In today’s gospel (Luke
13:31-35) we hear, in Jesus’ words, very specific, powerful and deep
want. "
You see, Jesus is making his journey
to
Actually, Jesus' journey and action
of going to
It was Jesus' action and it was
God's pattern, God's way of doing things repeatedly, over and over again in the
history and experience of God's people. God would seek and search them out,
making a covenant with God's people, calling them to keep their side of the
bargain and promising to be with them always. God would come to them through
words spoken by prophets and the worship of the
Jesus was continuing this pattern of
God's coming, seeking and searching, and he was doing it in an ultimate way.
The pattern would take its greatest form in
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I
long to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her
wings?" "How I long, how I long." This is the voice of God's
longing, of God's seeking, of God's searching love and mercy. But there is a
problem here and Jesus recognized it, too. In spite of God coming to God's
people, in spite of the longing, the searching, in spite of God's continual
offering of love and mercy, in spite of all of these things, people resist and
even reject God and the promises brought by God.
Let me tell you, Jesus knew that
full well. He knew about the prophets of old who had been stoned and murdered.
He also knew that human hearts could be as cold and hard as stone …
resisting, rejecting, pushing God away. He had experienced it in his own
journey to
It is a pattern as old as the human heart. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of
stories of resistance and rejection. (Remember that 40-year sojourn in the
wilderness? Remember the reception that the prophets got time after time?)
Goodness, remember the story of Adam and Eve in the garden? God loves them, God
comes to them in the cool of the morning, but they have resisted and rejected
the love of God.
What a pattern: God seeking us, God
longing for us. Sometimes we accept and receive. Sometimes we resist and
reject. Thus, we come to the pattern of our own lives and to Scripture's
message for this Second Sunday of Lent. It really is as basic as one, two, three.
One - God comes to us.
Two - Sometimes, sometimes we resist and reject that love.
Three - God comes to us.
I don't understand the resistance in
my own soul or the rejection that is exhibited within my own heart or the heart
of others. But I know that it is there. I know that I resist the love, that we reject
the invitation. Our resistance as human beings takes many forms; just read the
papers to see some of them, just look in your own heart and soul to discern
others of them. There they are: anger, resentment, despair, bitterness,
vengeance, I could go on. We human beings do it; we resist, we reject.
And still God comes. In the UCC we say boldly that God is still
speaking. But are we listening? Still
God invites, still God seeks us, longs for us, weeps for us, wants us to come
home. It is simply the heart and character of God to do these things, for God
to long to gather us as a hen gathers her chicks, as a mother holds her own
beloved children. God invites us to that embrace.
There was a time in my life when I was more than willing to jump into God’s loving arms.
Of course, there was also a time in my life when I was more than willing
to jump into almost any loving arms. But
the experience I am going to tell you about this morning occurred when I was in
junior high and attended church camp with my friend. We were sitting on the ground, around the
camp-fire, with a cross illumined by the flickering flames. Teary-eyed, we sang serenely:
“I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, no turning back”
In those emotional moments I imagined myself to be standing firm in the Lord as the Philippians were urged to do by Paul, who reminds them, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Yes, in those moments I was determined to set my face toward him. But my single-mindedness never lasted. It was mostly the lure of gossip or boys that side-tracked my determination then. I stopped so often along the way that I lost my way. Occasional flashback to those times and to the words of that song turned my attention toward Jesus, but I moved in fits and starts through adolescence and a large part of my adulthood …sometimes toward, but often away from … my singleness of purpose.
“The Cross before me, the world behind me
The Cross before me, the world behind me
The Cross before me, the world behind me
No turning back, no turning back”
Lent challenges us to try. I know that even in Lent I won’t be
able to walk straight to the cross.
I’ve tried before. Only
Christ could do that. And just as he
gathered, and continues to gather so many on his way to
Through the communion table, God is
reaching to us on this day with an invitation: to "sit down and eat."
We are invited to sit, to rest, to abide in God's love and embrace. The
invitation is to recognize the coming of God to us, to perceive the longing,
seeking and searching of God. It is the invitation to hear in a new and fresh
way the promises of God and of God's love for us. We are invited to move beyond
our fear, beyond our own resistance or shame or guilt or rejection; to move
beyond these things to the love, to the grace, to the forgiveness, to the mercy
of God.
The words spoken by Jesus as he saw
God longs for us. God desires to gather us. God seeks us. God calls us home.
May we pray?
Thank you, gracious God, for loving us, for longing for us, for seeking us. Help us to receive your love and enter your compassionate embrace. Break down the walls of resistance and rejection that keep us from you. Enter the center of our souls and our hearts. Keep us in your mercy and let us come home to you, for your tender mercies' sake.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa