February 27, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Exodus 17:3-7 + Romans 5:1-2,5-8 + John 4:5-42

Adam then Abraham have stood before us this season unfolding the plan of God to restore us to the holy ground of paradise. The land we have been promised.

Having led the people of Israel from Egypt where they might have been tempted

to think that all was well, that the plenty of those “flesh pots” as he calls them

was really “heaven.” He has taken them to the desert where there is nothing;

to the desert where there are no man-made comforts or pleasures;

to the desert where finally there is nothing to rely upon but God.

Of course, stripped of all their comforts and plenty, they complain.

They doubt that God is there just as we do when it happens to us.

They become bitter and quarrelsome

when immediate satisfaction of their needs does not happen.

Their hopes for a good life are threatened by a desert experience because

it is not what they expected or bargained for

when they trusted Moses and his God.

What they learn, and the lesson they teach us

is that the power to quench thirst does not reside in Moses; it resides in God.

Jesus of Nazareth, prophet and teacher has learned that lesson from his youth in the synagogue and in his home.

In his own “exodus” story, his own journey back to his father,

he teaches again the lesson of Moses to a people who are quarrelsome and complaining, doubtful and bitter: the apostles and the Samaritans.

The “holy ground” or “paradise” for which we long

has no work or labor, want or need.

Our hope for heaven suggests that the condemnation we read of in Genesis

will be reversed. (3:17-19) “Painfully will you get your food from the earth as long as you live…By the sweat of your face you will earn your food until you return to the ground as you were taken from it.“

The Samaritan woman is tired of her labor. She is all of us who work and labor

day in and day out. She hauls that water back home only to turn around and to it again and again, dreaming of a time when it will no longer be needed.

And suddenly she looks up to discover that it might be possible,

and her hope rests on the most unlikely of possibilities, a Jew.

It is like the Israelites standing around a rock.

No one would think that water would come from a rock.

It comes from a wells dug deep in the earth.

No Samaritan would think that anything good could come from a Jew.

The messiah for which they longed would be one of their own.

But it is not so.

Moses is not directed to do the usual thing, dig a hole.

He is not led to some secret spring. He is told to bang on a rock!

The Samaritan woman never able to quench her thirst

is led back to the ancient well where she meets a Jew,

the most unlikely and unexpected of persons!

In his presence, she finds paradise and her thirst is at an end.

Her labor and the sweat of her face is finished.

Now her work is to bring others to this holy ground.

Moses followed God into the desert because he had faith that God

would carry Israel into a new way of living.

He knew the risks, and he did it anyway.

It seems so odd that Jesus had better luck with outcasts and Samaritans,

lepers and gentiles, children and slaves than with his own.

The orthodox had a hard time hearing what Jesus had to say.

Too concerned over what they had to loose, they have hardened hearts.

The Samaritan woman had nothing to lose.

She understood the message, and she went running to tell others.

In fact, she left her water jar behind!

Water jars were expensive – it was all she had to hang on to for water.

But she left it behind. Then the apostles come a long and grumble.

Like us, or we like them, are not quick to leave what we have come to trust.

We don’t want any risk involving God.

We want the safe way into heaven even though we’ve been told by Jesus

time and time again that there is no such thing.

We like things the way they are with us in control, knowing what feels right,

what is familiar and comfortable, and we want it to stay that way.

The apostles did not like this Samaritan stuff.

They liked the safety and guarantee that they would get to heaven their way

with prescribed prayers and doing what they’ve been told.

Twenty centuries later, we are still telling the story,

thirsty, and longing for paradise.

We are still giving our money, our gold, to make false gods,

and the truth is, where we spend it or who gets reveals our values.

The God who gets the left-over is not really our god.

It is the same with our time: in a bed, before the TV, or before the Altar?

Where we spend the best of it reveals what matters most.

Still those who have the most to lose are least likely to wander into a desert

and find the God who will lead them to holy ground.

Our Lent is about such a journey and such a desert.

Forty years or forty days — the risk of leaving things and ways that are comfortable for the discomforts of the desert is our choice – one will leave us thirsty no matter how often we go to its well, the other leads us home to paradise for which we were made.

February 20, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Genesis 12:1-4 + 2 Timothy 1:8-10 + Matthew 17:1-9

Lent’s second week: first it was Adam, now it is Abraham.

Moses, David, and Ezekiel are yet to come in this pilgrimage through Lenten Sundays. The holy ground of “paradise” where intimacy with God and harmony with all creation was lost by the willful choice of Adam and Eve is not lost forever.

Now another couple step before us in this season who make a different choice,

and through their story we get a vision of Jesus Christ and his disciples on holy ground.

Abraham’s response to God is critically important to notice.

Unlike the man and woman in the garden of Eden who disobey God,

who listen to a serpent and not God,

who choose to listen to something created rather than the creator,

Abraham is obedient and begins his journey to the new land.

The story of Sara and Abraham is the story of Israel and the new Israel of Jesus Christ.

Without hearing any biblical details as to how the voice Abraham heard came or sounded, we know that the speech of God to which Abram listened placed at the center of his life, a promise, a purpose and a presence other than his own.

