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Genesis 15.1-12, 17-78; Psalm 27; Philippians 3.17-4.1; Luke 13.31-35
A sermon preached by the Reverend Linda Sue Harrison
Herod wants Jesus dead; Jesus wants to continue his work and lets Herod know that.
Herod wants Jesus and his followers just to go away. Jesus wants to gather God's people, to nurture and protect them; the people are not willing.
A conflict of wills—a conflict of desires.
I truly desire for each and every one of you a deep abiding relationship with God; one that overflows to all your relationships in this world.
This is the second Sunday in Lent, and as I wrote to you all in my email this week, I sincerely hope you have taken seriously the pursuit and practice of a Lenten discipline. Who checked out the link I sent? Have any of you taken a few minutes a day to sit in contemplation with or about God?
Conflict of wills and desires.
Human existence is characterized by conflicts of will, among ourselves, as well as with God. Conflict produces separation. God's will for those created in the image of God, and that would be all of us human beings, is for humanity to live in peaceful relationship, to live in loving community together. Separation is therefore one aspect of sin. Separation from one another is also separation from the God who calls us to be in harmony with one another.
That is Jesus' message: come back to one another; come back to God; be healed and whole once again. It is that easy. Come back to one another; come back to God.
No, it really is not that easy, is it? God gave us egos and our egos get in the way. So, how do we repair the rift? How do we come back together as healed humanity? How do we heal the separation our actions and behaviors have created between God and us?
Fortunately, for us, the onerous is not all on us! That is the good news. We can rely on God's promises of enduring love and grace. The bulk of the stories from Hebrew scripture assure us that God is steadfast in the divine promises made to humanity, no matter how outrageous they seem! God will continually seek us out, call us back to relationship with the Divine, and love us. That is truly good news!
The flip side is that we have our own responsibilities, too. This is also good news. Relationship is a two-way street and we are not completely off the hook. God calls, God loves, God offers grace and forgiveness. That is not the whole of the picture. We must answer that call and respond to God's grace and forgiveness.
This is where the conflict of will comes in. God calls to each of us. Only you can answer for yourself if you have responded to God's call. We have so many things competing for our time and attention and they all seem so much more important than God does. With our egos, we want to be mistresses and masters of our lives, controlling our time and controlling who or what gets how much of our time and attention. Our will for our lives can be in direct opposition to God's will for our lives. To respond truly to God means that we must practice submission of our will to the will of God.
This does not mean giving up your personhood, integrity, or self-worth. Submission of one's will to God does not mean a namby-pamby, wishy-washy life of indecision and fearful resignation where you have no opinions, no self-direction, and no humanity. Self-denial does not mean you give yourself over to the abuse of others; it is not a weakened state. To the contrary, it is an empowered state, empowered in God. Submission to God's will is a life of courageous commitment walking in the assurances of God's justice and grace. Walking a life in submission to God's will requires strength because we are walking a countercultural path.
Submission of our will means acknowledging that nothing is more important than God is; it means deliberately and intentionally walking with God everyday, no matter what our other commitments are. God is more important than our jobs, the laundry that needs to be done, or the appointment at the fitness center. God is more important than the grocery shopping, the research you need to do or the paper you need to write, or even the vacuuming.
I do not deny that secular time certainly makes demands upon our lives and we must adhere to some of those demands. We are expected at our desks or on the job site by a certain time; children need to be picked up from school or activities at a certain time; we may have parents for whom we care and doctors appointments to keep. Nevertheless, as you make and keep a doctor's appointment or dates with friends, make an appointment with God and keep it as you would any other appointment. I take my calendar out every week and mark appointments with God. Typically, Monday and Wednesday I sit in prayer or meditation at about 10:00 a.m. when I get home from the gym and have had my post-workout snack. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I engage in a type of walking meditation as I walk up to the Clinical Center at NIH from the Metro stop, and then again in the afternoon as I walk back down the hill. Now, I admit the typical Saturday is hit or miss, but on Sunday, I invite God into my yoga practice and stretching time before I shower and dress to come here. I intentionally make appointments with God, literally or figuratively walking with the Divine.
An intentional walk with God is a courageous and bold move and it is transformational. Walking with God, letting go of our ego-laden resolve, will transform us. Paul's instruction to the church at Philippi is just as relevant to us in the 21st century: God will transform us. When Paul speaks of transforming bodies, his understanding is thoroughly Jewish; he is a good Jew after all. He is speaking of the whole of the person, the whole of one's life. Paul is not conveying the meaning that the "soul" will be released, or that the flesh will not decay and rot. Paul assures us that God will transform the entirety of a person's life. Human beings are prone to sin; we live and function as broken beings in a broken world, but through transformation, God offers healing and wholeness to every person. Transformed to glory means the reparation of the image of God in each of us; it means true wholeness, peace, reconciliation, shalom.
God desires that we know God; that we take the time to walk with the Divine, to accept the love, compassion, and grace of God. Are our desires and wants in conflict with God's desires and will?
Lent is as good a time as any to explore this conflict of wills and submit to God's will. Begin gently. It does neither you nor God any good to create unrealistic expectations for yourself. We are, after all, human with human limitations. Do not set the bar so high that you paralyze yourself by the magnitude of the task, feel like a failure, and never want to try again. God calls us tenderly and lovingly. I have often said that it is not God's will to give anyone an ulcer or a guilt complex! God's compassion, grace, mercy, love, justice are all in direct opposition to performance anxiety and guilt. God gives us endless opportunities to begin over and over, again and again. The only requisite is that you begin somewhere, sometime.
Why not now? Why not in Lent? God desires to be in relationship with you, to heal the rift between you and God and to heal the world. Why not answer now? Why not begin during Lent?
Amen.
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