Breaking the chains and being set free 2024 03 04 Lent 3 year B

 2024  03  04   Exodus 20:1-17  •  Psalm 19  •  1 Corinthians 1:18-25  •  John 2:13-22

Theologians refer to these readings we’ve had over this Lenten season as, the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Mosaic Covenant.  The Law that God handed down to Moses forms the Mosaic Covenant.  While the Noahic and Abrahamic Covenants were God’s promise to his people, the Mosaic Covenant is the first time we find an emphasis on our actions in the 10 commandments.

 

In all of these covenants we receive revelations about God’s redemptive plan for mankind, but more than that, we receive revelations about the nature of God.  God promises to never again destroy all mankind in the Noahic Covenant… A covenant of mercy and grace.  God promises to make Abraham the father of nations and that through him all the nations would be blessed…  another covenant of mercy and grace.  And then we get to our Mosaic Covenant.

 

At this historical point where the law was given, the people of God knew that they had God’s favour and they knew his power, because God had saved them miraculously from slavery in Egypt, but on that mountain when the law was handed down, they learnt a whole lot more about the nature of God.

 

These Israelite people of God had been born in Egypt.  Their lives had been one of hard labour and slavery and although they were known as Israelites, they were part of the Egyptian way of life and that involved all the cultural aspects, including the worship of other gods.  In fact, it is suggested that the plagues that God sent when Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people go, were specific to the 10 gods of Egypt.  Each plague showed God’s authority over these other “so called” gods.  Some of the rituals to serve these gods, were a long way from the goodness of our God, and those Israelites would have been involved in those rituals. The people certainly knew very little to nothing about Yahweh, the God who makes covenants with His people.

 

The first commandment God gave was “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”  It is kind of like God saying,  “Let me introduce myself…. That power display you witnessed…. That was me…. Even though I am all powerful I am your very good news, because I rescued you and care for you…and you do not need to appease me like you did the other gods…. But don’t test my patience by trying to serve both them and me”  It is a clear command given to a people who were used to having many gods. 

 

Some of the rituals involved with those other so called gods were not rituals that benefited society or individuals.  They were in all ways destructive and they were in fact a lie. If we accept God’s word when He tells us that He is God and there IS no other, then to serve other gods is, in fact serving either our own imaginations in the least, and demons parading as gods in the worst.

 

During Lent we hear the ten commandments proclaimed each week, highlighting God’s law, and to us it is all quite familiar, but can you imagine how it must have been for those Israelites, hearing them for the first time?

 

Our God is so far beyond the holiness and goodness of anything that the people had ever experienced, it was actually hard for them to comprehend and it took them some time to actually accept…. In fact, I reckon it took them about 40 years.  Forty years of the people doubting and testing God and forty years of God showing them His might and His power…. And His love.  Most importantly, I need to tell you about God’s love.

 

Many years ago, I read a book by Francine Rivers called Redeeming Love.  The book is Christian fiction and I highly recommend it.  It is set in the early Gold Rush days in America.  The two main characters are a Godly man named Michael Hosea and prostitute, nicknamed Angel.  The author paints a very sad beginning to the book, where evil and abuse take centre stage.  Finally, Angel is rescued by Michael.  Michael marries Angel to save her, nurses her back to health and although Angel is grateful, she can’t accept the love that Michael offers.  It is foreign… it is not the way that her world operates.  She even goes back to her old life and needs to be rescued again.

 

What struck me about the story was this inability to accept all the good that was offered, not because it wasn’t wanted, but because it had never been experienced before, she didn’t know what it was or how to accept it.  I do believe the Israelite nation needed the forty years in the desert to grow in their understanding of the goodness and love of God – and often, so do we.

 

The Law of God forms the Mosaic Covenant, and a covenant is an agreement between two people, much like a marriage contract.  In the same way that the character, Michael, in the book, married Angel to rescue her, God rescued the Israelite nation and made that covenant of love with them, but they had a hard time accepting it, and God gave them the law as part of that contract, to help them understand.

