3rd sunday of lent. A

Keywords: Belief, Love, Truth

A woman was driving along a country road when she noticed an old man sitting on a fence rail watching the cars go by. The driver stopped to ask for directions and, after receiving them, she remarked, "I don't think I could stand living out here as you do. You don't really see much and you probably don't travel like I do. I'm on the go all the time." The old man looked down at the stranger and drawled, "I don't see much difference in what I'm doing and what you're doing. I set on the fence and watch the autos go by, and you set in your auto and watch the fences go by. It's just the way you look at things."

And, you know, that's what our worship experience is all about. Some of us are frequent travelers; some of us are not. Some of us are on the go all the time; some of us are not. But however varied our day-to-day activities may be, the worship experience is our great equalizer. We come together as Christ's people because "It's just the way we look at things." It's just the way we look at life. It's just the way we look at truth.

In today's Gospel, Jesus is "on the go" -- traveling through Samaria. At midday He arrives at a village called Sychar. The sun is at its hottest, and He stands alone at a well to which the villagers come for water. a woman comes to draw water from the well and they begin to talk. Jesus is thirsty, but He has nothing with which to draw water from the well. So He asks the woman to give Him a drink. The woman seems startled. She reminds Jesus that she is a Samaritan and He is a Jew, and that a Jew just doesn't talk to a Samaritan. Nevertheless, Jesus breaks the tradition and not only speaks to the woman but also asks her for a small service. "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" she asks (Jn. 4:9). Jesus answers, "If you knew the Gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water" (Jn. 4:10). "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet," the woman says to Jesus. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and You say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" (Jn.4:19-20). To which Jesus replies, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father ... the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:21,23-24). Hearing this, the woman says, "I know the Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will show us all things." Jesus says to her, "I who speak to you am He" (Jn. 4:25-26).

When you know the Gift of God, you are empowered to worship the Father in spirit and truth. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul describes the Gift in these words:

... God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom.5:8).

We gather together with Christ in our midst, as a Spirit- filled community, to say, "That's just the way we look at things ... the way we look at life ... the way we look at truth!"

"While we were yet sinners Christ died for us"-- that's the way we look at things!

"For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (Jn. 3:17) -- that's the way we look at things!

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:12-13) -- that's the way we look at things!

"Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you ... for the measure you give is the measure you get back" (Lk. 6:37-38) -- that's, the way we look at things!

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body ... If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (I Cor. 12:12-13,26) -- that's the way we look at things!

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude ... Love bears all things, believes all things ... So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (I Cor. 13:4-7,13) -- that's the way we look at things!

The Apostle Paul has written:

"... sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under Grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under Grace? By no means ! ... thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed" (Rom. 6:15,17).

The story is told of a little girl named Jenny whose father had an extremely rigid, legalistic, self- righteous way of looking at religion. And, after years of nay-saying and judging other people's actions in terms of easy blacks and whites, he became so cynical it seemed to little Jenny that every time he opened his mouth it was to say, "We don't believe in that, do we?" One day, Jenny was walking with her father near the duck pond on the family farm. Jenny ran to the edge of the pond and screamed with delight. One of the ducks had hatched her eggs and was now tending to a half dozen or more fluffy little "cheep-cheeping" new-born creatures. Little Jenny pondered the scene for a while, then looked up at her father and said, "Daddy, we beweeve in ducks, don't we?"

Yes Jenny, we "beweeve" in ducks and we believe in their Creator who is the Creator of your life, and your daddy's life, and our life and all of life. We believe in the one Father of us all who created us out of His infinite love for us. We believe in the one Father of us all who loves us so much He wants for His own -- eternally His -- in His coming Kingdom of Love. We believe in the one Father of us all who gave us the Gift of His only Son, to teach us how to love Him in return through our love for one another.

We believe this from the heart. That's the way we look at things at the deepest level of our being. And, in that Spirit -- the Spirit of Love -- we celebrate these life-giving, life-enriching, life-saving truths!

The worship experience is a limitless wellspring for our life-enrichment (that is to say, for drawing us closer to God). At times, God comes quickly in the quietness and yearning of silent prayer. Sometimes God comes quickly in the special moments of communion. Sometimes God comes quickly in the sudden flash of a new awareness, a fresh idea, a sincere resolution, a lively hope. But always He comes quickly when, freely responding to His holy Will, we come to worship in spirit and truth -- that is to say, when we look at things in the Spirit of Love.

2nd sunday of lent

In the lore of a tribe in West Africa, there is a story called "The Legend of the Sky Maiden." The story begins when members of the tribe are facing a milk shortage. Their cows are not producing like they used to. A young man volunteers to watch over the cows at night in search of a clue to what might be happening. He hides himself behind some bushes and waits. Finally, he sees something extraordinary ...

