Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
 
Surprise, surprise, it turns out that Jesus didn’t have an ideal family life! Below is a recently unearthed transcript of Jesus’s younger brother James’s encounter with a therapist.
 
James: Lately I've been having this feeling that Mom loves Jesus more than me. Seems like everything he does is just perfect in her eyes--it's like she thinks the guy walks on water.
Doctor: James, it's really very common for a younger brother to have feelings of jealousy about an older brother. You just have to realize that it's in your own mind. He probably feels the same way about you. Tell me what makes you think your parents favor Jesus.
James: Well, the time that Jesus did walk on water, Mom was all "Jesus-does-miracles" this and "Jesus-does-miracles" that...
Doctor: You sound angry.
James: How would you feel if your brother was God?
Doctor: James, James, James... It's natural that a younger brother would put his brother on pedestal, but at a certain point you need to grow up and come to think of him as a peer.
James: No, really, I mean he actually is God.
Doctor: Have you ever confronted Jesus with your feelings? 
James: Yes, and he gives me this patronizing sermon about how I'll be fine because the meek are going to inherit the earth anyway. I mean, I may not be the sharpest nail in the carpenter's box, but I can tell a left-handed compliment when I hear it.
Doctor: You know, life isn't always fair. Sometimes one brother gets more attention than another. You're just going to have to learn to deal with that and realize that while, to you, your big brother is always going to seem larger than life, to most people he'll just seem like a regular guy.
James: I know, I know. And it's not like I'm not proud of his accomplishments. I just wish he wouldn't lord it over me.
 
Sibling rivalry. Since there have been families with more than one child, there have been struggles between offspring.  The first recorded sibs in the scriptures, Cain and Abel, reveals an older brother, Cain, envious of God’s preference of younger brother’s Abel’s sacrifice.  Resentful, Cain kills his brother, and defiantly responds to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is a question that has haunted the entire history of human relations.

The parable that Jesus tells the religious elders is a spin off of the Cain and Abel story, we know it as the parable of the prodigal son. The predominant focus of the story down through the ages is the stunning rebellion of the younger son who demands his inheritance in the most scandalous fashion, leaves town and spends it all on dissolute living. Contrast to the younger son is the faithful, obedient elder son, who is pushed to rage and resentment at the unconditional love and mercy of the father who treats the return of the younger son with lavish, unconditional love.  The father doesn’t punish the younger son for pain and social humiliation he’s put his family through.  Instead, the father’s first act is to run to his son (a very shocking and undignified act for a man of renown in the ancient world; servants ran, wealthy men didn’t), and he immediately embraces and kisses him.  Next, he calls for the son to be given a robe, a ring, and sandals, all which symbolize the restoration of the wayward son to a prominent rank in the family, his authority and status reinstated. Finally, to top it off, the father calls for the fatted calf to be killed so a grand feast can be celebrated to mark the prodigal’s return.  We are so focused on the father’s extravagant love that our attention has been turned away from the unresolved tension in the story: the relationship between the brothers.  The Cain and Abel complex all over again.

        In the ancient world, the firstborn male child held a special place of privilege and honor.  The first born was believed to prove the virility of a man and the fertility of a woman.  In many cultures such a child was thought to belong to the gods.  Child sacrifice of the firstborn was a common practice as a way of returning the child to the gods, thus ensuring future fertility. In the Bible, this practice was replaced by an elaborate system of redemption, where the parents paid an extra offering to the Temple to “buy back” the child from God.  The firstborn inherited a double portion of his father’s estate.  The firstborn received the father’s blessing and place of leadership and privilege in the family clan system. This system of dedication of the firstborn was actually extended to animals and crops as well.   It is where we get our system of tithing, the returning of our first 10% of income to God through giving to the church and charities.

        The elder boy in Jesus’ story, by dumb luck has the place honor and privilege.  Yet despite all he has, like Cain, he becomes resentful when the younger brother is accorded special honor. Notice that the elder son does not engage his younger brother – doesn’t try to talk him out of his crazy plans, or does he try to seek him out once he left. The elder son is incandescent with rage that the younger son was received back with love, honor and festivities when he returns home after shaming his family by his sinful living.  The elder son expected the typical response, which would have been a formal shunning of the young man by the clan and community. If the father won’t behave according to the cultural norms of the day, the elder son gladly steps in and refuses to engage the feast, much to the sorrow of the father.

God (or the father in the story), upsets this established human order.  It is the nature of God’s love is to restore a balance that includes all peoples in God’s blessings.   God’s home is a place where everyone is loved, forgiven and has a place of honor and privilege.  All are precious in God’s eyes, the elder and younger son alike.

