Scripture Readings: Genesis 12:1–4 | Psalm 121 | Romans 4:1–5, 13–17 | John 3:1–17

“And 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.” (John 3:14-15).
 
Every Lent here at St. Luke’s, we hang up our paintings of the Stations of the Cross, twelve scenes depicting our Lord Jesus Christ’s agonizing journey towards His crucifixion, painted by the artist Sieger Köder. They are powerful pictures, creatively drawing us into the story of our Saviour’s passion and death. But despite… and probably because of their power and the artist’s skill… some of these paintings can be hard to look at. In them we can see up close the suffering and agony that our Saviour endured. And in some of them, we can also see glimpses of the heartbreak of those who loved Him, standing by powerless to stop His pain… and we are invited to imagine sharing in their grief and pain as well. 
 
Many things in life are terribly painful… and can be very hard for us to look at. To call to mind, and acknowledge the impact that they still have on our lives. Painful memories. Traumatic losses. Dreaded diagnoses. Damage done within our relationships.

It’s hard to look closely at these kinds of things, and so, it can be really tempting at times to just try to avoid it all… to avoid these things that make us feel unsettled, regretful, vulnerable… and maybe even condemned. I mean, why would we want to dwell on and look closely at things that are so painful and upsetting?
 
Well, one reason would be if there was someone who actually had the power… not to take them away per se… but to transform these things that we experience as evil into something very different… into a means of experiencing real healing, forgiveness, and even blessing for us and for our world. 
 
In that case, we’d be left with a choice: to keep on trying to avoid it all… or to place our trust in the one who claims the power to save us. To choose to trust in their intentions and in their ability to rescue us... or to keep on closing our eyes.
 
In our Gospel reading today we hear the well known story of Jesus and Nicodemus… of their secret, nighttime meeting, and their famous conversation about faith. In this passage we find one of the most well known sentences in the whole Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
 
And this passage is one of the notes that rings true all the way through the symphony of the Scriptures… the story of the Living God’s gracious, self-giving love reaching out to save His beloved world. We heard echoes of this same note in our first reading today from Genesis 12:1-4, where God chooses Abram and his family to experience His blessings themselves, and to play a pivotal role in bringing God’s blessings to all of the other families of the earth. 
 
But if that’s the case… if the story of Scripture is about God’s rescuing love reaching out to embrace the world… we might find ourselves asking: why are there so many people in our world today not being saved? 
 
Well, that’s a big question that I won’t pretend we can answer completely this morning. But there are a few things we should say in response to it in light of the Scriptures.

First of all, the kind of salvation we’re talking about here does not mean completely avoiding suffering, or every evil experience… at least for now. One day, yes, that will be the case! One day, we are promised a new Creation, and eternal life without pain or suffering, or tears. But not yet. Not until this current age of the world comes to an end, and the Risen Lord returns to set the world right once and for all. Until that day, we may still face great tragedies, and suffering… but we also believe that God remains with us, and that He will bring us through those difficult times, faithfully leading us towards His blessed eternal life.
 
And the second thing we need to remember is that throughout the Scriptures we see that God’s salvation is offered to us, but it is not forced upon us. It’s an invitation to receive a gift… but a gift we can also reject. And so, sadly, not everyone will believe the Good News of God’s saving love offered to us all in Jesus Christ… at least for now. I mean after all, who knows how everyone’s lives will unfold? Or how the LORD will be at work in their life, drawing them towards faith? Or how God might work through people like you and I to make the truth of His Good News known to them?  

The truth is, we really don’t know how anyone else in our world will respond to God’s great gift of salvation. But what we do know is that God’s intentions towards them… towards our whole world… is love! And we know that God’s ability to save them has been made known through His Son, Jesus Christ. Both of these gifts, God’s love and His gift of salvation… offered to us and to all, require faith… trust… belief… if we are to receive them, and to share in them. 
 
And so, in our Gospel passage, we find Jesus presenting Nicodemus, and all of us with a choice… a crisis moment: how will we respond to the gracious gift of God’s saving love through His Son? Will we believe, or not?
 
Reading beyond verses 16-17, this choice laid out in pretty striking terms. John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Choosing to believe or not has consequences either way. Just like choosing to receive or refuse an antidote when we’ve been poisoned has pretty clear consequences as well.
 
And so, here we find Nicodemus… and maybe ourselves as well… caught in a pretty tight spot. He was a teacher of Israel, and a Pharisee, someone who took God’s ways seriously, and who had sought to help guide his fellow Israelites to live rightly… awaiting the coming day of God’s great salvation… the day of the LORD, when God would set all things right, and rescue Abraham’s faithful descendants from their enemies, to share in God’s blessed life forever. 
 
But then here comes Jesus… doing and saying so many things that seemed at the same time both out of place… like challenging many of the teachings and practices that Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees had built their lives upon… while at the same time offering powerful glimpses of God’s own hand at work… signs that were increasingly hard to deny… or to simply explain away. 
 
Nicodemus was in a hard spot: having to choose between two diverging paths stretching out before him: to stick with the path he already knew, or to follow this One who might just turn everything upside down... but who also seemed to have an undeniable connection to the Living God. And so, Nicodemus takes a big step. He meets with Jesus in secret one night, and says to Him: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:2-3).
 
Unless one is born anew… or born from above, as some translations put it… they cannot see the Kingdom of God. In these words, Jesus acknowledges the truth that big changes are needed to truly experience the life of the Kingdom. Not changes that can be accomplished all on our own… no, we need changes that come from above… changes that have their source in the grace of the Living God and His Holy Spirit at work in us. 
 
Just like a baby can’t make themselves be born, Jesus is saying that the life of the Kingdom is not within our grasp. We just can’t get there on our own steam. We can’t make it happen, or bring it about. But we can receive it. We can have it given to us. But how? Again and again, the Good News tells us, we receive God’s grace by faith! By trusting God, and turning towards Him with our hearts and lives open to Him. 
 
And then Jesus takes this whole conversation in a strange new direction, and brings up a strange story from long ago… from the days of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness, when Moses lifted up a snake. What’s going on here?
 
Well, this story of Moses and the snake comes from the Book of Numbers Chapter 21, when God’s people were suffering and dying, plagued by poisonous snakes. But then, God tells Moses to create a surprising antidote: another snake but made of bronze… an enduring replica of the source of their suffering… and he was to lift it up, so that anyone who looks on it would be saved… while those who don’t, won’t. 
 
Numbers 21:5-9, “The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food. [by which they meant the manna God gave to them].’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”
 
When faced with the agony of the serpent’s power, the Israelites were give a choice: to trust in God’s remedy as strange as it may have seemed, and receive life, or not. But to trust meant to not avoid looking at the snake. It meant turning to face the painful, and terrifying reality before them in full, all the while trusting God to transform it from being a threat into a gift of mercy. From the source of agony into the source of healing… and of forgiveness. 

After all, the serpents were there in the first place because the people had sinned. They had brought this suffering on themselves. And yet even so, God had turned their punishment into a sign and experience of His mercy… as a moment meant not to destroy them, but to reinforce their need to trust in Him… to place their faith an their lives in His hands, so they could truly walk in His good ways, share in His blessed life, and bring that blessing to the world around them. 
 
Lots of our experiences of pain and suffering come from life in general. Tragedies strike both the good and the bad alike. But sometimes, we do bring suffering on ourselves. And when we do, we can’t always avoid facing the consequences of our selfish and sinful actions. 
 
But that doesn’t mean that God can’t transform even our mistakes and messes into a sign and taste of His mercy… offering us forgiveness and freedom even in those moments when we least deserve them.  The question becomes: when we mess up and sin, will we dare to look to our Saviour? Will we not try to avoid His all-knowing eyes, as painful and as hard as that may be… and honestly confess our faults to Him… trusting that even then He will not turn us away?
 
The Good News is we have good reasons to believe… to trust in His mercy that go far beyond just wishful thinking. For as Moses lifted up the serpent, so Jesus, the Son of Man, was lifted up on the cross for the world to see… so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. 
 
The cross is a constant reminder of our sins… a sign pointing to the source of all of our world’s wreckage… and a painful reminder that our own hands have played a part in making such an awful mess of things here on earth. And yet, through Jesus His Son, God has transformed the sign of our condemnation into a sign of His incredible mercy… His remedy for all our sins… and He calls us again and again to look at His Son, hung from the cross for all to see, and to see there God’s own self-giving, saving love at work, and graciously offered to us all.
 
And not only that, but now the cross is a sign of hope… because of what happened after! Yes, Jesus first endured the agony of the cross, but He was then raised up from the dead, to be God’s Saviour for us and for our world. And those of us who believe in Him now have this same hope alive in ourselves. The hope that because of Jesus, we too will get to share in God’s blessed and eternal life… not instead of times of suffering and pain, but on the other side of it. The hope that comes from knowing that nothing we might face… no trauma, or tragedy, or regret, or pain… even if we have brought this pain upon ourselves, is greater than the saving love and the mercy of the Living God made known and offered to our world in Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
 
So then, as we make our own journey through Lent together… may we keep our eyes fixed firmly on Jesus at the cross… even when it’s hard. Even when it makes us feel and think about things that we find uncomfortable… or painful. Even then, may we continue to look at Him at the cross with the eyes of faith… and see in His face God’s precious gift of life, offered to us all, even while we least deserved it… trusting that He’s looking at us all with eyes full of mercy and love… longing for us to believe in Him, and receive the blessings that His love has in store. Amen. 

Today marks the second Sunday of Lent, a sacred season for Christians to prepare in mind, body, and spirit, to follow our Saviour Jesus Christ to the cross, and the solemn commemoration of His betrayal, death, and resurrection at Holy Week.

Some of the traditional practices of the season of Lent include fasting, the study of Scripture, prayerful reflection, and generous almsgiving. We do these things not to try and earn God's favour, but to humbly draw nearer to Him in faith, that our lives may be reshaped by the power of God's holy love made known to us in Jesus Christ our Saviour.

To help us grow in our understanding and faith as Christ's disciples today, each week we will be sharing a link to a  video from the Bible Project from their series on the Character of God.

You can find the link to below, exploring the Grace of God. And for a deeper look, you can also check out their 14 Episode Podcast series on the Character of God, found here as well: 

Scripture Readings: Genesis 2:15–17, 3:1–7 | Psalm 32 | Romans 5:12–19 | ​Matthew 4:1–11

“If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:15).
 
This past Wednesday marked the start of the sacred season of Lent… a season of repentance… of turning our hearts and lives back to the Living God, and of preparation for Holy Week… a time to get ready for the great events at the centre of our Christian story: the saving death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Saviour King.
 
And this morning, on the first Sunday of Lent, we begin our journey with Jesus to the cross by recalling together His time of intense trial and temptation in the wilderness… where He is confronted with, and yet overcomes, the tempting deceptions and lies of the Enemy, who tried hard to undermine Christ’s faithfulness to His heavenly Father, and to bring God’s great rescue plan to an end.
 
And while this episode from the early days of Jesus’ ministry might seem like little more than an intense but private and personal struggle … it is actually a major crisis moment for the story of God’s whole rescue mission… and the story of humanity as a whole. 
 
Right before our Gospel passage today begins, St. Matthew tells the story of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River, where the Spirit of God descended on Him like a dove, and a voice from Heaven affirmed His unique identity: God says of Jesus “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). Immediately after He received these words of assurance, we hear that Christ Jesus is led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness… where He fasts and prays for forty days… and where He is to be tempted by the devil.
 
And in this wilderness showdown where Jesus’ faithfulness was being tested in body, mind, and spirit, He was also reliving and redeeming Israel’s own Exodus story… their time of testing in the wilderness.
 
Centuries earlier, the Living God had affirmed the people of Israel as a whole to be His own firstborn son. Speaking to Moses in Exodus 4:22-23, the LORD says “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go…” As we know, God rescued Israel from Pharaoh’s grasp, and brought them through the waters of the Red Sea to start a new life as God’s own children. 
 
And what does it mean to be God’s children?
 
