4 Lent/Year B – March 10, 2024
Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21
Opening Prayer/Words: ~ written by Katherine Hawker
For God so loved the world;
The sparrows, the mountain lions,
the fish and the people.
For God so loved the world;
In success and failure,
in sickness and health,
in mediocrity and extraordinary.
For God so loved the world;
Enough to become one of us,
enough to suffer along with us,
enough to offer new life for us.
For God so loved the world….Amen, Amen, Amen.
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization publicly characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic…our lives were changed dramatically in those early days…and even now…four years later…we, as a local, national, and worldwide community are still struggling to recover in so many ways…
It was on the 4th Sunday in Lent that year, March 22, 2020…when we held our first ever zoom service…in the early days following the initial news of the COVID-19 pandemic hitting close to home here in Alaska…
I took time this past week to go back and read and reflect on some of my sermons from those first few weeks…and this morning…I want to take us back to that 4th Sunday in Lent in 2020…and share a few words from my sermon that day…
March 22, 2020 – 4th Sunday in Lent
(I don’t imagine that any of us sitting here this morning…had ever imagined that this season of Lent, would unfold in the way it has…Just a few short weeks ago, it seems,…the COVID 19 virus was impacting lives in China, and other countries…Yes…our hearts were going out to the people in those countries…our hearts were breaking for people enduring such uncertainty, chaos, and fear…But, the physical distance from these countries, in the beginning…felt so remote…
It was happening somewhere else…not here…somehow…I still felt safe here…as if it would only happen somewhere else…and not so close to home…
I can’t even remember, right now, when the moment hit me, that what was happening somewhere else…was happening here too…
The events in the past few weeks have been changing in a blink of an eye…and it seems as if we are caught up in a whirlwind, in which we are being tossed every which way…a whirlwind of information being thrust upon us, at the same time another dose of loss and uncertainty being added into the mix, hour by hour…
Every day, we are being asked to do one more hard thing, after another…things we’ve never had to do before… making some very difficult decisions that we’ve never been faced with before…We are being asked to stay home, keep our distance from each other, don’t travel, don’t gather in groups, don’t meet in the church as we’ve always done, don’t send the kids to school or to the playground to be around other families, don’t visit anyone in the pioneers home, don’t visit the elderly, the vulnerable, those whose health is compromised, don’t travel to see your aging loved one in their care facility, because they aren’t allowing visitors, don’t travel to attend a long-planned wedding, don’t plan a wedding right now, don’t plan any kind of a celebration that would bring lots of people together, don’t worry, don’t panic, do not fear…
When we hear these words over and over again…don’t do this, don’t do that…it can be very difficult to do the very thing we are trying not to do…to not worry, to not be fearful, to not panic…and yet to we can turn once again to our faith, our beliefs, and our trust in God…that indeed we can believe, that in Jesus, we have a Shepherd…who will lead us and guide us, in all times, and in all places, and in all circumstances…)
I share these words from four years ago with you today which was only the very beginning of so many other life-altering changes that followed in the coming days and months… as a reminder of how much we have been through together in these past few years, I share them as a reminder of how far we have come since then …and I share them as a reminder to all of us of what has brought us safely to this day: The gift of God’s grace and love for us, for the whole world, in life and in death…our love and faith and trust in God through those days of great turmoil and uncertainty…and our willingness and perseverance in sharing the gift of God’s grace, love, light and hope, as revealed to us in Jesus, with those in our communities, near and far…
“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.”
At the diocesan convention in October 2020…in the first few months after the start of the pandemic we were reminded of the ways we could be “United with Christ in the interest of others” during a time we were being separated physically from one another and wondering about ways we could still reach out and express our love and care for our neighbors…And as I looked at the list of 20 ways we came up with…My thoughts turned to our willingness and perseverance in finding ways to share the gift of God’s grace, love, light and hope, as revealed to us in Jesus, with those in our communities, near and far…
Here's the list:
1. make a phone call to someone
2. contribute to local food banks
3. pray for one another
4. Take a walk with a friend
5. write a prayer note to a church or fellow church member
6. March for equality
7. Vote!
8. Drop off a meal for a friend
9. connect with church members
10. Visit outside with an elder
11. Wear a mask
12. wash your hands
13. Write a thank you note to the medical community
14. sharing our harvest
15. Be patient and kind with one another
16. Sing with a friend
17. clean up trash
18. invite a friend to church
19.Reject cruelty and divisiveness
20. Embrace empathy and diversity
These 20 ways to share the gift of God’s love, light and hope in Christ Jesus, for the well-being of our neighbor…are certainly not exclusive to the early days of the pandemic…
They can be a lifeline to those among us now who may feel as if there is no hope, and that there is no end in sight through these troubling and overwhelming times that are present even now in 2024...
That’s why setting aside time to remember together is so important …to reflect back often on where we have seen God’s love and healing presence among the people in the biblical stories, and among us in those times when we had no idea how we would put one foot in front of the other…to remember and rejoice in how far we have come… and to remember, how time and time again, God has brought us safely into a new day… a new day with opportunities for us to share the gift of God’s grace, love, light and hope, as revealed to us in Jesus, with those in our communities, near and far…
“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.”
(below written by Katherine Hawker)
For God so loved the world;
The sparrows, the mountain lions,
the fish and the people.
For God so loved the world;
In success and failure,
in sickness and health,
in mediocrity and extraordinary.
For God so loved the world;
Enough to become one of us,
enough to suffer along with us,
enough to offer new life for us.
For God so loved the world…Amen, Amen, Amen.
(written by Katherine Hawker)
Closing Prayer/Hymn: Amazing Grace
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska