Author: Chip Salzgeber

Luke 18: 28-40

I want to report on a parade…this morning…that took place over 2000 years ago.

• The parade was as jubilant as any parade you can imagine.
• Full of hope and excitement and enthusiasm.
• Yet…as the parade made its way into the city…a cloud of disaster began to take shape in the crowd.
• The parade to which I refer is the oldest parade in our current eon of history…AD…in the year of our Lord.
• The event we call Palm Sunday.

 

This Sunday has two names in our church calendar:

• Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday…names with very different moods.
• Stay with me then.

 

Jesus had become a very popular figure.

• Whether he was talking in a village…a small city or out in the countryside…great crowds gathered to hear him.
• To witness still another miracle or to hear him answer the questions that many people asked him.
• And they came increasingly to feel that he was going to be Israel’s new king.
• The one who would lead their nation out of their bondage to the Roman Empire.

 

When Jesus and his disciples came to the capital city…Jerusalem…a few days before the great Passover feast…his followers could hardly wait.

• And when he chose to ride into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey…the mood was electric.
• People threw their coats on the ground to make a carpet before him.
• Others cut branches from nearby trees and spread them as part of their makeshift highway.
• People shouted…praising God for all the wonderful deeds Jesus had done.
• And then their shouts took on a different tone:
• “Blessed is the king…who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven…and glory in the highest heaven!”
• These were the voices of joy…of hope…of unbounded expectation.
• The mood was electric.
• If we had been there…we would have joined in the shouting and singing.

 

But there were other voices in the parade route.

• They were voices quite in contrast to the crowds that were calling for Jesus to be their king.
• These voices were those of political operators.
• And they were ominous voices.
• There was an edge in their tone.
• Even in the careful…controlled way in which they spoke.
• They were unhappy with the way the crowds were responding to Jesus.

 

They did not shout their opinions.

• They spoke them quietly but forcefully to Jesus himself.
• “Teacher” …they said… “order your disciples to stop.”

 

Why did these intelligent…sincere men want Jesus disciples to stop?

• For one thing…an element of jealousy was at work.
• People who are accustomed to power do not like to see a new kid on the block.
• This is especially true when they find that they cannot control him.
• And they could not help noticing that Jesus got not only respect.
• He got love…and now shouts of praise.

 

These elite Jewish leaders were doing their best to keep peace with the Roman government.

• So that the government would allow the Jewish people to have more freedom and less oppression.
• The Jewish leaders feared that if the crowds surrounding Jesus got carried away…the Roman government would send in more troops.
• And the Jews would lose the few freedoms they enjoyed.
• So…they said to Jesus: “Teacher…order your disciples to stop.”

 

It is because of this other voice that we refer to this day not only as Palm Sunday but also as Passion Sunday.

• Because on this day…the week of Jesus’ suffering began.
• And so…we call it passion week…the days leading up to Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.

 

But there was yet another voice at that parade.

• Only Jesus could hear it…because its tone was so high that ordinary ears could not detect it.
• But it was the strongest voice of all.
• When the Pharisees asked Jesus to stop his disciples from their celebration…Jesus answered:
• “I tell you…if these were silent…the stones would shout out.”

 

Jesus was declaring that God’s kingdom was coming and that nothing could stop it.

• If Jesus’ followers did not shout the Good News…nature itself would make a statement.
• And this was so big…so huge…so massive…
• That the voice of nature would go beyond the traditional voices of the songs of the birds or even the roar of the wind and the sea.
• The stones…the most tongue-tied objects of nature…the stones would make their announcement.

 

And that’s what happened at Easter!

• A stone got a voice.
• The stone that was rolled back from Jesus’ tomb was a voice declaring throughout the ages that Jesus Christ is Lord.
• Lord over sickness and death and hell.
• That stone at the tomb got a voice.
• He was declaring that eventually the purposes of God will be fulfilled in our world.
• And that nothing can stop God’s ultimate purposes.
• God will give a voice even to the stones.
• When all the tides of power seem opposed to the purposes of God…God can speak through the stones.
• God can find a voice in unlikely places…and often in unimpressive people.

 

 

My daughter told me about a Marine recruit who was in boot camp at the same time she was.

• He was different from the other recruits…so he was constantly being picked on.
• The young men in the barracks he was assigned to were particularly cruel.
• One day someone came up with the idea of throwing a disarmed hand grenade in the middle of the floor and pretending it was about to explode.
• The young man would be petrified with fear…and they would have a good laugh at his expense.
• So…at the appointed time they tossed the hand grenade…and everybody began shouting:
• “Get out! Get out! It’s a live grenade! It’s about to explode!”
• But instead of running away the odd young man fell on the grenade and yelled to the other recruits:
• “Get out of here! You’ll be killed if you don’t! Run for your lives!”
• The barracks fell silent.
• Shame was in the air.
• The other recruits realized that this young man had thought the grenade was live.
• But instead of running away he had been willing to give his life to save the others.
• God can and will give voice to the stones.

 

If the elite Jewish leaders with their political and religious power miss the purposes of God and grow silent.

• And if threats silence the crowd along the parade route…pay no fear.
• God can give voice to the stones.
• The purposes of God are at work in our world.
• All we need are eyes to see and ears to hear.
• It is our work to further those purposes…by our prayers…our love…our service…our thinking…our living.

By being one of God’s lively stones.

John 9:1-41

 

Today’s gospel shows us what Jesus said to correct the view…of many in his day…that the cause of physical disability was the sin of one’s parents.

