkeys, says they can read your soul, and know your heart. They will do anything for you, unless you do something harmful or against their nature. Then they might kick you with their powerful hindquarters. Christians have noted that donkeys have the image of a cross in the fur on their back, a dark streak beginning at the mane, the cross-beam intersecting at the withers. They are much like Jesus himself. In all ways, the opposite of a war horse. The people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” The word “hosanna” once meant “save us” in Hebrew and Aramaic, but by Jesus’ day, it was reduced to a cheer, more like “yeah!”² We’re told the City was in turmoil because many did not know who Jesus was or what his entrance was all about.

Many people expected in Jesus the return of the great King David who would raise a great army and push the Roman army out of Israel and free the people, with the cloaks thrown on the road as if a red carpet, the great cheers for the great king.³ But there is no army and no weapons. Because, as Jesus has been teaching throughout his ministry, the Kingdom of God is about relationships, not Earthly governments and armies. Luke 10 and Matthew 22: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 7: “do not judge others.” Matthew 18: don’t forgive others seven times, but “seventy seven times.” Matthew 25: “Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you…., for I was hungry and you gave me food…thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…, naked and you gave me clothing…, sick and you took care of me…, in prison and you visited me.” Matthew 20: “whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant….just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

The Kingdom of God is not in the world’s governments, nations nor their leaders. The kingdom of God is in people who express love, grace, and forgiveness to others, who seek to meet the needs of others. The Kingdom of God is in groups of people who share love, grace and forgiveness with each other. The Kingdom of God is in those who experience God’s love and grace and forgiveness and are transformed by God. A nation or government and its leaders are only Christian to the extent that they act in love, grace and forgiveness, acting in accord with the nature of God, demonstrating Jesus’ presence. Our Churches are only healing and life giving to the extent we let God make a home in us. But, fortunately for all people everywhere and in every walk of life, God gives out love, grace, and forgiveness.

We are here in the Church today giving ourselves to that transformation, seeking the life altering presence of God who can take our self-centered and often damaged selves and make us the loving and gracious disciples of Jesus Christ, citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus did not come with an army to rid the world of other nation’s armies and power, but to transform people who would then transform their interactions with each other into love, grace and forgiveness, and who would behave that way in every area of their lives, be it family, business, government, or Church. Only then do our institutions begin to look like the Kingdom of God. Only then can wars stop being waged, only then can governments act as true servants to the needs of the people, only then will we treat all people with equality and dignity. Pilate’s Roman soldiers will not help create God’s work on Earth, nor any army. Laws generated in a
society not following the love of God will not bring safety and tranquility to the people. But, people transformed to love and grace Will !!

Today, Palm Sunday, and this week, Holy Week, connects us with the Creator of all existence, and God’s call to us to be in the Kingdom of God. A man riding on a donkey, serving the people in love, obedient to God, self-sacrificing, is the metaphor for the Kingdom of God.

AMEN…..

1 Men’s Bible Study, Saint Mark’s Episcopal, Little Rock
2 New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII, Matthew (M. Eugene Boring), pp. 402-403.
3 NIBC, Vol. VIII, p. 403

“I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. Whoever believes in me, though they were dead, yet shall they live; and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Amen. – from John 11.25-26

In spite everything the Holy Bible continues to stay near the top on the best seller list, and one of the reasons is that it is chocked full of good stories. Oral tradition was how ancient peoples preserved, and transmitted their highest tribal values to future generations. By telling and retelling Through stories, poetry, and song, each new generation was introduced to what was most important. Finally after centuries and with the advent of writing they came to be written down. The Gospels are great examples of how a good story carries a lot of freight.

The story of Lazarus is one of those great stories and once heard it’s almost impossible to forget. If you were giving it a title, a good one might be: “A Dress Rehearsal for the Resurrection from the Dead”
The story includes Jesus’ three close friends from the village of Bethany: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. They were all siblings and had been extremely helpful to Jesus and through ministry they became close friends.

This makes the opening scene so strange. Jesus receives word that his good friend Lazarus had taken ill and it was a serious situation. Rather than dropping everything and rushing to his rescue, he stays two additional days where he was and had this to say: “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.” How strange.

As the end of the two days Jesus suddenly tells his disciples that it’s time to go back to Bethany. He tells them that Lazarus was only sleeping, and that he was going to awaken him. How strange. This is all quite disturbing to the disciples especially since the last time they had been in Bethany the villagers had attempted to stone Jesus and his disciples to death. In characteristic style, Thomas casts an additional pall on the proceedings and said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

On the outskirts of town Martha intercepted Jesus to tell him not to bother with her brother, that Lazarus was dead. She who was freshly heartbroken had some pretty harsh words for Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (‘In other words, where the blank______ have you been!’) Have you ever been disappointed with God? Martha, although deeply disappointed in Jesus still held to a glimmer of hope and added:
“But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
Maybe, this worker of miracles might have one more miracle up his sleeve for her brother. Jesus seeing that she still has an ember of faith tells her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha agrees that Lazarus will finally be resurrected like all of the dead will be on the last day. Jesus says something strange:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Martha declares her faith in Jesus that he was more than a mere mortal:
“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
She runs back home tells her sister Mary that Jesus is just coming into town. Mary gets up quickly to meets Jesus and is followed by the villagers. She greeted him with the same disappointment of her sister Martha and said:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Grief, pain, and suffering where had Jesus been, why didn’t he come before Lazarus died? The deep disappointment is Jesus was real. Mary, along with those who had followed began to weep profusely! This greatly distressed and disturbed Jesus, he asked where they had laid Lazarus to rest, and then something happened that revealed the deep truth about Jesus that he was not only divine but human. We are told that Jesus was no demigod and untouched, the gospel tells us, “He was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” Then something extraordinary happens. Here the classic King James version of the bible reads just two words – “Jesus wept.” Jesus feels, Jesus suffers, Jesus loves. This moment when Jesus reveals his humanity and his great empathy for those in grief, is enshrined in the burial service of our prayer book which states:
Lord, you consoled Martha and Mary in their distress, draw near to us who mourn and dry the tears of those who weep. (BCP p.497)
Jesus, the human grieves, and thereby sanctifies all of our grief by his own, and is revealed by his weeping.
They walk to the tomb and Martha with an eye for detail and a keen sense of the obvious warns Jesus about the stench of Lazarus after four days of being dead. Again, the King James versions puts it poetically – “Lord, by this time he stinketh…” Jesus, a bit disappointed in Martha said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” The stone from the grave was then rolled away and the strong overpowering stench of death fills their nostrils – Jesus then calls out in a loud voice: “Lazarus come out.”

Lazarus slowly emerges covered in grave clothes embedded with aloes and spices and with his hands bound by bandages! The stench gives way to astonishment as the miracle is performed – Lazarus is very much alive! Jesus tells them to unbind him so that he can walk freely. Because of this great many believed.

Names were extremely important back in that day. Names often gave the person clues to their destinies. Guess what the name Lazarus means in Hebrew? “God Helped” I’d say Lazarus lived up to the prophecy that his name revealed.
What if God knows about the trouble of our lives – those situations that seem to have no solution and God appears to be silent on the matter. Maybe it has something to do with our intimate relationships, our finances or the lack thereof, or at school, or work, or something extremely personal that’s going on in our bodies.

As they say hindsight is 20/20, as we look at the conclusion of Lazarus’ story we can see God was working out the divine purpose for God’s glory. How might we apply this in our situations of trouble, distress, or grief?

Last week during the peace I was greeted by one of our children who handed me his artwork from children’s chapel it was a highly decorated word and one word only – Faith! What a reminder and I very much needed it that day!

Perhaps it’s time to use what little faith we have and believe in our great God, the God that is both human and divine, that feels all of our pain, and to trust that God + Our Difficulty = God’s opportunity to do something truly remarkable! Let it be Lord, let it be!

“For the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” – I Samuel 16.

As most of you know my wife Shannon serves in the VA health system as an Optometrist at Ft. Roots. Not only does she provide standard eyecare, she also is a “low vision specialist.” There are many reasons that her veterans have trouble seeing, some have diabetes, or have had a stroke, or have lost vision due to a combat related injury. She serves them faithfully, helping to provide treatments that improve their vision or provides them with the tools and technology to make the most of the vision they have left. Shannon is a tour de force, a source of healing, and sees to it that our veterans’ eyes stay healthy and that they are able see with the maximum vision possible.

In our readings for today we see the trouble when we have trouble seeing. They reveal to us that there is more than one way to see and more than one way to be blind – physically and spiritually.
In today’s gospel we see Jesus, the Great Physician, bringing healing to a man that was born blind. He does this by making a poultice, with dirt and saliva, and he then anoints the man’s eyes with this and then gives him a prescription, sending him to go and wash his eyes in a particular pool of water near Jerusalem called Siloam – Siloam literally means “sent.” Jesus who was sent from God, sends the blind man to the waters to wash, and as he obeys, he is instantly healed of physical blindness.

On the heels of this great miracle, we see the specter of another kind of blindness – spiritual blindness. The pharisees show us the underbelly of organized religion where they get hung up by a couple of things, religious pedigree and the law. First, Jesus wasn’t not properly trained (in other words trained by them) and second, Jesus made his poultice on the Sabbath Day, which meant that he had violated the sabbath by doing work. Bono of the rock group, U2 described this unhealthy form of religion when he said, “[unhealthy] religion is what happens when Jesus leaves the building.”

Rather than rejoicing with the healed man and his family, they reject Jesus and start an argument calling into question the man’s healing, denigrating the dubious source of an upstart rabbi from the sleepy hamlet of Nazareth, who dared to heal on the Sabbath day. Spiritual blindness blinds us to the miracles of life that are often standing right in front of us. The pharisees hold an angry meeting and then decide to have another go at the man and his family:
“So, for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man [Jesus] is a sinner.”  He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

For the man born blind, the proof was in the pudding, or shall I say, in the poultice, he was on cloud nine and was mystified as to why anyone, much less religious folk, were unable to rejoice with him! He not only had his physical sight restored but his spiritual vision as well – he could now clearly see God, those around him, and himself.

In our reading from the Old Testament, we see a kind of blindness of judgment that causes us not to be able to see each other. Strangely the cause of this kind of blindness was due to family rules and roles. How strange that sometimes it’s those who are the closest to us that have the hardest time seeing us for who we really are.

King Saul, had failed in his calling to lead the people of Israel, and God desired to give his people a new king, from the house of Jesse. So, God alerts the prophet Samuel to God’s plans and he is sent to the House of Jesse to anoint the man of God’s choosing. Samuel shows up and lets it be known that God intends to select a new king from among his sons. Jesse had eight sons and one by one they are presented to the prophet who is listening ever so closely to the Spirit, and he keeps hearing “no, that’s not the right one.” These guys sure looked the part and had clout and standing in the family but each time they were rejected by the prophet. Samuel gets to the end of the line of sons and asks is this all of your sons? Jesse reluctantly says well yeah, my youngest son David, is out tending the sheep. To the surprise of everyone, Samuel asks them to bring David to him. He is the runt of the litter with a baby face and Samuel receives divine confirmation that this is the chosen one. On the cover of your bulletin there is a rendering of the moment when Samuel takes out a hollowed-out horn filled with anointing oil, a blend of olive oil and aromatic spices and pours it one the head of David. Look at the faces of the brothers, some are aghast, some have looks of disgust and a couple of them can’t even bare to look – spiritual and physical blindness.

Of all of Jesse’s eight sons, God picks the youngest, with the least experience, the runt of the litter, who wasn’t even considered to be in the running, sent by his father to the fields to tend sheep. His family looking on his outward appearance saw him only as the runt, not even in the running, but when God looked at him, God saw the future ruler of his people:
“For the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward
appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” – I Samuel 16.

Short of a miracle there is no cure for physical blindness; spiritual blindness, and the blindness of judgment are curable but we must ask for that cure and the grace to see as God sees ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. Our God, who is known as the Good Shepherd and the Great Physician stands ready to heal and to lead us toward a more loving, compassionate, and abundant life.
Let us Pray:

Gracious God, open the eyes of our hearts to see the immense, unwavering love You have for each of us. Remove the scales of doubt, insecurity, and shame that blind me to my identity as Your beloved child. 

Lord, open our eyes to see others through Your eyes. Help us to look beyond surface appearances, differences, or faults, and to recognize Your beauty and potential in every person we encounter.

 Give us grace to see the world as You see it—full of Your grace and possibilities. Let Your love be the filter through which we see ourselves, our neighbors, and the brokenness of the world, that we may be instruments of Your peace and compassion. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”¹

1 https://www.google.com/search?q=prayer+for+open+eyes+and+open+hearts+to+see+God%27s+love+for+ourselves+and+others&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS701US701&oq=prayer+for+open+eyes+and+open+hearts+to+see+God%27s+love+for+ourselves+and+others&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCjE4MTEzajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBZZx6reT9LmD8QWWceq3k_S5gw&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ:
inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection;
who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen. – The Book of Common Prayer p.816

One hot day in a middle eastern town called Sychar, a meeting took place between two people who couldn’t have been any more different. Jesus was a single, Jewish, male and a rabbi. The ‘other’ was a woman of mixed race called a Samaritan (a person who was half Jewish and half Arab). Jesus had been walking in the desert heat and was physically tired and thirsty, and sat down by a well. It was noon and suddenly a single woman appears to draw water from the well. Jesus asks her for a drink of water.

The first problem is that meetings like this between one man and one woman weren’t allowed in either Jewish or Samaritan cultures. The second problem is that Jews weren’t supposed to have any contact with a Samaritan and weren’t to touch them or anything that had been touched by them, so drinking or eating would have been a huge taboo. Knowing all of this made the shock of Jesus asking her to give him a drink even more startling. So already in this encounter we have a couple of strikes against anything positive coming out of this meeting. First you have the gender difference male and female. Second, you have the racial issue one a Jew the other of mixed race. And there was a third strike – a huge one, the woman was immoral and rejected by her own people. We know this because Samaritan women of good repute travelled as a group to the well to draw water in the morning, in the cool of the day. The woman standing before Jesus was coming at noon, in the heat of the day, and travelling by herself the sign of her status as an outcast.

