3rd Sunday of Lent, March 23,2025
Isaiah 55:1-5; 1 Corinth 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
Anyone else have whiplash? First Isaiah’s lovely invitation to feast and rest in safety, and our assurance of the Holy One’s nearness… then the jolt of Corinthians. Paul bluntly recounts how ourancestors in faith, despite having been protected on their journey to freedom; and having kept the spiritual practices taught to them; were found unpleasing to God… with many of them struck down in the desert.
Then we heard Jesus, responding to an incendiary – if uncorroborated- rumor, of Galileans slaughtered by Pilate’s men. Word was, their bodies were laid out amid the sacrificial lambs before the temple, desecrating the ritual and sacred space. Jesus’ response was not reassuring. Rather than confirm or deny this violent story, he declared that his own followers were no better than those killed and needed to repent! Wow.
With whiplash a near daily experience these months, we are learning to navigate previously unimaginable statements. Let’s walk through these readings cautiously, nimbly, like stepping on wet rocks across a current…
Truly we humans try to make sense out of the senseless. We angst over difficult relationships, unable to know the inner struggles of people we love and others we meet.
We all want to know the cause: Was it genetic, dietary or what- that made us/them ill? What caused a solid relationship or life to fall apart? Or prompts someone to commit a crime? What makes some talk or act hatefully toward people they don’t even know?
We may be incredulous to learn that people we care for, with values we’ve shared, now vote for bills, or candidates, that ridicule or oppose those professed values. What’s wrong with them?
Jesus wanted to nip that line of inquiry in the bud of his followers’ faith: We are not to take our own measure, imagining how good we are in comparison to others.
By lumping us all with those who we think “sinful” Jesus agrees with the suffering prophet Job, who wrote “know that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves!” Ouch. This is, indeed, our seasonal call to humility, Luke’s story of lives taken, and worship defiled by a gruesome act, may be an early example of hyped hysteria. It’s a tactic long used by despots, to incite hatred and destabilize communities, and nations. Yet today, across the world.
Jesus told his followers to ignore this hysteria!
Among the ancient teachings of the First Testament, is that vengeance belongs to God alone. Losing that core belief, could really signify the end for us all.
But Nothing taught by Jesus of Nazareth, suggests that we are to shy away from speaking truth, or in face of the abuse of power, to remain silent.
Quite the contrary!
Though horrified and outspent, we are yet called to step forward with trust in the Spirit, who leads us to double down in care and advocacy for the poor, immigrants and all who are vulnerable.
As my dad – orphaned in the depression – says to any of us who share with him a disappointment or setback: “Now you pick up the pieces and move on.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered not only what we are free from, but what we are free for. He called it “free, responsible action.” He wrote that Christians are not just free from condemnation for sin, they are free to do good. What he called Responsible freedom is a radical freedom for one’s neighbors, rooted not in what is protected in the Constitution or in even in universal human rights, but rather by what God demands.
The actions taken in Washington may not be hitting most of us in this circle yet- but who knows what’s next!
Keep in mind that our call to love justly supersedes our obsession with each unfolding disaster, natural or human made, any mean-spirited move, poll, or market number.
This we do know: That All who are Baptized, and all who would follow Jesus, are charged to share light in this world.
All people grounded in a Higher Power have a key role in the yet unfolding love and justice that lead us into God’s own home, however we understand that.
Acknowledging that charge, members of Holy Wisdom Sunday Assembly have drafted a Confessional Statement affirming our values and expressing our concerns and commitments. I look forward in the next few weeks to our engaging with that and discerning how we may be called in new ways.
In 2025 “There are no quick fixes to deep troubles”; but here we are! This is not a time to be holed up at home. This is a time to widen our tables, this one, and those in our homes. To go deeper and broader into community life.
To share food and stories, hopes, humor and ideas, some of which may be actionable together. God knows we all benefit from knitting wider webs of connection.
Look around and think of who you might invite: an individual, couple, or family you don’t know well, or someone you haven’t had a chance to catch up with lately. I encourage you to reach out to someone on the way out, have a chat, and hopefully, exchange contacts – so you can share allergies and set dates. Please don’t fight over families with children, this isn’t a one time chance!
St. Paul wrote, “God is faithful, and will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing, the Holy One will also provide the way out. so that you may be able to endure it.” In James Finley words, “God protects us from nothing, but accompanies us in everything.”
We are – none of us – alone. Nor is any one of us expendable. Together we are bearers of love and light, of hope and peace.
Let us pray:
In gratitude for the life and witness of St.Oscar Romero of El Salvador. For all who answer the call to serve God’s poor and oppressed throughout the world, let us pray…
For all in our communities who remain homeless despite all the building: Those recently released from prison, with records of eviction, or disabled but long-awaiting disability pay, those fleeing violent homes or neighborhoods, and all unsheltered children, let us pray…
For all impacted by recent federal cuts: the children, the ill, the poor, scientists, researchers and teachers, medical staff and veterans, rangers and factory workers, military personnel, women and transgendered persons, let us pray…
For the loved ones of this assembly who are ill, all whose names are in our Book of Intentions, and all nearing the end of life, (including Lynn’s mother,) let us pray.
Holy one, Hear these our prayers!
May the way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!!
For it is you, Holy One: our Creator, Jesus and Spirit,
Who reigns in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.”
From A New Zealand Prayer Book