Sermon- Year B-4 Lent-March 15, 2015 The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and

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1 Sermon- Year B-4 Lent-March 15, 2015 The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Today has a lot of traditions associated with it, let me tell you a few of them. It is the 4 th Sunday in Lent, and we just passed the midpoint of Lent. There was an Introit that was always sung on this day that began with the Latin word, Laetare ( o be joyful )-so it was known as Laetare Sunday. In the 1500s, young men and women who were in service living far away were encouraged to return back home to their home town and Mother Church. So it became known as Mothering Sunday. ( In England that has changed to Mother s Day and mothers are celebrated rather than mother churches.) The traditional food on this day was simnel cake made with marzipan, and so it became known as Refrehment Sunday. A tradition started the practice of "clipping the church", whereby the congregation form a ring around their church building and, holding hands, embrace it. The word "clipping" is derived from the word "clyppan", meaning "embrace" or "clasp". Clipping the church involves either the church congregation or local children holding hands in an outward-facing ring around the church. Once the circle is completed onlookers will cheer and sometimes hymns are sung. Often there is dancing. But perhaps this Sunday is best known for being Rose Sunday. Starting in the 700s the pope started giving out a golden rose on this Sunday. It is still done today. For several hundred years these golden roses were given out to Catholic monarchs or outstanding Catholic lay people. Watch the news today and see if there is any reference to it. Laetare Sunday Mothering Sunday Refreshment Sunday Clipping the church Sunday Golden Rose Sunday

2 All because it s the midpoint of Lent and everyone was expected to relax and enjoy a little today. Traditionally, it was the only day in Lent in which marriages were allowed to be performed. Enough church traditions. Let me give you a little history of how our culture focuses on the gospel reading for today. In 1980 a guy who really wanted to be on tv, Rollen Stewart, had a conversion experience (by watching a preacher on tv) and decided that he would carry the message about Jesus to the whole world using television. For the next several years he appeared at over 1000 sporting events, positioning himself behind basketball goals, in the end zones, at Nascar races, behind home plate. He wore a multicolored fright wig, which earned him the moniker, The Rainbow Man. He always held up a sign or wore a t-shirt that said John 3:16. Everyone who watched sports in the 1980s saw Rollen Stewart. He was eventually caught choking his 4 th wife at a national game because she was supposed to help him and stood in the wrong place during the game to be seen. After doing a number of really dumb crimes, (like mailing threatening letters to famous preachers, sending stink bombs to major churches), he was arrested while trying to kidnap 3 people. He has been in jail since About to be given three life sentences for kidnapping, Rollen threw a tantrum in the courtroom and blamed everything on a society that's "bigoted toward Jesus Christ." A cop who negotiated with him by phone during the hotel standoff had a better take on it: "With all due respect, Mr. Stewart, maybe you look at a little bit too much TV."His next parloe hearing is in 2017 when he will be73. But, he helped popularize John 3:16. The professional football quarterback Tim Tebow has been known to print the reference in his eye black. This he did most famously in 2012 at what became known as the 3:16 game, when Tim then of the Denver Broncos threw the ball a total 316 yards in a playoff upset against the Pittsburgh Steelers, winning the game 29 to 23.Immediately afterward, John 3:16 became the top Google search in the United States. Finally-the gospel itself. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, comes to Jesusat night. In John, the time of day always means something. This is mysterious,

3 shadowy stuff, that s what John is saying. Nicodemus is scared, he s anxious. And he comes to Jesus and says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God in other words, I know you re different, I know you re special-but and then starts the confusion, the struggle. Nicodemus suspects Jesus is different, but he doesn t know for sure who Jesus is, or what he is about. Nicodemus struggles throughout this conversation. Who are you-and what does that mean for me? Nicodemus doesn t know what to believe or what it means for him if he does. Nicodemus is scared of faith, scared of believing, scared to trust in Jesus. Maybe this isn t a problem for you-but it has been for me. God didn t send Jesus because we were perfect -always trusting, always believing, always having the right faith. Listen to verse 17: God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Jesus came to save us, to offer us hope, to bring us strength, to make life worth living. Don t worry if some days you don t get it, don t understand it, struggle to believe. The world s salvation doesn t depend on us-it relies on God. Kate Huey writes: I was recently part of a conversation with some church folks in which one person brought the conversation to hushed quiet when she said, thoughtfully, "Do you think we're afraid to say that we're spiritually hungry?" Nicodemus, like us, relatively comfortable in his world, allowed his spiritual hunger to drive him to do something odd to go in the middle of the night, when most of us wrestle with questions and doubts, and face our deepest needs, to go to this backwoods, uneducated, traveling preacher and admit that he can't understand something so profound as God's new life in the reign[kingdom] of God, something so powerful that it can only be described with images, and word play, and layers of meaning. In so many ways, we are like Nicodemus, walking in the dark looking for answers. We want to believe and not be a joke like Rollen Stewart. We want to have faith and believe that our life means something. We want to trust God, but are afraid. We hear the story of Jesus and want to believe, but have doubts and fears and uncertainties. The verses for today. John 3:14-21 don t end all that-neither do 2000 years of church traditions.

4 That s the news we hear today. There are a lot of people in the world right now, who feel as though they, like the Hebrew people, are lost in the wilderness-and so we preach faith. There are a lot of people in the world right now who feel as though they are surrounded by snakes, and are afraid to look up, afraid that they will be bitten again-and so we preach hope. There are a lot of people in the world like Nicodemusgroping around in the darkness of their lives, confused, baffled, questioning-and so we preach truth. There are a lot of people in the world right now who feel lost, alone, and fearful. And so we preach Christ. It can be a tough world, it can be a difficult life. For a lot of people right now, walking in dark wildernesses, beset by dangerous serpents, it is a tough time. We don t read them Bible verses, we show them Bible truths. God takes what is dangerous and frightening and turns them into signs of hope and symbols of salvation. If God can do this with snakes and crosses-imagine what God can do with us-flesh and spirit? Amen. Martin Luther called John 3:16, the gospel in miniature. Lectionary texts Numbers 21:4-9 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Psalm 107:1-3, O give thanks to God, for God is good; for God's steadfast love endures forever.

5 Let the redeemed of God say so, those whom God redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to God in their trouble, and God saved them from their distress; God sent out God's word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank God for God's steadfast love, for God's wonderful works to humankind. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of God's deeds with songs of joy. Ephesians 2:1-10 You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to

6 come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. John 3:14-21 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For 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. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.