SERMON PREACHED AT St PAUL’S,
ARROWTOWN
and St Peter’s, Queenstown
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
(March 9th) 2025
Readings
Romans 10: 8b-13
Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16
Luke 4: 1-13
I worked you a little hard, those of you who were here last
week, so this week I want to do little more than float a few ideas as we
journey into Lent.
Some background. Paul’s Letter to the Romans was unusual
amongst the collection of his writings that we have. It was the only letter
that he wrote (as far as we know) to a community that he had not spent some
time with.
It is at the front of the body of Paul’s letters only
because they are more or less arranged in size from the biggest to the smallest
with a couple of wobbles where there’s more than one addressed to the same
congregation. That has tended to give the letter extra weight in the history of
Christianity. That is not a bad thing because it is one in which he stated his case most
clearly as he established his credentials for a group of Christians who knew
all about him, or thought they did, but of whom many had not met him.
Paul knew much about the Roman Christians and had met many, but
not all. Messengers scurried backwards and forwards across the Roman Empire
bringing messages and missives to Paul, and taking the same back to various
centres. And while Paul had great faith in the Roman Christians he was, from
past sometimes bitter experience, deeply concerned that there could be and
should not be infighting and division.
We see that clearly in the letters to the Corinthians, but
in Romans Paul is trying to cut problems off at the pass, as he tries to
establish the city of Rome as his base for mission further West across what we
now know as the South of France, Spain and Portugal. Paul wanted no division in
the body of Christ.
So he wrote one of his most famous sayings. “There is no
distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous
to all who call on him. ‘For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved’.” Paul is at that point quoting from the prophet Joel.
Paul was not suggesting, and nor was Joel, that bad things
would not happen to those who draw near to the heart of God. Paul’s own
subsequent execution is a brutal reminder of that, though he did not know, except
for perhaps some hunches, that this was going to be his experience.
The often said and well-meant slogan to the effect that God
will not permit us to suffer beyond our ability to cope, . is not what Paul meant
and is not the case. God reaches beyond
our inability to cope, beyond even our inability to believe in God
anymore.
God cradles us in resurrection light and hope even when we
or our loved ones can no longer feel or believe it.
But that is referring to extreme circumstances, including
the darker valleys of every human life and every Christian journey. I do not
claim that I, in any dark times I may have experienced, cheerfully set my jaw saying,
“chin up, in Christ I can cope.”
I more likely muttered and swore until at last I was
surprised by joy. For some of us that surprise dwells beyond the grave.
And that is really the kernel of Paul’s thought.
Whoever we are, whatever our circumstances, the divine love
revealed in Jesus Christ is greater than our imagining, greater than our trials,
and greater than our defeats.
Do not believe that those who are being killed in the Middle
Eastern hell holes or the bombings of Ukrainian or Russian civilians can find
the strength nonchalantly to proclaim “never mind God is with me.” Some will
and do. Most can’t and don’t, regardless of their faith or unfaith.
No. Simplistic as it may sound, Paul is simply emphasising repeatedly
that the life, light and hope exploded into human history in the moment of
resurrection, and are the final word for all creation.
The resurrection hope brought to us in the life death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, whom we are invited to call Lord, to know as Lord,
to worship as Lord, that never deserts us. That never deserts us no matter how
often or even how permanently, at least in human time scales, we find no
hope light or life.
On this Lenten journey we are invited simply to know that no
matter our darkness or our suffering, our grieving, our mourning, our doubts
and our darkness, and likewise all those components in the world around us, do
not and will not have the final word.
Jesus in the temptation scenes was tempted to give up. We
are less strong. Sometimes if not always we will give up. Whether we know or don't we are embraced by
the eternal unflinching and undefeatable love of the God of resurrection.