Just like with all children, life as God’s child begins with an act of grace. A gift offered that the child did nothing to earn or bring about. Their life is simply given to them as an act of self-giving love. And then begins a lifetime of them learning and growing… a journey which really relies and thrives on trust! Learning to trust the One who is leading us, and caring for us, even when other attractive options come calling. Even when we’re being led where we’d rather not go, if it was just up to us. Trusting that the One leading us really does love us, and wants what’s truly best for us. 
 
As we know from the Scriptures, the people of Israel really struggled with this during their time in the wilderness. Time and again, whether acting out of hunger, or fear, or other distorted motives, they turned on the LORD, grumbling against God whenever they faced trials and intense situations, instead of turning towards Him and seeking His help. For those forty long years in the wilderness, God’s children kept on falling into temptation… with disastrous results.
 
But before we get too comfortable passing judgment on them, we need to keep in mind that their stories are a gift for us, written for us and each generation of God’s children… because in them we can see ourselves. We see the same patterns playing out in our own stories. In fact, this is the story of humanity as a whole, going way back to the Garden of Eden with the very first children of God, Adam and Eve… and their deception by the snake. And just like them, all of us can be quick to be deceived and give in to our own temptations… reaching out for what we see as good in the moment, while turning our backs on God’s good ways. 
 
When you and I are faced with our own trials and temptations, we too can easily give into grumbling, and quickly go back to our old self-destructive ways… disobeying God’s guidance, and instead of growing in our faith, we grow farther and farther away from Him. 

But there is Good News for us, offered even when we least deserve it: Just like Israel wasn’t left to wander the wilderness alone, neither are we. God is with us. Jesus is on the scene. And as God’s eternal Son, who become one of us, Jesus came not just to relive and redeem Israel’s story… He came to redeem all of our fallen stories… the story of fallen humanity as well. Where we all stumble and fall, Jesus stands tall… enduring the test for us, in order to lead us into God’s life. 
 
Jesus’ three temptations are laid out for us in our Gospel passage from Matthew Chapter 4. The first was to use His divine power to turn stones into bread… to meet His own physical needs, but to do so apart from God’s way. Now after fasting for forty days and nights, His hunger must have been raging. And of course, Jesus needed to eat… what He was longing for wasn’t something bad in itself. But the way He was deceptively invited to satisfy His deep hunger would undermine the whole reason He was fasting in the wilderness in the first place… to endure these trials to draw near to and deepen His dependence on His heavenly Father. To actively trust God to sustain Him, and to actively choose the way of faithfulness, even when it hurts.

And Jesus responds to the tempter by quoting from a passage from the Torah, from Deuteronomy Chapter 8, where Moses reminds God’s people of how the LORD constantly cared for them in the wilderness.
 
Deuteronomy 8:2-6, “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him.”
 
As a parent disciplines… not just in the sense of punishment, but of training… like an Olympic athlete disciplines themselves to become far better at their sport than they would be naturally… so God was training His people Israel to trust in Him. And so, centuries later, Christ Jesus also chose to endure this divine parental training… trusting in His Father’s sustaining love, even when He was presented with an easy way out.
  
Like Israel, you and I also have real physical needs that God knows all about. But He also wants us to come to know that what brings us life is not just food, and water, and shelter alone. We need these things, yes. But we also need God’s word… His grace and His guidance are not simply nice options… they are essential for us if we are to find real life as His children, and not to wander through life searching in vain for what only God Himself can satisfy.
 
For his second temptation, the evil one brought Jesus up to the highest point of the Temple in Jerusalem… and told Him to throw Himself down and prove to everyone, Jesus included, that He really is God’s beloved Son, even quoting Scripture to make this sound like an act of faith… but all the while, the tempter was just sowing doubt… trying to undermine God’s clear affirmation of Jesus’ true identity declared at His baptism… and trying to drive a wedge between Father and Son, calling for some other proof instead of taking the LORD at His word.
 
And again, Jesus responds by referring to the Torah, Deuteronomy 6:16-18, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You must diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you…”
 
Rather than try to make the Father prove Himself on Jesus’ terms, Christ practiced faithfulness by doing “what is right and good in the sight of the Lord’’, instead of seeking what seemed right in His own eyes. No room was allowed for twisting the Scriptures to pursue His own agenda apart from God’s ways… just humble dedication to the One He loved, and lived to follow with all of His heart.
 
Finally, the gloves come off, and the tempter lays all his cards down on the table. Matthew 4:8 “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
 
All the world and all its splendor… yours… all you need to do is give yourself to the devil.
 
There are lots of people who have taken up this offer over the years. Maybe not in such an obvious, back and forth conversation with an agent of spiritual evil… but with the same compromises being made… and the grand expectations to receive all that one could desire… if they will just turn their backs on the Living God, and turn their lives over to the ways of darkness instead.
 
The worst is when God’s own people fall into this trap, handing over our full allegiance to the Living God, and His ways in exchange for things like security… influence… possessions, accomplished agendas and political power… setting aside God’s commandments, all while proclaiming to the world that we are faithfully serving His good Kingdom. []
 
But the irony of this third temptation that Jesus faced, is that everything was to be His already! After all, Jesus is the beloved, eternal Son of God, destined to reign as King of Kings at the Father’s right hand forever.
 
But the path to this eternal Kingdom would first lead Jesus to the cross… to again be called on to faithfully endure fierce trials, and betrayal, and abandonment… torture, and death. To be the true Saviour King of the world, Jesus would need to suffer and die to set us sinners free.  
 
And so, His third temptation was to bypass all this suffering… to turn His allegiance over to the devil, and receive everything right then. To seize for Himself the chance to rule ‘like’ God but without having to humble Himself, and learn obedience conforming His will to the Father’s holy ways. The devil tells Jesus He can ‘have it all’ without the hard work of faithfulness, and righteousness, and the steadfast love that’s willing to suffer to seek and to save the lost.

But in response, Jesus turns to the tempter and says:  “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:9-10).
When push comes to shove, Jesus shows there is nothing in the world the devil can offer that will get Him to turn His back on His Father.
 
But what about us? Does this third temptation pull at our hearts today?
Are there ways you and I are tempted to take hold of something in this life that would mean refusing to trust God, and resisting the calling to walk in His holy ways?
 
If so, we’re certainly not alone. The devil is hard at work bending many ears these days, as he has been since day one. And yet, when we hear these dark whispers, offering us our desires in exchange for our faithfulness, we must recall that the evil one offers us nothing good that the Living God has not already exceeded.
 
