April 2nd 2023 Meditation "From the Palms to the Cross"

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, April 2nd 2023

FROM THE PALMS TO THE GARDEN

We have started our service today by celebrating the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.  The sad thing is that it didn't take long for those shouts of welcome to change into shouts of accusation. The first thing that Jesus did when He got into town was go to the temple. He was horrified by what He saw there.

There were money-changers and tax collectors cheating the people.  The whole thing seemed to have been corrupted by those who used religion for their own ends.  Jesus got mad.  This wasn't how it was meant to be.  The temple was supposed to be a light for all nations, a place where all the world could discover the awesome love of God, a place of prayer. "You have turned it into a den of thieves". He storms in and turns over the tables and lets loose the sacrificial animals - and those in charge know that He is right and no-one lifts a finger to stop Him.

Now He really has peoples attention. Over the next days through parables and confrontations with the religious leaders He teaches of the danger of false religion, and of how the leaders of the day had got it terribly wrong. He prophesied how a time was coming when He would be shown for who He really was and they would be left looking foolish.

He accuses them of hypocrisy, a Greek word that comes from the world of the theater and described the way actors would wear masks as they played their parts - pretending to be something that they were not.

Matthew 23:1-10
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them."And they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger."But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments."And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues,and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi."But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers."And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven."And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.

Jesus makes it ever clearer to the disciples that He is the Christ, He is the One God had sent to be the Savior.  He teaches them about how in serving others they would be doing His will, how at the end of time God would judge the peoples, how many would not want to listen, but still they must work for the Kingdom. Meanwhile, serious trouble was brewing.

Reader :- Matthew 26:1-5
And it came about that when Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples,  "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up for crucifixion."Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas;and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth, and kill Him.  But they were saying, "Not during the festival, lest a riot occur among the people."

At the home of Simon a woman comes and anoints Jesus with oil. Jesus describes her act as preparing his body for burial.  He shares a Passover meal with His disciples and tells them that the bread that was broken represented His body which would be broken and that the wine was his blood which was to be poured out for the forgiveness of sins, a sign of the new covenant.

For one of the disciples, this is too much.  Maybe he was scared of Jesus getting hurt and wanted to stop Him.  Maybe Jesus wasn't turning out to be the sort of Messiah he had hoped for.  We don't know what it was that motivated Judas, but we know what happened.

Reader: Matthew 26:14-16
Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests, and said, "What are you willing to give me to deliver Him up to you?" And they weighed out to him thirty pieces of silver. And from then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Him.

After the Passover meal, during which Jesus predicts that all of His disciples would fall away (even those who thought they would never do such a thing) Jesus heads for the Garden of Gethsemane.

In this garden comes the turning point.  We celebrate at Easter time the victory of Christ. But where was that victory won?  I believe it was in the Garden.  Had Jesus not at that critical moment said, "Not my will, but thine be done", there would have been no cross and no Easter Resurrection, no forgiveness for us, nor new life in the Spirit.

Where will we find the victory over the things that trouble us and drag us down?  Where will we find the strength to go on when we feel all is dark?  I suggest it is in our prayers, in our turning our will over to God's will.  

Matthew 26:36-45
“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and *said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me." And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt."And He came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?"Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done."And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.Then He came to the disciples, and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

William Bradbury's hymn  takes us to the Garden with Jesus. (Can be sung to the tune of the Doxology)

"Tis Midnight and on Olives Brow, The star is dimmed that lately shone,
Tis midnight in the garden now, The suffering Savior prays  alone.

Tis midnight and from all removed, The Savior wrestles lone with fears,
E'en that disciple whom he loved, heeds not His masters grief and tears.

Tis midnight and for others guilt, The man of sorrows weeps in blood,
Yet He that hath in anguish knelt, Is not forsaken by His God.

Tis midnight and from heavenly planes, is borne the song that angels know,
Unheard by mortals are the strains, that sweetly soothe the Saviors voice."

"FROM THE GARDEN TO THE CROSS"

In the garden Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss and He is led away to be tried.  For what crimes?  Love. Speaking out against what was wrong. Setting free the oppressed. Giving dignity to those others had no time for. Daring to be who He was. Healing. Caring. Of course they are not the accusations. Blasphemy.  Lies are uttered. False testimony created by false witnesses. Before Ciaphas and before Pilate the lies continue.  Jesus confounds them with His silence, the only words He speaks cut his accusers even deeper as they reveal their hateful hearts.

Peter in fear betrays Jesus by denying that he had ever known Him. Judas tries vainly to turn back what he has done. The courts turn Jesus over to the soldiers. The law enforcement officers  beat Him and spit on Him and mock Him. They press a crown of thorns into His head, for the rumor is going around that He claims to be King of the Jews.

In an attempt to wash his hands of the whole thing and prevent a riot Pilate suggests a prisoner should be freed, as was customary at Feast time.  "Who do you want, Jesus the Christ or Barabbas?"  The crowds shout for Barabbas. "And what of Jesus?" Now hear the voices that shouted hosanna change their tune. "Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him".

Battered, bruised, beaten Jesus is forced to drag His Cross through the jeering crowds. The Carpenter who had made things of beauty now facing being nailed to this ugly construction of clumsily thrown together beams. He stumbles, His strength gone and a man called Simon is pressed into carrying the cross.

Matthew 27: 33-37
And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull,  they gave Him wine to drink mingled with gall; and after tasting  it, He was unwilling to drink.  And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots; and sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there.  And they put up above His head the charge against Him which read, " THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. "

Two thieves are also being crucified.  One mocks Him. The other finds life in the midst of death.  Some respectable folk hurl insults. Others, women who had stayed with Him, have no words, only tears.

Matthew 27: 45-54.
 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?" And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah." And immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink.   But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him."

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

A centurion comes to a statement of faith.  Yet the story was far from over. Others like you and I would believe.  Not simply because of the cross but because of what came after. On Easter Sunday we will not mourn, we will celebrate! On Easter Sunday we will declare that where we have left off today, is not the end, but only the beginning.

Through the week from Palm Sunday to Easter Day, from the palms to the Garden, from the Garden to the Cross, from the Cross to the Resurrection, God was working in an unprecedented way to bring salvation to the world.  A later disciple, Paul, speaks of the incomparable Jesus Christ in this way;

Colossians 1:19-22
 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him,and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach!

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Lent 5 "Life Stinks”

Readings: Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, Ezekiel 37:1-10, John 11:1-45
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 26 2023

Sometimes life stinks. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try it just doesn’t work out. It’s not fair. It’s not right.  And if life stinks then death stinks even more.  Your born, you get by, then you die. For some that’s about it.  That is what they base their days upon.  

As we go through life, we become disenchanted, disentangled, displaced. Things come along that we hadn’t anticipated, hadn’t thought would happen to us. They leave us hurt and confused.

Maybe you are familiar with the movie ‘The Wizard of Oz’. My favorite line comes just after the scarecrow is attacked by the evil flying monkeys. The brainless scarecrow is ripped to shreds and bits of him scattered around a clearing in the forest. “Well,” he says, “That’s me all over”.  We can feel like that. Things come along that knock the stuffing out of us and we are at the mercy of others to try and help us get it all back together again.

We had two bible stories this morning about displacement and scattering.  Ezekiel compares the Israelite people in exile as being a valley full of scattered lifeless bones.  Mary and Martha try and deal with the death of Lazarus and are confused as to why Jesus wasn’t there when they really needed him. “He could have done something; where was He when we needed Him?”

In both stories something amazing happens.  It happens in response to one thing. The Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord is spoken and everything changes.  Where there once was hopelessness and despair there comes joy and vision. To where there was scattering and displacement there comes focus and energy.

It’s a story as old as Creation. Recall the very first words of Genesis. There is chaos. Then the Word of the Lord. Creation starts to happen.  Darkness is turned to light.  Nothingness is turned into life. God looks and God says it is good.

Follow the story of the Israelite nation throughout the Old Testament.  Called into being by the Word of the Lord.  New Creation, but then losing their way, no longing hearing, recognizing, or acting upon the Word of the Lord. Only when they have ears to hear and eyes to see do they become once more a pilgrim people of hope.

Into this crazy scattered world comes Jesus Christ.  Born into the midst of all its confusion.  He is the New Word that God speaks.  The New Covenant, the New Testament Word. Those who hear recognize His authority.  Those who are touched and healed and delivered by His life know their life will never be the same again.  

