Lent 3<3>
Last week the collect alerted us to our need to be nagged and hounded into an acknowledgment of going astray. So how is your personal nag coming along? Are you saying thank you each time you bump into your personal "give it up for Lent" resolution"? Are you suffering the same problem as New Year's resolutions raise? You know how it goes, a few days of doing exactly what is intended and then... I messed up today on this little bit so I may as well give up the whole idea until tomorrow. Then tomorrow the resolve is lost. Keep reading. The collect this week has something to say about that situation.

Collect
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Now how is that for getting right to the heart of the difficulty? "we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves" I lack the ability to make me do anything. This is why all self-help programs say get a friend to sign up with you. I need help and encouragement from some one else. Now go find that friend. The people I know are all engaged in so many tasks that I dislike bothering them, or truth to tell committing myself to something new. But there is one friend who always has the time, the energy, and has already made the commitment. Ask for help from this friend, this source of endless power. I edited the collect into a short form that can easily be learned and repeated this week. Give it a try.
God, I have no power to help myself, keep me both in body and soul throughout this Lent. Amen.


Exodus 3:1-5
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."

But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM Who I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you':
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.

Don't you just hate to be caught in a sales scheme? I always berate myself for allowing it happen. Well, Moses that great leader was caught by the grand-daddy of them all. He was tending to his father-in-law's flock when a flame that did not burn up the bush appeared. Just like you or I he decided to check out this marvel. It was a looky-loo moment that hooked him into a sales pitch he could not refuse. From mere spectator Moses was drawn into the action as the voice spoke to him and he responded "Here I am". In a nice play on the words God identifies himself to Moses as IAM.
Wait, stop, when did Moses sign the contract for this new job? I don't recall him asking for a career change. He already had a job, herding sheep for his father-in-law. In fact he tried to get out of the deal. But it was too late. Moses had encountered God in fire which does not consume. He followed that flame and cloud for the next 40 years. He didn’t do it alone, in a last minute addendum God tacked Aaron on as an aide. Later the entire Hebrew people joined him. It does help to take a friend along.
All of this happened because Moses stopped to check out a marvel in the desert. We have purposely set ourselves in the desert of Lent. In this time of self-examination what marvels do you see in your life? How has God used them to draw you closer?


Psalm 63:1-8
1 O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; *
my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,
as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.
2 Therefore I have gazed upon you in your holy place, *
that I might behold your power and your glory.
3 For your loving-kindness is better than life itself; *
my lips shall give you praise.
4 So will I bless you as long as I live *
and lift up my hands in your Name.
5 My soul is content, as with marrow and fatness, *
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,
6 When I remember you upon my bed, *
and meditate on you in the night watches.
7 For you have been my helper, *
and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul clings to you; *
your right hand holds me fast.

Here it is again, a reminder that it is in barren and dry land that we see most clearly. After his baptism Jesus went into the desert to think it over and talk it out with God. In the desert Moses met God and took on the work we remember. The Psalmist says that his desire for God is like the physical desire for water in a dry place. As a result of this clear desire our poet has received help and comfort. Further he knows that he is held close not by his own desire but by the strength of the grasp of God. Like Moses he is caught and knows it. Like a baby bird snuggled next to a parent the feathers are comforting and warm, a place of safety. This is the reward for our journey thru Lent. We don't get to Easter without the desert experience. Come along then, friend, we will go together.


1 Corinthians 10:1-13
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Paul, like many of the people of his time, thought and wrote in metaphor, allegory, and images. Where we use logic Paul called up images. He saw the events of the past not as factual history but as allegory. For Paul the story of Hebrew slaves escaping Egypt and their formation into a nation are an instruction manual for Christian life. All of the very real sweat and tears of Moses become an example for me to follow; not in the western way of rules but as allegory and metaphor. Merely following the flame and cloud did not eliminate human error. The people turned away from God in many ways during the journey. We too can find ways to turn off the way Jesus spoke of. In fact I find them without looking, several times a day. Most of my detours occur as I proceed in a careless habitual way. Paul points out that it is when we think we are standing firmly (in the comfort of habit) that we are most at risk. The times when I feel awash and am grasping for a float actually may be the safest times. I certainly pray more fervently then. Paul goes on to say that God won't test us beyond our capacity. It is meant as a comfort. I do not always find it so, especially in the time of testing. Still I take his words as a promise and hang on tight. So far Paul has been reliable; God even more so.

Luke 13:1-9
There were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

What at first seem to bee two different stories about two different things combine for a surprising lesson. Death isn’t about whether or not the person is a sinner. We are all sinners one way or another. And it is equally true that most of us are still planning for more of life we die.
Would you like to die prepared? Well says Jesus you have to live prepared. The only way to prepare for death is to live now for the kingdom beyond. Then he told this parable. Life is like a fig tree, or maybe a lemon tree in southern California, which was growing in a garden. But there was no fruit on this tree. So what is it doing in the garden? And by extension what are you folks doing with your lives? Are you putting out fruit? The owner asks the question the gardener has a reply. “Oh, let it be one more season. I’ll give it lots of water and fertilizer and trim it where needed. Then we’ll see” So the tree and perhaps the person in this allegory gets a reprieve. But in the end the tree will be removed. Perhaps after many years of growing and giving good fruit, perhaps not. So it is with our lives. Eventually we leave this mode of existence behind. Lent is a time to look at the hard questions and decide on our own individual answers.