While wandering in the desert for forty years, Israel had already been offered far more than they could have asked for or imagined while they were suffering as slaves in Egypt. The LORD graciously set them free, and was with them every step of the way… leading them into a whole new life of blessings and freedom in the Promised Land as God’s own beloved children. 
 
And as Christians today, we have already been offered the new life of God as well… a new identity as God’s own beloved adopted children… invited to share an eternal and blessed life with one another, and our Saviour King. And through the Holy Spirit, the LORD is with us every step of the way too… leading us through our own wildernesses, and times of trial… our own seasons of learning to live each day by faith, to trust that God loves us, and wants us to grow more and more like Him. 
 
But what hope do we really have of passing the test?
 
Our hope cannot be in our own faithfulness… but in Jesus Christ… the faithful One who passed the test for us and gives His life of complete obedience as a free gift of grace. 
 
The hope for all of humanity’s story falls on the shoulders of Jesus. Where we all stumble and fall, Jesus alone remains true and completely endures the test of faithfulness. And through His faithfulness, God has graciously opened the door wide for the rest of us to find new life in Him… to be received as Christ’s new brothers and sisters, saved by all that He’s done for us… and offered to us as a free gift of love.
 
But this free gift of Christ’s saving faithfulness is not given to us so that we can avoid trying to be faithful ourselves.
It’s not like that at all. This free gift is given to save us, and faithfully led us through the wilderness… no longer alone, but completely confident in God’s sustaining grace and steadfast love every step of the way, and even when we still stumble and fall.
 
Because of the faithfulness of Jesus, we can see what true faithfulness looks like… and spend our days following the One who finally got it right.! Learning from Him how to be God’s faithful children too, and leaning on His grace when we fall.
 
Lent reminds us that Jesus our Saviour endured all our temptations… and He has overcome them so that with His help… with His own Spirit at work in us, we can now begin to overcome them too. We can now follow Him in faith, trusting in His grace and love, and learning from Him how to walk in God’s good ways… as a child learns to become more and more like the parent who constantly and faithfully cares for them.
 
But Lent also reminds us that Jesus our Saviour does not lead us away from the wilderness… He leads us through it. In faithful love, He leads us steadily onward to the cross… where our faith in Him will no doubt be tested, but where God’s own faithfulness and saving love is made known beyond measure to those who believe.
 
So then, as we begin this journey through Lent, walking together with Jesus to the cross… may we place our trust in our heavenly Father’s great mercy and sustaining grace, even when we face times of deep longing. May we seek out the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit, especially when we feel uncertain and afraid. And may we cling to the steadfast love of Jesus Christ, our faithful brother, offering our own wholehearted devotion to our Saviour King, who leads us into life. Amen. 

For a deeper look, you can also check out their 14 Episode Podcast series on the Character of God, found here:

And our All-Ages Song for the season of Lent can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Joel 2:1–2, 12–17 | Psalm 51 | 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10 | Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1).
 
“I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
 
That was a sonnet called Ozymandias, penned by the British poet Percy Shelley, apparently inspired by an ancient statue of an Egyptian Pharoah… contemplating the irony that this powerful ruler’s legacy… which must have seemed so grand and glorious in his day… had in time been reduced to sand and stones… and nothing more.   
 
It’s a stark reminder… especially for those of us seeking worldly glory, and who seem to be preoccupied with our own legacies… with what others think of us here on earth… a reminder that in the end every kingdom falls, and every legacy fades. Like King Ozymandias, all our works will likewise turn to dust.
 
Ash Wednesday offers us a similar reminder of our own mortality. In a world that does its best day by day to help us ignore and deny all signs of our weakness, fragility, and human limitations, Ash Wednesday reminds us that it is from dust that we all came, and to dust we will all return.
 
And yet, unlike Shelley’s poem that seems to present this humbling truth about our shared mortality with a sense of hopelessness and empty inevitability… Ash Wednesday does something very different: it calls us to remember our surprising place in the story, by locating our human fragility… our death-bound state of being within the scope of the grace, and mercy, and steadfast love of the Living God… giving us a hope far beyond anything we creatures of ash and dust can build for ourselves.
 
Ash Wednesday reminds us of the truth that while we are indeed ashes and dust… mortal, and fragile, and fallen… in His mercy and love the Living God Himself took on our frail humanity. In His Son, Jesus Christ, God became ashes and dust just like us… in every way, except for our sins… but then He bore those for us as well at the cross! Dying in our place… letting death’s full force fall upon Him, and then rising again to rescue us… and bring us into God’s own blessed and everlasting life.
 
Ash Wednesday reminds us that God knows exactly who and what we are… and yet, even though we are just ashes and dust, God loves us anyway… and through His Son Jesus, God has graciously opened up for us a glorious future… offering us freedom and forgiveness of our sins… turning our despair into joyful hope… and helping us set aside our selfishness and pride, and preoccupation with our own status and glory, to share God’s humble and self-giving love with one another, and with those in need all around us.

And so, having received the grace and mercy and love of the Living God, even though we are but ashes and dust… Ash Wednesday calls us to reject the proud path of Ozymandias… of striving to impress those around us, even with our own apparent righteousness and spiritual piety… twisting our devotion to God into a performance, all the while neglecting the connection that really matters: our relationship with Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, the real King of Kings.
 
And so Ash Wednesday invites us to humbly draw near to Jesus our Saviour in faith… to take up our own crosses and follow Him always… not as a performance, but as those wholeheartedly pursuing the way He has shown us… the way that leads to God’s true and everlasting life that His mercy and grace alone can provide.
 
In time, the world may think nothing of us. Or it might believe all kinds of lies about us, and misunderstand us completely. For better or worse, our legacies are out of our hands. But with the time that we have been given, with our days on this earth before we return to the earth, Christ calls us to pursue the things that will endure… to set our hearts on, and to live in line with God’s good Kingdom. 
 
He tells us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21).
 
