Easter Day "“Who will Roll Away the Stone?" (COMMUNION SERVICE)

 

Readings: Psalm 118:1-2,14-24, Isaiah 25:6-9, Acts 10:34-43, Mark 16:1-8
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, April 4th, 2021

In the gospel according to Mark, three of the ladies go along to the tomb of Jesus early on a Sunday morning.  They are going with the intention of anointing the dead body of Jesus as He is laid to rest. They are not feeling at all positive … indeed question if their whole venture was an exercise in futility because over the entrance of the tomb a huge stone had been placed. It was placed there by the authorities, who feared that rumors of anything weird happening to the corpse would not be good!

The account we have in Mark, refers to several resurrection appearances that take place. It is often thought to have been a late addition to the gospel of Mark as it does not appear in some of the earliest manuscripts that have been discovered of his gospel. But then... things like resurrections take time to come to terms with. It was beyond belief!

Other gospels speak of Peter and John going to the tomb, and of Jesus meeting with the disciples for a fish supper, down by the lake before His Ascension. Paul, in his letters, tells us that there were numerous appearances, including one where a crowd of some 500 folk witnessed His presence.

While the details are as though somebody was explaining a mind boggling explosion of light into darkness... and all intensely personal... we know that this event, the resurrection, while hard to define, had an impact on the disciples that was so profound that they gave the rest of their lives to proclaiming that Jesus Christ had been raised from death, that they had seen Him, and that His love could transform people’s lives if they were open to the living, loving influence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, at work...  within them and at work in the world around them.

His truth was marching on. The kingdom was still coming. Death had been swallowed up in resurrection. For evermore the Church were to be an Easter people, and “Hallelujah” was to be their song. Even after a year of pandemic we still take time out to celebrate, because we know this is worth it!

The sentence that struck me when reading the Mark passage was verse 3 “They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"”

There is that sense, in the words, of hopelessness, of almost, “What's the point in doing this, we know nothing can come of it, the obstacles are so great! ” It is a statement of disillusionment.

As we survey the state of Christianity in Western Civilization at the beginning of the 21st Century, there is a lot that can cause anxiety. The church has seen better days.  Many, many people are no longer looking to the church for their spiritual life. There are many, many commitments that people are making that make it increasingly difficult to do so.

Folk are worried after COVID what the church will look like. Will people come back? Will they have become so used to staying home and watching services in their P.J.s with a cup of coffee in hand that they will not make the effort? We have reached folks we never reached before by having online services. Do we have to carry on doing everything online as well as in person?

Society is no longer built around the church calendar. Sunday is no longer a Sabbath to be kept holy, but just another day. Even church members, those who have stood in the front of their congregations and promised, “We will be faithful” find it virtually impossible to be even find one hour a week on a regular basis to be together in worship.

Finding volunteers to step up to the tasks that need doing is an ongoing battle. I am so thankful for those who take up their responsibilities with great seriousness, but I am also aware that as they do so, they can become quickly burnt out, because they are few. Our losses outnumber our gains.  It feels like an irreversible tide.

There is the politicization and polarization of the faith that has taken place, causing huge divisions and great skepticism of people’s genuine religious commitment. When people throw themselves wholeheartedly behind political figures, either of the right or the left, and use their views as a basis for their moral decisions, things tend to become chaotic.

The negativity, the lack of respectful discourse, the ability to both glorify and demonize at the drop of a hat, the treatment of truth as a commodity... all this and more seems like an irreversible trend that is leading us on a road to nowhere.

I know for sure, that the nation I moved to over 20 years ago, is not the nation I am currently experiencing. And yes of course you can all give me a hundred reasons why... and we can all point the finger at people or events, but the fact remains... we are not where we were!

So, do I become disillusioned? Oh yes. I too, like the women on Easter morning, find myself asking...  “Who will roll away the stone for us?” The stone of disbelief. The stone of hopelessness. The stone of disillusion.  What happens to the women?

Firstly, we read, in verse 4 “They looked up.” They moved from a position of “Oh my gosh, what is going to become of us” to a position of “Oh my gosh, the stone has moved!” They do not know why the stone has moved. They do not know how the stone has moved. They just know the stone has been moved.

We are in a better position than the women. We know that the stone has moved because Jesus has been raised from death. They would get there! But for now, they are just looking up and wondering. Friends I do not know what the future holds. But I know who holds the future. God moved the stone. And … all the shifting and rumbling and trouble going on around us, dare we believe that God is still in control. Resurrection faith invites us to do that. To trust in what God is doing, that we not seeing! Look up!

Look up in prayer.  Look up in faith. Look in hope. Look up in trust. We are not where we were, but neither are we called to stay where we are! There is a future. God has not finished with us yet. We have children. We have grandchildren. We love them and God loves them, and God cares for them just as God has cared for us throughout our lives. Look up!
 
