The Second Sunday in Lent - 20 March 2011
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 3:1-17
Saint John 3:1-17
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| Michelangelo - Adam |
BACKGROUND: Background: The Books of Moses III
Last week, I mentioned the Yahwist (J) and that particular strand of the Books of Moses. Someone sent me an email wondering why I had spelled YHWH as JHWH. Hoping to make the connection between the name of God and the strand author/editor “J”, I used the Germanic spelling. J is deeply connected to the soil. It is the soil formed by YHWH’s hand that both creates Adam and buries Moses. The soil to which this strand is most firmly attached is that of Judea. Judea is the culmination of the patriarchal cycles, and the theme of God’s choosing as his own the sons and daughters of the patriarchs – particularly Judah is preeminent. Another theme of this strand is that of the “younger son”, (Isaac, Jacob, and Judah), flaunting the usual favor held toward the eldest. Most likely, this collection was brought together in the 10th Century BCE in the Kingdom of Judea (the southern kingdom), and was used to reacquaint the people to their ancient traditions.
Genesis 12:1-4a
The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.
The serpent had promised wisdom, but the wisdom brought only curses upon Adam and Eve, and those that followed them. The final curse of the cycle was that given to the entire world, excepting Noah. With Abraham, however, the theme changes. “Your name shall be a blessing!” We are entering a different cycle of events with this reading. The promises, however, are diffuse and unknown. Being sent to a “land that I will show you” is a difficult promise and task. None-the-less, Abraham takes it on. He and Sarai both will be met with more challenges and directions, and above them hovers the covenant.
Breaking open Genesis:
- What has been your physical journey in life?
- What has been your spiritual journey in life?
- What brought you to this place? Was it an “unknown land?”
Psalm 121 Levavi oculos
I lift up my eyes to the hills; *
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the LORD, *
the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved *
and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.
Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel *
shall neither slumber nor sleep;
The LORD himself watches over you; *
the LORD is your shade at your right hand,
So that the sun shall not strike you by day, *
nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; *
it is he who shall keep you safe.
The LORD shall watch over your going out and your coming in, *
from this time forth for evermore.
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| Judean hills |
Some scholars have long associated this “Song of Ascents” with the pilgrims who trekked from the valleys below up through the hill country of Judea to Mount Zion, the holy place, the house of God. Though this may be true, there are others who feel that the psalm speaks a word of protection to anyone who makes their way along a difficult path. Do the hills protect and guard? Are they the destination only, or are they the site of potential evil? Perhaps they are the place of protection and help. As Abraham and Sarai move from the comfort of their homeland to some thing new and unknown (first reading) we can imagine their own concern and fear as they make their way into a new land. We are, all of us, pilgrims, treading a new path each day. This psalm gives comfort and notes the role that God plays. The one, who lives on the mountain, looks over those who make their way to the mountain.
Breaking open Psalm 121:
1. What or whom do you watch over and protect?
2. Do you trust that God will watch over and protect you?
3. What difficult paths have you had to take? Was God there?
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
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| William Blake - Abraham and Isaac |
Paul begins a discourse on faith, and picks for an example the life of Abraham. The previous chapters have been a discourse on how God reacts to humankind, and what is the Good News that offers promise and hope. In these verses Paul establishes the notion that God sees righteousness in the Person of Faith. Now he focuses on Abraham, who was righteous not because of what he did, but rather that he followed God in faith. Paul makes the argument that the law gives us nothing but shame, but faith and grace bring us into the real of righteousness. As the “father of many nations” Abraham extends to his own the righteousness seen in his faith.
Breaking open Romans:
- Who stands out as a model of faith for you? What is their story?
- What is faith for you?
- What promises have you heard from God?
Saint John 3:1-17
There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
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| Giovanni Angelo Del Maino - Nicodemus |
Nicodemus, a true son of Abraham, comes to discourse with Jesus. He is a complete representative of Judaism being a Pharisee, and member of the Sanhedrin, and a priest. That he comes “in the night” reveals the delicacy of his situation, and perhaps the symbolic quality in John of coming into the light. Nicodemus has seen Jesus’ “signs” – a potent symbol in John – and has come to believe. Jesus challenges him to come further and to not rely on the works alone but to be spiritually reborn. Several dichotomies emerge in their discourse: flesh and spirit, heavenly things and earthly things, ascension and descension – all of which describe a matrix of believing into which Nicodemus, and by extension all of Israel, is invited. Belief is set up against unbelief, and eternal life against condemnation. John proclaims that Jesus is the source of such spiritual life.
Breaking open the Gospel:
- If you were to have a night-time conversation with Jesus, what would you ask?
- Have you been “born again” and if so, how?
- How is your life different as a Christian?
After breaking open the Word, you might want to pray the Collect for Sunday:
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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