The Cain and Abel dynamic is alive and well in our world as in Jesus’ parable.  We live, by dumb luck, in what traditionally is called “the first world” with its double portion of the world’s resources. One in six of the world’s children living in extreme poverty doesn’t cause a ripple in the media; instead, we hear of the top 15 billionaires grew their wealth by 65 percent during the coronavirus pandemic.  Such imbalance creates great unrest and division in our world.  Look at the conflict playing out between Russia and Ukraine.  Older brother striking out in a deadly fashion against the younger one.

Cain and Abel battle in our hearts.  Who hasn’t, like the older son, been judgmental of others’ behavior? Who hasn’t felt, from time to time, envious or refused to let go of resentment?  Who hasn’t refused to be gracious and forgiving to an offense? Who hasn’t failed to be grateful for blessings received?

Who hasn’t, like the younger son, sought love and acceptance in all the wrong places?  Who hasn’t had to come to their senses with an I’m sorry, I’ve sinned against heaven and you.   Who hasn’t had to face someone they’ve hurt and risk rejection? Who knows what it is like to be lost? The bottom line is 1`have sinned, both need each the great love and mercy of God as depicted by the Father in the story.  That’s the balance God restores to us in Christ.

Jesus the firstborn, our divine brother, restores the balance on the cross. In our final weeks of Lent, let us contemplate how we can bring our fighting and discord to our Gracious God, who is waiting to run out and meet us, to robe us with righteousness, to put the ring of belonging on our finger, to give us shoes of honor, and to call for the feast, because what has been lost is now truly found. God’s forgiveness saves us. So may we forgive lavishly as well, and restore divine order to the family of faith, creating a human family to which all belong, through the love and mercy of God. amen

Isaiah 55:1-9; Luke 13:1-9

 
In the opening weeks of Lent, we explored the hunger Jesus had after spending 40 days fasting in the wilderness.  Jesus’ hunger is for our salvation, for our spiritual growth, for us to be reconciled to God.  We look at our own hungers and how we need to turn our hunger back to God.  Today we focus on another need just as powerful- if not more so – thirst.  Jesus says we must both hunger and thirst for righteousness.   One of the painful encounters of the cross Jesus was the acute pain of dehydration – one of Jesus’ final cries is “I thirst.” Jesus joined the pain of thousands of thirsty people worldwide. 

Somewhere in the world at this moment, instead of joyful, playing children, there are listless children: perhaps a bit fussy, with sunken eyes, dry skin, low blood pressure, a feeble pulse.  These are thirsty children but may become too weak to even sip life-giving fluids.    900 of these children will die today due to lack of safe water and poor sanitation which contaminates the water available, leading to disease and death.   The World Economic Forum calls this a world crisis:  It is estimated within eight years more than half of the world’s population will face a growing water-based vulnerability.

The irony is that water is all around us.   71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and the human body is between 55 and 78 percent water, depending upon body size.   We need to take in about eight glasses of water a day to stay well hydrated.  It doesn’t happen automatically.  We must seek out clean water if we are to stay healthy keep our bodies in balance.

We are all thirsty people.  Every day we thirst.  Every day we must drink water to survive.   We can go up to three weeks without food.   We typically cannot survive more than 3-4 days without water.  

Just as urgent is the spiritual thirst crisis.  Some of us are lost on the inside.  Some of our lives are out of joint, we lack peace, our capacity to have compassion and to love is stunted.  People languish spiritually as surely a dehydrated person lingers between life and death.   The clear, clean thirst for God has been contaminated by materialism, greed and selfishness, among other pollutants, that masks deeper spiritual needs.  “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”  The prophet Isaiah asks us.         
  
       Like water, God’s Spirit is the fundamental building block of life.  Our spiritual lives require its 8 glasses a day – we need that glassful of scripture. We need several glasses of prayer.  We need to drink in acts of service to our neighbor.  Mostly we need gallons of Living Water. Jesus says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7:37-39

  Spiritual sustenance depends on relationship – with God and with each other.   So, a healthy, balanced, spirit-infused life of living water is one characterized by gratitude.  Today Jesus gives us examples of spiritually-deprived lives, thirsty lives that seek other avenues to be fed.  Luke records that there were some people talking to Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  Such spiritual dehydration reflects a sadistic act of the Roman Prefect, a spiritually bereft man - who we will meet personally at Jesus’ trial on the day and be the bureaucrat responsible for Jesus’ death. 

It is a spiritually deficient heart, a spiritually thirsty heart, that would blame these victims and look for signs of sin in their lives for their terrible fate.  No Jesus says.  Just like those 18 people upon whom the tower of Siloam fell – another tragedy – that people sought to blame the victim – Jesus says there was no particularly evil thing these poor people did to cause their deaths.  A spiritually parched heart would locate blame and guilt on others, or some sick sense of enjoyment or vindication.  A spiritually hydrated heart – instead would feel compassion for the victims and their families.  A hydrated heart acknowledges the various ways that we need to repent to get right with God.