• Jesus said that the man’s blindness was not the result of sin at all.
• It was not punishment.
• It was…in fact…a manifestation of grace.
• Through his blindness…this man would come to God…and others would follow Jesus.

 

This miracle story is telling us something about the nature of faith.

• There is an idea floating about…in the world…that faith is warm and fuzzy…good natured gullibility.
• That people who have faith are susceptible to ideas which go against common sense.
• But here’s the thing:
• The healing of the blind man is showing us that faith is actually the result of accepting the facts of our own experience.
• Faith is the product of honesty…not gullibility.

 

OK then… Jesus gives the blind man his sight.

• And then we see the inevitable reaction of the world:
• A person who has had a faith experience may assume that the world will be interested in hearing about it…and affirm it.
• More often…though…those around us move in to persuade him…or her…that they are mistaken.
• That they have misinterpreted the facts.
• The world does not encourage spiritual awakenings.

 

And then…we see the man’s faith take shape…when he validates his own experience…simply by refusing to lie about it to himself.

• The man who had been given his sight refused to be convinced that he was a victim of some kind of hallucination.
• The man’s honesty enabled Jesus to reveal himself to him.

 

All of us…who have a faith relationship with Christ…have a personal life-history…made up of significant experiences.

• Many of our experiences are so personal…that when they are told to others…they tend to lose their power.
• They may not be at all that dramatic to others.
• These experiences forge the facts upon which our relationship with Christ is based.

 

I have a friend who was once on a motorcycle trip in the Southwest…in a very remote…arid region…when his engine suddenly lost power and quit.

• He later found out he had burned out both of his valves.
• In a state of utter helplessness…he sat down in the meager shade of a boulder…and thought to himself:
• “Well God…how are you going to get me out of this one?
• No food…no water…no shelter.
• You say you will always provide…but it looks like I’ve got you this time.”
• In a strange way…he was enjoying the situation.

 

A short while later he saw a figure in the distance moving toward him.

• It was a small Indian boy carrying a plate of tortillas and beans.
• The boy informed him that he had seen him coming down the road…and then stop…and realized he was in trouble.
• The boy’s mother had sent him with food…and asked him to come to the house…where they would put him up for the night.
• The following day…the boy said that his father and uncle would put his motorcycle on a trailer and get him to town.

 

Our friend strained his eyes toward the horizon.

• With difficulty…he could just barely make out the boy’s house on a distant hill.
• It was a mere speck.
• He wondered: how had the boy been able to see him?
• He has told this story to people who have said to him:
• “It was just a coincidence.”
• But this experience is part of his own personal…spiritual…story.
• And if he were to agree that it was “only a coincidence”…he would be lying to himself.
• A moving forward of faith requires that we honor facts as we have witnessed them.
• It requires that we not deny our own experience.

 

Here we go then…the Pharisees wanted the man who had received his sight to deny his experience.

• Their attitude shows us how people of the world…while claiming to respect facts and objectivity…are in reality…highly prejudicial and subjective.
• They are only willing to integrate facts which accord with their prevailing bias.

 

Speaking personally for a moment:

• There have been those times in my life when I have experienced doubt and uncertainty.
• At such times faith has never been restored to me by an act of my own will.
• But only by taking a survey of my personal life story with Christ.
• This has taken the form of a recounting…of all that has happened to me…in my faith relationship…since the beginning.
• What was the seed of my belief?
• What were the directives that I received?
• When I stood at points of transition, what leadings was I given?
• Did I…in any way…invent the things that happened to me?
• Did I misguide myself…or were the feelings I had clear and definite…and as far as I could honestly say…not of my imagining?

 

Running through this kind of internal review leads me to say this:

• I cannot prove the existence of God.
• But…because of my own experience…if I were to say: “God does not exist.”
• I would feel…deep down…in every fiber of my being…that I was lying.

 

So…like the neighbors and Pharisees in our story…the world will try to get us to lie.

• Not only the world…but our own worldly self…which is conditioned and socialized and trained to conform.

 

There is satire here:

• It is comical…the way the Pharisees insist on denying an undesirable fact that has presented itself in an undeniable form.
• Jesus told his followers in various ways that the kingdom is not unknown or mysterious.
• But…that it remains invisible to us only because…deep down…we are determined not to see it.
• We see here that there are forms of willful blindness that result from basic dishonesty.
• Dishonesty of this kind comes because of having enough sight to see what we do not want to see.
• This is why there is guilt attached to it.
• The blindness of being unaware.

 

 

Christ gave this man his physical sight.

• But it was his honesty that allowed Jesus to reveal himself to him as his Lord and savior.
• Faith does not ask us to believe the incredible.
• Faith asks only that we believe our own eyes…ears…and experience.
• If we have that kind of honesty…then…Jesus has a footing to communicate with us.
• He has a way of reaching us.
• He has a way of making himself real to us.
• To have faith…the first thing we must do…is to open our eyes…to what is really going on.

John 4:5-42

That story we just heard…of Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman at the well outside of Sychar…is a story full of wonder.

• Well then…it is a wonder that the conversation happens at all.
• The barriers are great.
• Jesus is a Jew…and the woman is a Samaritan.
• Between Samaritan and Jew there is a wall of separation.
• Just like what in our time separates the Israeli from the Palestinian.

 

The Jews and Samaritans are related peoples.