God’s speech, God’s words call into existence for Abram that which did not exist until God spoke. Abram is indeed reborn, fresh from the word, as an old hymn puts it, and with a new name, he leaves behind all that is familiar and common for an unknown future. It is the foundational journey of every human life.

Promise is at the heart of this narrative. Listen again to the text.

I will show…I will make….I will bless….I will make….I will bless. It’s all Promise!

New Life is the Purpose of this narrative.

It is offered to our Father Abraham, and he accepts.!

With that acceptance comes a new name and a prosperous future never imagined.

Life now has purpose – the journey, the return to the land of promise and presence.

The promise and the purpose is PRESENCE – life in the presence of God.

That is Holiness and Wholeness.

What was broken will be healed.

What was spoiled will be cleaned.

What was divided will be united.

Through that rich memory of revelation and covenant

Matthew tells the story of Presence

as Peter, James, and John get a glimpse of the heavenly paradise, the holy ground

where the deepest hope and highest aspiration is fulfilled.

Moses and Elijah are present, representing the Law and the Prophets, the means by which the will of God had formerly been made known to humankind.

Suddenly, they are absent from the vision, and the voice explains it all.

From that moment on, Jesus, who fulfills the Law and the Prophets will be the one who sets forth the new law and speak as prophet for God. “Listen to Him.”

“Listen” is exactly what Abraham did.

He set out without a map, without a clue as to where he would go, and simply did what was asked of him in faith.

No wonder he is called the “father” of faith!

We are two weeks into our Lenten pilgrimage.

As children of Abraham, we learn to listen.

It is an essential discipline of this season.

It means we must quiet the external noises of this world.

Silence the commercials, silence the serpent like voices of this world,

and listen for God, for His Word, and for His call.

We are invited as disciples of Jesus to ascend the mountain,

to stand on the Holy Ground again, and return to paradise,

where our deepest hopes and highest aspirations, UNION WITH GOD

is our constant Joy.

In the deepest recesses of our hearts and souls, our longing for God keeps us restless.

It may take some time to work itself into our conscious decisions,

but it will as we learn like Jesus to listen and obey.

When we understand what is revealed on the mountain:

we will be filled with hope for is to come: Promise,

have courage to listen and obey: Purpose,

and then one day find ourselves again in that holy land called “Paradise”

where we shall live again in the company of our God: Presence.

February 13, 2005 As Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Genesis 2:7-9;3:1-7 + Romans 5:12-19 + Matthew 4:1-11

Remember, Matthew has the Jewish people in mind when he writes.

We are always working our way through Jewish images and history.

It is important to keep this in mind

when looking for message and meaning in the Matthew Gospel.

For people steeped in the history or the Hebrew people,

a story about temptation in the desert is going to evoke powerful memories.

The temptations Matthew uses are the temptations to which the Israelites

fell victim: hunger in the wilderness, demand for a demonstration of divine power, and worship of a false god.

Where the Israelites failed, Jesus remains faithful.

With that point established, Matthew will refine the identity of Jesus

who will satisfy spiritual hunger, not just physical hunger.

He will refrain from using divine power simply to attract followers,

and he will be submissive to God’s will, not his own.

In the weeks to come, we shall continue this unfolding of the Gospel from within the Old Testament as we are led through this season by Adam (today), Abraham, Moses, David, and Ezekiel.

It can be a most fruitful Lent if you choose to be led by these towering figures whose shadows we find in the Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel.

So it is Adam today whose story reveals something of Jesus.

What Adam lost, paradise, “the holy ground” where life was lived in the presence of and in constant communion with God; Jesus shall reclaim.

What Adam did was become self-conscious rather than remain God-conscious.

The temptation Adam and Eve faced and failed was the temptation to put themselves at he center of their lives rather than God. Instead of talking to God, they talked to themselves, and it got them in trouble. They hid because they were self conscious, conscious of their sinfulness rather than conscious of God’s love.

They did not listen to the voice of God.

Instead of listening to the voice of life, they listened to the voice of death.

The one who will lead us back to the promised land, to the paradise

where life not death prevails,

and where God is our constant companion is led by the Spirit

to teach us about temptation and victory.

The temptation he meets in that desert is really the temptation of Adam

and of every man and woman in every age:

The temptation to use one’s gifts for one’s self.

This one called the “beloved”, the chosen one, God’s own son as he was called just verses earlier at his baptism has many gifts and a privileged place in creation.

Ultimately what he is tempted to do by this devil is use those gifts for himself.

Will he use his power to satisfy his own needs, or will he rely on God’s Word?

Will he dare to prove himself. that God cares for him with special love,

or is he willing simply to rely quietly on his relationship with God?

Will he compromise a bit to enjoy the power and the rush

of controlling his own destiny, or will he bend his will to God’s?

This is not just a story about Jesus.

This is also a story about us,

about the Israelites before us,

and about all human kind.

It is also a story about God

and God’s relentless desire to have us back on that holy ground,

in that holy place where again God will walk with us and all will be well.

Jesus tells the story of his own struggle today to strengthen us in our own.