For this reason, Jesus tells the parable of the fig tree that hasn’t bloomed in three years, despite the expense, time and effort involved.   A spiritually thirsty heart would say enough is enough!  Three years is adequate time, and most would agree with this assessment.  It is a spiritually evolved heart, filled to the brim with living water, spirit and love, that says give it one more year.  That willingly invests extra time and effort, that pull out the stops,  and will not give up on someone in need.
A spiritually well- hydrated person builds bridges, makes connections, forges relationships, and invests time in others.  This is what Jesus is teaching us in Luke.  We see suffering people and ask, “how can we help,” not wonder what they did wrong, how I can avoid their mishap, or remove what is problematic from my sight.    Filled with living water, well-hydrated, we automatically overflow with compassion, kindness, forbearance and patience.

The same is true for our spirits.  How many of us are aware of a thirst for God? Do we yearn for God as much as we do for rain when we’re in the middle of a drought? Do we long for God the way we long for glass water when we’re very thirsty? The psalmist describes it perfectly (Ps 61), “O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
We are usually aware when we are physically dehydrated.  Our body literally screams for water.  Our throats are parched; our mouth and skin are dry.   Are we attuned to our spirit and its’ needs to be replenished?

The Lenten season is a time for us to become awaken to our need for God and Living water.   We are called to Lenten disciple to awaken ourselves to our fundamental thirst for God; to deepen our awareness of our need for Jesus, our living water. Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving,  Lent awakens in us the life God envisions for us, as Isaiah so richly records: “You shall go out with joy and led back in peace.”  Such is a spiritually full life.
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   So today let us choose to stay hydrated – thanking God for clean water, but for the many ways we can hydrate our Spirit – through recommitting our hearts to Jesus, drawing closer to him through Lenten practices of fasting, prayer and almsgiving.  Let us rediscover how thirsty we are for God – as vital as the breath we take each moment.  May we see how thirsty everyone is – and may we thirst to be a part of the solution to a healthier, and a more whole world.   Amen.


http://www.who.int/elena/titles/bbc/dehydration_sam/en/
http://water.org/water-crisis/water-sanitation-facts/
http://www.wateraid.org/what-we-do/the-crisis/statistics
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=water%20the%20new%20oil
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/20/what-pope-francis-really-said-about-trump-not-being-christian.html
http://www.biblecenter.com/sermons/spiritualthirst.htm

Luke 13:31-35; Genesis 15: 1-18:  

Last week, at beginning of Lent, we were confronted with Jesus’s hunger, his physical hunger after fasting in the wilderness, and his spiritual hunger – his hunger for us, and all his sacrifices on our behalf as a result of his hunger for humanity. This past week I encountered an article about hunger in the world, historic hunger in the Ukraine. At the entrance to the Kiev Memorial Park there is a sculpture of a very thin girl with an extremely sad look holding several classes of wheat in her hands. Behind her back is the Candle of Remembrance, this is a monument that marks the historical event known as Holodomor (Hladomor).

Hladomor refers to one of Joseph Stalin’s most heinous forms of terror against the Ukraine. In 1932, Stalin took the grainy land from Ukrainian peasants, and all its yields, creating artificial hunger. Thus, the nation that produced the most wheat in Europe was left without a crumb of bread. The peak of the Hladomor was in the spring of 1933. In Ukraine, 17 people starved to death every minute, over 1000 every hour, and almost 24500 every day! People were literally starving to death on the streets.

During 1932-1933 hunger killed between seven and ten million Ukrainian people. Hunger was a lethal weapon meant to punish a people into submission.  The same tragedy is repeating itself as stories are surfacing of starving Ukrainians in the current war.

Throughout history hunger has been a weapon in war and is a heinous war crime.  Deliberately depriving people of food is one of the most despicable acts in the world, and it has been a common occurrence as the result of war throughout the ages, all around the world.  On this second Sunday in Lent, we dig deeper into the issue of hunger.  Last week we spoke about our own hunger, what are we hungry for. Jesus hungered to do the will of God, which led him, as we heard from Luke today, to die in Jerusalem.  Why did Jesus hunger so for Jerusalem, and what significance does it hold for us?

 In Jerusalem was the temple, the heart of Jewish identity and the place of ritual sacrifice.  Jesus, who made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross on our behalf, represents the new temple, the new covenant, ushering the New Jerusalem.   Jesus hungered to restore Jerusalem to righteousness, and it grieved him when the City turned away from God will and God’s way. Jerusalem compromised its values, it killed the prophets and turned away from God’s covenant.  Yet Jerusalem is central to salvation history; it is the birthplace of the church and remains a symbol for how we are to live faithfully in a world that cannot escape the clutches of war.  We need to seek Jerusalem, the Jerusalem established by God.

Jerusalem is first mentioned in the bible under the name “Salem.” The wanderers Abraham and Sarah, sent forth by God to a promised land, are welcomed and blessed with gifts of bread and wine by a King Malchizedek of Salem – the site of Jerusalem.  Salem is linguistically related to the Hebrew word, “Shalom,” which we know means, wholeness, justice, peace.  Deeply rooted in Jerusalem’s foundation is that offering of hospitality to the wanderer, the stranger, an offering that is an act of justice that creates peace.  This is a vision of life that God calls us to establish wherever the kingdom of God exists on earth.

The root of “Jeru” is “seeing, being shown, also reverence and awe.”  The word is linked to the terrifying story of Abraham being tested by God to sacrifice his only son Isaac on Mount Moriah, in the area near Jerusalem.  Through testing and obedience, Abraham demonstrated a faith for his day and culture that was sacrificial, reverential.  God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son -- being shown to sacrifice a nearby lamb instead.  While many elements of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac are foreign to our understanding, we know what it is like to be tested, to sacrifice, even when we don’t understand.

These stories weave together the name of Jerusalem.  So, Jerusalem is known as the “City of peace, a vision of peace, to see God, to be shown justice, to see peace.”  Jerusalem is the place where faith is tested, and sacrifice demanded for the sake of peace. It is a city called to  hunger for peace, for the presence of God, of experiencing reverence and awe. That’s the destiny on the shoulders of Jerusalem.  Jesus hungered to complete God’s will, and so Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, the lamb like the one that Abraham found, the lamb who has come to restore peace and wholeness to our lives. To restore Jerusalem to its place in salvation history.  Jerusalem is the archetype, the prototype, the pattern upon which all the world’s cities should be formed.

It is ironic that the place named “to see peace” the city sacred to three of the world’s major religions, has been a place where down through the centuries the shifts of world power played out…the Israelites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, Hasmonians, Seleucids, Romans, Constantinople, the Muslim caliph’s, the crusaders, the Ottoman Empire, the British, down to our present quagmire, where Jew, Arab and Christian all claim some stake.  Down through the ages we have sacrificed each other, and we are lived far from peace in our world today.

Amazing for a tiny parcel of land, with no real economic value, only 47 square miles. But the most hotly contested piece of real estate in the world. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Jerusalem is called by the rabbis the “navel” of the earth and light of the world, the “metropolis of all countries.”    
    
Therefore, Jesus declares that Jerusalem has become the city that kills. A city that has become addicted to power where that religion is a key element in conflict.  Jerusalem, City of Peace, has been embroiled in three thousand years of war. City of Peace, hungry for war. Instead of being a beacon of faith to the world, Jerusalem killed the Prince of Peace, has become like any other power-hungry capital in the world has acted down through the ages.  Jerusalem is the mirror of all the great capitals of the world from Moscow to Kyiv, Washington to Beijing, instead of hungering for reverence and peace, we seek destruction and war.

Jesus consciously chose Jerusalem as the place to die --- and as the place for his church to be born. Jesus exhibits hospitality as he washes his disciple’s feet, the night before he died, and made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Radical hospitality.  Reverence for God. That’s that foundation of our faith.  That’s what Jesus is famished for on our behalf.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem for the last time, he gives an image of how he envisions a new restored City – really how the church is to be in the world.  How the City is to be healed and restored. Jesus picks the most incongruous image for himself.  That of a mother hen.

A Hen.  In the time of conflict, a hen doesn’t inspire much confidence or awe. Hens are pretty low on the food chain.  No ferocious, venomous fangs, pointy claws, or sleek strong muscles to run fast.  No Good Shepherd with a powerful rod and staff.  No proud lion of Judah image, or the mighty eagle, with deadly talons.  Even a fox would do, but no, Herod gests that one. Jesus settles on a mother hen, seeking to gather her chicks under her wings.

Jesus reminds us, as he approaches Jerusalem, that love is not predatory. Love is protective, and vulnerable.  If we truly want to create a city of peace, we don’t need foxes, lions or eagles.  Foxes scatter.  Hens gather.  We need hens.

Look at us. We fight over land.  We fight over oil.  We fight over clean water.  We fight over the honor of clans and tribes.  We fight over religion. We fight over parking spaces – over items on sale at the store.  Where’s the hospitality?  Where’s the sacrifice?  Peace is not built by foxes or lions.  We need hens.  Hens who gather.