As the author Richard Rohr puts it “Jesus knew how to break the rules in the right way.” The relationship is what mattered to him, he knew that this woman of Samaria was greatly loved and valued by God, he wanted to be able to share this great love, and for this he was willing to break all the rules of society. He was willing to cross the gender barrier, he was willing to cross the racial barrier, and he was willing to cross the sin barrier of her moral failings to make a connection of eternal proportions. Jesus’ crossing of the divides had made both of them vulnerable to the censure of both of their cultures. Jesus revealed the divine knowledge that she had a thirst beyond physical water but like all humans she had the need for living water that alone could satisfy the thirst of her parched soul.

In his presence thousands of years of prejudice melted away and what was left was a person made in the image of God. Jesus saw her, the real her that went beyond her gender, race, or religious status – the woman who was thirsty for the love and unconditional acceptance of God. Jesus let her know that he knew of her moral failings, she had been married five times and the man she was currently with was not her husband. Jesus knew all of this about her and more and still he saw her as God’s beloved daughter.

This wonderful meeting is then disturbed by Jesus’ disciples showing up and they are disturbed to find him alone with a Samaritan woman, but oh what transformation had occurred. She seizes the moment of interruption to take her leave back to the city center where she tells all who would listen:” Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” inviting the townsfolk to come and experience Jesus for themselves. As Episcopal priest, Kathleen Miller notes, “By her faith, her willingness to engage in spiritual dialogue and to believe in the abundant life Jesus offers her, the woman at the well emerges from the image of a thirsty, careworn outcast, to a hopeful evangelist!” Jesus had done for her what Jesus will do for anyone who’s willing to sit in his presence and listen, and to make ourselves vulnerable enough to receive the living water.
There is a powerful hymn in our hymnal written by Brian Wren, that we will be singing a bit later, that describes the Way of Christ in the world:
When Christ was lifted from the earth, his arms stretched out above
Through every culture, every birth, to draw an answering love.

Still east and west his love extends and always near or far,
He calls and claims us as his friends and loves us as we are.

Where generation, class, or race, divide us to our shame,
he sees not labels but a face, a person, and a name.

Thus freely loved, though fully known, may I in Christ be free
To welcome and accept his own as Christ accepted me.¹

We, dear friends are living in a divided world, one that is divided by differences of gender, race, socio-economic status, by religion and politics – and for all of these differences we are bombarded by various labels to stereotype them all turning a world of “We” into a world of “Us vs. Them.” This is not, was it ever the way of Jesus his way has been and always will be – love. Amen.

1 Wren, Brian A. “When Christ is lifted from the earth” The Hymnal 1982 (Church Publishing: New York) p.603

3:16

3:16…Sounds kind of like a secret code.
Our Scripture reading today ends with one of the most well-known Scriptures in the Bible Belt, John 3:16. You can drive down most rural highways in Arkansas and see this Scripture referenced only by its number John 3:16 or just 3:16 displayed on large and small signs, and everyone knows it refers to the Scripture we read today. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (vss. 16-17 NRSV). But, Nicodemus is about to show us this fact is not so easy to grasp.

Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee (we are told) went to Jesus in secret at night to talk with Jesus. Nicodemus, among other things, tells Jesus he realizes Jesus must have come from God in order to be able to do the things Jesus has been doing. Jesus responds, “Nicodemus, you have to be born from above in order to see the kingdom of God.” According to commentator Gail R. O’Day, the Greek word used here (anothen) requires two meanings in English to get the true meaning of this Greek word, “born again” and “born from above or, born anew.”¹ Part of the word is physical, and part is spiritual. Nicodemus is confused and does not understand. He hears one of the meanings, born again, to which he asks Jesus how might it be possible to enter the mother’s womb and be born again. Jesus tries to explain in three different ways what this means. He uses a second image, “you must be born of water and Spirit,” meaning we are born into a physical body but we also are reborn into a spiritual body. That doesn’t take either. So, Jesus tries a third image, being born again/ from above is like the wind/spirit. The Spirit of God fills us like the wind which you can feel but not see, experience but not control. Jesus is saying that entering the kingdom of God requires a complete reworking of our minds and emotions, and God manages the transformation.

