Being God’s Works of Art
You can listen to this sermon here
Gate Pa – Lent 4 Year B - 2024
Readings:
Hebrew Scripture: Numbers
21:4-9
Psalm: 107:1-3,17-22
Epistle: Ephesians 2: 1-10
Gospel: John
3:14-21
What I want to say:
How do the
themes of Hermitage, Solitude and Community help us this Lent
Use the Jerusalem
Bible version of Ephesians “We
are God’s works of art,”
-
See ourselves and others as works of art?
Use this to
reflect on John 3 – second half of the conversation with Nicodemus – which is
all about identity as well.
Belief as Trust –
what does it mean to trust God
-
For our identity – quote Mary MacLeod Bethune
(1875–1955)
-
For all we need
Were does the
cross fit with all this?
Reflect on how "Hermitage, Solitude and Community" help us grow into being God’s works of art, to trust this image and receive the grace to see this in others.
The Sermon
1. Video with Rodney
on the themes of Hermitage, Solitude and
Community and how they help us this Lent
2.
Works of Art
Talked
about Lent time where we join Jesus in wilderness.
just
as Jesus wrestled with and was tested in his identity
-
so we are wrestling
with and being tested in our identity
o
as beloved
children of God
-
three questions
o
whose are we
o
who are we
o
what is ours to
do
-
looked at asking
o
who God is
revealed in life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus
§ 4 words
o
Who are we – how
those 4 words apply to us
o
What is ours to
do – how do we live those fours words out
Struck
by this Quote from Ephesians (New Jerusalem Bible)
“Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, not by anything of your own but by a gift from God, not by anything you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s works of art, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life” (Eph 2: 8+9)
-
We are also God’s
works of art – amazing image
o
Really believe
it?
o
Do we live as
works of art?
o
Do we see others
as God’s works of art?
How do these themes of Hermitage, Solitude and
Community help us be God’s works of Art?
3.
John 3:16 -
Good news?
Passage
heard this morning
Contains
one of most famous verses of Bible
Magically
appears at all kinds of events
John
3:16 - God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
won’t perish but will have eternal life.
Except if you don’t believe and then it’s quite judgemental.
- Believe or its eternal damnation for you!
Except if you don’t believe and then it’s quite judgemental.
- Believe or its eternal damnation for you!
a. How we read this depends on image of God we
bring to this reading
- God is righteous God who condemns the world as sinful,
- God is righteous God who condemns the world as sinful,
4.
Putting it
back and Nicodemus
b. We also need to put this reading back
Although it feels like John offering theological reflection on Jesus
- through Jesus’ conversation
- embrace a new identity
But started with God’s love and compassion
- Which is really what Lent is about.
People of God
- tired wandering
And in looking at image of snake – brazen serpent @@@
Reminded of their foolishness
- Lack of trust
- Offered healing
Cross is the consequence of our lack of trust
Forgetting that we are made in the image of God
Consequence of our greed and selfishness
Desire for own happiness, health and safety, first
The cross defeats the powers that enslave
The resurrection affirms the way of love found in Jesus and defeats powers of death
John repeatedly says that God is love
- Jesus comes in God’s compassion and love
Although it feels like John offering theological reflection on Jesus
- through Jesus’ conversation
- embrace a new identity
But started with God’s love and compassion
- Which is really what Lent is about.
People of God
- tired wandering
And in looking at image of snake – brazen serpent @@@
Reminded of their foolishness
- Lack of trust
- Offered healing
Cross is the consequence of our lack of trust
Forgetting that we are made in the image of God
Consequence of our greed and selfishness
Desire for own happiness, health and safety, first
The cross defeats the powers that enslave
The resurrection affirms the way of love found in Jesus and defeats powers of death
John repeatedly says that God is love
- Jesus comes in God’s compassion and love
5.
Trusting
One
big theme of John
We are invited to let this define our sense of who we are
That trust can look very different for different people
That trust can be world changing
Read this in my preparing
Quote about Mary MacLeod Bethune (1875–1955), who grew up as a young girl in the Jim Crow South and whom Allen Dwight Callahan describes as “educator, activist, and presidential advisor,” writes:
Began by hearing Rodney talk about this time of lent being a time of Hermitage, Solitude and Community
Offered image of being God’s works of art
In the gospel reading Jesus invites us to trust this image
To trust God’s provision to be this image
To trust God for the grace to see this in others.
How does that help us this Lent?
We are invited to let this define our sense of who we are
That trust can look very different for different people
That trust can be world changing
Read this in my preparing
Quote about Mary MacLeod Bethune (1875–1955), who grew up as a young girl in the Jim Crow South and whom Allen Dwight Callahan describes as “educator, activist, and presidential advisor,” writes:
"With these words [John 3:16] the scales fell from my eyes and the light came flooding in. My sense of inferiority, my fear of handicaps, dropped away. “Whosoever,” it said. No Jew nor Gentile, no Catholic nor Protestant, no black nor white; just “whosoever.” It means that I, a humble Negro girl, had just as much chance as anybody in the sight and love of God. These words stored up a battery of faith and confidence and determination in my heart, which has not failed me to this day."[i]
Began by hearing Rodney talk about this time of lent being a time of Hermitage, Solitude and Community
Offered image of being God’s works of art
In the gospel reading Jesus invites us to trust this image
To trust God’s provision to be this image
To trust God for the grace to see this in others.
How does that help us this Lent?
[i] 1. Quoted in Allen Dwight Callahan, “The
Gospel of John,“ in True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament
Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007),
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