Then we read in verse 7 “He is going ahead of you.” Who is the “He” in this verse? The verse is talking about Jesus. Jesus is going ahead of us. So maybe, like Peter, we need to put on our running shoes so we can keep up! There is a group of folks in our Presbyterian Church denomination who identify themselves as “Next Church.”

As part of this groups statement of faith they include these words “We believe God’s Kingdom comes not because we are confident in our own capacities, but because we trust in God, who can do more than we can ask or imagine. We are humbled and amazed that, in and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God includes us in the work of redeeming all creation and reconciling the whole world.”

They acknowledge that we are going through an unusual time, but they keep asking, “What's next?” and recognize that in answering that question, God is way ahead of us! I mean isn't that the story of every day?

What did we do to make the sun rise this morning? Were we pulling the levers? Is there a little man just over the hill, in a little booth, like the Wizard of OZ, manipulating the galaxy so that the light arrived in time to celebrate an Easter outdoor service? Is somebody going to come running out and declare, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?” Is a great big Easter bunny gong to hop into view and say, “April Fool”?

Verse 4 “They looked up.”  Verse 7 “He is going ahead of you.”

Here around the communion table, as we share and reflect on Easter hope by sharing bread and wine, is a time to reinvigorate our lives and seek the faith that will get us through. As we, in the quiet and sanctuary of our homes, make this memorial, let us recall what a tough year we have travelled through. Let us remember all we have lost.

But let us not be embraced by despair. We are rising again from out of this crisis. The Stone is rolling away. Our God is good and able and powerful. We are the on the other side of midnight, walking in the Son’s light. Today is not the day for feeling a little down or a little disillusioned. Today is not the day we focus on the immovable stone.

Easter Day is the day we look up and declare, God has moved the Stone.
Easter Day is the day we declare, Christ is Risen, “He is Risen indeed!”
Easter Day is the day we declare we are Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.
Easter Day is the day when we declare, He... Jesus Christ... is going ahead of us.

So, do not fear, do not be discouraged. We believe that as there has been a yesterday church, as there remains a today church, so God is working on a next church. And we pray... Lord, help us, Lord keep us, Lord guide us, Lord feed us, Lord help us look up and help us remember that our lives and our times are always in Your hands! Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

PALM/PASSION SUNDAY "Why a Donkey?"

 

 Readings: Psalm 118:1-2,19-29, Philippians 2:5-11, Zechariah 9:8-12, Mark 11:1-11
 Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 28th 2021

Do the names Groucho, Chico and Harpo mean anything to you? Three crazy actors, collectively known as "The Marx Brothers," whose whacky films graced the Cinema back in the days when everything was black and white.

I used to own a book, that was a collection of their pictures and sayings that was called "Why a Duck?" The title was a quotation from a scene where Groucho points out to the Italian accented Chico a railway bridge over a river, which he explains is called a viaduct.

Chico responds "Why a Duck? Why a no a Chicken?"
"Not 'Why a Duck'? - VIADUCT!"
"Like I a say … Why a no a chicken, Why a Duck?"

This morning I don't want to ask, 'Why a no a chicken?' or even 'Why a no a duck?' but I do want to ask 'Why a Donkey?' Why did Jesus choose, on the first Palm Sunday, to come riding into Jerusalem on a donkey?

A good place to start is with the quotation from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah we heard in our Old Testament reading. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey.”

When Matthew and John give us the account of Palm Sunday, they use this quote to point out that the events of Palm Sunday happen within a particular framework at a particular time for a particular purpose.

The Bible never talks about fate or chance. It speaks instead, of what some call, "Sacred Time."  Scripture speaks of Christian life as being, not just a random collection of disconnected events, but life with purpose and meaning. Jesus rode a donkey into town, because there was a purpose and a meaning to the action. It was an event in sacred time.

Mark gives us a fuller account of Jesus telling the disciples to go and get the donkey. If I were one of the disciples I would have been sarcastically thinking, "Yeah right... this is going to work."  A couple of them are sent to an unnamed village, where hopefully they will discover that there just happens to be a donkey tethered there at the side of the street. This donkey is special because no one has ever ridden it.

As they untie it there is a strong possibility that someone is going to come along and say, 'Excuse me sir, what are you doing with that donkey?' and they are to say to them, simply, 'The Lord has need of it.'  No need to explain who this 'Lord' is, or even say why he needs it... because that is not something you know about in the first place!

Strange thing is, when the disciples do what Jesus asks, despite their questions and the fact that it all seems kind of vague, it turns out just like Jesus said.  When God speaks, things happen.  

I really cannot explain 'Sacred Time’ but I do know that as I put my life in God's hands all kinds of connections, affecting what I thought were insignificant events, start to happen.  