Tonight, we remember that we are dust… and to dust we shall return. But we remember this alongside the blessed hope offered to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Saviour. In Him, our eternal fate is secure. In Him, we find new purpose… and are empowered to take part in the good work of His Kingdom even now… the only Kingdom that will have no end. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Exodus 24:12–18 | Psalm 2 | 2 Peter 1:16–21 | ​Matthew 17:1–9

“While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’” (Matthew 17:5).
 
Can you recall a time when you were able to really open up to someone else? When you found the courage to lay down your guard, and really speak from the heart, and share some of your innermost thoughts with them? Your hopes and dreams? Your fears? Your failures? The things that really make you tick?
 
Sharing our hearts with other people can be both a profoundly positive or painful experience… opening us up to the possibilities of deep friendship, and deep disappointment. I mean, when we’re vulnerable enough to let people see the real us, and they welcome the real us with open arms… eager to hear what we have to say, and maybe even respond by sharing their hearts too… it can create a whole new level of trust between us, and bonds of understanding.
 
But what happens if we pour out our hearts and the other person doesn’t really want to hear it? What if they reject what we have to say? Or what if they are simply too distracted by something else… by their own cares or concerns, and prove to be unable, or unwilling to listen… to attend to our moment of self-disclosure? Well, in that case, what could have been a beautiful moment of building up mutual trust and fellowship becomes something else instead: a painful reminder that we’re not quite as in sync at the moment as we had hoped.
 
Now this might seem like a strange way to start a sermon for Transfiguration Sunday, but as we look closely at our Scripture passages this morning, and take to heart what is being shared with us through them… perhaps we are being invited into a similar sacred… heart-sharing moment as well?
 
In our first reading today from the Book of Exodus Chapter 24, we hear of a particularly transformative moment in the life of Moses, and the story of Israel. After setting the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt, and delivering them from the fury of Pharoah by leading them safely through the Red Sea, the Living God led His people through the wilderness to the foot of Mt. Sinai, where God graciously invites them into a sacred covenant… a sacred commitment and relationship where they would be set apart as a holy people, devoted to the LORD, and to following God’s holy ways together, so that His goodness and steadfast love would be made known to them, and to the world around them.
 
In the chapters before our reading today, God spelled out the terms of this covenant… the laws and commandments that His people were to follow together… and Israel had agreed to all the LORD has said. And so, as we heard today, the LORD then summons Moses to come up the mountain again to meet with Him, and to give Moses the stone tablets with the commandments written on them.
 
What’s going on at Sinai is that God is opening up His heart to Israel in a new and incredible way: the Almighty Creator of everything has set them apart for a special role in His story… to get to know Him up close and personally… to share their lives with Him, and to have their whole way of life to be reshaped by His holy ways. They were to become His people, and He would be their God. His own beloved children… faithfully listening to His voice.

And as their faithful representative, Moses goes up to meet with God on the mountain. Exodus 24:15, “Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.”
 
God summons Moses to enter the cloud… to step behind the curtain, so to speak, and meet with Him intimately, surrounded by God’s overwhelming glory… trusting the LORD, and fully attentive to what He had to say.
 
Now tragically, Exodus goes on to tell us that while Moses had gone up to meet with God, and receive from Him the instructions for His people, those left below began to grow impatient, and following their own desires and plans, they constructed a idol of a calf, made of gold… and began to worship it… breaking the covenant they had just committed to, and turning their back on God’s holy ways.

And so, what was meant to be one of the most spectacular moments in Israel’s story turned out to be one of their lowest points ever… a painful reminder not only of their failure to remain faithful to God, but of the same tendency at work in every human heart: that even when the Living God pours out His heart to us, and invites us in to deep fellowship with Himself, we all so easily ignore His voice, and refuse to listen to Him… with disastrous results.
 
But what if someone truly did listen to God’s voice? What if someone flipped the story around and instead of tuning out the LORD’s instructions, they were actually fully attentive to His every word?
 
Turning to our Gospel passage this morning, we hear the story of Jesus our Lord also ascending a mountain for a special meeting, while accompanied by three disciples: Peter, James, and John. And what follows is a remarkable story: before their eyes, Jesus is transfigured. His appearance is dramatically transformed. Matthew tells us “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” (Matthew 17:2-3).

So not only is Jesus suddenly transformed in glorious light, but two of Israel’s ancient prophets from centuries past step out of the pages of history and are somehow standing by His side conversing.
 
Now, Moses and Elijah are both significant for many reasons. Both had their own mountain-top meetings with the LORD on Mount Sinai (or Mt. Horeb, as it’s sometimes called.). Moses reminds us of the Torah… the Law… the Instructions God gave to His people Israel to follow. And Elijah reminds us of the Prophets… those special messengers sent by God with words of challenge and comfort to His people… warning or calling them back to His side, when they wandered far from His holy ways.
 
And so, standing by Jesus’ side we see these two fallible but mostly faithful spokesmen for the Living God… those who eagerly sought to help their people to heed God’s voice and follow His holy ways. And these two spokesmen remind us how through all the Law and the Prophets… that is through the whole Old Testament Scriptures, God has been at work pouring His heart out, and calling us to trust and follow Him… to learn how to live according to His goodness, and grace… to share in His passion for both justice and mercy… to know the Almighty Creator of all, up close and personally, and to love Him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength… and to love all our neighbours as ourselves.
 
And Jesus invited His closest disciples up the mountain to witness this moment: to let them catch a glimpse of His glory… His true self… shining like the sun, and speaking to these representatives of God’s word at work in ages past. Far from setting aside or getting rid of Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, Jesus was carrying on their work to its full completion… revealing the depths of God’s heart to the world, which has been unchanged from all time, but was now made known most clearly in Him.
 
And as St. Peter stumbles through his clumsy attempt to make sense of this remarkable moment, suddenly, a cloud descends on them, just like it had appeared at Mt. Sinai… and these three confused and terrified disciples hear a voice with a message that transforms their lives forever.
 
Matthew 17:5-8, “suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.”
 
“This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” This is the message of Transfiguration Sunday: that in Jesus, we are not just meeting with another good teacher, or prophet, or miracle worker with some insightful things to say that we should really consider every now and then. In Jesus, we are met with the singular Son of God Himself. The Beloved One who has been eternally in sync with the character, purposes, and heart of the Father… and who completely embodies both heavenly holiness and earthly obedience.  
 