Then there is that dark moment when people such as you and I crucify the Lord of love. We twist His words, turn to the darkness instead of the light.  We don’t hear the word of the Lord.  We shout it down.  We like the sound of our own voice better than His.

We can be fools. God has the last Word. The Word of Resurrection.  The Word that calls death a loser. The word that reverses evil’s power.  The Word that makes a laughingstock of those who think they are powerful or important over and above others.  The Word that changes barren places into flower gardens of hope and deserts into rich gardens. The Word that changes the Cross from an emblem of shame to a symbol of victory.

God calls us as individuals to be remade by Holy Spirit love.  We all have problems. We all have gifts.  We are all alike sinners. We are all alike made in God’s image and capable of great things. We need to hear the word of the Lord that tells us to personally get our act together with God, to know ourselves God's people, saved by Grace through faith, aware of who we are and whose we are. It’s the first great commandment, that you and I , for ourselves, love the Lord our God heart-fully, mindfully, and soulfully.

The second great commandment is that we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.  It’s not just about us finding ourselves and being spiritually fulfilled, it’s about being built into a community that looks beyond the four walls of its own church to the people outside.

It's about being built, by the power of God’s Spirit, into an army of ordinary people for the cause of Jesus Christ. It's about fighting, not with weapons of material warfare, but empowered through prayer and spiritual gifting and knowledge of God’s will and God’s Word.

We are put together as individuals and brought together as a people of God.  We are not called to be a pile of old stinking bones, but a fresh and living witness to the love and grace of God in our midst.  Hear the promise of God to those who hear this word. “I will put my Spirit within you, and you will come to life... you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.”

When we hear the word of the Lord of life, life no longer stinks.  Life takes on a different fragrance.  Paul, in Ephesians, tells us, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

Staying on an aromatic theme, consider these words from our second reading, at the raising of Lazarus. We heard how Jesus arrived sometime after Lazarus had died and how Mary and Martha weren’t exactly sympathetic to the fact that He hadn’t been there when Lazarus died, because now it was too late.

When Jesus asks to unseal the tomb, is Martha expecting a miracle? Is she thinking, “O.K. Jesus is here now, things are going to be fine?” No way. (Verse 39). “Jesus said, “Remove the stone”. Martha said, “Lord by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days”

They were about to witness a miracle.  Don’t ask me to explain miracles. They are so out of the ordinary they defy our understanding. They are not meant to be commonplace easily understood events. They are called miracles because they are miracles.

The Word of the Lord is spoken.  Jesus offers a prayer of thanks then shouts into the tomb, “Lazarus’ Come out”. Out he comes. “Get him out of those grave clothes” suggests Jesus, “He’s still got some living to do.”

I wish every time we had a bereavement I could walk along and tell the deceased to wake up and get on with living this life. But that’s not the way things are. The resurrection of Lazarus was a special event that took place prefiguring Christ’s own death and resurrection.  Eventually Lazarus had to go back to tomb - just wasn’t his time right then. God had a higher purpose in mind.

Whilst there are a whole lot of layers of meaning to this passage, for me today this passage is reminding me that every day we get to wake up in the morning is a gift from God.  There’s an Andrea Crouch gospel song (called “This is another Day”) that has a line it in it where he says, “He didn’t have to wake me up this morning, but the Lord so did”.

Every day that we are given we have a choice as to what we are going to make of that day.  We can get up and say, “Life Stinks”. We can walk around, as it were in our grave clothes, feeling that there is really no point and no reason and why bother.

Or we can “Hear the Word of the Lord.” We can thank God that there is still life in our bones, whether they be older bones or newer bones.  We can walk with Christ. We can welcome His Word into the different situations we encounter during the day.

We can see our lives in the larger picture. Not in the picture that is framed by being born, getting by, and living only to die, but the framework that Jesus gives us of life lived from before the womb to beyond the tomb.  We can hold before us that Jesus tells us that our lives matter to God, that they have meaning and purpose and are not just an aimless mistake, that there is a God who wants to love us and loves to be loved by us.

We can hold before us the resurrection picture, that we are living to live! We don’t have to be displaced people in exile from God’s love. Jesus has made the way for us to know God’s love in an intimate and personal way.  We don’t have to walk around with the shadow of death stalking us like some grim Reaper. Jesus died that we may have life, abundant life, resurrection life. He says to us, as He said to Lazarus, “Come out of that tomb.”

