The Second Sunday in Lent

+ In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God. Amen.

We awoke yesterday with the disturbing news that yet more violence has been unleashed upon the peoples of the world. The United States and Israel launched what they referred to as “pre-emptive” attacks on Iran, bringing death and destruction to many in Tehran, Isfahan, and throughout Iran. Iran retaliated with a barrage of attacks across the Middle-East. More has happened today, already.

Violence, death, and destruction seem to teeter at the edge of this region. 

In many ways, it feels like the entire world is teetering on the edge of catastrophe.

Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, The Most Rev. Dr. Hosam E. Naoum, wrote in a pastoral letter to the region, “our people from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf find themselves once again huddled in shelters, fearing for their lives as the shadow of a total regional war looms over us.”

He implores the global Church to join in urgent and unceasing prayer. 

So, let us take a moment to pray for peace in the Middle East. Our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, implored us in his pastoral letter to pray for the people of the Diocese of Iran, all Iranian people, and all peoples in the Middle East. So let us pray the collect for peace which was at the end of Presiding Bishop Sean’s letter.

A Collect for Peace

Eternal God, in whose perfect reign no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one God; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen

Archbishop Hosam also reminds that “we must offer each other the sanctuary of Christian love…” and that “we must remain ‘Bridge Builders.’ Even as diplomatic windows seem to slam shut, the Church must keep the doors of reconciliation open. We refuse to see our neighbors as enemies, whether they be in Theran, Tel Aviv, or the military bases of the Gulf…. The hour is late, and the danger is great.”

It may feel like we are on the precipice of the abyss.

And we have hope in God that things can be different than how they currently are. Our God is not a God of the status quo. Our God is a God who desires the blessing and flourishing of all people.

And in this somber start to the second Sunday of Lent, the scriptures today hearken us to this deep hope: that despite the failings of our leaders, despite the evils and violence which we inflict on one another, despite all of this: things can be different, because God is continuously calling us to be a blessing to the world.

In Genesis, Abram is called by God to leave his country, his family, his land. To migrate. To start something new. To be other than what and who and how he is. And for what reason? That “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God takes what was - singular family units, the slow rise of human empires in the earliest moments of human civilization, and seeks the blessing of all people of the earth. 

What once was, need not be what always shall be.

What we see as war now, need not be what will always be.

St. Paul echoes this, saying “in the presence of the God in whom [Abraham] believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.”

That is: Our God is not God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. 22:32). Our God is a God in whom life erupts and new possibilities flourishes. Our God is a God in whom hope itself blossoms forth.

Likewise in the Gospel, we are told that we must be “born from above,” effectively “born again.” There are many interpretations of this passage, but one possible one is that: when we give ourselves to God, in baptism, and in the continued life of Christian discipleship, we are continuously renewed, we are continuously born with new possibility and potential to be a light to the world. We continuously have the ability to hear God’s voice, respond to God’s voice, and be a blessing to the world through Christ, empowered by the Spirit.

And so we see in the Gospel. 

Jesus Christ, the incarnation of the God of Love, and Hope, and Life itself, declares to us:

“Fod God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Something new is done for the world in Jesus Christ.

And perhaps we find ourselves like Nicodemus today, confused, tentative, anxious and worried. Asking the question, “But how? But how can things be different?”

How can the cycles of violence, death, destruction stop?

How can the oppression of the poor, the orphan, the foreigner, and the widow be stopped?

Through humanity alone, this is impossible. We seem only to dig ourselves into greater, and bigger, and wider, holes. The maws of utter chaos and destruction which we possess seem to only grow larger with time.

But through God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26).

My beloved siblings in Christ, this week of Lent we are asked to throw our hopes for the peace of the world at the feet of Christ, in whom hope and life and salvation and peace are promised, not trusting in ourselves but in the very one who made and sustains the universe itself.

We know that creation itself groans for its ultimate liberation in Christ (Romans 8:22-25), and that we long for the day in which, as the Prophet Isaiah writes of humanity ,”they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)

Things can be different than how they are.

The cycles of horror and death, the maw of chaos and pain and violence, can be shut.

And by the grace of God, by Christ who is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), we hope for this future.

And until then, we labor on for the cause of reconciliation: for ourselves with God, for our community with God, for the world, with God.

We continuously repent, return, and are renewed in God to do just this.

Our crucified Lord who bears the horror of state-sponsored violence in his very flesh knows intimately the cruel powers of death which humanity has at its disposal.

And we know that death did not have the last word. And it never will again thanks to Jesus Christ.

So, by the leading of the Spirit may we, with our whole heart and mind and soul, strive for peace and justice and reconciliation in the ways in which we are being called both here and in the world at large. 

May we, by the leading of the Spirit, be lights to the world. 

May we, by the leading of the Spirit, pray unceasingly for the peace of the world, now more than ever.

As Archbishop Hosam writes, “The hour is late, and the danger is great. We remain ‘battered and bruised, but not defeated.’ May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Amen.