First Sunday in Lent (2022)
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Proximity to Danger
Proximity to Danger
Like many of you, I have seen the pictures coming out of Ukraine these last days and been terrified for them, but also amazed at their resilience in the face of danger. The one gal that was intriguing to me was a fashion photographer who had fled her home but was staying in the Ukraine to help. The newscaster asked her what she took with her and she said ‘my camera’ and I thought, of course, it is her livelihood.
Today, we see Jesus on the temple mount in direct proximity to pure evil and after forty days of weakness and frailty we learn how Jesus confronts evil. We see Israel, on the verge of the land that had been promised to them. They have already left the evil of Egypt, they have already been weather beaten for forty years and all they have to do is wander into the promised land that the Lord is giving to them.
Proximity to Promise
Proximity to Promise
In all of our readings today I am struck by how close together everything is. The Psalmist conjures this image:
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
I think about wandering through a woody forest and missing a trap and not even knowing it. I think about the last two years and the number of people I know who got sick and had absolutely no idea where they got it from. I think about historically separated and persecuted groups- Jews and greeks who fought tooth and nail and subjugated one another depending on who was in power. All are just right next to each other.
It would be easy to think that we live in this sort of eternal dualism. Black vs White, Red Vs. Blue, Donkey’s vs Elephants, Stars and Stripes vs Hammers and Sickles. In reality though - that is not how it works. It’s God and then everything else is underneath it.
How does the creed go? I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth. If God is almighty then nothing else is. He is the superlative. Further God created everything else thus even the devil is God’s creation.
What really melts my face though is the incredible proximity everything in this world has to the Goodness of God. Even the devil gets one on one time with Jesus. What this means is that Jesus has made room and drawn Himself close to you.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
As close as almighty God is to us in Christ - He also drew near to evil on our behalf.
The Descent into Hell
The Descent into Hell
Again, if we consider the creeds for a moment they mention that cryptic phrase that not a few of us mumble because it makes us queasy. “He descended into Hell”. We believe this on account of a few things: for one after the resurrection a large number of the dead came alive again in Matthew 27. But mostly we hold to 1 Peter:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Think about that conversation between Jesus and Peter. “So you were gone for a bit… what uh… were ya doing?” I went to hell and back. Oh. Sure. Makes sense.
Here is what is striking to me, Jesus has just been starved, beaten and crucified - not sure if it was the asphyxiation or the loss of blood that caused the final death but He is still capable of visiting the land of the disobedient and walking out on His own steam.
If there is any moral application for our lives today it is this: sin and cannot be defeated from a distance.
I remember before I had surgery about a year ago the doctor in my pre-op visit said, ‘do you care if I use a robot to do the surgery?’ My response was - well kind of. Are you going to be in the room or is this some sort of surgery over zoom type thing because I am not ok with that. What he meant was, robotic laparoscopic surgery.
Yes, that is a trivial example but it holds true. One cannot fire off little fiery darts from a distance and expect conflict to be healed. A surgeon cannot and should not stand at a distance from their patience. We cannot halfway confront our sin and then be surprised when it clings ever so close. No, the language of the scriptures here is surprisingly full bodied and concentrated. On Wednesday we heard this:
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
This is not a polite gesture, it is a solemn assembly of our hearts and minds, replete with grief and sorrow.
Our Old Testament Lesson started with what at first blush seems really great:
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it,
Does anyone remember the challenge with this promise? The land is already occupied, those crops that they will generously give from have already been planted by someone else. Someone else who very much would like to see the fruit of their labors and is unlikely to just hand over their land, their homes, their lives to some Israelite.
Friends whatever conflict, or evil or vulnerability exists in your life, be it with sin in yourself, or your neighbor or your family member- we must approach it head on.
Behold now is the day of your salvation. God has come near.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
See- by the incarnation, by assuming flesh, the Lord demonstrates that our bodies have worth. It is worthwhile to be close together. By His death, He assumes our sins, He assumes our conflicts. By His resurrection He makes us one.
The Ascent into life
The Ascent into life
The creeds are helpful here. What happens after the death of Jesus, after He visits the grave? He rose from the grave and then He immediately starts visiting people again. The flow of the creeds moves from the death and resurrection into the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church and the Communion of saints.
Friends, evil is not defeated at a distance. Our sins are not confronted by some far off God. They are mounted to Christ and killed with all evil. We know that Evil has met its end.
The book of Revelation puts it in rather abstract terms but makes it clear. Evil is not in charge anymore. Sin is not in charge.
His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,
In two verses, the Apocalypse of St. John shows us what we already know. Even from His infancy Jesus was born to rule over the devil, over sin, and even over us.
Rest assured church, whatever plagues or ails you. Jesus, even as an infant, Jesus even after forty days of fasting, Jesus even after lacerations and crucifixions. Jesus came close with the express purpose of bringing us to Him.
Will we draw near to His word? Will we reconcile with one another? Will we face our own sin?
He has drawn near to us. Let us hold fast to this.
Amen.