Hear the Word of the Lord. Come out of the tombs of hopelessness, the tombs of pointlessness, the tombs of anxiety and worry, the tombs of addictions and life crushing habits. Get out of there. It stinks. Walk free and forgiven.

Whilst Lent is meant to be a time for reflection, the Sundays in Lent are set aside for proclaiming Resurrection.  Passages like we have heard today, dry bones coming to life, Lazarus coming out of the tomb, lead us towards Easter when we celebrate that Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed!

First comes Palm Sunday. And then the events of Holy Week, the crucifixion and the cross. For sure death casts it shadows heavily upon this season. There are moments of deep darkness.  But at the end of the Easter road is a brilliant resurrection light whose brightness transforms everything that lies before it and that comes after it.  

Ezekiel's vision of dry bones and Lazarus’s tomb are just the appetizer.
The main course lies just ahead.

Thanks be to God!  Amen!
                                                                      
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Lent 3 "My Reality Check Just Bounced!”

Readings: Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-26
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, March 12, 2023

Certain passages of Scripture invite us to take a look at our lives and question our motives, our prejudices, our actions, our decisions and a whole lot more.  Such passages may make us feel like the comedian who said; “I just took a reality check. It bounced.”

Last week we were bounced by Nicodemus and were told to be born again and give our hearts to Jesus. This week we have been taken into the desert by Moses and revealed to be people of little faith who grumble and complain against God at the slightest change in our fortunes. Now Jesus takes us to encounter a person convention said He should have nothing to do with.  

Please don’t underestimate how scandalous this passage must have appeared to its first century readers. Rabbinical teachers like Jesus were not meant to hang around wells with unaccompanied women, let alone beg drinks from them and engage in conversation.

Samaritans and Jews were separated by intense prejudices of both culture and religion.  They hated each other.  They spoke of each other as feared and despised enemies with whom the least contact would result in them being contaminated and having to seek some form of ritual cleansing.  

In Luke's gospel we are given a parable about a ‘Good Samaritan’, a phrase which to Jewish ears must have sounded like an oxymoron.  Johns’ gospel takes this scandalous encounter even further by opening up the Good News not just to one solitary Samaritan woman but to the whole Samaritan community.

Underlying this situation is a statement about the difference between false religion and true religion.  Samaritans and Jews were divided about both the right way and the right geographical place to worship God.  They had both received a great heritage, they could both lay claim to the intervention of God in their past and they were both a people who could point to evidence of God’s blessing.

Jesus cuts through all of that with a simple statement. 'True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth'.  Religion was a matter of the heart, not outward convention.  It was a real connection with God that truly affected the way decisions are made and life is lived. It is a matter, as he told Nicodemus, of re-birthing your life in the values and priorities of the Kingdom.

Real worship takes place when we bring our true selves to God.  That was a discovery that the Samaritan woman made in her encounter with Jesus at the well.  There were things about her life that she tried to hide.  She tells Jesus that she hasn’t got a husband.  That wasn’t the whole truth.  The reality was that she had had five husbands and the man she was living with wasn’t her husband.

Of greater consequence is simply that, as a woman, in her culture at that time, she was a person with little significance. A woman's worth was measured by her relationship to a man. A woman with no husband or male to relate to couldn’t survive. That’s why in the New Testament letters there are many injunctions for the early church to care for the single women and the widows... to grant to them an independent status and value that the world denied.

Which is exactly what Jesus does for this woman by the well.  Her value in God’s eyes is not her relationship to any male, not her gender, nor her ethnic identity, but her ability to be a worshiper in spirit and truth.  If you read further in the chapter, you see the disciples returning from their downtown shopping trip and  being totally astonished that Jesus was granting such rights to a woman.

The intent of this passage goes deeper than just gender prejudice, it is a no holds barred attack on all forms of prejudice, a caution to never prejudge any person or situation on the grounds of rumor or reputation.

Sadly, it’s something we all do.  Like the people Moses led through the desert, we thank God when all is rosy but complain when our immediate needs aren’t met.  Our physical thirst is often a stronger driving force than our spiritual one.  Too often judgments are made based on outward appearance.  