Think about it! For some reason you have ended up reading this transcript of a sermon. An important part of worship is opening our hearts to God. For that to happen, we must pay attention. We must focus.

Who knows? Maybe you are multi-tasking right now. Maybe you are far less focused than you would be if we were meeting in person. Maybe you are having  breakfast and in your pajamas, enjoying a coffee. Maybe you are at the beach reading this on your phone. That’s OK. I am just glad you are reading it!

We all have different reasons for reading a sermon.  Maybe because our church is closed and we have to be online right now. Maybe a sense of duty to maintain habits of worship. Maybe to review it. Maybe some random scrolling took you here. Maybe we do not have an explanation for it, just where we ended up.  

But... is there a deeper reason to why you are reading this? Or is it, truly, only random? Well, I’m the kind of preacher who believes that, if we place ourselves into God’s care, God is able to take all the scattered pieces of our life and make something interesting out of them.

Try this little activity. Pay attention to this sermon and then pay attention to what happens through the week.  I would not be the least surprised if someone will say something, or you will meet someone, or something will happen and, strangely, there will be a connection to what you are reading right now. When that happens, ask yourself, “Is that a coincidence, or is there something more going on here?”

See that is a part of Palm Sunday experience.

Was it a coincidence that a person just happened to have tied a donkey that had, coincidentally, never been ridden upon, to the side of that street in that town, on that day, at that time, when those two disciples came walking along?  

Was it a coincidence that people came along and asked questions that Jesus said they would ask, and that as the disciples gave the answer that Jesus said they should give, the disciples discovered that they were able to take the donkey to Jesus, as He said they could?

Was it a coincidence that as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, crowds lined the streets shouting "Hosanna to the King of David" - in a fashion like Zechariah's prophecy of years before? Were the crowds aware of the connection? Not likely!  Did they realize that just a week later they would be shouting, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” No way!

Did they for even one moment consider that a death on a cross would be transformed into a resurrection from a tomb; that on a Pentecost holiday the Holy Spirit of God would descend on those disciples who witnessed His resurrection and that the church would be born? Of course not! Conicidence? Or God-incidence?

Why a donkey? 'Why a no a horsee or a pony?'  Because a connection was being made to what the prophet had said. And maybe there are other connections.

The donkey is a creature of peace.  You would expect a King to arrive on a War Horse, or in a chariot pulled by a pony... not so Jesus. Just as His mother Mary is pictured by tradition as riding a donkey to Bethlehem, bearing the Christ Child in her womb, so in humility, Jesus enters Jerusalem, the City of God, riding upon a creature considered humble and gentle.

The donkey was not simply a method of transport for people. It was also a beast of burden.  A donkey can carry a great deal on its back.  It is sure-footed in rocky terrain. In many parts of the world, it is still considered a working animal.

I remember Tom, a friend of my sisters from Greece, who visited with us when we lived in a seaside town in Mid Wales.  On the beach were some donkeys that gave children rides up and down.  Tom was astonished. 'Donkeys? Why you have donkeys here?' In his culture the donkey was a working animal ... not something you amused the kids with on a sunny day.

Why a donkey? When you think about it, there can be all kinds of connections.

But the most important one we need to make in this Easter Season is between our lives and the Jesus who rode into Jerusalem to die upon a cross and was raised to bring Resurrection life to bear on our daily lives.

If we can get that connection right, then a whole lot of other things in our lives will start to make sense as well. We may well discover that sacred time is breaking into our daily lives.

An old friend I used to visit in a previous church used to talk about ‘synchronicity’ as the reason she could not help but believe in God. When she trusted in God to guide her, random things all seemed to fall into place.

The reading in church, the song on the radio, the story in the paper, the conversation overheard in the Post Office, the book she was reading… it was as though they all were synchronized together in such a way as she became aware of something going on her life that was so much larger than herself.

Sacred Time. Synchronicity. God-incidence. You can call it whatever you like.  It was there in the events surrounding Palm Sunday. There was a reason for the donkey. There was a purpose to the way Jesus rode into town. He rode towards the Cross.

In our Lectionary Palm Sunday is linked to Passion Sunday.  Though Holy Week begins with a triumphant entry on a donkey, by Friday the sky has turned dark, and Jesus will die on the cruel cross of Calvary.

He will meet with His disciples one last time for a Holy Supper that gave rise to our scared celebration of Holy Communion. He will take a towel and wash their feet reminding them that this was an example of how they must treat each other if they are to demonstrate His love to all the world.

We remember that Jesus took the burden of our sins upon Himself. The one who took the weight of our transgressions, rode into town on a beast of burden. Prior to His death there are great confrontations, trials held, lies told, and acts of deep betrayal. A stranger will be forced to carry His cross. He will be tortured, face abuse, be mocked and beaten. The earth itself will shake.