Jesus died in Jerusalem to show us that God is not a predatory bold thirsty lion, fox, or eagle, but a mother hen, protecting, ever brooding, and ever seeking to gather in all her chicks.  God as King would offer hospitality to the way farer.  God our Heavenly Parent, who would send his only son to die for us – to break the chains of sin and bloodlust we are imprisoned to.  That’s what Jesus is hungry for. That’s what we are called to hunger for as well. 
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There’s where Lent would have us focus:   To stand like Jesus did. To gather and protect. To be hospitable.   To give sacrificially, stretching ourselves, and going outside our comfort zone.   That’s the real vision for Jerusalem, city of peace.  We are called to realize Jerusalem is here, in our hearts, a New Jerusalem to cover the earth, to transform Moscow, to heal Kyiv, to be a source of bounty for all the hungry souls of the world. So, this week of Lent, we embrace hospitality, we embrace reverence for life, we sacrifice and most of all let us gather and protect the vulnerable.  Jesus died for this.  Jesus died for us, so we can be a New Jerusalem, to change our cities that kill, to cities that gather the people who hunger, who seek peace, who seek life for all.  Amen.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/03/31/ukraines-new-sites-of-memory-a-candle-in-kiev-a33478

Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4: 1-13
 
Our Lenten season today begins with the story of Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness when once there Jesus fasted for 40 days.  At the end of his fast, Jesus was famished.   Have you ever been famished?  Sometimes we’re in a hurry in the morning and skip breakfast, and by 11 am we are so hungry we feel like we can eat a horse. Some days we are so busy we find ourselves skipping lunch and making do with a snack from the vending machine.  Many of us have had to fast before a medical procedure or getting blood drawn.   Some of us may fast as part of a weight loss plan. 
Our scriptures however talk about a deliberate fast for spiritual purposes.  During Lent, Christians are called to the disciplines of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. Today we will reflect on the discipline of fasting. Fasting means different things to different people. For some, it means a total abstinence from food for a period of time. For others it might be only one meal a day.  Others fast from certain items, like meat, fish, dairy, or sugar.  Has anyone here ever fasted for spiritual purposes?  What kind of fast do you do?

In the bible, people fast for a variety of reasons. As a sign of repentance for our sins.  To prepare for something significant, to gain wisdom, to increase spiritual strength, or to bring added urgency for something important that is being prayed over.  There were communal fasts in times of national calamities. Jesus once told his disciples that certain unclean spirits could only be expelled by prayer and fasting (Mark9:29).  Like Jesus, Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai before receiving the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:28).  Daniel eliminated delicacies, meat and wine from his diet for the full three weeks in order to understand a vision he had received ( Daniel 10:3). Queen Esther, in order to save her people from annihilation, called for a 3-day communal fast to avert disaster. King Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast to ensure a victory over enemies (2Chron. 20:2-3).  The people are called to repentance by the prophet Joel through a time of “fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel (2;19). The prophet Anna fasted and prayed for the redemption of Jerusalem and the coming of messiah, and as a result, recognized Jesus as the Messiah when brought to the temple as a baby. With so much prominence given to fasting in the scriptures, it is striking that it is probably the least discussed and promoted Lenten discipline in our churches today.  Growing up, I never heard a sermon about fasting. The extent of my instruction was to eat fish on Fridays and eat nothing between 1-3 on Good Fridays.  I believe I missed out on a lot.

It is clear that fasting is a spiritual discipline that Christians are strongly encouraged to incorporate in their faith practices.  Fasting is a powerful tool because at its core, fasting is an act of humility. Fasting can be physically uncomfortable – but it's for an important reason. In our discomfort, we discover the frailty of human nature. Our eyes are opened to hidden or unconfessed sin or wrongdoing. We acknowledge in fasting that we don’t have the answers.  We don’t have the strength in and of ourselves to accomplish what needs to be done. Fasting is meant to awaken us to our spiritual life, which is often buried under a mountain of material wants and desires. Fasting confronts us with our pride, our self-righteousness and our need to be right and calls us to see ourselves through the eyes of God, fragile, vulnerable, prone-to-sin beings loved by God.

Fasting forces us out of our daily routine.  By deny ourselves a meal, a piece of meat, a dessert, we allow ourselves to become more aware of the spiritual dimension of life. Our vision becomes clearer. We get to see all the ways we have dealt with our spiritual hunger—through food and snacking, with social media, through shopping, or work.  Fasting exposes the ways our lives have become upended and how our priorities have been messed up.  
Being famished raises the issue of what are we really hungry for?  Our deepest most fundamental need is for love and acceptance, and as people of faith, it is our need for God that is paramount in our lives.  St. Augustine put it succinctly when he said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” However, The Devil the tempter, just as he tried to steer Jesus off path, tries to upset our lives, tries to substitute other things for the love and presence of God in our hearts – from trying to inflame our appetites for money, recognition, power, self-importance all things that obscure the true desire of our hearts. Fasting is a key tool in combating the temptation of evil in us and around us.  I read this past week that only 20% of Protestants even participate in Lent, let alone fast. The Evil One must be pleased with that statistic.  Imagine how spiritually powerful we could become if we developed a consistent routine of prayer, fasting and almsgiving?

