Sermons
Lent IV :The sermon given on March 30, 2025.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lent seems to be hastening by at a rapid pace, because we're already at Lent 4 or Refreshment Sunday, or Laetare Sunday (one of the only two rose Sundays in the church year),
The old introductory versicle, taken from Isaiah 66, used to be,
Laetare Jerusalem et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam…
Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her.
Refreshment Sunday traditionally means we get a break, a pause in the period of fasting, that's why in some churches the liturgical color of the day isn't purple or violet but rose instead - even though, you’re not expected to fast on Sundays anyway.
Another name for this particular Sunday is Mothering Sunday, the day when we thank not only mothers for the incredible jobs they do, but also all in a position and profession of care. It was the time when staff in service of rich households was allowed to return to their mother parish where they had been baptized, and visit loved ones; they would go 'a-mothering', picking wild flowers along the way to give to their mothers.
Traditionally, on this Sunday, the organ or piano could play a solo, flowers were allowed on the altar, weddings could be solemnized, etc.
So, a break from the Lenten discipline. A time to reflect on the time of reflection. We’re half way into Lent.
While the seasons of the Church are a blessing to remind or prepare us, they're of course not set in stone; every day is the right and ideal day to start over again, every day God forgives and renews ('a daily regeneration'), every day we're encouraged and inspired to pick ourselves up by our boot straps, dust ourselves down and start afresh.
The Gospel, the Good News of God, incorporates many wonderful messages and one such message is: keep going, keep trying, keep retrying, it's worth it!
It's worth it to keep the faith.
It's worth it to keep believing in God, in people, in yourself.
It's worth it to keep hoping that the World will become a better place, that the Church will keep reforming and welcoming and affirming, that nations will learn peace and justice, that we will increase in trust and patience, that we will strive for democracy and the rule of Law, that we will eradicate poverty, pollution and economic exploitation.
It's worth praying, learning, singing, praising, celebrating, etc...
It's worth living!
One of these celebrations, these moments of pause, these places of refreshment, undoubtedly the most important of all celebrations, is Holy Communion, or Eucharist or Mass, or the Lord's Supper...we’re allowed to use, and do use, various words for this incredible celebration and moment.
Joseph B. Wirthlin, an entrepreneur from the USA, wrote,
Many in the world are searching, often intensely, for a source of refreshment that will quench their yearning for meaning and direction in their lives. They crave a cool, satisfying drink of insight and knowledge that will soothe their parched souls.
In the Church we know about such a source.
Almost all Christians in the world celebrate this holy Sacrament, this free gift from God; next to Holy Baptism, Holy Communion is pivotal for the faith life of the Church. It is its very core, its engine - if you will.
Whoever comes to him shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in him shall never be thirsty.
The Bread of heaven…the Cup of salvation…
In other words, whoever comes shall be refreshed by Christ himself.
Christ coming to us, physically, intimately, lovingly; Christ truly present with us and for us; in, with and under the elements of bread and wine, 'given for you.'
This is my body, this is my blood..whoever has part of this, has part of me.
I will renew and refresh you.
Carl Olof Rosenius, a Swedish lay preacher, for his part, wrote,
Christ has planted his table like an oasis along our pathway, in order that when we become weary with travel, weak and hungry in our souls, discouraged and wounded because of our steps, stumbling, and falling, we may enter there and be refreshed with the living bread of life.
My body, my blood.
It must have caused quite a stir and quite a few frowns within the first Christian communities as well as the societies around them; flesh and blood?
What's this preacher from Nazareth talking about? What does he mean?
Even now, it often makes people nervously giggle or dismiss Christianity completely.
Was Jesus a vampire? Was Jesus a cannibal?
It's a historic fact that the Romans accused the early Christians of practicing cannibalism during their so-called love-feasts.
But that's to misunderstand the meaning of the Sacrament: God so close that you can literally smell, taste, see, touch him - even hear him as the words of Scripture are spoken: 'given for you’.
Christians, however, had a good counter-argument against the charge, namely that cannibals kill their victims and consume dead flesh, but Christ’s body was a resurrected, living body, and therefore Christians mostly certainly weren’t cannibals.
'I AM,' God spoke to Moses in the burning bush, 'I am very existence and I exist here today for you, all that I am is yours! All I am, is you!'
In John’s gospel Jesus identifies himself with the great I AM no less than seven times. Again, it must have caused quite the stir. Christ was rather good at stirring things up, at making things new, making people consider matters from a fresh perspective.
'Come to me,' God speaks to each of us, through the bread of life, 'cling to me, feed and drink from me; I am your resting place, your place of love and renewal, of refocus, of refreshment, and a pause in all what troubles or ails you, a moment of reflection, even during this time of reflection.'
Lent II - Sermon given on March 16 2025
Gen. 15:1-12, 17-18; Philip. 3:17-4:1; Lk. 13:31-35]
Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Amen.
