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?

 What I want to happen:

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.
Feels kind of like good news
Except if you don’t believe and then it’s quite judgemental.
-         Believe or its eternal damnation for you!
Two things we need t pay attention to when we read passages like this
a.     How we read this depends on image of God we bring to this reading
What we think Jesus was on about
-         God is righteous God who condemns the world as sinful,
o   and sends Jesus to die in our place so that some might abide eternally with God
-         God is God of compassion and love
o   Sends Jesus to break powers that ensnare the world
o   and open our way back to abide in love as Jesus abides in love
 

4.     Putting it back and Nicodemus 

b.     We also need to put this reading back
-         Back in this long conversation with Nicodemus
-         Back in John’s gospel
This is second half of longer conversation with Nicodemus
Although it feels like John offering theological reflection on Jesus
-         through Jesus’ conversation
Jesus tells Nicodemus that needs to be born from above/anew/
-         embrace a new identity
-         new way seeing and describing himself
Not about his whakapapa, family, own obedience to Torah
But started with God’s love and compassion
-         Which is really what Lent is about.
Jesus uses story of brazen serpent
People of God
-         tired wandering
-         No longer trusted God’s provision
-         and want to return to what they knew
o   Slavery
o   Where children killed
o   Starved
o   Overworked
Consequence of which was snakes
And in looking at image of snake – brazen serpent @@@
Reminded of their foolishness
-         Lack of trust
-         Desire to go back to how things were
In being reminded of consequence of their lack of trust
-         Offered healing
-         Second chance to live out their new identity
Cross is not God’s punishment on humanity
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
-         to break those powers of death
-         and open our way back to abide in love as Jesus abides in 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:
"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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