As the Eternal Son, the Living God in the flesh, Jesus is God’s heart poured out for humanity to see, revealing God’s holy love reaching out to rescue the lost and redeem those bound by darkness, sin, and despair.

But this eternal, Beloved Son truly became one of us… He took on everything that we are, in order to be for us what we could never be: the truly faithful human… who listens completely to God’s voice, and who always responds wholeheartedly to His Father’s voice. Where we all wandered and walked away, Jesus alone remained true to the end… taking up His cross and bearing our sins to set us free.
 
And yes, on the mountain top Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, James, and John, where they caught a brief and private glimpse of His divine majesty and glory. But it was at the cross where Christ Jesus our Lord truly revealed Himself and His glory to the world… pouring our His heart and laying bare the lengths that God’s love will go to save His beloved, and broken world.
 
Jesus remained faithful to the voice of His Father, and laid down His life to set us free. And the Father faithfully raised His Beloved Son from the grave, and set Him at His own right hand in glory. And through the Holy Spirit, God speaks to us even now, especially through the Holy Scriptures, drawing us to Jesus in faith, and opening our ears, and our minds, and our hearts to hear His voice, and follow His holy, life-giving ways.
 
In Jesus, God’s beloved Son and our blessed Saviour, we come face to face with God’s own holiness, and faithful humanity all at once. He is both the Living God, and the righteous human servant all wrapped up in one.
 
And so, it is to Jesus that we turn to hear God’s voice… to truly come to know the mind and heart of our Creator… to discern the right path to follow when we are lost… to know what to do when everything around us seems so chaotic and confused. 
 
The Living God has opened Himself up to us in Jesus Christ His beloved Son, and in Jesus, He has shown us His heart and desires for us and for our world. How will we respond?
 
Will we simply shrug, and turn away to our own interests? Will we decide that we know better, and ignore all that He offers us? Will we let ourselves be so distracted by everything else going on, that we fail to hear His voice?

Or, with the help of His Holy Spirit, will we turn to Jesus, again and again, and take time to be still, and to truly listen to Him? To study His word, together and alone… to offer Him our full attention in worship and prayer… and then, to actually do what He says to do… to put His holy ways into practice… letting our lives be transfigured by His own… leaning on Him, and learning from Him how to truly love God, and love all our neighbours.
 
My prayer for us today is that we will heed the voice that the disciples heard from the cloud on top of that mountain: that we will all lift up our hearts in devotion to Jesus Christ God’s Beloved Son, and always listen to Him. Amen.

​And our All-Ages Song for the Season of Epiphany can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 58:1–12 | Psalm 112 | 1 Corinthians 2:1–16 | ​Matthew 5:13–20

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” (Matthew 5:13).
 
Does anyone here like spicy food? I really do.
 
For most of my childhood I had a pretty… timid sense of taste when it comes to spices. Anything hotter than a mild salsa, and I’d be reaching for a glass of milk pretty quick. But when I began to explore a more fiery diet… first off with simple hot sauces, but then later on adding dishes from places like Mexico, Thailand, and India… everything changed. It’s like my whole approach to eating went through this huge shift, and I learned to appreciate a way more intense and flavourful variety of food than I ever imagined.
 
Now we don’t have to be into spicy food to appreciate the impact of good seasoning on a meal… of finding just the right combination of sweetness and savouriness and heat and salt that transforms and elevates what we eat from being ‘just alright’ to something amazing. The challenge is to know exactly what needs to be added to bring out the best flavours. Not that I’m any kind of expert at cooking.

But this quest for just the ‘right seasoning’ goes way beyond the kitchen, doesn’t it? I mean, there’s lots of ways we might be searching for that missing piece… that special ingredient we think we need to lift up and transform our lives. In our careers and creative pursuits… our families and relationships… in our searches for meaning and peace… so many in our world are hungering for something essential that still needs to be added… even if they’re not sure yet where to find it.
 
And in this search, many of us have come to see Christianity as that missing something… that special ingredient that ends up transforming our lives for the better… offering us a real taste of heaven… a taste of freedom, and forgiveness, and grace that we had never dreamed of… along with the sweet experience of being welcomed into God’s great family. In fact, it can be tempting at times to conceive of our faith… of our whole relationship with the Living God basically in terms of how they add to and improve our lives: as in, we have some sort of a problem, but just add a dash of God… and everything’s better. As if God was just one special ingredient among many on our shelves to choose from.

Now I certainly believe that our lives are much better off with God in them… and I know first-hand how much of a difference the Christian faith can make, in all sorts of ways. But there is so much more going on with the Good News of Jesus Christ than just how He can spice up and add something good to our lives. It’s about how Christ takes our lives and uses them to add something good to our world!
 
In our Gospel passage today from Matthew Chapter 5, near the start of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this to His followers: “You are the salt of the earth…” and “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13-14). Salt and light. Two common, everyday things that elevate and transform all that they touch.
 
Salt was a treasured commodity in the ancient world… an additive that served both to preserve foods, and also to intensify their flavours. Salt kept things from spoiling… from going bad… and salt helped bring out the best of the other ingredients… turning a meal that might otherwise be bland and boring into something worth celebrating.
 
And light is even more essential. Light helps us see what’s really going on… revealing the truth of the matter that we’d otherwise miss, or stumble over in the dark. Light helps us find our way, and helps guide those who are already off track to finally find a safe haven.
 
Both salt and light make a big impact on their surroundings. Just a sprinkle can change a whole meal’s taste. Just one candle at night can be seen for kilometers.
 
But notice that Jesus didn’t say to His disciples: ‘Here, I have some salt and light for you. Enjoy.’ He says to them: ‘You are the salt. You are the light. You are that something special that I will add to the world around you.’
 
Of course, Christ’s not giving us a flattering pep-talk, or speaking about our own innate goodness, or natural potential. He knows full well the limits and ordinary humanness of His audience. Rather, He’s laying out the recipe for God’s Kingdom… the game-plan for His own mission: to share the new life of the Living God with the world through the impact of His people, who are themselves being transformed by His own holy love and saving grace.