Fasting although powerful, in and of itself is not a panacea – fasting invites us to change our habits and hearts. If we don’t change fasting is futile, as the prophet Isaiah once powerfully proclaimed:

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

During our season of Lent, let us be reacquainted with the spiritual discipline of fasting, as far as you are medically able to do. If fasting is not an established practice, try during this season of lent to make it one. Start small – Fast from dessert. Fast from junk food or sweets.   Fast from processed foods, or from take out. If you are healthy enough, maybe skip a meal. See what it is like to go an entire day, or from day to dusk, without eating. Fast in other areas of your life.  Fast from social media.  Fast from gossiping or thinking unkindly of someone else.  Let us fast from fighting!  Just know whatever you can offer up is accepted by God – it is good enough. God is delighted with our baby steps. Do we want to grow or revitalize as a congregation? Do we seek a vision of God for our future? Let us fast, each to their ability. I invite you to join me, God willing, in fasting one day a week, from noon on Wednesday to noon on Thursday during Lent. Do whatever works for you. But let us reclaim fasting as part of our spiritual practice we become famished.  Famished for the presence of God. Famished to break the hold of sin and evil. Famished for healing. Famished for caring for each other. Famished for God’s righteousness, justice peace and mercy to mold our hearts and flourish on earth. May we be famished this Lent, and in doing so, may we all truly taste and see that the Lord is good. Amen
 
 
https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/health-and-wellness/5-spiritual-benefits-of-fasting
https://www.google.com/search?q=What+percentage+of+protestants+fasts&rlz=1C1AVFC_enUS864US864&sxsrf=APq-WBttQNRW4822lBgqBuGlXANA8392mQ%3A1646505698967&ei=4q4jYv25OtWoptQPlf2I6A8&ved=0ahUKEwj9srraz6_2AhVVlIkEHZU-Av0Q4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=What+percentage+of+protestants+fasts&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIHCCEQChCgATIHCCEQChCgAToHCAAQRxCwAzoECCMQJzoHCCMQ6gIQJzoNCC4QxwEQrwEQ6gIQJzoFCAAQkQI6CwguEIAEELEDEIMBOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToICAAQsQMQgwE6DgguEIAEELEDEMcBEKMCOgQIABBDOggIABCABBCxAzoECC4QQzoFCAAQgAQ6BQgAEIYDOgYIABAWEB46CAgAEBYQChAeOggIIRAWEB0QHjoFCCEQoAFKBAhBGABKBAhGGABQ-AlY9m1gyXBoA3ABeAKAAXWIAYUrkgEENzIuNJgBAKABAbABCsgBCMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

 
As we begin our Lenten season tonight, it is good that we start our observance with the question from our opening hymn, “What wondrous Love is this?”   What wondrous love is this, drives at the heart of Lent as we recall the profound gospel message that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, who took our sins to Calvary where he died so that we might live.  What wondrous love is this, we ask ourselves tonight, because it is easy to get caught up in life’s worries, demanding routines and troubles that the message of love escapes us.  Lent is our time to recapture the awe of God’s wondrous love, and in turn deepen our capacity to love.
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In this shadows of this Ash Wednesday evening, we pause to think about love in a world that seems void of love.  This past week, unfolding before our very eyes, we have been witnessing the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia, the daily bombardment of missiles, the air raids, the needless destruction, the strangulation of the Ukraine’s sovereignty and the flood of refugees.   On other fronts we have been told once more that the earth is at a critical point is climate point, we will soon reach a point of no return and parts of the world will soon become inhabitable to life.  We read of floods in Australia, droughts in nearly half of the United States. Where is love in all of this?  What is troubling your heart tonight, that makes God’s wondrous love seem remote and inaccessible? 

Not even Jesus seems loved very much, if at all, especially at the very end of his life. Nowhere in the gospels does it say that someone loved Jesus.  The fickle crowds turn on him from shouts of hosanna on Palm Sunday to Crucify him! On Good Friday.   Peter denies Jesus.  Judas betrays him. The vast majority of disciples desert him. The religious leadership put him on trial and cooperate with the Roman authorities to see Jesus put to death.  The only loving act bestowed on Jesus is the anointing of Jesus by Mary, with that costly perfume. Even this loving act is vociferously protested by the disciples, as they blame Mary for wasting the expensive ointment that could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  Jesus can’t even be loved without a fuss.  Yet it is during this time where love appears withdrawn from Jesus, Jesus puts love front and center of his life. After washing his disciples’ feet Jesus declares: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. This is my command: Love each other." John 15:9 -17

It is interesting to note, that in one of the earliest recording teachings of Jesus, from the sermon on the plain which we need a few Sundays ago, Jesus makes love a core directive.  Jesus first words about love are this: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:43-48 Luke 6:27-36.  Love your enemies, Jesus said.  What wondrous love is this, that commands us thus – to love those who would do us ill?