I remember being in school and hating a guy I will call Richard Perry.  Richard Perry was born with more muscles than I could ever develop.  Richard Perry’s hair was a different color to mine and was always immaculately dressed. Even though we had school uniforms, his made him look good, mine just made me look awkward.  Richard Perry was good at sports, good at math, good at science, good at everything.  He never studied for a test but always passed.  

Girls loved Richard Perry.  He was a babe magnet. Some guys loved Richard Perry. Teachers loved Richard Perry. Parents loved Richard Perry. In fact, everybody loved Richard Perry. Everybody except me. Because I knew I could never be Richard Perry!

How stupid we can be to measure ourselves by other people. The beautiful thing about each of us is that we are all different.  We all have unique gifts and talents that we should treasure rather than envying others.  For some people, if only they could let go of their desire to be somebody that they’re not and start making the most of who they are, then their lives would be so much happier.

Jesus treats the Samaritan woman as a full human being.  He doesn’t talk down to her.  He doesn’t treat her as any less of a full person because her circumstances weren’t ideal.  He doesn’t treat her differently because she was of a different religion and a different race.  

He treats her as a unique and worthy recipient of the grace of God, as He does each of us.  If we can but recognize ourselves accepted and loved by God how much freer we are to be individuals that don’t have to live up to anybody’s expectations except that of being the person God wants us to be.

The dilemma isn’t just self-acceptance. We’ve already seen the hatred that existed between Jews and Samaritans.  The problem is the human preoccupation with creating fences and protecting boundaries, our limitless capacity to divide people into 'In-Crowds' and 'Out-Crowds' ; 'The Chosen people' and the 'Rejected people'.

The New International Bible Commentary points out:- “Throughout human history, people and nations have defined themselves over against other groups. The history of race relations in the United States, the notion of racial purity that was at the ideological heart of Hitler’s Germany, the ethnic wars that wax and wane across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe all have their roots in the same fears that divided Jews from Samaritans: the fear of contamination, the fear of sharing one’s gift and privileged call with others.”  

This passage calls us to turn the heat on our own heart, to dig deep and root out any prejudices that may be there.  If we have a prejudice, then let it be a passionate prejudice AGAINST all forms of prejudice. If we find ourselves being judgmental then pass judgment AGAINST being judgmental. If we have a bias, then let it be a bias AGAINST showing a bias. If we have a preference, then let it be a preference AGAINST showing a preference.

This is not rocket science. Treat others as we would like them to treat us.  Accept others as we would like to be accepted by them.  Take down fences, not build stronger ones.  Welcome strangers, for as Scripture says, by doing so some have entertained angels.

Jesus meets a supposed enemy and accepts her. We are called to respect all people, not because they share our values, or our ethnic group, or speak our language, or belong to the same social class, not because they are ‘our sort of people’ or ‘people with the right connections’.... we are called to respect all peoples because every person is a women, man, or child that Jesus Christ hung on a cross and died for as He prayed “Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they are doing”.

In the heat of the afternoon sun, Jesus meets a person whom the society of the day regarded as unimportant and insignificant. He engages her in conversation, He refuses to judge her, He welcomes her presence, He lets her know how deeply loved she was by God. He grants to her life a significance her world denied. This passage functions on so many different levels.

•    It invites us to know ourselves loved of God and so love others. That lady was down by the well, not by choice, but by necessity. In the light of the turbulence, she experienced in her relationships, it is easy to see that she had a problem trusting people, particularly men. But that encounter with Jesus left her feeling accepted, loved and known to God. As we encounter the living Lord Jesus Christ we too can know we are loved.

•    This passage encourages us to take a reality check on our own life, and if it bounces, make the right adjustments. Who are we finding it hard to love? What are we finding hard to love about ourselves? Until we resolve to make changes, nothing changes. The open doorway of prayer remains open, so that we do not have to travel through such times alone.

•    This passage beckons us to come before God in spirit and truth and seek for love to be born from above in each of our hearts. It sends us back into last weeks passage where Jesus told Nicodemus that what he needed in his life was to be born again through the action of the Holy Spirit. We also need to daily be renewed by prayer and worship, by service and devotion, ‘doing unto others as we would like them to do unto us’, loving God and loving neighbor.