• Both are Hebrews.
• The Samaritans are from the old northern kingdom of Israel.
• The Jews are from the old southern kingdom of Judah.

 

To make a long story short…

• The Samaritans inter-married with non-Jewish peoples…
• And lost much of their ethnic identity.
• But the Jews maintained their ethnic purity.

 

Why? Because the Northern Kingdom of Israel was more geographically open and cosmopolitan.

• But the Southern Kingdom of Judah was geographically closed off by deserts and highlands and wilderness.
• Hence…they remained parochial and ethnically pure.

 

Each group ended up with their own temple:

• The Samaritans on Mount Gerizim.
• The Jews on Mount Zion…Jerusalem.
• And so…it is a wonder that Jesus chooses to travel through Samaritan territory.
• That he strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan is even more of a wonder.

 

There’s something additional that makes this conversation beside the well a wonder.

• In that place and time men and women are not to talk to one another in public.
• It is not considered proper.
• Especially so…when the man is a rabbi…a teacher…like Jesus.
• Someone looked up to as an example of propriety.
• That’s why the disciples…when they return…are wondering why Jesus is talking with a woman.

 

Still…another wonder…is that she has been rejected by her own people.

• She comes to the well to draw water at noon…and she comes alone.
• Noon is the hottest time of the day.
• Morning and evening are times to do the hard work of drawing water from the well…and hauling it home.
• And this is work that women do in company with one another.
• It is a chance for a chat…for some social contact.
• But this woman goes to the well at a time when she will be alone.
• She sees herself as a misfit.
• She avoids others in order not to be hurt yet again by their words.
• Their attitudes…their hard looks.
• So…it is a wonder that this conversation ever happened.

Jesus and the woman meet beside an ancient well that is more than a hundred feet deep and seven feet wide.

• The woman thinks Jesus is talking about some hidden stream he knows that is way better than this well.
• She wants a faucet in her kitchen…so she won’t have to haul buckets any more…and who can blame her?
• But what Jesus promises is a source of life in her heart.
• She is confused about what he offers.
• But she knows it is something she needs desperately.

 

It’s a wonder that Jesus knows the details of this stranger’s life.

• She has had a painful and unhappy time of it.
• We come to understand that this woman feels alone and exiled from her neighbors.

 

The woman wonders how Jesus knows the truth about her.

• She wonders even more that…knowing the truth…he accepts her.
• For her…this is an encounter with the holy.
• The man must be a prophet.

 

And then she wonders even more…and asks Jesus to resolve the long-standing question of who is right:

• Jews or Samaritans?
• Which is the correct temple:
• Gerizim or Jerusalem?
• And a wonderful surprise comes when Jesus says:
• True worship will no longer be based on location.
• But instead…will be a matter of spirit and truth.

 

The woman then confesses her faith in the messiah who is to come.

• And wonder of wonders:
• Jesus says that he is…THAT… messiah.
• REVEALING his identity.
• NOT to his very own disciples.
• NOT to his very own people.
• NOT to their very own religious leaders.

 

BUT…revealing his identity to THIS ONE…who is insignificant and…on the edge…three times over:

• She is a Samaritan.
• She is a woman.
• She is an exile among her own kind.
• We do not even know her name.
• YET!
• Jesus entrusts her.
• Jesus endows her.
• With his deepest secret.
• The truth of who he is.

 

The conversation ends.

• Because the disciples come back from their trip to buy food.
• But the wonders do not end.
• The woman leaves her expensive and valuable water jar there…at the well.
• It is heavy…and she wants to be free of it as she runs back into the city.

 

There in Sychar…she tells people to come and see Jesus.

• There in Sychar…she testifies:
• “He told me everything that I did!”
• And a crowd follows her back out to the well.
• So large is the crowd that Jesus compares it to fields ready to be harvested.

It’s a wonder that someone like this bears witness.

• After all…she is a reject…a woman with no name…no social standing.
• Her experience with Jesus is brief.
• She has no training.
• She has not been given a commission.
• It’s a wonder that people heed her.
• Yet they do…because her witness is:
• Compelling and authentic.
• She is…THE genuine article.

 

Oh…and one more wonder:

• She has had plenty of experience with the rough edges of life.
• Her understanding of Jesus is far from complete.
• Yet…she speaks of what she knows.
• Her focus is not on herself.
• Her focus is on Jesus.

John 3:1-17

 

Nicodemus was a man in his late fifties.

• Gray hair…physically distinguished…accomplished…trim…successful.
• He was a teacher of the law…a professor of religion at the temple in Jerusalem.
• He had twelve children…all gone from home.
• He had fifty grandchildren plus ten great grandchildren.
• He just heard that the eleventh great grandchild was to be born and he thinks to himself:
• “Another great grandchild? I cannot remember all their names.”
• Nicodemus was a man who had seen it all.

 

In his relationship with God…Nicodemus was going through the motions.

• His inner enthusiasm for God was not there anymore.
• He was not quite right in his relationship with God anymore.

 

So…Jesus of Nazareth showed up in town…and Nicodemus went to hear Jesus preach in the temple.

• Nicodemus sensed that Jesus had something that he no longer had.
• Jesus touched him deep in his core.

So…one night…Nicodemus quietly went over to where Jesus was staying.

• It was midnight…he did not want his fellow religious professors to know.
• He rapped on the door…softly.
• And Jesus came to the door and said: “Yes?”

 

“I know it is late…but my name is Nicodemus. I am a professor of religious law over at the temple…and I would like to speak with you a minute.”