Toward the end of his earthly ministry, gospels record the following directive:  Mark 12:28-34 and Matthew 22:34-40” You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This the greatest and first commandment.  And a Second is like it” You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  What wondrous love is this, that commands us to love not just our friends, what all the people who live around us who may be different from ourselves?

So, Jesus bookends his teaching ministry with the command to love.  From loving our enemies, to loving God, to loving our neighbor, to loving each other.   That about covers the field. Love is what we are called to do, not just loving when it is easy, but when it is difficult, impossible except for the grace of God

 So, it is right and fitting that we consider the season of Lent from the viewpoint of a God of Love, who seeks to reconcile with us, seeks our repentance so that we can be in union with him.  With a God who wants only to lavish upon us love, a love that brings us to our senses, restores us to our right self, heals our hearts so we in turn can love properly and wholly.  So, tonight God beckons us to follow the footsteps of a wondrous love that Jesus will reveal for us over these next six weeks.

Jesus guides us tonight, as we are called to acts of prayer, charity and fasting, to grasp that we are recipients of wondrous love. No matter how many times we fall or sink down in life Jesus is ready to pull us up. Lent may call us to reflect on our sins and failings but not as an end into itself. No matter how far we have fallen, no matter how many mistakes we make, no matter how engrained our faults our, or how dire our situation is, God loves us.  Such wondrous love.

What Wondrous Love may begin with lament and sorrow, but it ultimately ends in wonder, in glorious praise.  Not a sentimental love with emoji hearts and teddy bears, but a steely love of sacrificial acts for the wellbeing of others.  If we follow Jesus, if we allow this wondrous love to seep into every nook and cranny of our lives, if we keep to his will, the sorrow and griefs we bear, even the scars of live that are always present, become illumed, charged with joyous song and praise.  Our hearts cannot contain this wondrous love, it bursts forth in us in word and deed, we cannot contain it, even in troubled times.  Deep in our world’s despair singing seems almost blasphemous – however in fact sacred singing is an act of defiance. As what wondrous Love models for us, we will sing to God and the Lamb, we will sing on, in face of all that evil or even death. 

That’s what wondrous love does to us.  It lifts sinful burdens from us, it frees our hearts with the fire of love and each one of us finds ourselves fitted with song that shares our true selves, beings of love that we are, created to love, created in love, by love and for love.  By Easter we will not be able to contain ourselves.  Filled with wondrous love, we will burst out in song, a new song, as the people liberated from slavery in Egypt respond with a new song, and as the saints in heaven fall down before the throne of God, singing a new song.  Our world today needs this new song. Perhaps we see a glimpse of this, in Oksana Gulenko, who from inside her devastated apartment in Kyiv, sang her country's national anthem, titled (in English) 'Glory and Freedom of Ukraine Has not yet Perished'.

Even as we begin this night in sorrow and penitence, it is Wondrous love that finds us here, seeking to fill our hearts, to strengthen our feet, to ready us to be good news in a time of terror. So, as we begin Ash Wednesday mindful of our sins, committed to pray, good deeds and fasting in body and spirit, let us travel together each week.  Let the songs of Lent, the songs we will sing over the next six weeks heal us and restore us to our nature to love. As our hymn teaches us to love once more may we fill the earth with the song of peace and justice, may it reverberate throughout eternity in an never ending chorus – with Jesus we’ll sing on, yes we will sing on. Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 8:28-36 
 
       This past week, my daughter decided to have some fun with us.  Using her TikTok app, she recorded both Forrest and me while we were relaxing and watching TV.  Now the filters she used distorts the mouth.  So, she ended up laughing her head off with images of us looking like this: puckered lips or exaggerated smiles. Our pets got the same treatment.  Imagine a cat or dog with their mug like this (exaggerated smile). All in good fun, right?  Fortunately, she deleted the videos as we requested. But it made me wonder:  what about all those times people video-record their friends or even strangers with these enhancing features that then get posted? 

Like many people her age, Hannah loves to take selfies, and she plays around with these filters that distort her face or body shape. People it seems are desperate to put their best foot forward and to look attractive according to worldly standards.  But this is far from new:  In order to promote unrealistic body images, social media uses photoshopping to trim a few pounds, to make wrinkles disappear, to make lips poutier, or muscles more bulging.  We live within a culture that glorifies impossibly slim body shapes and is quick to fat-sham. The more youthful the better.  Liposuction is becoming a common way to get rid of stubborn body fat. Face lifts, nose fixes and tummy tucks have created a 16.5 billion cosmetic plastic surgery industry in the US; with an additional 62 billion spent on beauty products, and 33 billion on weight loss products. This points to a profound struggle people have to accept themselves, and others, just as they are, warts and all. We are bombarded with images from every corner that want us to believe we aren’t good enough – we need the help of expensive products, scalpels and body-shaping apps on our phones to be worthy.  Our minds are hardened. It is like there is an invisible veil covering us, hiding us from who we truly are.