Even back when all this happened, there were those who unexpectedly made a connection. We read in Matthew 27:54, a soldier’s confession of faith.

‘Now the centurion, and those who were with him were keeping guard over Jesus (at the place of crucifixion). When they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, they were terribly frightened and filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”’ (Amplified Bible)

Let us pray that we may have a faith in God that enables us to know God’s love, revealed in Jesus Christ, as a reality guiding our own hearts and lives.

As we remember this Easter Week the Christ who died upon the Cross for our sins, may we seek to live in a way that serves others and brings glory to God’s name. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Covenants of Grace - Lent 5 "Jeremiah and the Heart"

 

 Readings: Psalm 51:1-12, Hebrews 5:5-10, Jeremiah 31:31-34, John 19:14-22
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on March 21st 2021

O.K. Here is the situation. There is a husband. This husband is a great guy.  He has gone out of his way to treat his wife fairly and look after her as best as he knows how. In fact, on numerous occasions he has risked everything to get her out of dangerous circumstances that would have destroyed their relationship.

But here is the problem. Time and time after time, she has been unfaithful to him. Time and time again she has gone after other guys, time and time and time again she has treated their relationship as though vows had never been spoken and the good times they had together (and there had been many of them) counted for nothing at all.

Their relationship has completely broken down. She, despite his warnings, has gone off with this other guy and it has led to total disaster. She has lost everything. She is miles from home. She is hurting like she has never hurt before. Her laughter has turned to tears and her dancing to mourning.  She is trapped herself in circumstances that she knew could happen if she carried on the way she was but failed to believe that they would.

Now, lest there be any misunderstanding, I am not drawing a picture from any romance novel or something off the Hallmark T.V. Channel. I am painting a picture for you of what had happened between Israel and her God at the time Jeremiah spoke the words that we heard as our bible reading.

Jeremiah 31:32 “‘I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them’ declares the LORD”. The people of Israel are in the captivity of Babylon and at the mercy of powers that sought their destruction. But God is not willing to cast them off. God’s love refuses to call it quits and, rather than the expected rejection, Jeremiah speaks in these terms.

Jeremiah 31: 33 “‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I shall be their God, and they shall be my people”.

Returning to the husband and unfaithful wife picture, the husband is saying, “I’m not giving up on you. I am going to do something that makes you realize how much I love you. Something that changes the way you will feel inside about our relationship. It’s not going to be about rules, it’s going to be about desire.”

I called this message, 'Jeremiah and the Heart.' When we speak of the covenant of the heart, we are talking about desire. Desire is an emotion that we associate with yearning and longing and wanting. If we desire something, we want that thing so badly that it occupies our thoughts, captures our dreams, and causes us to take certain course of action.  

I am not talking about just wanting something. I am not thinking about how it would be nice to have a Ferrari or a holiday in Hawaii or a new i-phone. Such things would be nice, and if you save up your pennies enough, one day you may be able to achieve some of them.

Desire is about what rests on your heart and guides your steps each day. Desire is an emotion that if it is not quenched it hurts. The Psalmist declares in his quest for the blessing of God."Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hidden from thee” (Psalm 38:9.) Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant, a covenant that will be expressed through the desires of the heart. Not the Old Covenant, which was “Hey, if you do this, I’ll bless you, if you don’t do this, I’ll curse you”.

As Christian people we have an opportunity that Jeremiah’s hearers never witnessed. They never witnessed the new covenant come into being. The New Covenant, the New Testament, the New relationship with God that would write itself on people’s hearts, was only fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ.

Out of love God had established the old covenant as a way of blessing. 'Do this, I will bless you, and we will be in a relationship'.  But the people kept walking out on that relationship. Something more was needed. Something that would break the hardness of unfaithful hearts. Something powerful that would draw out love and produce faithfulness.

That something, that expression of God’s desire for relationship, came in the shape of a cross. The Cross is the central symbol of Christian faith. The Cross. The place where we witness the love of God going to the ultimate depths of all that life can throw our way, to win our hearts.

The earliest history of the Presbyterian Church over in Wales, the church that personally led me to faith, was one punctuated by religious revivals. Now when I say revivals, I am not talking about putting a little tent up and getting together and having a good sing, and maybe a few people walking down the aisle and getting saved.

I am talking about a sovereign move of God’s Holy Spirit that rocked the nation. I am speaking about whole communities that were changed from places of despair to communities of hope.

There is a story told of a notorious district in one of the larger urban areas. To put it plainly it was an area where some of the menfolk would go to buy time with a lady for a while. Revival meetings were taking place in town, and the men stopped visiting the ladies, because they were attending the meetings at the church. So, the ladies, who depended on the men for their income, decided to go along and disrupt the meeting and entice the men to return.

