Lent/Year C
March 13, 2022
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18; Psalm 27; Luke 13:31-35
Last Sunday, I shared a reflection with you written by Tricia Gates Brown – a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon…She invited us to consider doing something different this Lent…She encouraged us to think of Lent as a time to go deep into the roots of a thing. To ask ourselves, what do I want to experience more deeply? What might I use this Lenten time to know on a deeper level, so I can be nourished and changed by it? Not only changed…but transformed…
This past week, and as we begin a new week in the season of Lent…my mind is focused on a few new & different “things” that I want to take a deeper look at…and to offer up for your consideration also…
Last week, we started our new Books and Conversations gathering…discussing a book called: Witness at the Cross (by Amy-Jill Levine)….Each chapter of this book invites us to look through the eyes of the various witnesses that were at the scene of Jesus’ crucifixion…The author, a well-known and sought-after scholar/college professor of New testament and Jewish studies, unpacks a lot of historical insights into the passion story that we listen to every year on Good Friday. …You are welcome to join us (on zoom) on Mondays at noon, even if you don’t have the book…We view a short video summary of the chapter each week, featuring the author, that helps us kick off our discussion time….
This past week, I attended (on zoom) the 1st of a 5-part series called “The Lenten Virtual Borderlands Experience”… This is being offered by the Office of Latino/Hispanic Ministries in partnership with EMM [Episcopal Migration Ministries]. It is designed to expose (us) to the border crossing experiences of immigrants, including their experiences with detention centers, and the work of churches and other organizations to support them. The presenters are individuals involved in immigration ministry and advocacy, as well as the immigrants themselves who personally experienced the impact of our national immigration policies…The 1st session was very powerful…and even if you can’t attend the live presentation each week, they send out the recordings and other associated materials after each session…
These 2 offerings, certainly provide an excellent framework for one to go much deeper to the root of a thing: to experience more deeply the Good Friday Passion story, as viewed through the lenses of witnesses at the cross at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion; and the Virtual borderlands experience, certainly helps us to listen more deeply to the stories and experiences of immigrants, and what kind of resources are available, and what is still needed to provide even the most basic forms of humanitarian support to our neighbors.
On a somewhat lighter note, as we begin the 2nd week of Lent…the opening words of a reflection on today’s gospel reading, written by Debi Thomas, prompted me to consider another opportunity to “go deeper to the root of a thing” this Lent….and consider “What is God like?”
In her opening words she writes: If I asked you to draw a picture of Jesus, what would you draw? A blue-eyed shepherd holding a staff? A lion? (As in, Aslan of Narnia, or the Lion of the Tribe of Judah?) A loaf of bread and a cup of wine? A door, a gate, a light, a bridegroom? What about a chicken? Would it occur to you to draw a chicken?
The writer goes on to say: To answer my own question: if I had to draw a picture of Jesus, no, I would definitely not draw a chicken. So I come to the lectionary reading from Luke’s gospel this week, and stumble at Jesus’s self-description: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Can you picture it? Jesus, the mother hen? (END of Debra’s words)
Today’s gospel gives us just one glimpse into the essence of what God is like as revealed to us, through this particular image of Jesus as “mother hen” as Debra notes…one who loves us beyond our imagining, one who is vulnerable, one who is persistent in walking the way of love, one who is merciful, one who grieves with us and for us, one who longs for us to come home, to come home unto the arms of a wide-embracing wonderous love…the love of God, for all people, for all times, and in all places…
So, let me close today with a children’s story, an invitation to go deeper this Lent in exploring and wondering more about what God is like…
What is God Like (written by Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner; illustrated by Ying Hui Tan)
What is God like (read by Rev Julie)
Rev Julie Platson, St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, Sitka, AK
Hymn after sermon: (H) 455
1 O Love of God, how strong and true,
eternal and yet ever new;
uncomprehended and unbought,
beyond all knowledge and all thought.
2 O wide-embracing, wondrous Love,
we read thee in the sky above;
we read thee in the earth below,
in seas that swell and streams that flow.
3 We read thee best in him who came
to bear for us the cross of shame,
sent by the Father from on high,
our life to live, our death to die.
4 We read thy power to bless and save
e’en in the darkness of the grave;
still more in resurrection light
we read the fullness of thy might.