Roy McAlpine
March 22, 2009
The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year B

Lent is a strange season:  it starts with a smudge of mourning at Ash Wednesday, then nothing happens until it moves into another, week-long season of betrayal, injustice, torture, and death, which ends in the bells of celebration.  Historically this has been a flat, slogging time, when food was scarce in many parts of the Christian world, and Lenten fasting made a virtue of necessity.  Formerly, this Sunday, the 4th in Lent – called Laetare, “Rejoice!” – changed the pace a bit and emphasized the joys of this life, in bright colors and music, to encourage people in their weakness.  Our human fallibility was not met, on this day, with judgment, but with acceptance, affirmation, and encouragement. 

About two months ago, I met a 16-year-old patient on the psychiatric unit where I am the chaplain.  She was part of a group of about seven adolescent patients, and I was leading them in what we call Spirituality Group.  I asked them “What did they think about God” and they responded with a rapid-fire full discussion that offered about 12 perspectives in a few minutes, mixed in with assessments of hip-hop artists and criticism of how many boyfriends another girl had.  That’s the pace these groups usually go.  The 16-year-old was fully participating, engaged with the others and with me, and seemed happy to be in the group.  Then I changed up:  “What do you think God thinks about you?” I asked.  The tone of the group shifted immediately.  She quietly teared up and slowly put her head down on her hands on the table, silently crying.  The others remained respectfully silent.  Perhaps the question had caught her off-guard.  The truth of her response, and the truth of their silence, was revealed when she quietly said through her tears... that God was ashamed of her and her behavior.  For her, and others in that group, God had weighed them in the balance and found them wanting….  I don’t believe they are unusual in this belief.

I would like to propose that we can prepare for Holy Week not just by self-denial but also by self-affirmation in light of who we are to God, and on God’s love for us and for the world.

Jesus tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”  God knows us and loves us, not as we would be, but as we are - in this world.  Just so, God wanted to be one of us, made of the clay of humanity.  The tradition of Laetare Sunday reminds us that our religion is very human, and that we and the cosmos are loved by God.  The reminders of this are so numerous that we might take them for granted.  Most of our metaphors and descriptors of God are human.  The seasons of the Church year are structured around a human life, from birth to death, with pregnancy and real, human life stories within that span.  We have little reference to some mystic world beyond this one, except in reference to an afterlife.  Our religious art and literature and our ministries are filled with - humanity.

Our God and our faith are relentlessly humanistic – not just in principle or in theory, but on the ground, in people connecting with – or disconnecting from – one another, and with all the difficulties, joys, and slow, waiting times of real involvement with the actual life God has given us. 

In this vein, I would like to offer another mode of Lenten reflection to the list of resources for the season provided by our priests, Barbara and Ron. 

For this you will need to participate.  (Uh-oh, we’re Episcopalians!  Don’t ask us to do anything different in the Sunday Service!)  Don’t worry.  It’s simple.  Please reach under the seat in front of you and pull out the black Book of Common Prayer.  Once you have it, please open to page 845, “An Outline of the Faith.”  Please follow as I read:

Catechism - 2 parts - Page 845:

Q. What are we by nature?
A. We are part of God’s creation, made in the image of God.
Q. What does it mean to be created in the image of God?
A. It means that we are free to make choices:  to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with    creation and with God.

Did you hear that?  It’s amazingly clear, isn’t it?  We were created to have freedom and to make choices in these four areas.  God knows we are made in God’s image and that we are made of earth.  We were formed to be free to make choices about love, creativity, thinking, and how we will live in harmony with creation and with God.  These are easy to say and occasionally they are easy to do.  Mostly, we work – sometimes we battle – within ourselves, sometimes with others – to move toward them.  Within these – and I would add freedom and choice to the list of four – lie all the joys and conflicts of human life.  To be created in God’s image means that we have been given these six divine attributes that are the source of our humanity. 

Let’s go on to another passage.  Please turn the page to 846.  Here is, for me, the cool part of our call to faith:

Q. What do we learn about God as creator from the revelation to Israel?
A. We learn that there is one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
Q.  What does this mean? 
A.  This means that the universe is good, that it is the work of a single loving God who creates, sustains, and directs it.
Q. What does this mean about our place in the universe?
A. It means that the world belongs to its creator; and that we are called to enjoy it and to care for it in accordance with God’s purposes.

We are called to enjoy the world, and care for it.  Again, unambiguous clarity.  By “enjoy” it’s not talking about acquiring iPods, or clothes, or hearing celebrity gossip, or laughing at the school nerd.  I means enjoying our Host’s, that is, our Creator’s, hospitality, in this world, as a guest would.  Thus it means getting together with friends, laughing, growing beautiful flowers, pitching in to make the meal, making music, loving people, welcoming new people into our lives, building bridges, creating a lesson plan or new software, loving one special person, overcoming obstacles – all the things our good life has to offer.  What did Jesus do to enjoy life?  Healing, teaching, hanging out with friends, walking, creating, dinner parties.  Thus we are called – and shown how – to enjoy life.  (By the way, I don’t mean to ignore suffering.  But we were not put in the universe, according to our faith, for the purpose of suffering.)

Taken alone, without a context, when we love, reason, create, and express these other deep attributes, we may lack a sense of direction.  Or perhaps as we suffer some blow in our lives, we may find ourselves lacking purpose or direction, or feeling that something is wrong or missing.  With faith in God, our human actions, our choices, with their circular back and forth of course correction, move us toward the heart of life, that is, toward God. 

Let us true up the image given to us by … > reflecting on the original of our image, our Creator ... > gathering together to worship the one God – who is not us … > partaking in the community of the broken bread of Jesus’ humanity in the Eucharist, and, soon, > participating in the brokenness of His betrayal, trial, and death. 

I urge you to join in the Holy Week observances, and especially the three days’ liturgy starting on Maundy Thursday, remembering that > God loves this world, > our spirituality is not other-worldly, > God is not ashamed of us, > our God is human, > and our humanity is our path to God.

Let it be so!

Copyright © 2009 by Roy McAlpine