Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent, Year C, March 11, 2007

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent, Year C, March 11, 2007

Have you ever been surprised by something? I’m sure we all have at one time or another. Life is full of surprises. Imagine how boring things would be if this were not true. It should not be shocking to discover that the creator of all, God, is full of surprises as well. I want to speak about two surprises in the lessons for today. Both occur in the lesson from the Book of Exodus.

Now the idea that God is surprising should not be that novel. I know that as I look back in my own life it is filled with surprises, things which I never would have expected. There are twists and turns in my life that have led me to places I never though I would be. I’m sure that many of you today can identify with those same experiences.

The Holy Scriptures are also packed full of surprises. In the Scriptures we find stories of old women having children. There is the most memorable story of a young maid giving birth to the son of God. Stories of angels appearing when no one expected them.

Even today here at St. Peter's we celebrate a surprising event. That most unexpected of occurrences in an Episcopal Church, a baptism in Lent. Today we will baptize Spencer and welcome him to our faith community. Life is full of surprises. And like the baptism today, surprises are not always bad things.

In the reading from Exodus today we see that God can come to us in surprising ways. Moses is out wandering around with his flocks. As he wanders, he sees something not all that uncommon in his experience. He sees a fire. But as he looks at it be becomes surprised. He sees something totally unexpected. Moses observes that while there is a bush blazing on fire the bush is not being burned up. That had to be quite a surprise. And then Moses discovered the source of this seemingly impossible event. And it was another surprise. It was God. God came to Moses in a surprising way, in a way Moses did not expect. And I think that often happens to us as well, God comes to us in surprising ways. God comes to us through people we would not expect or events we would not anticipate. And suddenly we realize that God is trying to tell us something or God is trying to show us something in a new way.

Next we see that God uses surprising people. As a matter of fact, God uses people who don’t think they should be used by God. God tells Moses “Guess what, you are going to be the one Moses. You are the one who is going to save my chosen people. You are the one who will go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. I think at that moment Moses probably looked around to see if there was someone else standing behind him to whom God must be speaking. God sure surprised Moses in his choice of who he would use to bring God’s people out of Egypt. Moses was convinced that God had chosen the wrong man. I think many of us often feel that same way. The Lord can’t possibly be talking to me and calling me to do something. First of all who wants to go and tell anyone that the Lord has told me I’m supposed to do this. Most people would maybe take a few steps away from you and wonder either how they can get away from you for good or how they can get you to some treatment. But they are mostly likely not going to say “Oh hallelujah, I have been waiting for you to tell me.” And Moses knows this. And I think the other thing is that Moses knows himself. Here he is a simple shepherd and yet God is going to call him to do amazing things and deal with the most powerful man that Moses knows in the world. And he is going to have to tell the most powerful man in the world some things that man does not want to hear. “Who am I that I should go…” Moses responds to God. This might not be an unexpected response. It might be a response we have offered to God in our own past when we felt the call of God in our own life. No one really wants to have to tell everyone that God sent them to them. Or like Moses we might recognize that there is nothing special about ourselves. There is nothing powerful about ourselves and we might respond “Lord there must be a better person to do your work.”

And what do you think the Lord’s answer to Moses was. We all know. Moses you are the one. I know you are the one. You can do it. I sometimes think that God chooses people on purpose who don’t think they can do it. You see the problem is that if you think you can do it, then you don’t have to rely on God. You can just go out and do it on your own. But if you are convinced that you cannot possibly be the right person to do it, then you have no choice. You have no choice other than to rely on God to give you the strength and the power to carry out what it is God wants you to do.

And so my challenge to you is to look for unexpected things in your own life from God. Look for God to speak to you in unexpected ways. Look for God to ask you do to unexpected things. And then trust God to give you what you need to do it.

First Sunday in Lent, March 5, 2006

First Sunday in Lent, March 5, 2006

In the name of the God the Creator, Jesus the Liberator, and the Holy Spirit the Sustainer. AMEN.

Here it is once again. The First Sunday in Lent. And since I have been here for a few years now many of you know what to expect. A more austere service. Less singing. More solemnity in the service. And my usual sermon that we should focus less on we will be giving up and more on what we will be doing. The crosses are veiled and there are not “alleluias”. Sort of a dismal time in the church year.

This season also starts with the temptation of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. This was a storm Jesus was required to face. Temptation is something we can all identify with. It comes to us in many different ways. Sometimes very subtle sometimes not.

But I was struck by the Old Testament passage as I was preparing for this sermon.

Here in the middle of all this Lenten activity there is a rainbow. I think rainbows are one of the most beautiful things in all of creation.

The idea of a rainbow in Lent has caused me some consternation. It does not seem to fit well with my comfortable understanding of Lent. It challenges me to look at this season in a new light with new eyes.

I have to ask myself where do I find the rainbow of Lent? And I have to ask you where do you find the rainbow of Lent in your own Christian journey. Of course the obvious answer is that we find that rainbow at the end of Lent with the resurrection, and while very true, I think that is too pat and easy an answer for any of us.

Rainbows challenge us to look at things in new ways. Rainbows bring beauty out of storms and rain. In fact, rainbows require storm or rains to bring them out (ok, ok, I know you can find them around waterfalls too). All of us face storms in our lives. We cannot avoid them. But these storms help us mature and grow in our faith. In the end these storms are the makings of rainbows.

When we face difficulties in our lives what we need to remember is that they are the source of rainbows in our lives. When you feel like your life has been like standing out in a deluge for two days and you are so soaked to the bone that you can feel the water running down your skin under your clothes and are miserable and wet and cold, remember: a rainbow will be following the storm.

Lent is the stormy time in the church calendar. Jesus faces his temptation in the Gospel today. The world has just been destroyed in the Old Testament lesson. We count down the days until that utter failure, at least from the world’s point of view, the crucifixion.

But God is in the business of surprising us. Giving us blessing out of hardship. Giving us the resurrection out of the crucifixion. Giving us the rainbow from rain.

The lesson of Lent is to be faithful to God, to trust God in the good times and in the tough times. Look for the rainbows in our lives.