• Jesus said: “OK. Shall we go for a walk?”
• Nicodemus said: “Oh…no…no…no…no…no.
• We don’t want to be seen outside.
• Do you mind if I come in?”
• Jesus invited him up to the roof of the house where it was cooler and offered him a glass of wine.
• Jesus asked: “How can I help?”

 

Nicodemus said: “Things are not quite right with me.

• They are not quite right inside of me.
• You have something that I don’t have anymore.
• I am tired. My lectures are stale. I want to know what advice you might have for me?”
• Jesus said: “I know the problem you’re are having Nicodemus.
• The problem is that you are no longer close to God. God is no longer living in the center of your heart.
• Nicodemus…you need to be born again.”

 

Nicodemus said: “Born again? Take and push me back into my mother’s womb? Come on…I can’t be born again.”

• Jesus said: “You don’t understand Nicodemus. You need to be born anew…You need to experience rebirth in your mind and heart and spirit.”
• Nicodemus said: “I’m not sure if I understand. But it’s time for me to go now. Thanks for the wine.”
• Nicodemus then left…closed the door behind him…looked down the street both ways to make sure nobody was in sight…and he disappeared into the darkness of the night.

 

So…how does the story end?

• Well…this what we know.
• Later…Nicodemus reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin (the powerful committee of 70 men who ran the Temple) that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged.
• And then at the end of John…Nicodemus appears after the Crucifixion of Jesus to provide embalming spices…
• And to assist Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the body of Jesus for burial.
• And so…Nicodemus and Joseph are the only two members of the Sanhedrin who vote no…
• Not to have Jesus crucified.
• And so…Nicodemus became a follower of the New Way of Jesus.

 

Most of us have experienced the dark night of the soul…like Nicodemus.

• We start to have the habits of faith without the heart of faith…without the Spirit of faith.
• We go through the rituals of faith…but we do not have the real thing…the power of faith.

 

OK then…when we have times in our lives when things are not quite right.

• When our faith has become more of a ritual than the real thing.
• Then…we need to come to Jesus’ home…knock on his door and say:
• “Jesus…I need some help. I’ve got a problem…here…in my heart. It is not quite right.”

 

And Jesus will say: “Come right in. Sit down for a while. Let’s talk.”

• Jesus has this uncanny ability to look deeply into our hearts and say:
• “You need to be born again…to be born anew…to be born from above…to experience a rebirth of God’s love in your heart.
• You need to be born of the Spirit.”
• To be born of the Spirit means to have the Spirit of Jesus Christ living inside of us.
• It means that God’s gracious love comes and lives in our hearts.

 

It is a way of loving…a way of forgiving…a way of caring.

• It is a way of prayer…a way of worship.
• It is a way of thanksgiving and praise.
• It is a way of being in tune with the Spirit of Jesus.

 

It is loving another person in their uniqueness.

• No longer trying to change that person to meet my expectations.
• But to truly love them in their individuality.
• Rather than trying to remake them into the kind of person I want them to be.
• Gracious love is loving another person in their sinfulness.
• Gracious love is loving myself in all my sinfulness.
• That is grace. That is gracious love.
• That is the Spirit of Jesus.
• That is how we are born again.

Matthew 4:1-11

 

Paul Simon’s song – “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” was released in 1975 on his “Still Crazy After All These Years” album.

• Simon wrote the song following his divorce from Peggy Harper.
• It became Simon’s only number one hit as a solo artist.
• Liston to the lyrics:
• You just slip out the back, Jack
• Make a new plan, Stan
• You don’t need to be coy, Roy
• Just get yourself free
• Oh, you hop on the bus, Gus
• You don’t need to discuss much
• Just drop off the key, Lee
• And get yourself free.

Paul Simon was not around at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry…but Satan was…and he was ready to use any means necessary to thwart Jesus’ work and ministry.

• The striking similarity between Simon’s song and Satan’s attack is the ease with which both treat what they are suggesting as being of little significance.
• Simon’s repeated use of the word “just” hints at how seemingly unimportant his suggestions are:
• “Just slip out the back…and so on.
• It’s no big deal…right?

Satan’s take on this was to use the word “if.”

• “If you are the Son of God…command these stones … If you are the Son of God…throw yourself down … All these I will give you…if you will fall down and worship me.”
• It’s no big deal…right?
• Well…Big deal? Jesus certainly thought it was.

OK then…The relationship between testing and tempting lies at the heart of our reading for today.

• It’s embedded in the word itself.
• The Greek word…periazo…can be translated…tempting or testing.
• No sooner had Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan and committed himself to fulfilling God’s plan for his life.
• He was tested and tempted to do just the opposite.

Both meanings apply here.

• God tests. The devil tempts.
• It is God’s Spirit that drives Jesus into the wilderness.
• God’s purpose is to test his newly appointed and empowered Son.

The temptation story falls on the heels of Jesus’ baptism.

• It was at this point…the baptism of Jesus…that he was first recognized as the Christ.
• It was here…standing in the waters of the Jordan…that Jesus was confirmed by God as the Promised Messiah…the Savior of the world.
• When Jesus came up out of the river…he went off into the wilderness by himself…and there he fasted and prayed for forty days and forty nights.
• And it was there in the wilderness that the seriousness of his calling was tested.

So…what can you expect when your faith is tested?

• You can expect to be tempted.
• In a word…Jesus was tempted to use his divine power to serve himself rather than to serve others…
• As God would have him to do.