A young woman of astonishing beauty rides a moonbeam down from heaven to earth carrying a large pail. She milks the cows, fills her pail, and climbs back up the moonbeam to the sky. The young man cannot believe his eyes. He must learn more about this mysterious maiden who comes down from the sky. So he sets a trap near the cow barn and the next night, when the maiden comes down to milk the cows, he captures her. "Who are you?" he asks. "I am a sky maiden," she replies. "I live with my tribe up in the sky, where we have no food of our own. It is the duty of us sky maidens to come down to earth at night to find food. But, please sir, release me from this net and I will do anything you ask." The young man replies, "I will release you if you promise to marry me." "I will marry you," the maiden says, "but first you must allow me to return home to prepare myself." The young man agrees.

When the sky maiden returns, she is carrying a large box. "Take this and keep it for me," she says to the young man. "Then I will marry you and be a good wife. But you must promise never to look inside the box." They live happily together for a time. Then, one day, when his wife is not at home, the young man opens the box and looks inside. The box is empty. When the wife returns, seeing that her husband has opened the box, she says, "Because you looked inside the box I cannot remain with you any longer. I must leave." "Why?" her husband asks. "What is so terrible about looking into an empty box?" She answers: "I'm not leaving you because you opened the box. I thought you would. I'm leaving you because you said it is empty. It isn't empty. It contains the light and air and smells of my home in the sky. When I went home I filled that box with everything that is most precious to me. How can I be your wife if what is most precious to me is emptiness to you?"1

When God made the earth, He filled it with everything that is most precious to Him! Can we look at God's good earth and not experience the fullness of it? Can we look at what is most precious to God and not experience the beauty of it? Can we look at what is most precious to God and not experience the glory of it? Can we look at what is most precious to God and not experience the awe and wonder of it? Or have we lost our capacity for reverence? Have we lost our sense of the sacred in God's creation.

Harold Kushner, one of today's most widely-read inspirational writers, says it in these words:

To the geologist, mountains are evidence of seismic activity, the process of reshaping the earth's surface over the course of millennia.

To the tourist, mountains are sometimes beautiful, sometimes inconvenient features of a landscape.

To the skier, snow-covered mountains are an opportunity to enjoy a challenging outdoor activity.

To the religious person, a mountain is where God and human beings meet. It symbolizes reaching up to touch Heaven, and Heaven bending down toward earth. (So the ancient Greeks told stories of the gods living atop the tallest mountains, and the Bible describes Moses climbing a mountain to receive the tablets of the Law from God).2

And in our Gospel Lesson today, the New Testament writer describes an awesome mountaintop experience of God by Jesus and three of the disciples:

... Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain ... And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light ... lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him."

In the Transfiguration Event, God's Presence in Jesus Christ shone through to the disciples so intensely they found themselves in the presence of another world where time no longer exists and where there is no mistaking the voice of God: "This is My beloved Son. He is most precious to Me ... Listen to Him!" And "when the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were filled with awe" (Mt. 17:6).

To the disciples who witnessed it, the Transfiguration Event was awesome -- so awesome in fact that they didn't want to leave when

it was over. They actually had seen the glory of God shining through the Body of Christ. Of course they wanted to stay on the mountaintop to reflect and meditate on the wondrous vision. Of course they wanted to build a chapel to commemorate it. Of course they wanted to stay with Jesus in the place where they had just spent the supreme moment of their lives. But in that supreme moment, they had heard the voice of God say, "Listen to Him!" And, of course they had to obey Jesus when He ordered them to go back down the mountain to where there were people in need -- and minister to them.

To us disciples of Christ who have come together in this place, shouldn't this worship event be awesome? The glory of God still shines thorough the Lord Jesus who is in our midst now. The loving Presence of God is made real to us now through the Body of Christ. And the unmistakable voice of God is speaking to us now: "This is My beloved Son who is most precious to Me ... Listen to Him! Follow Him from this place to where there are people in need -- and minister to them!

The Lord Jesus Christ is most precious to God. We Christians have no trouble at all accepting that reality. But we do seem to have trouble accepting the reality that we ourselves are precious to God. You and I, and the members of our families, and all our friends, and all our neighbors, and all whom

we consider to be our enemies, and every passing stranger, and every human person God chooses to create -- all are precious to God.

It seems safe to assume that God enjoys variety ...