It did not happen that way. When the ladies entered the church there was such an overwhelming sense of God’s presence that they forgot what they had gone there for! The preacher was speaking about the Cross, as being the place where God desired to forgive sins and accepted all who would come to Him, and desired to establish a new relationship with those who accepted His love that compared to nothing else in this world.

These ladies? They knew a little about desire. Through the action of the Holy Spirit the shadow of the cross fell upon them and they became changed; and as a result, the whole district became changed and people’s desire was changed – faithfulness and living in a way that honored God and being people of hope and conviction – these things became foremost in people’s minds who for much of their lives had been strangers to the love of God.

On the day we call Maundy Thursday, we recall how Jesus met in the upper room with His disciples before He went out to face His torturous trials and death. At that meal He talked to the disciples of how the cup they would drink represented a New Covenant, a new relationship with God made possible through the Cross.  

As Jesus sits down to share this moment, forever fixed in eternity, we read in Luke 22:15 (KJV) “He said unto them, 'With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” A lot of desire there! What is the desire of God? Revelation 3:20; 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

Jeremiah’s vision is of a God who comes to us and shares in our lives, as we share in the life of God’s kingdom. It is all made possible through the Cross, upon which Jesus died to destroy the barrier that exists between people and God. It is made feasible through the Resurrection. This is not Romeo and Juliet. Although this is a love affair that gives itself up to death, this is a love that is stronger than death!

One of the features of the Welsh Revivals, a feature paralleled in similar movements throughout the world at different times, is that the Cross of Jesus Christ becomes a touching place. As people realized here is God, God giving all, God prepared to suffer, to allow His own Son to die for them, their hearts were melted.  Something inside of them … moved... in such a way as their desire was to follow Jesus Christ whatever it cost, wherever He may lead, however He may touch their lives.

It is an action of the heart. Recall Jeremiah's words; “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put my law within them, and on their heart, I will write it; and I shall be their God, and they shall be my people.”

We spend our lives running here, attaining this, doing that, thinking that we are getting somewhere. We play games.  'Lord, I promise I’ll be faithful... next time'. 'Lord, it’s not that I don’t trust You, I just believe that I need other things than You in my life right now'. ‘Lord, lead me not into temptation... well...   just more time!”

All four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, invite us to recognize and realize the significance of what God has done for us at the Cross. They call us to reach a place where the brokenness of Jesus Christ breaks our own hard heart.  It is all about the desires of our hearts.

Let us seek for God to win our hearts afresh as we realize that the love that was broken for us is the same love that seeks to heal us.

Let us ask God’s Holy Spirit today to place our lives under the shadow of the cross.

May the desire that is in our hearts be truly one of commitment to God, commitment to Christ who died for us, commitment to the Holy Spirit, who seeks to empower us to live Kingdom lives.

And to God be all the glory.
AMEN.

 The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Covenants of Grace - Lent 4 "Moses and the Snake"

Readings: Psalm 107, 1-3,17-22, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-17, Numbers 21:4-9
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 14th 2021

Harry Potter fans will be familiar with the spoilt child known as Dudley Dursley who appears at the beginning of the very first book. You may remember when it is Dudley’s birthday, his parents have assembled a huge collection of presents for him. He rushes in looks at the boxes and is immediately angered. There were more boxes last year. It was not fair. What a nasty kid! Still, if you remember, he gets what is coming to him.

For his birthday treat Dudley is taken to the zoo. There he has a nasty encounter with a snake. The snake, for Dudley turns out to be an experience of judgment... but for Harry Potter, becomes a sign that right is on his side... and that maybe, for the first time in a long while, things were going to go well for him.

In our bible story this morning, the Israelites are like a crowd of Dudley Dursley's. Although God has delivered them, and they are getting nearer the promised land; although God has continually nourished them with manna from heaven on their journey, they are in a moaning mood. 'How long are we going to be mooching around this desert? When are we going to get something else to eat other than moldy manna and queasy quail-meat? It’s not fair!'

As in Harry Potter, their answer comes in the form of a snake. Venomous snakes appear amid the camp and start to bite the Israelites. Some of the people die and the rest cry out to the same Moses whose leadership they were a short time ago rejecting. 'Oh, Moses, help us, please... we’re sorry!'

God asks Moses to do something a little strange. To make an image of a fiery serpent out of bronze, (or some translations say brass), and put it on the end of a long pole. Whoever lifted their heads to gaze at the snake, would be healed, and the scriptures tell us that is exactly what happened.

Many years later, when John was writing his gospel, he remembered this story of Moses and the snake, and some words that Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a young ruler among the Pharisees, who has come to Jesus with a question as to what he must do to be saved. Jesus explains to Nicodemus that Nicodemus must be born again, (or ‘born from above’) and explains, about His crucifixion and resurrection that was to happen; “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up” so that “whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

In a similar way to the way the people of Israel found salvation from their poisonous problem in the wilderness, by looking up to the snake, so by looking to the cross of Jesus we can find salvation from the poison of sin and gain eternal life.