 

In this covenant of the Law God showed them what love was like… love doesn’t murder.  Love doesn’t commit adultery.  Love doesn’t steal. Love doesn’t bear false witness against a neighbour.  Love doesn’t covet your neighbour's house. wife, slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything else.  In God’s love He orders a time of rest… keep holy the Sabbath.  He commands that we honour our parents.  Why?  Because this is what love is.  God always desires good things for his people and good things come when follow God’s way.  It’s not rocket science – it is simple and God made the commands, not to restrict us, but to give us a framework for society and a framework for love to thrive.

 

Our Psalm tells us that the law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple.  In the beginning of the Law, it was obvious that it was to revive the soul.  Think about it; these people were slaves in Egypt and the first thing this all-powerful God commands is that they have a day of rest.  A nation who knew no rest was given a holiday each week – a HOLY- day.  Have you ever noticed the make-up of that word?

 

Some of the so-called gods called for human sacrifice, but our God commands that you shall not murder.  Many of the rituals with the false gods were performed to gain wealth and power, but our God commands that we do not covet.  The Israelites had been so damaged in their understanding of life that God had to spell it out in the commandments and it was really Good News!  The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.

 

If mankind is willing, we can know God through His creation.  The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. I have heard people who know more about science than me, talk about the intelligent design evident in creation.  These people say that it is obvious to them that God created, yet the world is full of those who proclaim it is because of science that they don’t believe.  Might I suggest that it is because they are suffering the same condition as those Israelites?  When we are more exposed to the evil in the world, the hate and jealousy, we find it almost impossible to accept that anything can be different.  A meme that popped up on facebook recently captures this idea; “We cannot force someone to hear a message that they are not ready to receive, but we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed.”

 

Our reading from Corinthians speaks of the rejection of the message in this way; “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  The power of God is extreme, but no human is a puppet and change can be immediate or gradual and sadly, more often than not, it is a very slow progress….  Forty years or so???

 

So, the question for us is this; if it is so hard for people to accept the Good News about God because they are so used to bad news, what can we do?  What is our part?

 

It is a marathon and not a sprint.  Bringing about change in peoples’ perceptions of the church and God is something that happens gradually, but only one bad incident of failure to embody the goodness of God, and it will propel us back to the start.  This is what we are up against when there are Christians who lie, cheat and abuse their positions of power. 

 

This is why Jesus was upset about the market place in the temple.   The very place where people were meant to encounter the mercy, grace and love of God, they instead experienced cheating, lying and abuse.  It mis-represented God.  That is why Jesus was so angry.  It destroyed peoples’ trust in God and gave them a warped image of who God is.

 

Do we understand that the law was made not for judgment, but to bring people freedom?  God wants us to be free.  Jesus came to set the prisoners free – meaning that he wants us to be free from those things that weigh us down.  He wants us to live in all the goodness that he initially created, because he loves us.

 

The law was made for this, but we couldn’t perfectly keep the law… and it made us aware of how we all fall short of the Glory of God.  But, God made a way to set us free from even the bondage of the law…. Jesus came and kept that law perfectly… not just the letter of the law, but the heart of the law.   Baptised into union with Jesus, we too are reckoned as one who keeps the law.  This is God’s love on a whole other level.

 

This week let us pray for the love of God to be so evident to us, that God’s love then becomes manifest through us to those we meet, breaking those chains of burdens and setting people free. Amen.

Something in the Water! 18th Feb 2024 Lent 1 B

2024  02  18  LENT 1 B 

Genesis 9:8-17  •  Psalm 25:1-10  •  1 Peter 3:18-22  •  Mark 1:9-15

Noah’s Ark and Jesus’ baptism.  There is something in the water!  We are told that through the flood 8 people were saved and this prefigured Baptism.  It was an extremely evil time.  Just prior to the story of Noah’s Ark, we read in Genesis 6:5 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Then a little later when God speaks to Noah, he says the world is full of violence.  God was grieved, but Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives were saved.  Can you imagine what living in that evil and violent community must have been like?  This flood, that both destroys evil and brings forth life anew, prefigures our baptism.