OK then…here is how it is: as long as you are willing to maintain a low profile and go along with the crowd…

• Nobody is likely to bother you.
• But just speak up…question the status quo…champion a cause…and you will soon be challenged.
• You will be criticized and called to task.
• Not only by your adversaries…but by your friends too.
• Do you desire to meet the devil?
• Well then…just take a stand for God.
• Just take a stand for what is good and right and just and merciful.

Once you commit yourself to a task or a discipline or a new way of life…temptation is not far behind.

• Oh boy…like my New Year’s resolution to go on a low-carb diet.
• My best friend showed up with a loaf of bread and an apple pie…fresh-baked from the oven.
• How can you say no to that?

Resolve and commit yourself to doing something you think is important for the forty-days of Lent?

• I guarantee you will be tempted to cave in before the first week is up.
• What is at stake here was the temptation Jesus faced to abandon God’s claim on his life.
• And follow the ways of the world instead.
• The story of Jesus’ testing and temptation shows how the Son of God will exercise his calling.
• He will use his power only in obedience to God’s own purposes and plans.”

When faith is tested…you can expect to be tempted.

• You can also expect to be strengthened.
• In this sense…testing is a good thing.
• It gives you a chance to flex your muscles and show your stuff.
• If it’s a test in school…it gives you a chance to confirm what you have learned.
• If it’s out on the football field or on the basketball court…it gives you a chance to prove your athletic prowess.

Even when it brings out one’s shortcomings and inadequacies…testing can be a good thing.

• It lets you know where you need to improve.
• If your blood pressure is too high…you can do something about it.
• If you cannot pass the eye exam…it’s time to get glasses.

Testing builds self-confidence.

• It is the secret to lasting faith and strong character.
• Only as our convictions and values and beliefs are tested can we truly know ourselves to be people of integrity and principle.
• Only as we are tested can we truly know ourselves to be children of God.
• When faith is tested…you can expect to be strengthened.
• You can expect God to be with you.

We feel the peace of God’s presence and the power of God’s Spirit more so in a moment of crisis than at any other time.

• This is why there are no atheists in foxholes.
• When you are under fire…you naturally cry out to God and…without fail…God is there:
• He says: “I will not fail you nor forsake you.”
• Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer we pray not to be tested:
• “Bring us not into temptation” we say…or…as the New Revised Version puts it:
• “Do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And yet…we know that there will be times when we will be put to the test and have to stand strong in our faith.

• When that time comes…remember this:
• When faith is tested…you can expect to be tempted.
• You can expect to be strengthened.
• You can expect God to be with you.
• As God told Paul in the moment of his trial…so he says to us:
• “My grace is sufficient for you…for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

Ash Wednesday – 2023 – 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10

 

There is a 1973 motion picture titled Ash Wednesday.

• It stars Elizabeth Taylor.
• Taylor plays an aging woman who wants to return to the heights of her beauty.
• In pursuit of this obsession…she boards a plane to Switzerland…
• Where she undergoes extensive plastic surgery.
• The doctors promise her that afterwards she will look twenty years younger.

 

Following the surgery…with her bruised face wrapped in bandages…

• Taylor dons dark sun glasses and decides to go for a walk.
• Slowly…in great pain…she strolls the streets of Geneva.

 

Seeking a place to stop for rest…she enters an old stone church.

• Hidden in the back row of the sanctuary…
• She is like a cocooned caterpillar waiting to emerge from a gauze chrysalis.

 

That is…until she is approached by an elderly priest making his way through the congregation.

• It is Ash Wednesday.
• And carrying his bowl of ashes he pauses in front of Taylor and intones the ancient litany:
• “Remember you are dust…and to dust you shall return.”

 

Now there is a reality check for you!

• Seeking to look a few years younger.
• And the ancient liturgy reminds you that any improvement…no matter how striking…is but temporary.

 

This is how Lent begins…with a reminder of our mortality.

• “Dust to dust and ashes to ashes.”
• For forty days leading up to Easter we assess our lives.
• Forty days because that is how long Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.
• During this time we ask ourselves what is really important in our lives.

 

Religious people are often accused of indulging in escapism.

• Nothing could be further from the truth.
• We are people who deal with the really important things in life.
• And that is what Lent is all about.
• And it begins with Ash Wednesday.
• Ash Wednesday reminds us of our mortality…that someday we will come to the end of our line.

 

In the Garden of Eden…after Adam and Eve eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…God says to them:

• “Dust thou art…and to dust thou shall return.”
• That’s part of the symbolism of the ashes which we shall place on our foreheads this day.
• It is a reminder of our mortality.
• We like to fancy that we shall live forever.
• Some day we shall.
• But not in this world.
• This world is but a fleeting image of the world that is yet to come.
• Ash Wednesday puts it all into perspective.

 

Of course…the subject of our mortality is not a popular one.

• A friend of mine knew it was a difficult subject to bring before his aged mother.
• But he felt that he must.

 

“Mom” he said “you are no longer a spring chicken and you do need to think ahead of what will happen in the future.

• Let’s make arrangements about when…you know…when…you pass on.”
• His mother did not say anything.
• She just sat there staring ahead.
• “I mean…Mom” he continued… “like…how do you want to finally go?
• Do you want to be buried?
• Cremated?”

 

There was yet another long pause.

• Then the mother looked up and said:
• “Son…why don’t you surprise me?”

 

Death is a difficult subject.

