Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
March 3, 2013
Year C: The Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
(1 Corinthians 10:1-13)
Luke 13:1-9
God the Seeker
Many
of you know that I grew up a Roman Catholic. When I was a kid my parish in
Jersey City was big and active. At Mass on Saturday evenings and Sunday
mornings the pews were crowded with people of all ages. And the parish
elementary school – where both my sister and I went – was bursting at the seams
with girls in plaid jumpers and boys wearing clip-on ties.
There
were lots of programs and groups for adults and kids. And Bingo. Can’t forget
Bingo!
The
church had a group for teenagers. The group had a pretty cool, very 1970s
sounding name, “The Seekers.”
The
Seekers.
Unfortunately,
I can’t tell you much more than that about the Seekers because, maybe being a
little standoffish, I never joined the group. The Seekers always seemed kind of
cliquish to me and, frankly, as a teenager I wasn’t really interested in talking
to my peers about my spiritual life, such as it was.
I
was reminded of the Seekers when I first started reflecting on today’s psalm.
Psalm 63 opens with a very beautiful expression of our longing to know God, our
desire to be in God’s presence:
“O
God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh
faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.”
Seeking
God is one of the great threads running through our tradition.
Since
the beginning, people have sought God - some by going into the desert and
others by climbing a mountain. People have sought God - some by making
pilgrimages to holy places and others by losing themselves in prayer and
meditation.
And
that search for God – that seeking God – continues today. It’s why at least
some of us are here today.
People
have always sought God and I suppose we always will seek God.
“O
God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh
faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.”
We
are seekers.
But
we’re not the only seekers.
Seeking
God is one of the great threads running through our tradition, but there
is an even greater, and much more comforting, thread that also runs through our
tradition.
We
may or may not be seeking God, but God is definitely seeking us.
Since
the beginning, Jews and Christians have experienced God seeking us out,
reaching out to us over and over, looking for us over and over, wanting to be
known by us, to be loved by us.
I’ve
mentioned before in sermons how for me one of the most painfully,
heartbreakingly beautiful passages in all of Scripture comes right near the
beginning - when Adam and Eve have disobeyed God and are hiding in shame and
fear.
We
are told that God comes through the garden, searching for the first humans, seeking
his beloved creation, asking, “Where are you?”
And,
in a sense, God has never stopped seeking us out – has never stopped asking,
“Where are you?”
God,
the Seeker.
Today’s
reading from Exodus gives us another glimpse of God the Seeker – the famous
scene of God calling to Moses out of the burning bush.
Notice
a couple of things about this story.
First,
Moses isn’t seeking God. Instead, that day, that ordinary day, on Mt. Horeb, Moses
is minding his own business – or actually his father-in-law’s business - keeping
his flock. We are told that Horeb – better known to us as Sinai – is the
“mountain of God,” but Moses doesn’t seem aware of, or interested in, that
fact. Moses isn’t on a pilgrimage seeking God. He’s just in the middle of
everyday life, doing his job, keeping the flock.
Suddenly,
though, God the Seeker appears in the burning bush and tells Moses to remove
his sandals because he is standing on holy ground.
God
seeks us in our everyday lives.
God
helps us see that the ordinary is holy.
And
since God the Seeker wants to be known by us, God reveals God’s mysterious name
to Moses: “I AM Who I AM.”
Which
might be better translated as “I Will Be What I Will Be” – the future tense
tipping us off that God will continue to act, will continue to seek us out,
will be known to us through these acts and this seeking.
God
the seeker seeks us in our everyday lives.
God
helps us to see that the ordinary is holy.
We
Christians believe that God’s greatest act of seeking us out is living among us
in and through Jesus of Nazareth.
In
and through Jesus, God reveals much more than God’s name. In and through Jesus,
we learn what God is really like. In and through Jesus, we experience the
depths of God’s love – we come to know that God is willing to go to
unimaginable lengths to seek us out, to be known by us, to save us.
In
today’s gospel lesson, we heard a passage that is unique to the Gospel of Luke.
And
it’s a passage with a very clear Lenten theme: everybody needs repentance.
In
the First Century it was understood that painful experiences were signs of
God’s judgment. And, many people today wouldn’t disagree with that idea. We’ve probably
all asked, “Why is God punishing me?” when bad things happen.
In
today’s passage we hear about two painful experiences.
The
first is a result of human evil: people tell Jesus that the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate has killed Galileans and mingled their blood in their religious
sacrifices – something that would be especially horrifying for Jews.
The
second is what we might call natural evil: eighteen people were killed when the
tower of Siloam fell. Jesus pointedly asks if the eighteen victims were worse
offenders than everybody else living in Jerusalem.
So
the question is: Did these bad things happen to these people because they were
they worse sinners?
But,
reflecting on these examples of human and natural evil, Jesus completely
reframes the discussion. Asking if certain people are punished because they are
worse sinners than others misses the point.
The
point is we all need repentance. And in the parable of the fig tree,
Jesus reassures us of God’s patience, God’s willingness to give second chances,
God’s openness to giving us more time to repent. Though in the parable of the
fig tree, Jesus also reminds us that we don’t have all the time in the world – we
need to repent before it’s too late.
We
all need repentance.
We
all need to confess our sins to God and one another. With God’s help, we all
need to change our ways, to change our minds, to change our hearts.
Repentance
is important because repentance allows God the Seeker to find us.
Repentance
can only happen if we pay attention – if we pay attention to what’s is going on
inside our hearts – if we pay attention to what we’ve done and not done – if we
pay attention to what’s going on all around us.
And
when we repent, when we pay attention, we allow God the Seeker to find us.
And,
sure enough, God seeks us and finds us in our everyday lives just like God
sought and found Moses long ago.
God
helps us – like God helped Moses - to see that the ordinary is holy – that we
stand on holy ground.
If
we pay attention we realize how amazing it is that today, this ordinary day,
we’re alive! It’s amazing that we are all here together on this beautiful and
fragile rock sailing through the vastness of space – it’s amazing that we can
love and be loved – it’s amazing that we can create – and it’s amazing that God
the Seeker, who began and sustains all that is and all that will be, loves each
one of us and wants to be known and loved by each one of us.
Repentance
begins when we pay attention. And when we pay attention we allow God the Seeker
to find us.
Now,
the Bible doesn’t tell us what was going through Moses’ mind that ordinary day when
he was keeping his father-in-law’s flock on Mount Horeb.
But,
who knows, maybe that day, that ordinary day, Moses was paying especially close
attention. Maybe that day, that ordinary day, Moses was amazed to be alive,
amazed by all that had already happened in his life, amazed by the flock, amazed
by the beauty of the mountain, amazed by a bush that burned but was not
consumed.
Maybe
that day, that ordinary day, Moses made just enough room in his life and in his
heart that God the Seeker was able to find him, to speak to him, and to
transform his life.
God
the seeker seeks us in our everyday lives.
God
helps us to see that the ordinary is holy.
O
God, you are our God; eagerly we seek you;
O
God, you are our God; eagerly you seek us.
Amen.
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