He didn't stop with a thousand insect species; He conjured up three hundred thousand species of beetles and weevils alone. In the Book of Job, God points with pride to such oddities of creation as the mountain goat, the wild ass, the ostrich, and the lightening bolt. God lavished color, design, and texture on the world, giving us Pygmies and Watusis, and blond Scandinavians, and swarthy Italians, and big- boned Russians and petite Japanese.3

When God looks out upon His earthly creation, He sees the whole thing. And the variety that He sees is precious to Him. So precious, in fact, that He allows His glory to shine through it, making it possible for us to say, in every human encounter, "I worship the God I see in you."

C. S. Lewis recalled the time when he first started going to Church. "I dislikes the hymns," he said. "I considered them to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But then I realized that the hymns were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic boots in the opposite pew. Then you realize that you aren't fit to clean his boots, and it gets you out of your solitary conceit."

Allow me to repeat: Every human person God chooses to create is precious to Him. That's awesome! That's beyond our ability to fully comprehend. But by the Grace of God, we do have the ability to say from the heart, in every human encounter, "I worship the God I see in you!"

1st sunday of lent 2011

STEWARDS OF THE FEAST OF LIFE

A man named John Johnson was one of the volunteer workers in the highly organized Stewardship Campaign of a large Church. Being a highly disciplined person, John Johnson meticulously carried out his responsibility. He visited each family that had been assigned to him, without exception, calling back several times if necessary if no one was at home. He filled out with precision the record cards he had been given. He presented the Church's case for the need for loyal support with vigor and enthusiasm. His very last call was to an elderly woman who listened to his pitch for a while but then became very angry. She said to him, "John Johnson, I knew your grandfather, I knew your father and now you come along. You Johnsons are all alike. I've despised you for years and if you don't leave this house I'm going to break this broom over your head." He made a hasty retreat to his car, pulled out the report card and wrote, carefully, "Doubtful prospect."

In today's Gospel, Jesus is tempted three times by the devil. Like John Johnson, the devil presented his case with vigor and enthusiasm, only to discover that Jesus is a "doubtful prospect." The scenario ends when the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, then makes this pitch: "All these I will bestow upon You if You prostrate Yourself in homage before me." Clearly, Jesus perceives that the devil's offer is fraudulent. The kingdoms of the world are not the devil's to give. They are God's, and God's alone. We are merely the caretakers of what we possess. God loves us so much that He has appointed us stewards of His earthly kingdom, and has granted us the privilege of using that which we possess, to His honor and glory.

God has charged us with the responsibility not only of stewardship over material resources but also of human resources. We are stewards not only of things but of life itself. This means in the first place, that I don't own my own body; you don't own your own body. When we abuse our own body, it is not just a matter of abusing something that belongs to us, we are abusing God's property, God's act of creation. This intricate, beautiful thing that God has created--our body--is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul says. And we are the stewards of our body. Parents have a problem because they invest so much of their time and energy in their children that before they realize it--subsconsciously, at least--they have acquired a sense of ownership. Parents are stewards, but not owners of their children. Many husbands and wives feel a real sense of ownership toward each other. The same is true in many close- friend or best-friend relationships. It is so easy to slip into this attitude without saying it in so many words but acting it out toward the other person. Some of the deepest experiences of pain involve middle-aged persons and their older parents--parents who still think that they own the child.

Biblical principle of life permeates our whole being, every level of our existence. And it ties back into our reason for being here today, which is to celebrate God and to celebrate God's presence and His power and His love and His promise of fulfillment for each one of us. We celebrate these realities and new life is given to us. But the realization of that new life involves a daily recognition that God is the owner and we are the stewards of His material resources and His human resources as well.

All of this, ultimately, is a matter of trust, which is the heart of our response to God. Moreover, God's appointing us stewards is an act of trust on God's part. He trusts us, and when we realize that God is placing His trust in us it puts us in ever closer contact with Him in our daily experience.

There was a young man named Buddy who spent two years working in the oil fields of New Mexico in order to earn money for college. One winter day, when he was ninety feet up on the derrick, Buddy slipped on some ice that had formed on the platform he was standing on. As he fell toward the ground, his safety rope took hold. He dangled precariously in the air for a long time before being rescued. Speaking about it later, Buddy could not stop saying how grateful he was to God for saving him. He said that he learned from the experience that he could trust God to watch over him. The friend with whom he was talking asked, "Did you ever fall again?" Buddy said, "No. After that experience I always took a hatchet and some sand with me up to the platform. I would chop the ice away and then spread the sand. The friend, half-jokingly, said, "If you trust God to look after you, why do you take all of those precautions?" To which Buddy replied, "I trust God to look after me, but what I learned in that accident was that God is also trusting me to do my part."

God is trusting us to do our part as stewards of the feast of life.