Second
Sunday of Lent Year C - March 13, 2022
On television this week, I saw Batman Begins. Gotham was Batman’s town and it was
wicked. The man who trained Batman,
claiming to have a higher purpose, infiltrated the corruption so as to
completely destroy the town. Batman
intervenes. He says, “there is still
good here”, and “It can still be saved”.
These statements are echoes our scriptures and the hearts of the Prophets
who have laid down their lives in an effort to bring the people back to God.
Our Gospel reading shows the heart of Christ, similar to our
Batman narrative, and his desire to save.
The words of Jesus are; “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …. How often have I
desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her
wings, …!”
We know that Christ, laid down his life, not just for the
city of Jerusalem, but for the world. As the followers of Christ, we are those who
live in God and God lives in us. Therefore
there is an element in each of us, calling us to have this same heart for our
community?
However, we are the “Me” generation. Well maybe not you specifically – or even me
specifically, but we live in the “Me” generation. We live in a community which has more in
common with Gotham and Jerusalem than we might like to admit. The “Me” generation is a little like the
yeast of the Pharisees… beware of it
because it can easily grow and increase in our lives without us even realizing.
In our Gospel story some Pharisees were actually trying to be
helpful. They warned Jesus to leave and
save himself. But Jesus was not infected
by the “Me” generation. And there we
were thinking that the “Me” generation was something new. It is not.
It has always been there. It was
there in the beginning when Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. That was, counting themselves as the most
important…. Afterall… surely it is a good thing to eat that fruit and better
oneself!
The interesting thing about the warning of the Pharisees, is
that they were warning Jesus to save himself and yet Jesus actual mission was
to die. Jesus states, “'Listen, I
am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third
day I finish my work”. The work
of Jesus was to bring forth the Kingdom of God.
In casting out demons and curing ills, he was declaring his authority,
but “on the third day” is a symbolic reference to the completion of his
ministry, inferring his death, which is exactly why he would return to
Jerusalem. Jesus’ ministry involved
ultimately laying down his life for the world, in order to save us and to bring
us into a right relationship with God. We
have a right relationship with God because of the sacrifice of Jesus, but
Abraham was also declared to be righteous – in a right relationship with
God.
Our reading from Genesis holds that statement that is
repeated in the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him
as righteousness. Therefore, this is an
important account, which we need to understand.
There are many who say that they believe in God, but there is
a difference in ”believing God”. Many
who believe in God, have little to do with him other than to state that they
do. Believing God, implies a
relationship and consequent actions. Do
you see the difference? I can believe in
my Husband… Believe he exists and still have no relationship with him. To say that I believe him, means that I have
spoken with him and heard what he said and will act in accordance. I have a one on one relationship with him.
Abraham had a relationship with God his whole life, but for
some reason this action of belief rendered him righteous. The message that Abraham believed was that
he, with a barren and aging wife, was going to be the father of many. God said it, Abram believed it. I don’t understand it, except to say that it
wasn’t anything that Abraham did, but God’s love and grace. Abraham is considered the father of our faith
because his righteousness is not based on something he did, but instead it is
based on the action of, declaration by, and promise of God in response to
Abraham believing God.
If you think that to be righteous you need to have complete
faith and never doubt – read on – God told Abraham that his children would own
a great amount of land, but Abraham wanted God to prove that this would happen
– And so, God made a covenant with Abraham. This covenant involved five animals, three of
which were three years old. Three of
these animals were cut in half but not the birds. What is going on here?
The first animal is a heifer.
According to the research that I have done, a heifer was used as a
sacrifice to purify people who had become unclean due to coming in contact with
a dead body. Figuratively, to be
cleansed from our mortality – cleansed from the fact that we are finite and
will die. The next was a female goat,
which signifies life giving. Next was
the ram, signifying Christ himself, the sacrifice for sin. Then the turtle dove
and the pigeon signifying the love of God and peace. Also three is the number signifying
life. Now, I’m not completely sure about
all of this, but after a bit of research, this seemed to make the most sense.
Apparently common in the ancient world, a beast would be cut
in half to signify “cutting a deal”… an agreement. If two Kings met and even if they didn’t
speak the same language, but they cut an animal and walked in between the
halves, it was understood that this meant that there was a peace agreement,
with the understanding, “May it be done to me as it is with this animal if I
should break the agreement.”
The very interesting thing about the covenant with Abraham is
that Abraham didn’t walk through the halves, but God did. This meant that it was an unconditional
covenant, dependant on the actions of God, regardless of any action on
Abraham’s part. It was a promise and it
was solemnly sealed. The saving grace of God, declared
prophetically through the symbols of the animals of the covenant sacrifice,
meant that Abraham was redeemed from death, given life, his transgressions
atoned for and he had the love of God and Peace between him and God. This is what we have also.
The meaning behind those animals of the covenant tell the
story of salvation to show that we have the promise of eternal life and abundant
life, we are redeemed through the sacrifice of Jesus, which brings us into a
relationship of love and peace with God.
The letter to the Philippians tells us, “He will transform
the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,
by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.” This is telling us about our eternal life. Eternal
life – We have this promise. Do we
believe it?
Just as Abraham couldn’t, in himself, do anything to bring
about life from his barren wife, neither can we do anything, in ourselves, to
bring about eternal life. But can we
believe God and agree that HE can?
What we believe forms our actions. When we truly believe all that God tells us it
shows in our actions. Although it is through
our believing, that we are completely saved by the Grace of God, there
naturally must follow, an action. Knowing that we have eternal life gives us a
different perspective. Knowing that we
have the life of God and that we are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus, also
should change us. Knowing that we are
loved by God and have peace with God, should cultivate a different, more
compassionate view of others. Our
behaviour should flow from our belief.
From our faith our behaviours, indeed we ourselves, are transformed.
Jesus was imparting healing and casting out demons, loving
and caring for people, knowing all the while that he was going to lay down his
life for them. He knew that it was worth
it. His laying down his life would be
the completion of his ministry and his final authority over sickness, evil and
death. And now we know why he cried out
on the cross – IT IS FINISHED.
Life is filled with moments of resilience and pushing through
pain. In these times we push through the
pain because there is a vision of a better future. A “Me” generation only looks at the here and
now, but with a vision of a better future we can all find the resilience to
live more like Jesus. Abraham died at
175 years old, but the promises that God made to him were for about 400
years. Abraham didn’t see all the
promises of God fulfilled, but he believed God and this belief formed his
actions of complete trust in God – Even when asked to do things that were hard
and testing.
Let me go back to the batman story; Batman’s love interest,
Rachel, makes a judgment about Bruce Wayne when he tries to tell her that He is
more underneath, then the visible playboy façade. She replies to him, “It's not who you are underneath,
but what you do that defines you.”
Make no mistake. We
are given the gifts of God because of God’s love for us and not because of
anything that we do, but our faith and our belief should be evident by what we
do.
Without deserving or earning anything, through Christ we are
gifted the promise of eternal life. We
are given the promise of abundant life, we are redeemed from transgressions and
have the love of God and peace with him.
Life is hard and that
is a fact. We have so many youths with
depression and perhaps the reason is that they don’t expect life to be
hard. It is! Our story of faith clearly shows that evil
came into the world at the beginning of time and all life was subject to decay
because of it – in other words, evil and sickness and disasters and hardship
are all part of life on planet Earth.
But Christ has achieved complete authority over death – it is finished –
it is accomplished - and he brings us
life. Note that Jesus desired to embrace
die for Jerusalem though there was wickedness there. There is nothing you can do that will separate
you from the love of God.
Knowing all that God has given us, can we follow in the footsteps
of Abraham and walk in faith, rejoicing in the promise? Can we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and
live selflessly, laying down our lives for others? The victory is already ours…. Jesus has achieved it. This world of pain is similar to that of a
woman giving birth – there is pain, but there is victory and life through Jesus
who has authority over all that pain.
Let’s push through the pain and walk through this life in a way that
shows our faith in God who loves us, and the promise that is ours through
Christ.
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