“Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we could ask or imagine.”[1] I speak to you in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
If you are following along, today is the Fourth Sunday in Lent. And I certainly hope that you are!!! It is also called Laetare (lay tar ray) Sunday. The word comes from the Latin laetare, which means “to rejoice.”[2] Traditionally it is a day of celebration -expressing joy, during this crazy Lenten time we find ourselves in, I think it is especially appropriate. We have about 21 days before Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday. Today is also known as Mothering Sunday, Refreshment Sunday, and Rose Sunday. We are permitted to wear Rose colored vestment this day. We do not have any. But some of my colleagues do.
[1] Ephesians 3:20. [2] Laetare Sunday - Wikipedia
This is the Very Rev. Billy Alford, the Dean of our Convocation wearing a pink Chasuble. Very nice! These are awesome, thank you to Elena Freeman Gregory for these pictures! That is her at the altar in the bottom picture! This 4th Sunday is a time when we take a quick break from the penitential season of Lent. It is a pause to rejoice. And we have much to rejoice about!
Today we hear one of the most famous passages in Scripture, it is also called everyone’s text, being the very core meaning of the Gospel of John. It is the John 3:16 passage, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” But we could very well miss the first sentence. Jesus is referring to the Old Testament which his audience would have recognized; Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”[1] You just heard the Old Testament passage from Numbers.
[1] Harpers Study Bible. 2018.
The People of Israel are on their journey through the wilderness, moaning and whining and regretted the day they left Egypt. Nobody liked God’s cooking! They were sick and tired of being sick and tired of the manna from heaven. They spoke against God and against Moses.
To punish their behavior God sent a plague of deadly, fiery serpents - nasty. Snakes that bit the people. Of course, the people repented and cried for mercy. I remember this story in Sunday School, it was kind of scary and I do not like snakes! What a punishment! The Sunday School Teacher put me on the spot because I was a PK – you know Preacher’s Kid. He thought I would know the meaning of the story, I did not then. So, God instructed Moses to create an image of a serpent and set it up on a poll in the middle of the camp. And whoever looked at the serpent was healed. It was God who healed them by turning their thoughts to God and when they did that they were healed.
The author of John took that old story and used it as a metaphor to teach. It is a foreshadowing of what it to come. He says “The serpent was lifted up: people looked at it; their thoughts were turned to God; and by the power of that God ------in who they trusted ----they were healed. Even so Jesus must be lifted up; and when people turn their thoughts to him, and believe in him, they to will find eternal life.”[1]
The really cool thing here is the wording in John, it is a play on the words. It is like when you try to explain to someone why we drive on parkways and we park on Driveways.
Or Like when I ask you “are we on the same page here? It has two meanings – literally are we on the same page in the book. Or it could also mean do we have the same understanding? The Greek verb to lift up is hupsoun – it has two meanings. It can mean literally something being lifted up – elevated, a physical lifting. Or it can mean an exaltation – a being raised up or glorified. So here it is used as Jesus being physically lifted up on the Cross. The Son of Man must be lifted up. But in Acts 2: 33, 5: 31 and Philippians 2: 9 it is used in reference to Jesus’s ascension into glory. The Son of man’s is exalted 40 days after Easter.[2]
[1] Barclay William, The Gospel of John, p134. [2] prego-plus-lent-4-year-b-2018.pdf (wordpress.com) Accessed March 13, 2021.
Acts 2:33 “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.”
Acts 5:31, “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, so that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”
Philippians 2:9 “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name…...”
This is like a double lifting in the life of Jesus – the lifting of the cross and the lifting into glory. And both are intimately connected. One could not have happened without the other. What if Jesus had said no to God? What if Jesus said, “I don’t want to do that” and he just went on being a carpenter? He could have taken steps to avoid it altogether. It would have been the easy way for him to go. Just say no. But Jesus did not say no. If Jesus had not chosen to follow God’s path there would be no exaltation for him,
no glory.
It is the same way with us.We can choose the easy way; we can refuse the Cross that every Christian is asked to lift up. But there would be no glory. It is something that we cannot change ----if there is “no cross there is no crown.”
Both lifting effects --- mean salvation for us. Whoever believes in Him may have eternal life in him.Our lives change by our believing in Jesus.In the Gospel of John, the verb, “believe” is used more than in any other New Testament writing.[1]It is a Verb. Verbs are action words.It is implied action.We are participants not one in the audience watching a show.Instead, we are the ones leading the way.We need to lift ourselves up to be elevated with Jesus and yes even exalted.Jesus “became obedient to the point of death ---even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). During Lent we are asked to check in on our belief, and remember it is God who can heal us so long as we turn our thoughts to God. And that is worth rejoicing about! AMEN.
[1] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, 119.
References
1. Attridge, Harold W., Wayne A. Meeks, and Jouette M. Bassler. 2006. The HarperCollins
study bible: New revised standard version, including the ApocryphalDeuterocanonical
books. Fully rev and updat Student ed. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco.
2. Barclay, William. 1957. The gospel of mark. The daily study bible series. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
3. Bartlett, David Lyon, and Barbara Brown Taylor. 2008; 2011. Feasting on the word.
preaching the revised common lectionary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
4. Markham, Ian S., and Samantha R. E. Gottlich. 2017. Lectionary levity: The use of humor in preaching. New York: Church Publishing.
5. Youngblood, Ronald F., F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers.
2014; 2014. Nelson's illustrated bible dictionary. New and enhanc ed.
Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Comments