 

Baptism wasn’t actually something new or unique to the Christian church.  John the Baptist wasn’t the first person to be baptising people, but the idea of a ritual full emersion was a common part of life for the Jewish people. 

 

Times of ritual immersion appear in the story about Naaman, sent by the prophet Elisha, to dip in the Jordon river 7 times for his healing of leprosy.  When Jesus healed a leper, Jesus instructed him to present himself to the priest and offer what was required for cleansing.  One of the requirements would have been a ritual dip in 40 seahs of living or natural water.  The people mostly referred to this ritual as a Mikvah.

 

Baptism is a Greek word, but tevilah is the Hebrew equivalent, meaning emersion, and Mikvah is the place for the tevilah to take place – a gathering of water.  The word first appears in scripture in Genesis 1:10 when God gathered the water and called it Sea.  Mikvah’s had some very specific and interestingly symbolic instructions, and Mikvah’s were used in a number of different circumstances to prepare a person for sacred functions, rendering them ritually clean and ready for significant events. 

 

Some of the events requiring a Mikvah included; the priest in preparation for his role in the temple, a woman after giving birth etc.., a bride preparing for marriage, and also - much like our baptism, for those who were converted to Judaism.  The Mikvah made them ritually clean.  It emotionally, mentally and spiritually prepared them for the venture upon which they were embarking.

 

The Mikvah was filled with 40 seahs of water – a particular ancient measurement, with the most important significant aspect being the amount in the numbering of 40.  The number 40 signifies the 40 days of rain at the time of Noah.   The number 40 is a number for preparation and significant change and new creation.  The person emerging from the Mikvah, much like Noah and his family, leave behind – or die to - the old… it is gone, and emerge to a new life with the promise of God’s covenant and love.

 

Upon research I discovered that many Jewish people choose to begin their holy time of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) with the emersion ceremony of the Mikvah.  Rosh Hashanah marks the start of the Jewish High Holy Days leading up to Yom Kippur. It marks the beginning of the 10 “Days of Awe,” in which Jews focus their attentions on repentance and reflection leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, considered to be holiest day of the Jewish year.  (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/18/rosh-hashanah-yom-kippur-jewish-holidays/5643430002/ )

 

Today we celebrate our first Sunday in Lent.  Today we embark on that 40day journey from today to Good Friday (the cross).   A time when our attention is on repentance and reflection leading up to our most holy day, Good Friday, when Christ made atonement for the sin of the world.   I kind of wish we had a big pool of water so that we could mark the journey in the same way that these ancient people did… and as some Jews still do, making a deliberate and conscious entering into this season of repentance and reflection with renewed commitment…. and this is why some churches have holy water upon entering and exiting the church, and people bless themselves with the sign of the cross – it is a remembrance of our Baptism and an acknowledgement of our continued commitment to our new and eternal life in Christ Jesus.

 

Today we begin this journey into Lent, by reflecting on what has gone before us in this journey of faith, so that we can understand where we are going.  We read about God’s covenant to Noah.  Noah is not just some unrelated character who the Israelite people claim as an ancestor.  The whole world was flooded and all was destroyed, except for Noah and his family.  The bible tells us that from these came all the nations of the world.  For the matter of our faith and to properly understand God’s story, and indeed OUR story, we need to accept that Noah is our ancestor also.  Why is this important?  Because we need to understand that the covenant that God made to Noah and his family, is the covenant that God has made with all of us and with all creatures.  -And in this we also understand that we are all essentially one family, united under the rainbow covenant.

