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The
Fourth Sunday of Lent Readings:
Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians
2:1-10; John 3:14-21 Many
of us studying Theology at Trinity had unique ways of making ends meet.
But Helen surely outdid the rest of us.
We were always excited to hear a message come for her over the
PA.
"Helen! Your package has arrived."
Then we would all rush to the Buttery - that's what the cafeteria
at Trinity is called - to hear the latest installment.
You see Helen edited Harlequin romances.
I had never read one, deeming them unworthy of my time, but I
must admit some fascination for them after her sharing so many with us.
In fact, I must admit that many of the stories were touching.
There is, after all, something universally appealing about a love
story.
Being
loved is always a surprise.
The very fact that someone chooses to love us is exciting.
It supports us in what we do.
It gives us new insight into our value as a human.
Even when we recognize our self worth, being loved is still a
startling experience.
"Are we worthy of such devotion?" we wonder.
"Will it last?"
It
is no wonder then, that being loved by God comes as a great surprise to
us.
Paul says that we are created in Christ for good works.
God has crafted us in God's very image.
We are "works of art", part of a great masterpiece
crafted by a genius artist.
How hard it is to take in just how great that love is!
Yet there it is.
How much does God love us?
God loves us enough to have crafted us in that wonderful
likeness.
Not one mold, but each unique and wonderful.
Each part of God's plan.
What love that is.
Not some Harlequin Romance kind of love, but genuine and real.
The kind of love that resulted in a work of love so great that it
is beyond our imagination.
"For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but have eternal life."
That is amazing love!
A free gift!
A love totally unmerited by us!
The ultimate example of love!
It is the pattern and model of the kind of love that we, as
Christians, are called to show in our lives.
And it is offered to every one of us.
Lent
is a time to reflect on God's great love.
Yet love offered is not necessarily love accepted.
The suitor can be spurned.
We can say yes or no.
And yes! There is a personal cost for the gift.
Loving always comes at a cost to self.
For the love so freely given to us, calls us in turn to come into
relationship with that loving God, and to reach out in love to our
neighbour.
Paul
takes every opportunity to help us to understand that salvation is a
free gift from God, a love gift.
It is not something we have earned.
It is not something we deserve.
It is grace, freely given.
He also emphasizes that, free though it may be, it is not without
cost.
Opening ourselves to the gift of God's love means that we cannot
avoid the experience of the cross.
Opening ourselves to the gift of God's love means opening
ourselves to the possibility of suffering as well as to the probability
of great joy.
We
just don't expect that in our lives.
When we choose to follow Christ, we expect that it will mean an
end to suffering.
That it will mean that somehow we have tapped in to a magical way
of avoiding anything bad happening.
It will all work out like the Harlequin romance where every story
has its happy ending.
The
people of Israel thought that to follow in God's way would mean an end
to suffering and tragedy.
They discovered differently.
As the time in the wilderness went on and on, they began to see
that, just because it's free, does not mean it is without cost.
"Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness?" they railed at Moses.
"For there is no food and no water, and we detest this
miserable food."
What
they are saying is that the manna which God has provided, the free gift
of God's grace, is not enough.
They expected more.
Are
we ever like them?
Do we lose patience on the way to the Promised Land?
It simply does not happen fast enough for us.
Or the way we expected it to.
Aren't we rather prone to wanting instant gratification for our
every desire?
We don't expect to continue to find ourselves wandering in the
desert.
We don't expect to meet with any adversity or trouble on the way.
The
cross for the Christian is a sign of contradiction.
What was once a sign of infamy and disgrace becomes a sign of
vulnerability and love, the great love of a great God.
The contradiction also arises because it came about through the
sacrifice of Christ.
It brings about suffering, but without it there can be no
resurrection.
The cross, a symbol of death, is for the Christian a symbol of
resurrection.
"When
I am lifted up from the earth,” Jesus says in the Gospel, “I shall
draw all people to myself."
Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, and all
those who looked at it were healed.
Jesus was lifted up.
All who believed were given eternal life.
The cross is a call to wholeness in Christ.
Belief in the crucified Lord calls us to repentance and healing.
It calls us to respond, to respond with love for our neighbour.
Not the neighbour I choose to love, mind you.
Not the one whose culture and race match mine, but the one God
calls me to serve.
My
neighbour is the addicted, the perverted, the selfish, the corrupted.
My neighbour is the one of another faith.
My neighbour is the one person in the parish that I just cannot
stand.
Our great God who gave us such amazing love, now calls us to
extend that love to others.
Through service we fulfill our call. The
realization that we are really loved by God is difficult to grasp.
Yet the signs of God's love are all around us.
The humanity of Christ is God's fullest sign of love for us.
That Christ should live and die as one of us is truly an amazing
sign.
If we believe it, this sign should support, thrill, excite, and
re-create us.
We are truly loved.
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