• We would prefer to disguise it…ignore it…pretend it does not exist.
• And never do we want to admit that it can happen to us.

 

“There’s nothing wrong with me”
can be a dangerous thing to say.

• Spiritually…it is probably the worst thing a person could possibly say.
• For a person to stand before God and say:
• “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
• It is incompatible with being a disciple of Jesus and unacceptable to God.

 

We place the ashes on our foreheads as a reminder that we are mortal creatures.

• That we are flawed creatures.

 

St. Paul writes in our Epistle for this day:

• “We implore you on Christ’s behalf…
• Be reconciled to God.
• God made him who had no sin to be sin for us…
• So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

 

If you were telling someone how to make a cross…you might say:

• “Draw an ‘I’ and then cross it out.”

 

As we make the sign of the cross…we first draw a vertical stroke…

• As if to say to God:
• “Lord…here am I.”

 

Then we cancel it with a horizontal stroke…

• As if to say: “Help me…Lord…to abandon my self-centeredness and self-will.
• Make Yourself the center of my life instead.
• Fix my attention and my desire on You…Lord.
• That I may forget myself…cancel myself…abandon myself completely to Your love and service.”

 

We are the only religion in the world whose God gets hurt.

• Whose God gets stabbed.
• Who writhes in pain on a cross.
• Who gets whipped.
• Who has five wounds in his body.
• Who shouts his pain during his suffering.
• “My God…my God…why have you forsaken me?”

 

That is the Good News of Ash Wednesday.

• We wear the ashes to remind us of our mortality and of our many flaws.
• But we also wear them to remind us that because of what God has done on our behalf through the death of His Son…
• We have been redeemed.

Matthew 17:1-9

 

 

Robert Burns (1759-1796) was a poet best known for “Auld Lang Syne” …the lyrics of which are sung badly every New Year’s Eve.

• No one understands them anyway…because Burns wrote in Scots and not English.

One of his other better-known poems is titled “To a Louse.”

• It was inspired by an occasion when he sat behind a well-dressed woman in church.
• And suddenly spied a creepy crawly he calls a louse on her bonnet…ascending to the top.
• He is both fascinated and repelled by the insect’s journey.
• And he cannot take his eyes away as the insect crawls among the ribbons and bows of her headpiece.
• Burns concludes with the following stanza…I’ll say it in English…not Scotts:
• Which translates to: “If only there were some spiritual power that let us see ourselves as others see us. It would free us from many a blunder and foolish notion. Maybe we wouldn’t spend so much time or take such pride in our appearance.”

Well…maybe we all need to be brought down a peg or two on occasion by getting insight into how we appear to others.

• And…just maybe…a clue about how we appear to God might be found in today’s Transfiguration passage.

Our passage begins with the words “Six days later ….”

• Six days after a surprising moment when Jesus asked his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
• They reply that he is compared to Elijah…Jeremiah or another prophet.
• But when questioned further about what they think…
• Peter boldly proclaims: “You are the Messiah…the Son of the living God.”
• Which is just fine until Jesus reveals that part of being the Messiah involves suffering.
• Going up to Jerusalem where he will be killed…and on the third day be raised.”
• We all know the story…Peter objects and Jesus rebukes him with harsh language.
• Jesus explains that following him will mean that each of us must pick up our own cross.

It is six days after this exchange that Jesus is transfigured.

• Metamorphosis…is the Greek word for transfiguration.
• It means to be changed in form or appearance.
• When Moses comes down the mountain after speaking to God…his face reflects the light of God.
• That is a change in appearance.
• When a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly…
• That’s a change in both form and appearance.

When Jesus is transfigured…we are seeing a change in appearance.

• His form is unchanged.
• Matthew tells us the face of Jesus shone like the sun.
• We can only look safely at the sun during a total eclipse.
• The glory of God is eclipsed most of the time in Jesus.
• But here on the mountaintop…the apostles can no longer look directly at his face.

It is such an overwhelming moment that Peter…unable to gaze for more than a second at the formerly familiar Jesus…

• Begins babbling about setting up tents or shrines for Jesus and for the two revered figures from history…Moses and Elijah.
• Even more overwhelming is the voice from the bright cloud: “This is my Son…the Beloved…with him I am well pleased…listen to him!”
• So overwhelming that the three apostles fall to the ground…paralyzed with fear.

 

It is only the words of the no-longer-transfigured Jesus:

• “Get up and do not be afraid” that make it possible for the disciples to raise their eyes.
• The scene ends with the warning from Jesus to say nothing about what happened until after his death and resurrection.

OK then…the glory of Jesus is revealed in such a way that we cannot look directly at Jesus without being forced to look away.

• The Hebrew word for glory is…
• Its root meaning is the word “weight.”
• True glory paralyzes us…as if we found ourselves beneath the pressure of a great weight.
• Sometimes when we meet a person of great accomplishment…
• We find it difficult to speak because we feel the weight of their presence.

In his essay “The Weight of Glory” C.S. Lewis talks about glory and weight.

• Lewis says that we are all immortals.
• Now Liston to this.
• He says that “There are no ordinary You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
• Lewis is talking here about the glory that each of us reflects from its source in the divine light in Jesus.

And so…Lewis suggests that we treat each other as creatures of weight and substance.

• “The load…or weight…or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back.
• A load so heavy that only humility can carry it…and the backs of the proud will be broken.”

 The apostle Paul tells us the way we can metamorphize…he uses exactly that word…into being able to bear each other’s burdens.