 

Eight people came off that boat and 8 is also considered a number of new beginning.  We can rejoice that we are part of that new creation, the family of Noah and under that glorious rainbow covenant, but what about all those others who were disobedient in the time of Noah?  Did God not care?  They were completely evil and violent.  Did God just forget about them?

 

We read something truly intriguing in 1 Peter; That Jesus went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah.  This tells me something about God’s compassion and care, and that he forgets NO ONE.  Also, in Matthew 10:15 we read, “Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”  At the time that Jesus spoke these words, Sodom and Gomorrah had been long time destroyed.  Destroyed in the physical, but never forgotten and always on God’s mind.  AND existing somewhere in the spiritual.   We need to know this one important thing; No one is ever forgotten, cast aside, rejected and disregarded by God.  His love is beyond time and His wisdom is beyond our understanding.

 

The other thing that we know is that there will be a day of Judgment for all of us.  Should we be afraid?  If we are like those who were rebellious in the time of Noah, we might have something to fear.  If we are trusting in our own goodness… our own righteousness, we might be acutely aware of how fallible we are and might be afraid.  But if that is you, I need to declare to you the Good News so that you can rejoice…. We have been saved by our faith in the completed sacrifice of Jesus.  What’s more, If God cared for and couldn’t forget those who were disobedient in the time of Noah, who were evil all the time, you can be assured that he completely and passionately loves and cares for you and he doesn’t want you to fear.  In fact, God is completely aware of our fallibility that is why he has already made the way to reassure us…. He has made atonement for us, once and for all on the cross.

 

 

Baptism is the outward sign of an inner reality.  That inner reality is that we have spiritually died in the waters of baptism and we live now through Christ… we say that we are clothed in Christ, which means that we have taken on Christs identity as our own – AND Christ is sinless.  Spiritually we are also, sinless because our identity is in him.  Our baptism requires that we turn away from sin, in the physical - but the reality is, that while we are in this earthly body we will continue to fall.   We aim to do better out of love for God, and we rejoice that God loves and accepts us through our union with Jesus. 

 

Jesus does not fall… Jesus did not sin.  Jesus came to be baptised by John, but he did not need to repent.  He, no doubt affirmed that he turned away from sin and the proof was in what followed when he was tempted in the desert.  But Jesus’ baptism, like a holy Mikvah, was his preparation for the ministry that God had laid out for him before the foundation of the world…. That he would die to make atonement for us all… and to bring us into unity in relationship with the father.

 

If Jesus, after making a commitment to follow through with his holy ministry in this baptism, was then sorely tested by Satan, you can bet that we will be tested also as we commit ourselves to God.  And we need to remember, even if we fail, God accepts us as holy and pure through the sacrifice of his son, who didn’t fail. 

 

Today, as we start on our Lenten journey, we remember the rainbow covenant. We connect with that baptism of Jesus – Let us wash away ALL that keeps us from God – areas of sin – and our feelings of unworthiness.  Let us not wallow in grief when we fail, but confessing and repenting, (which means turning away from that sin), we thank God that he sent us Jesus and thank Jesus that he loved us enough to be that sacrifice for us.  We have been those spirits in prison, but we are no more.  We are set free to be all that God calls us to be, without fear of condemnation – because scripture tells us there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

Remember that in baptism we are clothed in Christ and we receive HIS Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the life, the power and goodness of God.  And God is with us.  Nothing need hinder us from enjoying a relationship with God- except ourselves.  We sometimes might feel, like we are not someone that God would bother with.  We might feel, very aware of just how we fail.  As we enter this season, what do we need to wash away so that we can be set free to be the person that God has called us to be?  Let us wash away those feelings of unworthiness and failure.  God loves us and died for us to bring us his abundant life. Let us make every effort to enter into all he calls us to be.  After all, we are children of God’s Rainbow Covenant.

ASH WEDNESDAY REFLECTION

ASH WEDNESDAY SERMON  2024:

 

As we begin our Lenten journey, the first thing that generally comes to mind is; “what will I give up this year?   Lent is known as a time of fasting – a time when we give up something enjoyable and in that struggle, we remember that this is a holy time of preparation. 