It reminds me of the famous Dicken’s story, “A Christmas Carol” with Scrouge being the character transformed. Scrouge is portrayed as a self-centered, selfish, self-serving, mean-spirited man who uses people in his village and who work for him for his own personal gain. And the poor he wants out of his way: “are there no poor houses to put them away in”? “If they are sick, let them die and be done with it. It will reduce the surplus population.” Then during the night of Christmas Eve, he encounters the three spirits, and in the process, Scrouge is transformed into a caring, thoughtful, kind and generous man who suddenly experiences compassion for the poor, the sick and for his fellow villagers.² He was “born again” into a completely different person, “born anew” with a totally transformed spirit. Oh, we humans so love a story where mean and hurtful people change into loving, generous people, though we would like them to suffer a bit first.

Jesus will go on to say that this transformation is totally God’s gift to us because of God’s love for us. Jesus as God’s only Son is sent here as God’s gift of love to remake us into people ready for the kingdom of God, to die for us to complete the mission. This love is so radical that it is pure gift to us requiring only that we absorb the love into ourselves. Once this is done, God redesigns our minds and hearts as loved and loving people. Now we are born again/born anew and become citizens of the kingdom of God, first here on Earth where we help God bring love into the world and serve each other and the community, and then continuing on into God’s eternity once we leave human life.

So what do we act like or look like once this transformation is being performed? Paul, in his First Letter to the Church in Corinth, takes a stab at describing what people living in God’s love act like and look like in chapter 13: we become receivers of God’s love, and are made new into people who then love as Jesus does. That is, we become patient with people, we are kind to each other, we are not envious of each other (not of what they have or of their status in the community), we are not boastful or arrogant or self-promoting. We are not rude to each other. Instead of selfish or self-serving, we don’t insist that we get our way or that things must be our way. And, we are not irritable or resentful. We are truthful, we don’t engage in wrongdoing. In love, we bear the troubles of others, we believe in the good of others. And our love endures when others let us down (1 Cor. 13: 4-7). Not there yet?

Born again has been made out to be a possession we own, and a once and done thing. But this transformation is an ongoing deed by God in us, and God keeps us company while he continues this work.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not parish but may have eternal life.”

1 The Gospel of John by Gail R. O’Day. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX Luke John, pp. 546-555.
2 Dickens, Charles. “A Christmas Carol.”

Scripture readings are from NRSV.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Amen.
• James 1.2-4 New Revised Standard Version

All who desire to be priests in the Episcopal Church must go through a lengthy period of discernment, under the authority of the bishop. If a decision is made to greenlight going forward towards ordination, the pace really picks up. My house had to be sold, much of what had been inside had to be liquidated, and what remained was squeezed into a Pontiac Grand Prix and a U-Haul trailer. I was now ready to make the journey of about 986 miles from Arkansas to Alexandria, VA where I would attend seminary for three years.

I had been called out of a comfortable career, home, town filled with friends and family to go and live three miles from our nation’s capital just one year after 9/11. On the way up there my car began overheating – it was discovered that I had too much trailer for too little of a car. Somehow I made it without burning the transmission or engine up. But that was just the first of many more trials that would follow in the three years ahead, and I would have to pass most of them in order to become a priest in the Episcopal Church.

Jesus had just been transfigured on a mountain with three of his closest disciples and the very voice of God had declared him to be God’s beloved Son. That makes these next words in scripture all the more troubling: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” How could this be that the Holy Spirit of God would be leading the beloved Son of God right into the jaws of temptation? Even though Matthew tells us that the devil would be the one doing the tempting it was still the Holy Spirit that was doing the leading. Why? That doesn’t seem to me to be a very loving thing to do! In order for him to be able to help and comfort human beings undergoing temptations of various kinds he himself would have to face down the spine tingling and visceral temptations common to humanity.

But this is where we need a bit of help translating what Jesus’ temptations were. Most of us aren’t tempted to make bread, and even if we were why would that be a bad idea, especially if we were hungry? Most of us are never tempted to climb the Empire State building and throw ourselves off of it, and lastly devil worship has not ever held much attraction so how do we relate these tests to our modern-day experience?

One spiritual writer Fr. Thomas Keating has made a pretty good attempt. He looks at the temptations of Jesus as overarching categories that all of our individual sins would fall under. He calls sin our attempt to meet our own emotional needs apart from God. These needs are for survival/security; affection/esteem; and power and control. With these needs in mind Jesus’ three major temptations begin to make more sense. He was tempted to make stones into bread. He had been fasting almost forty days and was absolutely famished by making bread he could save himself and survive without any help from God. His second temptation, to jump off of a high tower so that angels would be forced to break his fall was a temptation for affection/esteem – Look how spectacular Jesus is by doing something dramatic he could gain the affection of the crowds. The last temptation when Jesus was most vulnerable the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him a vision of all the kingdoms of the world and said that these could all be his if he would simply fall down and worship him. This struck Jesus to his core as he was tempted to seize power and control I don’t think any of us around here have any power or control needs – do you? All of these temptations hearken back to the garden and Adam and Eve when the devil said “if you would eat of the fruit you’ll be like god.” Thankfully for us Jesus passes his tests with flying colors each time by quoting scripture, decisively countering each satanic offer to find his identity in his own power and ability rather than living life dependent upon God.