Every act of worship is a great opportunity to take a reality check on our spiritual lives and to seek for the help of God’s Holy Spirit to revitalize us, renew us and lead us through whatever we may face in the days ahead. To God be all glory! Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

LENT 2 2023 "Are You Saved?"

Readings: Psalm 121, Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-17, John 3:1-17.
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on March 5, 2023

 I am not a great fan of the sort of Christianity that turns religion into an isolated decision to follow Jesus Christ. I'm not the sort of preacher who punctuates every sermon with invitations for "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved."  I consciously try not to manipulate people’s guilt or emotions so as they make a misguided decision to be a disciple of  Jesus.
 
I well remember the lady who told me that she had been saved by Billy Graham five times and she couldn't wait for him to come and preach again so she could go down to the front and be saved once more. I believe that discipleship isn’t that easy or that shallow.

My personal reservations aside,  (and being a white, approaching retirement, middle class British male, I probably have more personal reservations than many) certain texts of Scripture do call us to ask the most direct, searching, and personal questions about our faith and our salvation. John Chapter Three is one of those  passages.  

In this passage Jesus tells us that unless we are born again, (or born from above) we shall not see the Kingdom of God.  That unless we are born of water and Spirit, we shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Spiritual birth is related to both seeing and entering the things of God. We are given some of the most well-known words of Scripture in John 3, verses16 and 17;  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”

These passages compel us to ask the question,  "Are we saved?” Do we know the experience of being born again, or as it can also be translated being born "from above"? Have we considered the alternatives that Jesus offers?  We are asked to make a choice between eternity or perishing, salvation or judgment, light or darkness, earthly things, or heavenly things, to believe or not to believe in the saving work, the name and the person  and the witness of Jesus Christ.

Elsewhere we are told that it is by faith that we are saved, and by implication, that where there is no faith in Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Our Old Testament passage gave us the account of Abraham's calling and setting out on his journey of faith.

Abraham’s experience was one of new birth.  At birth we are born into a family, a nation, and a certain heritage.  Abraham is called, by the Spirit of God, to leave behind his family ties, his ties of nationality and his heritage. Those things that were naturally his by birth. He is called by faith to abandon and spiritually lay claim to a new family, a new country, a new life, a new hope, a new vision of who he was, how he related to God and all that was in the world around him.

Through the waters of birth, he was born into an earthly heritage.  Through the Spirit of God, he is born again, born from above, to a different way of being. Just as Jesus called Nicodemus to embrace a new way of life, a way not envisioned by the natural inclinations of man but by the vision of God, so Abraham was called. We also are called to be born afresh, to embark on a new journey, to leave the old behind and be part of something new.

For Nicodemus it was not going to be easy. He had intellectual difficulties to work through.  He had pictures in his mind of what birth was about and what religion was about and how a person should serve God and who Jesus was and what life was all about. He had thought deeply about these things.  He was a man with an education,  a teacher of Israel, a judge, a ruler among his people.  He had his social position and political position to consider. He had economic and religious commitments to consider.

Then again, it wasn't easy for Abraham. He also was a man tied to his tradition and his position.  He had commitments to things that made it hard to say "Yes" to God.  How could God bless him as being the Father of a new nation when he had no child, and his wife was barren?  How could he leave behind his established way and venture into the unknown for places he knew not where? You’re born, you make a life for yourself,  you have responsibilities, you’re settled, things are good... who wants to be born again and have to face all that over again?

Abraham’s journey turned out to be, not one isolated decision, but a continuous coming to terms with all that God was calling him to be.  Wrestling with tough decisions, being prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, conflicts with family and neighbors, mistakes, and misunderstandings, all this and so much more.  
About Nicodemus we know less, but at the end of John's gospel he is one of those who, along with Joseph of Arimathea, comes to prepare the broken body of Jesus for burial, bringing spices and myrrh and laying His body in the tomb. Nicodemus, in time, came to believe enough in Jesus, to sacrifice all that he was, in order that his life may bring honor to that of Christ's.  

So, what of ourselves?  Are we on that journey?  The born from above, re-birthed journey? The salvation journey? Every journey must have a point of departure.  Earthly life begins as we depart from the waters of the womb and start to breathe the air and relate to the world around us. Until that point, we are an embryo, a human in the making, an unborn child.

