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Sermon: The Third Sunday in Lent (C) - 7th March 2010
St Aidans' Anglican Church West Epping
Readings: Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:31-35
As we look at our world, as we watch the nightly news with its litany of disaster, as we read our newspapers it can be hard for us to see the power of God at work in our world. We may wonder where God is in our world. We are very aware of plenty of other powers but where is the power of God? Its easy to see the beauty of God. So many parts of our country call out in celebration of the glorious creative beauty of God. But where is his power?
Power seems to go somewhere else. We certainly don’t see much power in the churches. Each census seems to herald another retreat of the church from our society. Attendances only ever seem to go down. The church seems to have little impact upon the moral compass of society. Rather, the media is always quick to announce any moral failing of the church which further undermines any claim it might have to a moral authority. Most news stories, I know, are bad news stories and this is specially true for the church. So there certainly isn’t any power in the churches these day.
So where is the power of God? Rather, we see power in plenty of other places. We see power in the nations of the world. Several years ago I stood on the deck of USS Constellation, a United States aircraft carrier that was visiting Sydney. Also on deck was an array of aircraft, the ship’s fighting power. There was power in awesome strength. And yet that was just one of America’s smaller craft. But the sense of raw power was palpable. When the President speaks, here was the power to back up his words. Then again, as we look around the world we see that corporations have plenty of power. They can count their wealth in multiple billions. Even after the financial crisis Australian banks are reporting profits in the billions. If you’ve got the cash you’ve got the power to do almost anything. So we ask, where is God in all of this? We see expressions of power everywhere, but where is God in the mix?
Our gospel reading directly addresses this issue where Jesus reflects on the true nature of power. His views on worldly power help us to understand better the world we live in. Here we have a remarkable conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. They’ve come to him because they fear for his life. Herod wanted to kill him. The Pharisees were right to be fearful. Herod was a ruthless man. He knew how to wield power. He had ingratiated himself with the Romans. Rome knew he was a thug who could follow their orders. They promoted him and gave him military backing because they knew he wasn’t squeamish. He would kill his own countrymen if it suited his purposes. But he was also political. He knew how to manipulate other powerful people. Notice his sensitivities with John the Baptist. He had to execute John so he would look strong in from of other leaders. But a man’s life was nothing to him if it helped his reputation.
So what a contrast is Jesus to that man. Jesus deliberately placed himself in a position of weakness. He would have ensured his followers were not armed. At his arrest, Peter was ordered to put down his sword. Jesus had little financial backing. When he fed the 5000 they had no resources to meet the need until they found one small boy with five loaves and two fishes. Jesus didn’t seek the backing and support of powerful people. Rather these were the people he most often criticised for their greed and false piety. This would be bad enough but Jesus added to that provocation. He claimed to be Israel’s true king. He claimed to be Israel’s true Messiah. Herod had been sinking all his funds into rebuilding the Temple to convince Israel he was their true Messiah. But Jesus deliberately set himself on a collision course with Herod. Its no wonder Herod was out to kill him. No wonder these Pharisees came to Jesus in a panic to point out the grave danger Jesus was in. Here was Jesus in danger of his life from a man who knew no restraint. Here is perhaps the weakest man in Israel up against the most powerful.
And this gives us a rare insight into Jesus understanding of power. He does it by first explaining himself, and second by explaining the future of Jerusalem, Herod’s power base. But first he talks about himself and he uses his favourite “three day” motif to sum up his whole ministry. When he was a boy and his parents were searching for him, Luke tells us he was found on the third day. Again, his resurrection will occur on the third day. And here it is again. He will cast out demons and heal for two days and then reach his goal on the third day. Jesus is describing his ministry as the renewal of his creation. The driving out of the demons and the healing are ways of describing a reversal of all that went wrong in Genesis 3 in the garden. On that day the powers of evil had their victory, infecting creation and demonising humanity.
Casting out demons and healing are symbolic of an overall healing which is both spiritual and physical, where the powers of darkness are being rolled back. And on the third day Jesus will reach his goal. His ministry will be successful and complete. Remember Jesus’ cry from the cross. “It is finished!” Not meaning, of course, “I’m finished!” But rather, job done, mission accomplished. His three days in the grave and his resurrection were meant as a sign to us that the job he had come to do, was at last accomplished opening up for each of us a whole new world. Jesus is in no doubt about what he came to do and nothing will stop him not even Herod. That is the power of Jesus. Even though the powers of both the spiritual and the physical world conspired against him, he fulfilled his mission.
But for Jerusalem it’s a much sader story. Jerusalem was the spiritual, social and political heart of Israel. Jerusalem was once the source of God’s blessings. There could be no Israel without Jerusalem. But Jesus is announcing the destruction of Jerusalem even though he would have loved to have saved it. He uses the image of the hen with her chickens. Apparently if there is a fire in the hen house, the hen will gather her chicks under her wings while the fire passes over. The hen will die in the flames but the chicks will survive. Jesus is predicting a holocaust that will hit Jerusalem just 40 years later. he would have given his life to save the city but she would not accept him. Rather, Jerusalem has the reputation of being the city that kills the prophets, the very people who could have rescued her. But now Jerusalem will be cut off until the day the crowds shout “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” We might associate that all with Palm Sunday. But Jesus is talking about the end time and until that time Jerusalem will be cut off from God. Herod and all his supporters have little hope. The passage of history will reveal who the real victor will be.
But where does all of that leave us. We live in a world dominated by the news cycle. All sorts of people seem to be in control from time to time. News is both good and bad. But where is God in any of it? Jesus is alerting us to the story behind the story. That as we trace the world’s messy history, there is a God at work bringing things to their ultimate resolution in Christ. At times, of course, that can be hard to see. Things happen in our world, things happen in our lives that cause us to doubt the goodness of God and the power of God to help us. That is part of the burden of living by faith. Often in the darkness of tragedy, there is only the still small voice growing fainter still telling us not to give up, that even in the darkness, God has not left us. We live in two worlds, straddling two realities. Its no wonder we feel the tension of it in our own bodies.
But I love that verse from Isaiah 44. It talks about King Cyrus. Cyrus was one of the greatest and most powerful men in the ancient world. In many ways he sums up all it means to have human power. And yet even of Cyrus, Isaiah can declare, “I am the Lord, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please.” That is our faith, that is our hope. That is our confidence as we struggle through this messy world.