The folks in twelve step recovery groups have an acronym that helps explain our problem E – G – O (Ego) Edging God Out. We each are born with two selves a true self made in the image of God that seeks God’s will and a false self that seeks our own will to meet our own needs and to find our identity in our accomplishments rather than in our relationship with God as God’s children. The problem with trying to meet our needs on our own is that the needs then turn into bottomless pits and there is never enough! There is never enough security, never enough affection or esteem, never enough power and control. Each time we get some of these we think if I just had a little bit more – we get some more and again happiness escapes us.

Jesus was led into an ambush not to destroy him but destroy any chance of a false self taking over his true divine self and identity as the Son of God. He didn’t have to prove anything he was already 100% safe and secure, he was already accepted and loved, and thanks to the Father, all power and control was already his as a gift. He knows what we are going through, he knows how to comfort us when we are being tempted to act independently from God.

The character in Chinese for the English word crisis takes two words and puts them together, danger, and opportunity. Jesus’ crisis of temptation occurred as the Spirit led him into the wilderness and it was a dangerous opportunity. Being fully human as well as divine he could have flunked the test but God was rooting for him and he chose wisely. What is your crisis – your dangerous opportunity that God is leading you into – not to break you – but to make you more fully a trusting child who is more convinced than ever that life is not a set of commodities to be grasped after or a title to be earned but that God knows your needs and that your identity, your very life is a gift to be received, Amen.

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered: Make us, we pray, deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days. – From The Book of Common Prayer p. 504

Each year churches all over the Anglican Communion engage in a counter-cultural practice known as Lent. Lent comes from the old English word “lencten” which means “to lengthen” and points toward the days getting longer as we move toward Easter. Lent lasts for 40 days and our prayer book rather than trying to define what the season is, spells out what Lent looks like ‘on the ground’ by listing categories of religious practice: “by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.”¹

Now growing up as a Southern Baptist I had never heard of Lent until I was in high school. Prior to that the only “lint” I knew about was spelled L-I-N-T and had been something you pulled out of the clothes dryer filter or your belly- button. But upon entering high school I noticed how each year after Groundhog Day my friends from other denominations kept asking one another what they each were giving up for Lent, things like chocolate, deserts, or movies. I thought why would someone ever want to give up chocolate?!

On the other hand, about this same time each year we in the Baptist church and other denominations would begin to prepare for something known as the “Spring Revival.” This would be where a travelling Evangelist would come to town for a week or two and we would have church every night. Fiery sermons were delivered with themes such as the “end-times” and based upon the Book of Revelation. At the end of the sermon and generally scared half to death many would come down front for the altar call to make sure that they would make it to heaven and avoid hell.

Years later as a budding Episcopalian I discovered the season of Lent and was a bit worried when I found out that it lasted more than a couple of weeks but 40 days, no less. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the emphasis was not so much about fear tactics as it was about our moving away from an ego-centric life toward learning to live a more Christ-centered life. In fact, it wasn’t about demeaning ourselves it was about becoming our best selves, our true selves – the person God had intended for us to be all along.

Not to mention there was a cool ritual where ashes were smeared on people’s foreheads in the shape of a cross and were reminded that life was short and that we all would be turning to dust sometime in the not-so-distant future. This ritual known as the “imposition of ashes” was an ancient practice that served to remind us, as it has everyone else who has gone before that not only life is precious but our lives are precious and all of our days are numbered- it really matters how we live our lives.

We are not ordered to repent and engage in spiritual disciplines out of fear– but by Love. We’re simply invited, invited to allow the Great Physician to examine us and see what may be going on in our lives that needs to change so that the light of Christ can shine ever brighter and using a musical metaphor, where we are enabled to sound our best and truest note! We aren’t forced or shamed into doing anything unless we choose to. Anything that we give up during this season is not to punish us but to help us make room for the Spirit to work at a deeper level in our lives.

Think about all the flowers that are currently just seeds or bulbs underground, or buds locked in the sap of trees just waiting for the right soil temperature and just enough increase in sunlight that will create the right conditions for their buds and blossoms to appear and emerge. Green blades breaking through the soil will soon appear, some daffodils have already begun to show themselves.