Whilst ‘Lifting up our eyes to God in times of need and salvation’ is surely the important message we can learn from this passage; I do not think it is the only lesson. I will return to the salvation theme again before the sermon is through, but on the way, let me mention a couple of other things.

Beware the attitude of ingratitude.

The 18th Century architect of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, has this to say about verse 5 of our reading, (the verse that pictures the Israelites complaining about the food they had to eat.)  “Whereas it appears it yielded excellent nourishment, because in the strength of it they were able to go so many and tedious journeys, contemptuously did they speak of the Manna”.

I was extremely fortunate in my teens, when I started attending church, there were still a few old school, fiery Welsh preachers, who used to be in the pulpit. They had a passion for words and a way of preaching, that was somewhere between a dramatic performance and a political rally. I was trying to imagine what they would have done with this passage. Indulge me!

“Are you today harboring in the darkness of your heart, contempt for the manna? Is there with your soul the spiritual poison of ingratitude towards God your Gracious Father? Is there lurking in the depth of your being a cursing, murmuring spirit causing you to make light of the blessings of Almighty God? My friend... beware. You are in a stony place. You are in a rocky place. And among the rocks there are the snakes, and they are ready to bite, and that attitude of ingratitude is even now giving them the opportunity to strike at your spiritual life with their venom. Death, Death, the ancient snake of Eden’s garden, is crouched and ready to wound! Oh friend, cast out those contemptuous demons. Look up to God and away from empty self-desire. Look up, today, lest that contemptuous poison of ungratefulness grants you no blessing in the morrow”

I could go on! That is one way of putting it. How else could it be said? In one of the youth retreats I have helped lead, the young people made up alternative versions of bible passages. I was thinking, how would today's passage turn out if you gave it that sort of rhythmic structure of a rap song?

“Yo, listen up. Fool. I’m doing what it takes, Talking about the snakes, You wanna be deceived? Rehash Adam and Eve? The poison of snake bite, will take away your life-light, cos in your heart there’s an attitude, of contempt and ingratitude, my God ain’t into messing, my God He’s into blessing, but your mouth don’t stop whining, and your light it's not shining, so it’s time to stop complaining, it’s time to get your game on, it’s time to lift your eyes high, time to look and listen, ‘cos you don’t know what you’re missing, God’s grace is all around you, don’t let this world confound you, east coast, west coast, when will you believe us, I’m tired of fooling around, - the only way is Jesus!”

Those two demonstrations confirm, once and for all, why I am not a holy rolling Welsh preacher or a rap singer, but however you say it, the fact remains that the snakes are always ready to strike. When complacency takes a hold, we stop looking for them.

When we lose sight of God’s blessings, and start focusing on ourselves, then we can guarantee trouble will not be far down the road. But that is not the whole story.

Be aware what bites us now could bless us later.

I took as a theme for our series during Lent 'Covenants of Grace'. Strictly speaking this story of the snake on a stick is not associated with any Old Testament covenant, but what it does is point us towards the New Covenant that God would make with all creation through Jesus Christ.

Moses took the image of what was biting them and made a bronze serpent and set it upon the pole. As the people gazed upon that image, healing came. As the people turned from their ingratitude towards God and again realized their total dependence on God, then there was a turning, a repentance, a renewal, a time of blessing, once again.

It took a while for the people to realize that it was their own sin that was destroying them. It took time for Moses to meet with God, to receive what God was revealing to him, to set about creating the serpent of bronze, refine it through the fire, explain to the people what was going on and what they needed to do, to hold it high on the pole and ask the people to look up. And even when he had done all of that, the snakes continued to bite, and for sure there were those who refused to do as Moses instructed and continued to die.

Sometimes we must go through a bad experience or a hard time in order to realize where we are going wrong. Sometimes we must hit rock bottom before we realize we are heading the wrong way. It can happen with our health. We know we need to make changes, but only when we get that doctors report that says our health is not all we thought it was and that we are on the brink of something nasty, do we start to take any notice.

It can happen with our finances. That credit card can be a snake. All those offers of interest free this and do not pay till later can be very tempting. But if we allow them to bite, we can end up in serious debt.  Spiritually we can fool ourselves into thinking we are doing simply fine, when really, we are running on empty. A crisis hits and we fall to pieces rather than drawing upon our relationship with God, because it is a relationship we have not nurtured or attended to.

Yet God is a God of grace. When we fall God holds an out-stretched hand. When we mess up, God offers to forgive. When we lose our way, God leaves the light on. That is the most important thing we can learn from this passage.

Looking up always remains an option.