As we enter this season, I believe it is important that we understand the heart of God.  Our God has communicated His heart over and over through the prophets of the Old Testament and then through Jesus Christ himself.  Through the prophet Isaiah God declared: (Isaiah 58:6 -7) “ Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

God, like a loving parent, cares that we take care of each other.  He is grieved when there is injustice and when His people are burdened.

 

Today we mark our face with ashes.  We are told “whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.”  And yet it seems that this is what we do today.  Which is a good example of not taking a single text of the Bible out of context.  Because there are many other examples of the great heroes of the Bible grieving in sack cloth and ashes.  King David was one, Job was another, as well as the whole city of Nineveh when God’s word came to them through Jonah. 

 

All of these who fasted in sack cloth and ashes were genuine in their grief and desperation before God.  Later on, in the journey of God’s people, there were many who came who were not so genuine, but they made a show of their fasting.  They were, in fact, hypocrites.  A hypocrite is actually an actor.  Someone who pretends to be something that they are not.  The theatre is comprised of hypocrites – they are actors.  The church is called to be the followers of Christ, worshipers of God.  This means we will do some of what God does, and not merely pretend to do what He does.  We will have His same heart of compassion and justice and desire to see people set free from those things that are destroying them.  To step out in our faith is not an easy challenge for most of us…. It is huge….  But what an incredible adventure and what an exhilaration when we connect with people, and through our caring or helpful actions they sense God’s love.

 

If we go to church but we don’t embody the heart and ministry of Jesus, we are mere actors.  Today we pledge to be more than an actor.  Today we strip away any pretence of grandeur and we acknowledge who we are before our omnipotent God – we are mere mortals created by God and finite, but loved by Him and for that we are so grateful.

 

Today is about recognising who we are in God.  We are mere mortals, but God loves us.  God loves us so much that He sent His son, who was without sin to take on the sin of the world.  You’ve heard that there is one baptism for the forgiveness of sins – that baptism is Christ being emersed into the sin of mankind.  He took that sin to the cross and, emersed in that sin, He died, thus doing away with sin.  Sin was the spiritual reality of our condition.  Jesus took that sin and paid the price.  The reason wasn’t so that we would forever hang our head in shame, but so that we could be set free.  Being set free we can truly live and live in the righteousness that is now ours through our union with Christ.

 

In our baptism we are said to die and rise with Christ.  Baptism units us to him, such that we, spiritually, become righteous through Christ, and we become free from all that keeps us separated from God.  In this freedom we thank and praise God.  God as a loving parent, does not want us hanging our heads in shame and being down cast, but he does want us to live in the reality and likeness of Christ, who loves and sets people free.

 

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Christ dwells with us by His Holy Spirit, and moves us to do all the good that Christ would have us do as His holy people.  Perhaps one thing we can do this Lent is to strive to have our spiritual eyes open to see the people God brings into our lives where HE wants us to be his hands and feet…. They may be strangers, or they may be our own family.

 

We put on the ashes to remember who we are; we are but dust.  Yet we put those ashes in the sign of the cross because there is another reality operating in our lives.  Through the sacrifice of the cross we are reconciled with God, will rise with Christ.

 

These ashes today, are our acknowledgement AND our pledge to walk in the way of Christ.  He calls us to a new kind of fast… the kind that binds up the broken and sets free the oppressed.  The kind that speaks for the voiceless, and the kind that proclaims the Good News that God loves them and died for them so that they and we can enjoy all the gifts of Gods goodness.  We step into this time, both in penitent reflection of our reality, and in the victory of our future with God, rejoicing in God’s amazing love and goodness.

 

May our prayers, reflections and actions this Lenten season see us step out in faith into the adventurous life that God has planned for us, remembering that we are but dust, but while we now cling to the old rugged cross, we know that one day we will exchange it for a crown.

 

 

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