The Lenten journey is about our cooperation with God’s operation of bringing our spiritual lives into bloom! Through spiritual practices like fasting, prayer, spiritual reading, special instructional classes, meditation, and devotions like the Stations of the Cross, we seek in the church to provide an atmosphere that creates an environment conducive to our growth in grace. Our Wednesday evening study in Lent this year is entitled: Spiritual Guidance in an Age of Anxiety. We will be inventorying and practicing spiritual practices that are available to guide us higher, deeper, and closer in our friendship with God.
Fasting, for example, is not just refraining from eating, (and some people due to health conditions can’t fast from food) but, we can all fast/take a break from television, social media and doom scrolling. If you don’t believe that you have the time, just take a look at how much screentime we are spending each week on our phones. By taking a break there, some of us have several hours a week to add some spiritual disciplines into our schedules.

Try spending some extra time with God and just being open and allowing the Holy Spirit to act. We won’t regret it!

As we ponder the Spirit’s work of renewal in our lives I leave us with a quote from the 19th cen. novelist George Eliot:
“It’s never too late to become what you might have been.”² Happy Lent!

1 The Book of Common Prayer p.265
2 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgeelio161679.html

Jesus’ Transfiguration And Our Hope

The scripture we just read is for us known as The Transfiguration of Jesus. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell this story, but today we’re looking at Matthew’s telling. Six days before this, Peter declared that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Mtt. 16: 16). Now six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain “by themselves.” Right in front of them, Jesus is “transfigured” and described as his face “shining like the sun,” his clothes becoming “dazzling white.” Then they see Moses and Elijah suddenly appear with Jesus, and the three are talking together. It startles and overcomes the disciples, and Peter begins to explain that he should make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. While saying this, God interrupts. A bright cloud suddenly comes over them, and a voice from the cloud directed at the disciples says, “this is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him.” They are so filled with fear that they fall to the ground. Jesus comes over and touches them and tells them, “get up and do not be afraid.” They become aware that Moses and Elijah are gone and its only Jesus with them. On the way down the mountain, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone what happened until after his resurrection. Once down from the mountain, Jesus now turns toward Jerusalem. Until this moment, Jesus has been preaching, teaching and healing around Galilee, but now he turns toward Jerusalem. What will await him there is his death on a cross and God resurrecting him to life again.

With that about to face him, he goes up a high mountain probably with the intention of praying with God about this next phase of ministry that will end in his crucifixion and resurrection. While Matthew does not say what Jesus and the spiritual figures talk about, Luke says they discussed Jesus coming death and resurrection (Luke 9: 31). Jesus was consulting with the saints who had been tasked with God’s redemptive work until Jesus would finish it. Perhaps they were discussing strategies, perhaps Jesus was gaining moral support with God’s best. But the defining moment is Jesus’ transfiguration, the shining face and dazzling white clothes, demonstrating the enormous spiritual power being gathered here in Jesus.

Matthew wants his readers to understand that when Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus, it demonstrates that all the meaning of the law and the prophets of Jewish history are being fulfilled in Jesus’ coming, and with the addition of God’s voice in the cloud calling Jesus his Son, Jesus is in fact the Messiah, the Son of God that Jews have been waiting for who will free them. (1) Moses and Elijah are the great heroes of Jewish faith, and Jesus is here visibly seen by the three disciples talking with their Spirits. That Jesus takes the three disciples along may indicate Jesus’ desire to have additional company (he asked them to be supportive of him with their presence in the Garden before his arrest). Maybe he anticipates Moses’ and Elijah’s visit and wants the disciples to experience it.

What the disciples get, like God gave Moses in the burning bush, is God’s voice out of the brilliant shining cloud as God tells them Jesus is his Son, and they need to listen to him. It so terrifies them that they can’t stand and fall to the ground. While this is transfiguration for Jesus, it is transformation for the disciples….and for us. Jesus is going to ask the disciples to love God with everything they are and to love each other in the same way Jesus loves them. They are going to be asked to serve humanity in the same way Jesus does. But right now, serving God with such love is beyond them, as they are so terrified by God that they can’t keep their feet. They aren’t ready to put their needs, desires and lives on the line. A transformation by God’s Spirit will be necessary for their future tasks. And what is the first response by Jesus toward the disciples’ plight? He comes over and “touches” them, reassures them to not be afraid. Jesus in this moment dispenses with his own experience, and tenderly tends to the disciples. “Don’t be afraid.” And this is where our story also begins.

Yesterday, at the Arkansas Diocesan Convention, we were reminded (by The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton) that Episcopalians understand our transformation into disciples of Jesus Christ as a “slow burn.” Jesus leads us through a life of continual transformation over time from Baptism into being people of God’s love. While we begin as self-focused ego centered people, marred in pain and suffering and neediness who look for others to meet our needs, we who have trouble sacrificing ourselves even for those closest to us and most loved by us, Jesus transforms us into self-sacrificing, loving, caring, self-giving people not only to our families, and not only to our fellow Church members, but also to strangers and hurting people in our community, well even to people who don’t like us or treat us well.

Now, it’s not a smooth ride this transformation. We often get filled with anxiety trying to live in this world. And we can become terrified of life, and like the disciples on the mountain, become completely immobilized. We can hurt those we love and let each other down. But by God’s Grace surrounding us, our transformation still progresses.

We were also reminded yesterday at the Convention by Bishop Harmon that taking up our cross as Jesus asks us to do will require some hard work. We will have to face parts of ourselves that are not too pleasant, and we’ll have to ask for forgiveness from those we love and from God more than once. Working for God to follow what Jesus commands us to do— to work for peace, to end the hatred that gives life to the evils of our day and which destroys people’s lives while ourselves resisting the seductions of those evils may put us in harm’s way or cause us to sacrifice things we would rather not.

But that’s what the Church is for. Jesus gives us each other to do the hard things together, to encourage each other, to support each other, to cry together, to laugh together. Jesus says like he said to the disciples, “here, let me help you up; don’t be afraid.”

O Lord, grant us your grace, to take up our calling to be salt and light in a tasteless and darkened world, that your name may be glorified. Amen.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Super Bowl where the New England Patriots will face the Seattle Seahawks. I intend to be a passive observer. I’m going to make myself comfortable in my climate-controlled house on my cozy couch with all the snacks my wife bought. I won’t be upset if they fumble and I won’t have to gripe when I think the call by the referees was wrong. Regardless of the outcome I will go to bed and sleep like a baby – and why? Because quite frankly, I don’t have any skin in the game. Neither team is my team, I like Kansas City and they’re not playing today. It’s really easy to simply be a spectator.

I’m sure there were lots of observers and even admirers of Jesus that’s why periodically he would say something quite peculiar, “For those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” ‘Why, doesn’t everybody have ears?’ For those with ears those who were paying attention realized that he was issuing a call to participate. Jesus had the most skin in the game and he called those who would follow him to get off of the literal and metaphorical couch and to join him on the field and get their skin in the game.

Last week we were introduced to Jesus’ most famous and greatest sermon his sermon on the mount. This week we are given more from that sermon where we learn that Jesus not only wants us down on the field but he has real positions so we can play an active role. Jesus tells us, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…” Notice he didn’t say try harder to be salt and light he said you are the salt and the light.

What’s all the salt and light about. Both of these things seem to be abundantly available and in the case of salt it’s cheap and easily accessible. But this was not always the case. Back in the first century salt was much harder to come by and was a vital element and it was very expensive. So much so that part of a Roman soldiers pay was paid in salt rations. Thus, the English word “salary” has the same Latin root as salt and why employers have referred to some of their employees as “not being worth their salt.” And of course we have all used the phrase, “they are the salt of the earth” to describe someone’s good character.
So, what is Jesus telling when he says we are salt of the earth? Salt is an element that doesn’t exist for itself alone, but is designed to go with something else, to enhance flavor, retard spoilage, and preserve and purify foods and even to heal wounds.

Salt makes things taste better – just ask anyone who has ever had to be on a salt-free diet. There are many salt substitutes but none of them really come close to the flavor of real salt. Just a small amount added to a pot of stew or chili will make it come alive with flavor. Salt enhances, purifies, and preserves; and that is what the life of a real Christian out in the world is supposed to bring. Anglican author and theologian N.T. Wright noted that Christians are to, “bring out the “God-flavors” in the world, serving as a preservative and a refreshing influence in a broken [and unsavory] society. Salt is a strong element but it is vulnerable to losing its flavor. Jesus warned, “but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
Salt is vulnerable to being diluted by moisture. When Christians have the same morals and values of the culture around them and allow themselves to be ‘watered down,’ then they can lose their ability to make a difference. Rather than influencing the world, the world is influencing the Church. When people say the church is irrelevant this might just be the reason, the salt has lost its zest and has ceased to be an influence upon society.

A second position Christ calls his followers to is that of being the light of the world. Jesus is the ultimate Light and as his followers we carry his light out into the world. Rather than cursing the darkness we are called to light a candle and set it high on a hill where it can be seen. When the world shows hatred and spews venom, we show love and practice kindness, when the world is in the doldrums of despair, we raise the standard of hope, where darkness flourishes the light of Christ shines through his people. But the light we are given is also susceptible to being hidden out of our fear of being different and not wanting to stick out from the majority.
But as one author put it, “the world doesn’t read the Bible but Christians do, and Christians are the only bible some will ever read.”

Let us not lose our saltiness by watering down the gospel truth or hiding our light by fitting in with the culture around us. Let us stope admiring, and watching from a distance but may we step down from the bleachers and join Jesus on the field where the world needs us to be actively bringing the salty God -flavors of hope, truth, and light to our fractured world.

St. Francis that great 13th cen. saint shows us the way by his life and prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.