Just as Moses bid the people to look up to the image of a snake on the pole, Jesus tells Nicodemus to look to the Christ who was lifted up. The One who comes, not to judge the world, but to save the sinner. The Cross reminds us that God does not stand far off from human suffering and strife, but that deep in God’s heart there is a pain and grief that seeks to redeem us.

I began talking about the first Harry Potter book. By the time, the final seventh volume came along, the series had grown alongside its young readers. The initial innocence of the first story had long gone.

The series ends with violent conflict, significant characters lose their lives in the battle, and Harry himself lays down his life for his friends. I wonder where J.K. Rowling, who in religious terms describes her heritage as Presbyterian, got that idea from? Especially when it appears, as his friends carry on, Harry's not dead, but alive!  

Of course, Harry Potter is only fiction, but it was C.S. Lewis who observed that there really was only one great narrative, that all others eventually follow... that of the great drama of Christian salvation found through Jesus Christ.

Lewis, an accomplished literary scholar, before ever being a Christian author, suggested that was one of the reasons he eventually came to believe. That if this narrative, the one about loss, redemption, and salvation, is one that echoes throughout time and history, then it had to reflect a greater reality.  He believed he had found that greater reality in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. Maybe he would also encourage us to “Look up and live!” How do we do that? This passage offers pointers.

• Beware the attitude of ingratitude. When the people of Israel grumbled against God's grace, they found there were snakes among the rocks. Snakes that had come about through their rebellion.
• Be aware what bites us now could bless us later. Going through bad times, sometimes can strengthen us to face worse times.
• But above all, look up. I can frame this in no better words than that classic hymn of Joseph Scriven, a favorite of many a congregation.

“What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear,
What a privilege to carry,
Everything to God in prayer.”

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Covenants of Grace - Lent 3 "Moses and the Law Covenant"

COMMUNION SERVICE

 Readings: Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Exodus 20:1-17, John 2:13-22
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 7th, 2021 

They have been around for a long time and have formed the moral basis for countless societies and nations. They have been debated about and studied and re-interpreted and then gone through that whole process time and time again.  The effects of defying or keeping them have been portrayed in movies, in songs, in literature, on stage, in pulpits, in so many ways and different places. For many Christian people they are, outside of the 23rd Psalm, their best-known passage from the Old Testament. The 10 Commandments.

As we go through Lent I'm focusing on Old Testament passages that talk about the covenant relationship that God entered into with Old Testament characters such as Noah, Abraham and today, Moses. In the case of Moses, the peoples covenant with God is marked by a series of foundational laws.

These laws functioned as boundaries in which to live their lives. Over and above these general principles were chapter after chapter of specific instructions and the penalties that would occur if the laws were not adhered to.  Reading those additional laws from the perspective of the 21st century makes some of them seem incredibly odd and obscure and the penalties for their transgression harsh and severe.

The death penalty by stoning, an eye for an eye, if you knock my tooth out, I knock out your tooth, zero tolerance of other religious practices... it all appears more like a fundamentalist religious nightmare than a basis for Christian ethics. Yet among the harshness are surprises, such as the justice granted to foreigners, the provisions made for the poor, the prohibition of charging exorbitant interest on loans, the forgiveness of debt and a cycle of land use that could sustain agriculture and enable creation to renew itself.

It is important to recognize that the reason these laws are given is that people may prosper and grow. Things had not gone well since the people left Egypt. At times it looks like they are all going to perish in the wilderness and never reach the promised land. They are fickle, unfaithful, wayward, and complaining. Moses on several occasions is in total despair of them.

God is a God of covenant grace. God loves these people. God had promised to lead them and guide them and be with them. But something needed to happen for any kind of progress to be made. That something, for better or worse, turns out to be the 10 Commandments; fundamental principles that continue to influence our views of right and wrong today.

The commandments are given to protect, not to punish.

The first four commandments concern protecting the relationship of the people and their God. This is the second time Moses has been up the mountain to receive them. The first time he went up to the mountain, by the time he returned, the people had rejected the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and were putting all their hopes in an idol Aaron had constructed from their jewelry as a golden calf.  

The wandering Israelite's had a major problem trusting in God. Back in Exodus 19:8 'The people all answered as one, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do”' Saying it and doing it were not the same thing. They never are! So, they are given four specific instructions regarding their relationship with God.

They are to put God first. They are to avoid making idols of anything or anybody. They are to avoid using their belief in God as a pretext for acting on their own desires. They are to take time out once a week to remember that there is a God, and it is not them.

The second set of six have to do with protecting themselves from each other. Commandments 6, 8 and 9 are about not murdering each other, not stealing from each other, and not lying to each other.  Commandments 7, 9 and 10 have to do with honoring parents, not committing adultery, and not having excessive desire for anything that belonged to somebody else. Jesus would later tell us that the commandments could be summarized in just two principles. 'Love God' and 'Love your neighbor'.