• He says: Refuse “to be conformed to this age…but be transformed (metamorphosed) by the renewing of the mind so that you may discern what is the will of God…what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The first thing Jesus says to his disciples on the way down the mountain is to say nothing about…what has happened up here…until after the resurrection.

• Why is this?
• Because glory for so many of us is assigned to the lightest things.
• The most likes on Facebook.
• Followers on twitter.
• Ratings on television.
• Instead of taking them for the harmless entertainment they might be…we make gods of lightweights.

 

That is why it is good to take the words of Robert Burns to heart.

• When we preen ourselves for worldly glory…
• Like the woman in his poem: “To A Louse” …
• Without a thought to the little bug of our folly crawling up our own hat.

Let us remember why Jesus had earlier scolded Peter.

• Because he expected Jesus to achieve glory without betrayal and death.
• There is no glory for Jesus without the cross.
• There is no glory for us without recognizing that we are transformed.
• And our glory revealed when we serve each other and lift up each other in the darkest hours.
• And that is the reason we do not always see each other’s true glory…except in glimpses.

Our true weight of glory has not yet been revealed to each other or even to ourselves.

• That glory is present in all of us.
• But to see more clearly…our method of looking must be transfigured…transformed.

The Apostle Paul put it this way:

• When I was a child…I spoke like a child…I thought like a child…I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult…I put an end to childish ways. For now…we see only a reflection…as in a mirror…but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part…then I will know fully…even as I have been fully known.

The suffering we share on our own road to Calvary…carrying our crosses…will help clarify our vision.

• Until we see each other as God sees us.
• Reflecting the light of Christ.
• Bearing the marks of eternal glory.

Matthew 5:21-37

Jesus comes to us as a hardline preacher of the law in our reading today from the Sermon on the Mount.

• If we really pay attention to what he said it makes us uncomfortable because he speaks against things that we all do.
• He condemns anger and resentment against other people…quarreling…uncontrolled sexual desire and disruption of marriages…lying and all the games we play with the truth.
• All of those are against God’s law…he says.
• And it doesn’t end there.
• If we read beyond today’s reading…
• We hear Jesus speaking against retaliation for injuries and telling us to love our enemies as well as our friends.

 

We usually think of Moses as the Bible’s lawgiver.

• But Jesus digs even deeper than Moses…
• And denounces wrong thoughts and desires as well as actions.
• Jesus is more Mosesy than Moses.
• These words of Jesus zero in on who we really are.
• Unmasking our pretenses of righteousness and revealing the sinners behind the masks.

 

Sin is a cancer that goes deep.

• It infects our hearts and minds.
• It is so embedded in who we are that we may not notice it.
• Sin is the way we picture ourselves as righteous…even at the expense of others.
• Sin is the games we play using lies to make them seem true.
• Sin finally separates us from God.
• Jesus calls it “the hell of fire” which reminded his hearers of the smoldering fires of Jerusalem’s garbage dump.
• Oh my…this is bad news…but we need to hear it.
• Jesus did not pretty it up…not one bit.

 

OK then…here’s what Pastor Chip says:

• I don’t kill people or sleep with other people’s spouses or steal from my neighbors…
• And I speak the truth as accurately as I can.
• So why does Jesus have to call my attention to all my little picky infractions of the rules?

 

Most of us have had the experience of deciding that we need to clean up some area where we live or work: apartment…office…kitchen…

garage.

• Things we work with get scattered.
• Important papers get mixed with ones that should go to recycling.
• And there are those odd items that you might need someday.
• So those things go in the miscellaneous folder or drawer or closet.
• But if we are not careful…the clutter will get out of hand.
• And we may even become a hoarder.
• There’s a principle here called the law of increasing disorder.
• That is…the total disorder in the universe is always growing.
• Some degree of order is necessary for living things.
• So…life is a continual struggle against disorder.
• Likewise…our spiritual life is a continual struggle against spiritual disorder.

 

If we are comfortable using some relatively mild judgments against people we disagree with…the habit may grow.

• And we find ourselves using dehumanizing language about people who simply have different opinions or customs or language.
• It may be only a short way from there to the commission of hate crimes.
• Here’s the thing…little things matter.

 

OK then…Jesus laid down the law in that part of his sermon.

• A few chapters later we will hear Jesus speaking quite differently.
• He will say: “Come to me…all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens…and I will give you rest.”
• But notice…and this is important…he does not say:
• “Come to me and forget about those demands of the law.”
• It is precisely those who had heard the demands of the law…
• Who took them seriously and felt convicted by them…
• Who are offered relief: “I will give you rest.”

As we read through the gospels…we are struck that Jesus is so often associated with sinners.

• The close contacts that Jewish tax collectors had to have with gentiles made it difficult for them to follow the strict demands of the Mosaic law.
• They were widely seen as dishonest by their fellow Jews.
• But Jesus called a tax collector to follow him and to be his disciple.
• Jesus had dinner with tax collectors and sinners.

 

The scribes and Pharisees…the morality police…were offended by his behavior and his low-life friends…and demanded:

• “Why do you eat with people like that?”
• But Jesus said: “I’ve come to heal the sick…not those who think that they are already healthy.”

 

Jesus’ mission then?

• Is to save people who have failed to keep the law.
• Which is all of us.
• St Paul said: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

 

From here we see Jesus moving toward the cross.

