Starting again in Trust
This sermon can be listened to here
Gate Pa – 2nd Sunday in Lent - Year A - 2020
Readings:
Psalm
- Psalm: 121
First
Reading - Gen 12:1-4a
Second
Reading- Rom 4:1-5,13-17
Gospel- John 3: 1-17
What I want to say:
What I want to say:
Abram
and Sarai are called away from everything they know, everything that shaped who
they are, everything that gives safety and security to be the means through which
God might restore the human and non-human creation and be able to live in
harmony with God’s original intention for the world.
John
(like Paul) presents Jesus as the means by which this promise, this hope, this
covenant is fulfilled. And Nicodemus is invited to leave all that he knew, all
that shaped who he was and gave him safety and security to join in this work.
What I want to happen:
What
do we hear in this story for us?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
Before it begins
Humanity is divided
Tribes have emerged
Each speaking their own language
Each defending what they see as their own
Each wanting more
There is greed and violence
There is war and destruction
This is not what God intended for this world
And creation is suffering
Paying the price
For this rupture.
2. It Begins
It begins with Abram
Who
with his wife Sarai
Live
with his father’s people
His
hapu and whanau
In the land of Haran
In the land of Haran
Where
they had ceased their journeying
Here
their cooking fires burned
And
the bones of the dead are buried
It
is becoming their Turangawaewae
The
place they belong
The
place they return to from their wanderings with flocks
A
place of safety
A
place that defines them
With
maunga and awa
Mountain
and river.
They
are the people of Haran.
But
God speaks to Abram
Inviting
him to leave this place
To
leave his people
his iwi and hapu
To
leave his marae
This
place that shapes who he is
That
defines his position in the world
Who he relates to
What his life is about
What his life is about
How he lives his life
He
is invited to leave for a new location
A new purpose
A new identity
And eventually a new name
He
is invited into an impossibility
With
his barren wife, Sarai
They
are invited into the unknown
To
give birth to a great nation
To
be the primary ancestors of numberless descendants
When
they cannot give birth to one.
They
are invited to trust this God
And
to sacrifice all for this promise.
If
they trust
this
new people will be unlike any other.
They
will be the means by which God
Will
heal the rupture
Restoring this world to all that God intended
Tribes will learn to speak the language of
their neighbour
They will become grateful for all that God has
given
And to freely give what they once saw as their
own
Greed and violence will be replaced with compassion
and generosity
The tribes working together to build peace
So that creation is healed
Renewed
And
all will live in harmony
As
God always intended.
And
Abram and Sarai trust.
They
leave behind all they were
And
become the mother and father of this hope.
But
too soon their descendants forget
And
the old ways of the tribe return
Claiming
their own
Living
in fear
Defending
what had once been a gift.
But
that is not the end of the story.
3. Jesus is the beginning and the end
The
promise remains
Is
grasped occasionally
And
lost again
The
seeds lying still in the soil of the
Story
of those ancestors who trusted into a new life.
This
promise is born anew in a baby
Born
in Bethlehem
To
peasants who live in a small
Collection
of caves in Galilee
The
son of a carpenter and a young peasant girl
Now
a travelling rabbi
Living
the promise
Of
human community healed
creation
restored
the
reign of God
eternal
life now
Jesus
the Nazarene.
Crowds
come to see and hear
Amazed
at his acts
Troubled
by his words
One comes
One comes
An
elder and Pharisee
A
Judean kaumatua
He
comes at night
Perhaps unseen
Perhaps unsure
Perhaps to spend the hours after sundown
Hours reserved for study and debate
Testing this peasant rabbi of no standing
He
begins courteously
Honouring
this newcomer
To
get this conversation underway
"Rabbi,
we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the
God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."
And
Jesus responds with a simple
"You're
absolutely right.
Take
it from me: Unless a person is born again / from above, it's not possible to
see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."
There
it is again
Did
you hear it?
It
is the invitation to Abram and Sarai
To
leave all that defines
All
that gives meaning to a life
All
that Nicodemus has given his life to
To
start again
He
is invited to trust God
to
sacrifice all
And
there are so many reasons not to
How
can one climb again into your mother’s womb?
“I
am a man of status and place
A
man of mana.
I
have spent a life getting to this place
And
you invite me to let it all go
To
begin again
With
all the angst and uncertainty
To
Trust!?
For
what?”
For
that ancient promise
Held
in Abram and Sarai’s wobbly trust
That
gave birth to a new people
unlike
any other.
The
means by which God
is
healing the rupture
Restoring this world to all that God intended
Restoring this world to all that God intended
Inviting tribes to learn to embrace their enemy
as whanau
As family
To live whanaungatanga and manaakitanga for
all
For all
Even those who for the ages has been the enemy.
This is hard
Nicodemus has many objections
It will be a long journey
4. Lifted up
Jesus is not done
Nicodemus may have bit off more than he could chew
"You're a respected teacher of Israel and
you don't know these basics?
Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to
you.
I speak only of what I know by experience;
I give witness only to what I have seen with
my own eyes.
There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay.
Yet instead of facing the evidence and
accepting it,
you procrastinate with questions.
If I tell you things that are plain as the
hand before your face and you don't believe me,
what use is there in telling you of things you
can't see, the things of God? “
Remember when Moses lifted the serpent in the
desert
To survive the bite of the snake
the people of God had to look at the consequence
of their distrust
Their moaning and longing
Looking and wishing for more and more
Despite all God had done
Bringing out of slavery
Keeping them alive in the wilderness
Offering the promise of going home
Of
being the people
in
whom God is healing the rupture
Restoring this world to all that God intended
In the same way it is necessary for the Son of
Man to be lifted up
A symbol of the consequence of humanities
distrust
Their moaning and longing
Looking and wishing for more and more
Despite all God has done
Bringing them out of slavery
Keeping them alive in their wilderness
Offering the promise of going home
Of
being the people
in
whom God will heal the rupture
"This is how much God loved the world:
He gave his Son, his one and only Son.
And this is why: so that no one need be
destroyed;
by trusting in him
As Abram and Sarai trusted
anyone can have a whole and lasting life now
anyone can be part of God’s healing work.
God didn't go to all the trouble of sending
his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was.
He came to help, to put the world right again.
To offer a way
That all will become grateful for all that God
has given
And will freely give what they once saw as their
own
Greed and violence will be replaced with compassion
and generosity
The tribes working together to build peace
So that creation is healed
Renewed
And
all will live in harmony
5. What do you hear?
Jesus
is not just speaking to Nicodemus
He
speaks to all who would listen
He
speaks to you and me
This
morning as he speaks these words again
What
do we hear in this story?
What
stood out
What
questions do you have?
What
questions are asked of you?
What
are you invited to this lent?
The biblical quotes are based on The Message
The biblical quotes are based on The Message
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