Would be that was all there was to it! Unfortunately, humanity, seems no more capable of observing even two principles, let alone ten of them. Whatever you can say about the capability of the Israelite people to totally fail to be the people God was calling them to be, you can extend to people of every age, nation, and creed.

People talk about religion as being something that restricts and holds people back. They see commandments as a list of things that they cannot do. They see God as frightening judge, just waiting to catch them out. They miss the whole point that the desire behind these commands was one of protection, not punishment, one of blessing not of blaming.

The commandments are given because of God desires faithfulness.

Some years ago, a wealthy businessman in England had the idea of buying advertising space on railway stations and in other public places to display the Ten Commandments.  Unfortunately (to my mind) the only way he saw fit to display such wonderful words was by using the majestic, but so easily misconstrued, language of King James Bible English. I saw a poster on a train when I was traveling on the underground. There, in angry black type, was the declaration “I THE LORD AM A JEALOUS GOD”.  Somebody had responded by writing the words “Hah! Some God!”

‘Jealousy’ is invariably seen as a negative emotion; a green-eyed monster to be subdued and kept under control. The 10 commandments are thus seen as the laws of an incredibly angry God. An altogether rather insecure and self-possessed deity. Like a manic school headmaster laying down non-nonsensical rules for no reason other than to demonstrate what meaningless wastes of space he considers the rest of us to be.

In our society Christianity is often portrayed as being a product of self-righteousness. As though those who profess to believe in a deity take some unthinkable pleasure in telling everybody else on the planet how to live (whilst all the time hypocritically not even living up to their own standards.) Sadly, the ancient terminology and language we use can reinforce that impression rather than counteract it. So how do we deal with this notion that 'Our God is a jealous God?'

To me it all comes back to this idea of a covenant. I was talking with somebody the other day about the nature of love. We got onto the subject of unfaithfulness. This person said that if they found their partner had fallen in love with somebody else, then they believed that they loved their partner enough to let them go.

I must come clean and say that I could not do that. I’ll be celebrating my 43rd wedding anniversary later this year, and throughout the years of our relationship I have learned that my love for my wife is of such a nature that there is no way I would let her go, no matter how much she loved another, without trying to win back her love every step of the way, and that if I suspected…for one moment… that her affections were driving her towards another, then the green eyed monster of jealousy would kick in!

When it comes to my wife and my family, am I possessive? Yes, I am. Am I going to get mad if anybody messes with them or hurts them or seeks to destroy the relationship that we have? Absolutely. Love for me means that I will not just let it go, that if you trifle with my objects of affection then I will be jealous and feel totally justified in so doing.

Our New Testament reading gave us the account of Jesus cleansing the temple. Was He angry? You bet He was! He declares “Zeal for my Father's house consumes me!” He cared. He cared enough to act.

It is in that sense I believe we should interpret this words that the Lord our God is a jealous God. A God who says, 'Look I’m laying down some rules so we can get along. If you mess up on these things, if you do not stick with this covenant that we have, it is going to ruin everything for you, for your children and your children’s children. And do not think that your rejection of this covenant means that it is over. I am the God who will do everything I can to win you back with my love.”

This is a lovesick, crazy, unpredictable, jealous God who says, (to reinterpret the first 4 commandments) “You’re not going to go with anybody else but me, you are not going to throw my name around town as though our relationship meant nothing, you are not going to be thinking you can control me or own me just because you have an image or picture of me in your mind. I need you to make time for Me in your life… this is the covenant I am asking you to enter with me. Why? Because I really love you!”

There is an ongoing dispute about the public display of the 10 Commandments. Some people have a problem with them. They look at them and get bent all out of shape. 'You can't tell me what to believe, You can't tell me how to live.' I just do not see them that way. I believe that the commandments are given to protect us, not punish us. They are given because God desires faithfulness.

When I see the 10 commandments, I am just thankful. They do not speak to me of judgment or fear. They reveal a God who loves me enough to want to protect me from doing things that cause great harm. I rejoice that they are there to show me where I am going wrong and how to get back on the right track. I rejoice that they reveal a God who is so crazy about me, that when I am unfaithful, God is crazy jealous and wants our relationship to be restored.

And I am thankful that, through Jesus Christ, such restoration is always possible. The great reformation declaration is that we are saved, not by the law, but by grace, through our faith in Him. Moses gave the people a covenant of law. But it was just a shadow of what was to come!

We have the wonderful privilege this morning of bringing our lives to God at a table laid with bread and wine. To take some time out and remember that God loved us so much that God sent the Son to die for us, rather than have us live estranged from God’s love. And what a price He paid to restore our relationship. Such is the nature and amazement of grace.

As we travel through Lent and reflect on the unfolding revelation of God's covenant of grace, may we each be led to the light Christ, to whose name be all praise and glory. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.