The passage from Genesis we read this morning is known as the Covenant of the Halves or Covenant of the Pieces. It’s not the first Covenant we encounter in the Scriptures and it won’t be the last.
In fact, Abraham’s entire life story is one whole Covenant, one that changed human history.
This is his tale,
“It started with a voice on the wind.
“At first I thought an evil spirit was trying to trick me. There are many trickster-spirits, you see, but the voice claimed to be El, God, and this El insisted I move away from Haran, where I had buried my father.
“I had heard of this El before, but I hadn’t worshiped this deity; in my family we worshiped other gods.
“This new god swore to bless me and protect me as long I would trust in him.
“So, I gathered up all my belongings and the people of my extended family, and I travelled to the land of Canaan, which this God promised to give to me and my descendants, even though my wife and I had no children.
“When famine hit Canaan and we were forced to relocate to Egypt in order to survive, I started to wonder about the voice, if indeed it had truly come from this El or some trickster.
“But while in Egypt, I witnessed first-hand how powerful and knowing God really is.
“We moved back to Canaan, and God reiterated his promise that I and my descendants would own the land. God hadn’t forgotten me.
“One of the priest-kings of the city-states, Salem, came and blessed me in the name of the Highest God, as he called this deity. It was then that I realized that others knew God as well.
“Over and over, the Lord God reaffirmed that my descendants would be like the number of the stars, like the grains of the sand: too many to count.
“God called this promise a covenant. History would call it the Covenant of the Pieces.
“Then a slave-girl bore me a son. I loved him very much, but I longed for a son by my wife.
God repeated the covenant and changed my name and my wife’s name: Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah.
“As a sign of this latest Covenant, all the men of my tribe were circumcised, a risky operation.
“By that time, I had settled at the oaks of Mamre, and our family had expanded into a large and prosperous tribe. We were the envy of the neighboring peoples.
“It was there, in the shade of those oaks that the Lord God appeared to me. I had encountered God before, and I had built an altar at each location where the presence of the Divine had been very real to me, very close-by.
“This time, three men visited my camp and the Lord had never felt so close, so real. They promised me a son and my wife had laughed.
“Many in my tribe had their doubts, but out of respect for me they obeyed and followed me to the land God had shown me.
“My wife bore me a son, and I had to send away his half-brother and his mother, but God looked after them, and his descendants too became numerous. The Lord is generous and faithful.
“It came as a real shock when one day God the Highest commanded me to sacrifice my son.
“My wife and I had waited and prayed for so long and now that we had been given an heir, the Lord was going to take him from us. I was confused but I obeyed. As I bound the boy and laid him on the makeshift altar, I felt numb. God however intervened and provided another sacrifice.
“When my wife died, I buried her near Mamre, where the divine presence had never been stronger. It’s a pity she never got to see our boy grow into a man, get married and become a father himself.
“When I myself died, my sons buried me there also, next to her.
“My story is one of an ongoing conversation with the Lord God. It’s the story of a God who’s always there.
“During my lifetime I’ve been blessed to experience God’s grace and care and love without fail.
“From that very first time I heard El’s voice on the wind, God has never stopped calling me.
It’s important to discern the different voices vying for our loyalty; it’s important to listen to God in prayer, even if sometimes we would prefer not to listen, or we think we’re listening when in fact we’re replacing God’s voice with our own.
“I had never thought that I would be considered the archetype of a man of great and unshakable faith: God’s friend. The compliment is greatly exaggerated, I’m a human being who has led his life to the best of his abilities. There’s good and bad in all of us. I’ve certainly made mistakes.
“I will admit, there were times when I thought about returning to Ur of the Chaldeans, to leave behind this endeavor with this El, a god I had never worshipped before. There were times when I just couldn’t believe that this Highest God would fulfill all the promises made to us, when my soul was heavy with darkness.
“Yet, the Lord God has kept our conversation going, God has kept our covenant alive, at every step God has rekindled hope for my own and my tribe’s future. To me, the Lord has proven his holiness and righteousness, even when testing me to the brink of insanity.
“I was to become the father and forebear of many great nations and three world religions, which proves that for God nothing is impossible.
“God answers prayers, even if it doesn’t seem like it, even if God does so in his time and according to his will, not ours.
“The Lord defends those who call on him, who turn to his care, to God’s parental arms, and does so without us asking for it or deserving it, without us realizing God’s mercy is acting in our lives.
“There have been many signs from the Lord God.
“The most intrinsic characteristic of a sign is that it serves as a reminder that the Highest God remembers the promises and stands firm on them.
“Whether these signs are from long ago or they’re new symbols in a new time, they’re gifts to cling to.
“God doesn’t trick. God doesn’t forget. God fulfills all promises. God keeps the Covenant.”