Lent 2-C                         R.Lundquist                                                      3/4/07

Gen 15:1-12, 17-18        http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=40800312

Ps 27                            http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=40800356

Phil 3:17-4:1                  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=40800390

Lk 13:22-35                   http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=40800415

The Bible is a huge, sprawling, tactless book.

It’s huge, filled with stories of  birth, life, death, beauty, horror, grace, cruelty, love, adultery, hatred, deceit, joy, eternity, war, incest, redemption…

It’s sprawling, recorded over 1600 years.  It includes Jesus of Nazareth, Paul of Tarsus, Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans, and the Psalmist – all telling a story.

It’s tactless – it makes us feel uncomfortable.  It  confronts us with our shortcomings & errors, this 3000 year old book (including the oral traditions before anything was written)…

            It is in turn doting, unforgiving, reckless & aggravating

            And it is always prodding us – if it doesn’t at least occasionally provoke us, we’ve neutered it, tamed it, are no longer true to it!

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“Let your religion be less of a theory & more of a love affair.”

-          GK Chesterton

Here in Lent 2 we are seeking God’s face, delving deeper, seeking the Lover…

“LORD, you speak in my heart & say, ‘Seek my face.’  Your face, LORD, will I seek…”                   Psalm 27

In Luke we discover the passionate Jesus, who cares about those who profess to love God.  Notice he doesn’t directly answer the question, “Will only a few be saved”?  The word “salvation” comes from root “salvus” or “saos,” meaning “health.”  The opposite is disintegration, disruption.  Salvation = healing in ultimate sense, meaning “here & now, today & tomorrow,” not in great by-&-by…

The passionate Jesus, who wants ALL to be saved, is frustrated our failure to seek God’s face.  The door is only barred as a consequence of our lack of relationship w/ God, NOT out of vengeance.  Jesus lashes out at Herod (double meaning  – “fox” is  slick, as in our own usage, and in Jesus’ time is contrasted with regal lion.  The implication is that the fox has no honor.  And the phrase is much earthier in Greek…

The passionate Jesus stands his ground.  He cries out in compassion for Jerusalem, to gather all the people under his wings.  He is overcome by God’s forgiving love.  Forgiveness 70 x 7.  But no… we flee – out of fear? Willfulness? Shame? Curiosity?

In the story of Abram we learn that he is reckoned as righteous before God.  He is faithful; unafraid to bargain, argue, haggle with God.  God promises protection.  Abram asks:  “What will you give me?”  The answer:  “Offspring to match the stars.”  Righteous Abram says, “Prove it.”  So God enters into a binding covenant in that mysterious ritual of the animal sacrifices and the burning pot.  But this covenant is binding only on God – not Abram…  The moral?  God desires relationship w/ us at ANY cost.  “Seek my face…”

            All of us have had the experience of waiting at the airport or train station, looking for loved one arriving in crowd…  scanning all the people, seeking that familiar face.  On tiptoe, staring intently, seeking that face. 

            That’s God, seeking YOUR face.  “Seek me!  I love you!”  Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection is God’s invitation to us.  In God’s self-revelation to us that relationship (righteousness) is waiting.  Jesus says, “the barriers are down.  Come to me.  All is forgiven.”

            Hear the urgency, the passion & compassion in today’s scriptures!  Remember, let your religion be less of a theory & more of a love affair.  Do you love Jesus?  Feed his sheep.  It’s just that simple & that tough.

            “LORD, you speak in my heart & say ‘seek my face.’ Your face, LORD, will I seek.”  In the sure & certain hope of finding it revealed in the glory of Easter, let us seek the face of God, now & forever. 

  Amen.