march-19-lent-3.md

Sermon: March 19 – Lent 3

lectionary

  • Massah/Meribah. Is the Lord with us? Testing the Lord/Moses. Moses’ punishment for this place was not to enter the promised land?
  • Woman at the well, many husbands, her testimony brought many. It was the Samaritans (outcasts, outsiders) who resonated with Jesus’ message. Because of her many came to believe
  • The Good News comes from unlikely sources, God’s ways surprise our expectations
  • Water: Moses, woman at well

In my early 20’s I began trying to implement regular prayer into my life.

One of the things I began to exercise was Morning Prayer (from the BCP I’d been given in confirmation (1928)

The Venite was an important part of that.

Venite Psalm 95:1-7
O come, let us sing unto the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it, *
and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship and fall down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; *
let the whole earth stand in awe of him.
For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth, *
and with righteousness to judge the world
and the peoples with his truth.

Esp. I valued the phrase: O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; *
let the whole earth stand in awe of him.

That was all in the old '28 Prayer Book (Rite 1)

Trying to figure out so many things in my life, asking so many questions: I valued this picture of piety, this combination of ps. 95/96 seemed to paint a picture that I wanted to make my own: “Come let us sing to the Lord … In the beauty of holiness.”

Then stuff started happening in my life:

  • More and more I didn’t measure up the picture of holiness I took from the verses.
  • miscarriages, failures in marriage, death of a parent, surgery for children …

Then, it was that I learned that ps. 95 was more complex than the edited version of the Venite let on.

The new BCP & seminary & original BCP in England use all of ps. 95

Led me to: What? What’s going on here? God, what?

In the Exodus reading today we hear one account of what’s behind the reference to:

8 Harden not your hearts,
as your forebears did in the wilderness, *
at Meribah, and on that day at Massah,
when they tempted me.

Ps. 95 has two parts to it (the BCP 1928 cut one of them out) “Thanksgiving” plus “warning about not grumbling”

  • Not unlike my “What’s going on here God?” Moses was dealing with a lot of the same kind of stuff I was.

  • Previous to complaining about the lack of water the people were grumbling about their lack of bread and meat.

  • God, of course, provided Manna, Quail and the Sabbath to rest – they grumbled about that too.

  • Not unlike Jesus’ disciples when they complained to Jesus that he shouldn’t be talking to a woman to say nothing of a Samaritan woman.

Ps. 95 (full version) has a good way of reminding us that we really want God’ work in our lives to be done the way we want it – the way we expect it.

My starting point: all of the readings together.

What is this about? Punishment of God? Grumbling of the people? Defying expectations by God?

God isn’t doing what I expect then Grumbling, complaining then God’s oh, okay then temporary gratitude

Lesson: train for counteracting these:

1… Expect to be surprised by God’s actions

  1. Resist grumbling
  2. In all things: Give thanks for we have access to grace and peace through our Lord Jesus Christ

I am learning. Life is a process of learning to get these pieces working.

In the sometimes crushing disappointments

  • the awful calamities that happen for all of us
  • the unasked for
  • the unexpected

In all of these “Come let us sing to the Lord …”

In the natural defenses that often happen with growing old

– experience that is hard earned – what we accumulate is hardening of the hearts.

Life is an invitation to soften our hearts. Resist grumbling. Develop compassion. Cultivate kindness.

Perhaps then we will be able to see “the beauty of holiness.” in all things, the disappointments as well as the victories, the sadness as well as the joy,

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