The story comes around again because of the willingness of Jesus

to be led by the spirit in the desert of our lives;

and once again we have the choice to choose between life and death;

a self-conscious life or a God-conscious life;

the will of God or our own self-willed, self-motivated, self-centered existence.

The choice is ultimately to be with God or to be alone,

to be in communion or to be isolated emptiness.

This season is not about “making up for sin.”

That is not our task.

That has been done by God in and through Jesus.

Our task is to avoid sin in the first place,

to live in the grace of the life of the Spirit of Jesus.

This season is our time to sharpen our wits and strengthen our wills

to live every day in the Spirit of Him who died and rose to life with God.

So the “mantra” heard in this church

more than a thousand times on Wednesday still bears repeating:

“Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel.”

February 9, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Joel 2:12-18 + 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 + Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

“We are ambassadors for Christ” says Paul.

We have heard that proclamation every Ash Wednesday of our lives.

because these readings never change. They are always the same.

What Paul asserts ought to give us a tremendous sense of purpose and pause. We participate in God’s work of salvation.

The Covenant we have makes a partnership in faithfulness.

Our failure to understand what Paul proposes is the focus of this season. Living the vision of Christ is still not a way of life embraced by this world;and so we still make a need for war, the poor are still with us, hatred and divisions are real, unfair judgments are routine, our own security is placed well over the needs of others, lust for power still motivates the hearts of many.

In the midst of all that, we shall today wear a powerful sign of eternity; the sign of a life different than the one we often choose to live.

It is the sign of the cross, the sign of a change of life and a return to the Gospel. This is not a simply a season for self-denial,

it is a season for changing one’s heart. It is not about simply about penance for the sake of penance, but about clearing through the clutter of our lives and learning how to live the faith we profess.

The penance we accept this day: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting

are to be done in ways that change the heart and deepen our commitment to God and to others because we are ambassadors.

The state of the world in which we live calls us to these three practices not for the sake of Lenten piety but because they are our only way to peace.

The crushing poverty of this world requires that we share our prosperity! This is no longer a matter of “charity”. It is a matter of Justice. We must give or we shall sink into a pit of selfishness that will rob us of human dignity and ultimately our own identity and salvation.

Eating less is not a matter of losing weight or being physically fit.

It is the way to remember that some have not eaten at all,

and eventually, fasting may curb a consumerism that is consuming us.

Prayer is not a matter of asking for what we want when we’re afraid. It shapes us into a grateful people who sing the praise of God at every hour of the day. Gratitude becomes us, and it reflects the grace that stirs in the soul of those Baptized into Christ.

We are ambassadors of reconciliation, of peace, of hope, and love.

This Lent holds the promise of new life for us, and it becomes the dawn of salvation. “Return to me. Rend your hearts, not your garments.” says our God. “Turn away from sin,and be faithful to the Gospel.” says the Church. “Lord, Have Mercy.” says the repentant.

February 6, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Isaiah 58:7-10 + 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 + Matthew 5:13-16

These are verses immediately following last week’s Gospel.

Having described the qualities that mark disciples of Jesus

with the Beatitudes, Matthew now has Jesus speak in direct

address to affirm with two power images what is expected of us. This is the vision of community that Jesus has for those who call themselves his own: Salt and Light.

The presence of either one is unmistakable: when there is light, you see it, when there is salt you taste it. If either is missing, you know it very quickly. And so it is with disciples of Jesus. when they are present, you know it, when they are absent it is obvious.

The whole point here is simply that discipleship is for the sake of others. Salt is not eaten alone, but enhances other flavors or preserves other foods. Light is not self-contained but makes other things visible. Disciples are not called for their own sake, but for the sake of others. Disciples are once and for all expected to stand up and be counted. We are reminded today by all the readings that our spirituality as followers of Christ is very material. It concerns bread, home, body, flesh, and engagement in the painful realities of human suffering and need. The faith we share is exercised in real, concrete, material ways. To use an old image, there are “corporal works of mercy” just as important as “spiritual works of mercy”. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or you have forgotten them, you need to look them up. The “works of mercy” are the foot prints of people following Jesus.

At a most superficial level, there seems to be a curious contradiction between what we hear today and what we hear on Wednesday. One says: “Let your light shine.” The other says: “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” The contradiction is only superficial, and it comes from glossing over who is being addressed. The second saying becomes an excuse for all sorts of selfish behavior, and after thirty-seven years as a priest, I’ve heard it all. That odd excuse for not coming to church or for not pledging in a drive or sharing in the support of the church with envelopes. Quoting the instruction of Jesus: “Go to your room and pray quietly”, or you should “not let your right hand know what the left is doing.” The fact that those instructions are being given to hypocrites who put on an artificial show seems to pass them right by.

To disciples of Jesus comes this vision of what we must be to walk together in the foot steps of Jesus. We are to be seen like a lamp on the stand, and we are to spice up and preserve things of this world. Today we are being called by the Archbishop to stand up and be counted, bear witness, and gratefully be good Stewards.

Listen first to his written words of encouragement, and then hear and heed his request for the sake of the church in western Oklahoma.