All this is contrary to what the scriptures teach us about ourselves. Each one of us is way more than our height, weight, skin or eye color, hair type. Right from the getgo we are told that we are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26).  The apostle Paul reminds us: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 6:19).  The psalmist reminds us that we were shaped by the loving hands of God: “You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139: 13-14). This outer shell, this body that encases our spirit, that houses our soul, is a superficial representation of who we really are.  We live under constant spiritual assault that seeks to convince us to measure ourselves to unfeasible standards, that whispers in our ears we are worthless, ugly, we don’t measure up.  

Our gospel lesson flips this evil message on its head.  In the story of the transfiguration, Jesus, while praying on the mountain, is physically altered.   Luke tells us that the appearance of Jesus’ face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning or dazzling white.  Moses and Elijah, appear next to Jesus in glorious splendor.  It’s as if Jesus was turned inside out and the disciples can see Jesus in his pure essence.   This is the image and likeness we are made from, not the shape or color of our physical body. The disciples get a glimpse of Jesus’ inner being, and by seeing Jesus like this, they get, as we do, some insight into themselves, and we in turn gain insight into the essence of our being. The disciples do not see Moses and Elijah as they looked when they lived on earth, but as they exist in heaven, in glorious splendor. They get a peek at the glorified bodies, made in the image and likeness of God. They see what awaits all of us. 

Each of us has a glorified body, the kernel of which resides within us at this very moment, at the very core of our existence. It exists in us at this very moment. When we are at peace with God, we can sense it.  When we act in a Christ-like manner we display it.  Ultimately, death just peels away this outer level and we become whom we were truly created to be, in all our glorious splendor. 

It is not surprising that just before the transfiguration and the witness of Moses and Elijah in their glorious splendor, that Jesus had his first open discussion of his mission with his disciples. Luke tells us that Peter had just proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God. Following this, Jesus declares to them that he would undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.  Jesus tells them the truth of who he really is, what he has come to earth to accomplish.  All filters are off. Erased are all the superimposed images of Messiah as conqueror of Rome, the restorer of the old covenant, the defender and newly minted King of Israel. What’s left is the essence of Messiah, the Son of Man, who comes to suffer for our sins. The implication of this is that we too deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Jesus.  We must put aside the superficial flesh and all that is represented by the outer world and seek to be who God has created us to be.  Other-centered. Selfless.  Seeking God’s will, not our own. Not focused on the ways of the world. We are called to live in glorious splendor, a heavenly glory, while here on earth. A glory that the outer eye can’t comprehend.  It is a glory that only spiritual sight can apprehend.

There is a way for us to get a glimpse of that glory. Just image what 16.5 billion dollars spent on cosmetic plastic surgery could go if it were invested in early childhood education? What 62 billion spent on beauty products were spent for the hungry and for clean water in the world? What 33 billion spent on weight loss products would accomplish spent on helping the homeless?  Imagine what all those hours spent fretting on appearances were redirected to tutoring and mentoring vulnerable children?  Or picking up litter? Checking in on shut-ins? Visiting those in prison?  What if the energy we expend on worrying about our self-image or seeking to be right all the time went to energy seeking to find ways to build each other up, to speak words of kindness and encouragement?  Because that’s what in glorious splendor looks like here this side of the veil, here on earth.  We may not see it with our physical eyes, but our spirits capture it when we live like Jesus did.  When we grasp the truth about ourselves as God sees us. When we embrace our mission to pick up the cross and follow Jesus.  When we go to some sacred space apart from the world and pray – and through praying find our very selves transformed, just as Jesus was, there on the mountaintop.

As we approach the season of Lent, which begins this Wednesday, we will explore the themes each week of being good enough.  We don’t need self-enhancement products. We don’t need special surgery.  We don’t need special apps on our phone to change our appearance. Perfection may be impossible, but transformation isn’t.  So, let’s train our hands and feet to good deeds that make glory visible on earth. Let’s develop the spiritual sight that sees the good in others beneath the rough exterior that we adapt to survive in the world.  May we set aside that vital time to pray, just as Jesus did, and discover the truth about ourselves underneath the layers of lies and distortions we have carried for so long. We are glory embodied in all its splendor. 
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As we follow Jesus to the cross over the next six weeks, let’s peel away all that gets in the way and let us live in glory, let us bring glory wherever we go, and may we rest in the truth that we are good enough because Jesus made it so. May the dazzling light of Christ guide our steps these next 40 days and may we encounter the glorious splendor in ourselves, and in each other.  amen
      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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