On our own, we just taste bland and boring. And without His light, we’re just stumbling around blind. But Jesus invites us all into the life of His Kingdom… to cleanse us from our sins, and to guide us into His holy ways… and it is His new life at work in us that transforms us into the salt and the light that our world really needs… as those who have already tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and who have learned to trust in Him… and who can now take part in helping all those around them to do the same. 
 
And this special calling to be salt and light is not just for the so-called ‘experts’… for those seen as particularly wise, or knowledgeable, or charismatic, or powerful. This calling is for every single Christian. Everyone who looks to Christ in faith. Sure, wisdom and knowledge and charisma, and power and everything else we associate with greatness might all have their place in God’s purposes and plans for His people, but those are all secondary… extra add-ons to what is essential about the Christian life. And in fact, they can all at times distract us from the beautiful simplicity of God’s holy ways, and His Holy Spirit powerfully at work in and through some of the most unlikely people.   
 
In our second reading today from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we heard how St. Paul described the less than spectacular impression he made among them, and how St. Paul saw all this as a good thing: impressing upon them that it’s not us human messengers that are to be the point of focus… it’s all about the power of God’s Spirit working to share the Good News of Christ even through those that might seem unlikely spokespersons.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5,
 
“When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”
 
For St. Paul, what mattered was that people came to experience God’s own power at work… not that they were impressed by fancy words, or convincing arguments alone. And one of the most common ways for God’s power to be made known is through getting to know up close the people whose lives have been transformed and set free by His holy love. We don’t need to be preachers to tell someone else how God’s love has made a difference in our lives. And we don’t need to be religious experts to show those around us the blessings that come from walking in God’s holy ways. All of us who have answered Christ’s gracious call, and who follow our Saviour in faith are salt and light in our own unique ways… sharing the life of God’s Kingdom simply by living out the Good News every day.
 
And this leads us to our first reading today from the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 58, where the Living God has some hard words for His people who at the time had not been faithfully following His holy ways, and were in need of some correction.
 
In this chapter, God calls out His covenant people Israel, for while they were certainly going through the motions of devotion… practicing fasting, and offering sacrifices all in accordance with the commandments in the Torah, God could see that their hearts were still far away from His own, and so He calls them to turn back to Him… to put God’s holy ways into practice, which we heard last week from the Prophet Micah are inseparable from doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with the Living God. Isaiah words this calling in his own way, but the message from God strikes the same chord. Isaiah 58:6-10,
 
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
 
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
 
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
 
What does God tell Isaiah and His people will happen when they pursue justice, and actively practice kindness? “your light shall break forth like the dawn… your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.” And “you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”
 
All of the Law and the Prophets call on us to turn to the Living God in faith… to love Him and our neighbours as ourselves… to act with justice, and love kindness, and walk with God in His holy ways. And when God’s people do this… that is when we are the salt and the light that our world desperately needs… and is longing to taste and see, even if they have not all yet recognized their hunger… or imagined the goodness God has in store for them. 

Like salt and light, even a tiny bit of this new life stands out, and can make a huge difference. Just think: if everyone we encounter day by day experiences just a taste and a glimpse of God’s good Kingdom at work in our lives… if they come to see ordinary folks like you and me can be salted by the life of Jesus Christ, and that we are somehow reflecting the glory of God’s holy love… how might that start to impact those we know here in Gondola Point and beyond?
 
But then again, there’s another question that should give us pause as well: What happens if we’re not being salt and light? What happens… not only to us as Christ’s people… what happens to the communities God has placed us in? To those hungering for a taste of heaven… and longing for any sign of hope?
 
When this weight sinks in, we need to remember that Jesus calls us in faith to be what His grace and love alone can make us. We cannot transform ourselves into the salt and light that our world needs… what we can do is receive the gift of Christ’s new life, and cling to Him as we follow His lead, and with God’s help, put His holy ways into practice.
In complete devotion to the supreme justice of God, Jesus took on our flesh and suffered in our place. In inexpressible mercy, and kindness, Christ freely gave up His life at the cross to save sinners like us, and to set us free once and for all. And in the world-changing power of God, Jesus rose again from the dead… He is seated at the Father’s right hand in glory… and through His Holy Spirit our Saviour is with us still… humbly walking with us always.
 
And so, with the help of His Holy Spirit, we can be salt of the earth because of the difference His righteousness and mercy have already made. And we can be the light of the world because in Him we have already seen the saving light of God, calling us out from the shadows, and into the presence of His new life even now.

And we can continue to be Christ’s salt and light… and avoid losing our saltiness, or hiding our radiance by pressing on in faith… by walking humbly with our Lord, and drawing near to Him day by day. Walking with Jesus in the comfort and strength of His saving love, walking in the good ways He has taught us, and walking with Him into a world that’s hungry and longing for what God has for them. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Micah 6:1–8 | Psalm 15 | 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 | Matthew 5:1–12

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
 
Nobody likes to feel foolish… to feel completely out of step and out of sync with those around us… standing out as odd and being looked down on because of something that we’ve said, or something we’ve done.   
 
I can remember more than a few times that I’ve felt foolish in my life. And maybe you can too. Some of those memories are no big deal… just a simple mistake and a subtle reminder to stay humble. And then there are those memories I’d much rather forget… of times that I’ve really put my foot in my mouth, or did something reckless or embarrassing that takes a little bit longer to get over.
 
Like the time when I broke my first bone. There I was, the ‘good Christian kid’ forced to wear a cast in Grade 12 and explain to everyone who asked that I broke my hand punching my best friend while we were horsing around… not exactly the image and reputation I wanted for myself at the time.

But you know, there are times when looking foolish… standing out as out of sync with everyone else is actually a blessing… when it’s actually the best thing for ourselves, and for those around us. Especially when what’s been taken for granted as wisdom is actually on the wrong track.
 
I mean, think of all those who are willing to stand up against oppression… those who endure all kinds of insults and harassment… or even worse because they are not willing to stay silent while others suffer, or to simply go along with injustice and evil.
 
To a great many people, brave folks like these might seem truly foolish... making wrongheaded choices. And yet, despite things like popular opinion, or familiar conventions, these so-called fools might actually be much closer to the truth of the matter and real wisdom than meets the eye.
 