• Ironically Jesus will be condemned as a breaker of the law.
• He who is perfect will be condemned a sinner.
• And rejected as one of the unrighteous.
• Accepting the consequences of human sin.

 

The death sentence upon lawbreakers is carried out upon the one who gave the law.

• God becomes a participant in our story.
• Not as a judge or an executioner but as one of us.
• Taking our place and paying the penalty for our sin.

 

What Jesus has done by his life and death and resurrection is more than just a legal transaction though.

• By proclaiming God’s love for us through the sharing of our life and dying our death…
• Jesus has shown us that God is indeed to be trusted…in life and in death.
• And it is our faith and trust in God that is the true mending in our relationship with our creator.

Matthew 5:13-20

 

For most of her adult life…the author Anne Rice was an atheist.

• She became famous as the author of a number of novels about vampires and stories about witches.
• In 1998…however…after nearly 40 years of denying God…
• Rice returned to the Catholic Church of her youth.
• She produced two excellent novels about Jesus…
• And wrote an autobiography that described her journey back to Christ…
• Along with her decision to become a Christian.

But then…12 years later…Rice announced that she had “quit being a Christian.”

• Yup…she was done with the church.
• She said that she was not leaving Christ…and that her faith in him remained central to her life.
• What she was abandoning was the church…which she had come to see as a “quarrelsome…hostile…disputatious and deservedly infamous group.”

 

Quarrelsome. Hostile. Disputatious.

• Yes…the Christian church is sometimes like that.
• We can understand why people would not want to join such a group.
• The challenge for us is to focus on being “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.”
• Jesus said: “That when we act as salt and light…people will see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.”
• The church is attractive…not repulsive…when it is salty and bright.

 

Jesus said: “You are the salt of the earth…but if salt has lost its taste…how can its saltiness be restored?”

• In this passage…Jesus is speaking of salt as a preservative.
• In the ancient world…long before refrigeration…salting was the prime method for preserving food such as meat…fish and olives.
• Without salt…food would go bad quickly.
• The same is true for the church…if it does not have salty disciples.
• Jesus said: “When salt loses its power it is no longer good for anything…but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

 

Did Anne Rice quit the church because it had lost its saltiness?

• Hard to say…since she died in 2021.
• But a novelist named Michael Rowe believes that Rice fully intended to continue following Jesus…
• Even though she no longer gave herself the title “Christian.”
• He points to the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John:
• “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…if you have love for one another.”
• Rowe says that the “title ‘Christian’ is meaningless without love.”

 

Christians are salty when they are loving:

• Not just loving toward family members and friends.
• But loving toward enemies and willing to pray for those who persecute them.
• Loving toward people on the margins of society…as Jesus was toward the tax collectors…sinners…lepers…women and children of his day.
• Loving enough to forgive those who hurt them…not just seven times but seventy-seven times.

 

Jesus said: “You are the light of the world.”

• You are a person who bears the light of Christ.
• A light that glows with humility…gentleness…patience…
• Love…unity and peace.
• Jesus said: “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket.”
• There…it will go out quickly.
• Instead…put it on a lamp stand…so that it can give light to your home…your congregation…your community…your world.
• Jesus said: “In the same way…let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

 

The Church gets into trouble when it loses its way in the dark.

• When the church ceases to focus on living as children of light.
• We look around…see darkness in the world…and become anti-this and anti-that.
• But Jesus never said that our job is to curse the darkness.
• Instead…it is to let our light shine.
• Our sin is that we have failed to bring light into darkness…
• Pointing people toward Jesus…the one who is the light of the world.

 

When missionary E. Stanley Jones met Mahatma Gandhi…he asked him” …

• “Mr. Gandhi…though you quote the words of Jesus often…
• Why do you adamantly reject becoming his follower?”
• Gandhi replied: “Oh…I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

 

Why did Gandhi feel this way?

• It had nothing to do with theology…and everything to do with personal experience.
• When he was a young man practicing law in South Africa…he became attracted to the Christian faith.
• He studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus and began to explore becoming a Christian.

 

One day…he decided to attend a church service.

• As he came up the steps of the church…a white South African church elder barred his way.
• “Where do you think you’re going?” the man asked.
• Gandhi replied: “I’d like to attend worship here.”
• The church elder snarled at him:
• “There’s no room for [blacks] in this church.
• Get out of here or I’ll have my assistants throw you down the steps.”

 

It would be nice to say that this kind of racist attitude existed back then…

• But…sorry to say…it continues to exist.
• And continues more alive and well as ever.
• White supremacy and antisemitism are on the rise in our beloved country.

From that moment on…Gandhi resolved to adopt what was good in Christianity.

• But never to become a Christian if it meant being part of a church.

 

As Christians…our mission is to be like Christ:

• To bring light…not darkness.
• To bring welcome…not rejection.
• To bring love…not hatred.
• To bring grace…not judgment.
• To bring humility…not arrogance.
• To bring gentleness…not violence.
• To bring unity…not disintegration.
• To bring saltiness…not blandness.

We are like Christ when we are part of a bright church…one that acts in ways that are good and right and true.

• Martin Luther King said:
• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness.
• Only light can do that.
• Hate cannot drive out hate.
• Only love can do that.”

 

When we are salty and bright…people around us will see our good works and give glory to God.

• They will observe that we are acting in ways that are gentle and loving.
• Not quarrelsome and hostile.
• And they will see the powerful brightness of the light of Christ.
• Reflected in what we say and do.