Likewise spiritual life must have a point of departure. For Abraham it was a movement out from all that he held dear, to embrace a vision that he couldn’t precisely define. For Nicodemus it was having to choose between all that his life had so far taught him and to embrace the teaching of Jesus Christ.

That process of moving from a position of unbelief to a position of faith is what Jesus describes as being born from above or being born again.  It is seen as a different kind of birthing to human birth because it is a response to the work of God’s Spirit upon a person’s life.  It is a super-natural thing, dependent upon the initiative of God.

In Matthew’s gospel (16:17) when Peter came to make his confession of Jesus as being the Son of God, Jesus praises him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Simon Peter is praised for showing evidence of spiritual rebirth by testifying to those things God was revealing in his heart.

Spiritual rebirth can take place as we draw near to Jesus.  It takes place as we hear His words and act upon them.  It takes place as we pray and open our hearts to God’s influence.  It takes place as we eek to serve others in Chris's name. It means asking Jesus to be at our center, not as a one off and once for all decision, (although that may well be our point of departure) but constantly seeking for His love to be at the heart of all things in our lives.

From my standpoint, which admittedly is extremely biased for I am after all a Presbyterian minister, I can only see what you can gain by committing your life to Jesus Christ.  It is a marvelous thing to have the assurance that your sins are forgiven. It is such freedom to not have to live with the guilt of past mistakes and daily lapses into sinfulness, because Christ died for our sins.

It is a liberating thing to know that my life and my death are in God’s hands.  Whilst I don’t always understand and often become frustrated with God for the injustices, the personal failures, the annoying things, the things I don’t understand, it is like a rock below the surface to know that despite my questions there is a God who knows all, sees all, and loves us despite it all.

At times I do become pessimistic, when I think of the state of the world, and all the stuff that’s wrong with it, but at other times I get excited at the prospect of the world as it shall be and what Scripture calls the hope of Glory.  I don’t have all the answers and a lot of the time don’t even ask the right questions, but God lets me in on all that I need to know, so even my ignorance is something God is working on.

I’ve heard people say sometimes, “Well, I would be a Christian, but I can’t take all that giving up stuff... all those dos and don’ts are just so repressive.”  Personally, I don’t have a problem with giving up death, which is where my life would be heading without Christ.  I don’t have a problem with giving up on doing stuff that is ultimately life cheapening or addictive or sometimes just plain stupid.

May God forgive us for at times portraying God as somehow being the invisible policeman, the great Mr. Kill-Joy in the sky. The prohibitions that Scripture presents us aren’t for any kind of sadistic divine pleasure. They are there because we are fallible,  unpredictable and certainly misguided creatures, with a tendency to make bad choices and wrong decisions.  Christ came that we may have life.... so, we can really live!

I can guarantee you that as you draw near to God, God won’t force you into giving up or taking up anything that’s against your will.  God's Spirit will work on you and change you.  Things you once thought really mattered will become of minor importance. Relationships will form with the most unlikely of people and situations. Life won’t be the same... but who wants more and more and more and more of the same?

A text like John 3:16  invites a response. If we don’t see that, we are not paying attention.
Because I know in my own life, I had been attending church for a while before I made that decisive step of commitment and surrender. But once I had, it opened to me a whole new world. I knew that God was with me. I knew that my sins were forgiven. I had a new purpose, a new way of looking at the world and the people around me. It was like being born again.

Worship became not a duty, but a natural response to what was being revealed about God’s love. The words of scripture started to become stories that resonated with my life and were filled with deep meaning. Prayer became, not an exercise in trying to get God to do things my way, but seeking to align my life with the things God was already doing. The influence of God’s Holy Spirit was tangible, real, and all around. It truly felt like something that was being born in me from above.

Maybe you have had similar experiences, but have now become bogged down, like the good seed that fell among the weeds. I have experienced that as well. There was a definite departure point, yet sometimes I have lost my way and times of re-commitment have been required. ‘Milestones on the journey’ I like to call them. There were days when it all seemed so clear, but others when I have not been so sure. And if that’s where any of us are right now today, around this communion table, would be a good time for renewing our commitment.  

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, 

that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Why not join me in this commitment prayer.

“Lord Jesus Christ I ask you to come afresh into my heart this day.
Forgive me and renew me, that I may know Your salvation,
To the Glory of God. AMEN!”

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.