And in a world that so often seems to be running off the rails, and where those who fuel injustice, fear, and confusion seem to be calling the shots… maybe we need a lot more of the right kind of foolishness to go around. Maybe we need more of us to be willing to seem a bit odd and even out of place… but who are willing to embody and invite others to share in the wisdom and ways of the Living God.
 
Because as we know, God’s answer to a world gone wrong is not to abandon it… to toss it aside and start again from scratch. And it’s also not to just give up and give in and go along with the flow either.
 
No, all throughout the Scriptures, we see God at work calling us to seek His holy wisdom and help to stand out… to do what is right in the midst of all the wrongness. To be people of the light in the midst of the darkness. To practice His love even when we’re surrounded by hate. To seek above all to be in sync with Him, and to share in His blessed life… even if the rest of the world chooses to walk another way. 
 
We heard this tension highlighted in our first reading today from the book of the Prophet Micah, where the Living God confronts His covenant people who had turned away from Him in their hearts and lives… and as He calls them to set aside their misguided ways and return to Him.
 
And what does God say to them? What is the good way He calls them to follow… the heart of the matter when it comes to what we must do?
 
Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”
 
Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.
It sounds incredibly simple. Yet think about it for a moment. What does it take to do justice when no one else wants to? When those in charge are bent on obstructing it instead? And how will a harsh and violent world treat us when we embrace the way of kindness and mercy? And when success is equated with celebrity status, masses of followers, and global influence, it must seem totally backwards to prioritize spending our days humbly drawing near to God.
 
And yet, this is what the LORD says is what He wants from us. This is the kind of life that our Almighty Creator calls us His people to pursue… and would have us see as blessed.

Act justly. Love kindness. Walk humbly with the Living God.

And Micah’s words point us forward to our Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 5, where we hear the words of Jesus Christ our Lord. As both the eternal Son of God, and a human like us all at once, Jesus perfectly embodied God’s holy ways here on earth… not to show off, but in order to save us and our messed up world, and to bring us into the fullness of God’s own blessed life.
 
And while we know there are all sorts of ideas out there about what it looks like to live in line with the ways of the Living God, as Christians we look first of all to Jesus Himself, and what He proclaims. And here, in these opening verses of a much larger body of teachings often called the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents us with a surprising vision of how we come to take part in the blessings of God’s good Kingdom. Matthew 5:1-12,
 
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
 
Now then, if you were to come up with a list of the kinds of people you would consider blessed… would it look like this list? The poor in spirit? Those who mourn? The meek? Those craving righteousness? The merciful? The pure in heart? The peacemakers? The persecuted? Probably not!
 
I mean, some of those sound pious enough I suppose… but others just seem so out of place… so disconnected from any of the ideas our world tends to associate with blessings.
 
But that’s precisely the point! Christ’s words here are so surprising to us… and seem so counter-intuitive precisely because our familiar ways of looking at life is so off course.

We tend to see blessedness as a statement about our present circumstances… our current experience of life. And from this point of view, it makes no sense to us to speak of those who mourn, and those who are meek, and those who are poor in spirit or persecuted as blessed. I mean, they’re suffering… they’re in pain… and powerless… we might pity them, but would we call them blessed?
 
And even when we find ourselves in their shoes… when we are the ones suffering, in pain, and powerless… more often than not, we’re eager to find a fast way to escape from these circumstances… not settle in, confident that we’re actually on the right track.
 
But God sees things very differently then we do. His ways are not our ways… and His thoughts are not our thoughts. What looks to us like complete foolishness and a terrible disaster might in fact be the beginnings of God’s blessed redemption and saving love coming to light… defying all our grand expectations, and yet from His perspective, things are falling perfectly into place.   
 
This is not to say that God is the cause or instigator of evil. Far from it! The LORD is not some terrible puppet-master, toying with or torturing us for some cruel and unknowable reason. No, He is the LORD of life, the One who created the world to be cared for with justice, and who loves kindness, and who desires close fellowship and communion with His humble creatures.
 
But what it does mean is that in a world where so much is still working against God’s good ways and His good Kingdom, the right and good and blessed thing to be and to do might often seem completely out of place… it might seem completely foolish to the world… and even at times to ourselves… and it might even mean facing times of real suffering… grief… pain… powerlessness and persecution. Living the right way in the midst of the wrong is bound to bring us into conflict. Living God’s way will not always be easy… but that does not mean that it will not be blessed. 
 
But to recognize that blessing requires real faith… it asks us to trust in God… to trust in His justice, and mercy, and holy love for us and our world… to trust that He will help us through the times of suffering… and help us stay true to His good ways, especially when it’s hard… and to trust that Jesus His Son and our Saviour King is leading us into, and sharing with us, God’s own blessed life.
 
We know of course that Jesus Christ Himself faced all this for us already… the King of all Creation was Himself considered a fool by the world He had made: He stood out from the crowd for God’s sake, and this led to Him facing all kinds of insults, slander, and humiliation. He endured the hypocrisy and abuse at the hands of those in power. He experienced grief and heartbreak, and betrayal, and suffered incredible pain and agony. At the cross, Jesus was persecuted and put to death, and considered by all a cursed criminal or a failed Messiah. A complete fool, either way.                                                                            
And yet… in the end God’s wisdom shined bright through the darkness, and Christ’s meekness, powerlessness and suffering led straight to His glory, as God raised His beloved Son again from the dead as the beginning of His blessed New Creation… putting to shame all the forces of evil that had done their worst to destroy Him, and proving right all those ‘foolish enough’ in all the right ways to place their faith in Jesus.  

And now, this Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord lies at the heart of our faith… how God transformed what seemed like complete defeat into the gift of New Life and salvation for His beloved world… and calling us now to entrust ourselves and our world to this same Saviour, no matter what others might say. As St. Paul said in our second reading today: “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
 
Nobody likes to feel foolish. But the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord invites us to trust in God’s wisdom and seek to follow His holy ways… even if it means standing out from the crowd, or taking a stand for what is right.  
 
And with God’s help, we really can be Christ’s blessed people today: eagerly awaiting His return…praying for His Kingdom to come, and putting His Kingdom ways into practice… striving to truly do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God always… clinging to Christ Jesus our blessed Saviour King as He leads us into life. Amen.