Dear All: As many of you know, I am training to be a bi-vocational priest for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tombstone, and I gave my first homily (sermon) last Sunday. I am posting it to share with those I care about who may have an interest. Anyway, here it is:
Sermon 2-18-18 First Sunday of Lent
Canon John went easy on me since this is the Sunday wherein we pray the Great Litany, and because the Great Litany takes a while to pray, it is appropriate that my homily be short. And since this is my first homily, I am grateful for this. However, although I am to be brief, I recognize this first Sunday of Lent as a significant Sunday in that it is the onset of our time of preparation for the celebration of Easter – the celebration of Jesus as our Savior and risen Lord.
And in review of the readings, I am struck by 7 words that are pertinent to this Lenten season which also tie the readings together. And they appear in the reading from I Peter. And those 7 words are: “in order to bring you to God.” Now these 7 words are found in the context of the verse: “Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.”
And what is phenomenal about these seven words, is that they are a theme that permeates the entire Bible. Because here in Peter, the words are set in the context of the ultimate act performed by Christ in order to bring us to God wherein Christ died for us and became our savior. But this theme of God reaching out to us, in order to bring us in to relationship, begins in Genesis.
In Genesis, we know God instructed Noah to build a really big boat. And the beauty of building a really big boat is that it took a good amount of time and I imagine it was very noticeable. Which I also imagine was intended to draw attention to the fact that God was trying to get peoples attention. He was trying to get them on board. Both figuratively and literally. And we know God was trying to reach out to the people of Noah’s time because it says so in our I Peter reading. It says: God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. This tells us God was waiting during the building of the ark, to save people. In order to bring them to God. This reaching out to humankind by the creator of the universe begins in Genesis. And in our particular reading today we see that after the flood, God extended a covenant. A promise. To never destroy humankind again.
And our God is a God of Covenants. And what is the purpose of a covenant, but to have an agreement with someone. And why bother to have an agreement other than to be in some sort of relationship, one party with the other. And this has been God’s history with us as related in the Bible. God trying to bring us into relationship through covenants, both Old and New.
Now we know how the account in Genesis goes. The people of Noah’s time did not listen to God. But this brings up what I find to be one of the most intriguing sentences in the entire Bible, which is also found in our 1st Peter reading.
it is just a blip in this letter of Peter’s and is not referenced anywhere else in the Bible, but there is indication that God did not give up on the people who died in the flood. Because 1 Peter tells us Jesus was “put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark.” Several translations use the word “preach” in place of “proclamation.” They say he preached to the spirits in prison. And the Aramaic Bible does not use the word “prison” but says spirits in Sheol which means grave or abode of the dead.
And perhaps one of the reasons I find this verse so intriguing, is I have actually had people ask me how a merciful God could have sent a flood upon the people of Noah’s day. But this verse gives hope that one of the first things Jesus did after being crucified was proclaim or preach to Noah’s generation in Sheol presumably to bring them to God.
So already in the readings we see the great lengths that God goes in order to bring us into relationship. He waits patiently, tries to get our attention, extends covenants. Christ suffered and died and transcended death. And then we go on to our reading in Mark, where we see Jesus living as an example for us to follow, in order to bring us to God.
Jesus is baptized as an example to us. And then Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days teaching us that 40 days is a significant time period. He relinquishes basically everything – comfort, food, safety. By opening himself up for 40 days to the Father, Jesus shows us by example that in drawing night unto the Father, the Father drew nigh unto him giving him strength to choose rightly, wisdom to use scripture in spiritual battle, and solitude in preparation for ministry. And likewise, during lent we empty and humble ourselves. It says in the today’s reading from the Psalmist: “He guides the humble in doing right and teaches his way to the lowly.” We humble ourselves, and God is able to guide us and teach us which brings us into closer relationship with him.
This seeking of guidance from God enables us to better follow Jesus as risen Lord. Today the Psalmist references Jesus as Lord six times. And 35 times in the Great Litany we address Jesus as Lord. We say Lord deliver us, Lord hear us, Lord we beseech thee. And Jesus cautions us “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say?” And so during Lent it is our time to re-focus on following Jesus as Lord. Because we are clean from what Jesus did for us as Savior, but we need to allow him to wash our feet in order to walk in daily relationship with him as Risen Lord.
And so it is my prayer that during this 40 day time period leading up to the celebration of Easter, that our Heavenly Father will bless and use our Lenten intentions, in order to bring us to God.
-H.D. Anyone…a.k.a. Heather Rose
H.D. Anyone 