March 16, 2025 – The Second Sunday in Lent
Dr. Greg Phelps
Where Do we Belong with God.
Okay first of all, no singing this time. We are however going to do a brief lesson in geography, find out the difference between interest and commitment and why there is an H in Sarah’s name.
Lent is a wilderness time. The time that recalls wandering, both Jesus 40 days in the wilderness, the Israelites wandering 40 years before coming home to Canaan.
Forty is used 158 times in the Bible. It is not an exact number but it is meant to say a long period of testing and trial. It’s time of reflection, denial and repentance that are wandering symbolizes.
Let’s begin geography with a story: The Grand Rabbi of Jerusalem is visiting the Archbishop of Canterbury in his office when he notices an elegant phone on the Archbishop’s desk. He points a questioning eyebrow to it.
The Archbishop proudly replies that that the phone is his direct line to God. The Grand Rabbi wants to try it out and says he needs to make a personal phone call to God and would the Archbishop mind. The Archbishop nods his assent and leaves the office for the call. Eventually the Grand Rabbi comes back out and insists on paying for the call. Reluctantly the Archbishop looks up the charge and its $52.00
A few months later the Archbishop is visiting the Grand Rabbi in Jerusalem. In Grand Rabbi’s office, to his astonishment, he notes the exact same phone on the rabbi’s desk. He too, asks if he can make a quick call to the Lord. When done, he too insists on paying for the call. To his surprise the rabbi tells him the charge is 25 cents. When the Archbishop expresses his surprise, the rabbi says “Meh, it’s a local call.”
So, under geography doubtless many of you have seen the meme with a tiny circle around the Middle East that points out, improbably, that three of the world’s major religions come from this tiny area.
First Abram out of Ur of Mesopotamia, which literally means land between waters. In our Old Testament lesson today, Genesis 15, we see God making a the first of two covenants with Abram. This Covenant is for the land of Canaan with Abram after Abram asks “how am I to know that I shall possess it?
God brings down a smoking fire pot and flaming torch between pieces of sacrifice that Abram has laid out.
Later in Genesis 17 God will make another covenant to make the Hebrews his specific people. This involves a much more personal sacrifice of circumcision for all the males.
(Those verses in the lectionary conveniently skip the actual process which I as a doctor who’s done them, could elaborate on in gruesome detail. Luckily the lectionary skips them.)
This– as most men would agree a much deeper commitment that somehow reminds me of the comment about the contributions to breakfast, and how while the chicken is involved– the pig is committed.
Also in this second covenant, God adds an H to Abram and Sarai’s names. My niece Sarah has always been insistent about making sure that the H is not missed. It is a quirk of hers. She saw it as disrespect for her name when the H was left off. Imagine her delight when I shared my research that showed part of the reason for the H was to add a symbol of divinity to the names. Hence the name of God in Hebrew is YHWH. The H added to Abraham is also sometimes thought to add “of multitudes” making Abraham father of multitudes and for Sarah: Princess of multitudes.
So, now we’ve traveled from Ur to Canaan to where to Luke’s Gospel gets us to Jerusalem itself where the Pharisees are warning Jesus to get out of town. He replies that he is doing the Lord’s work which he will finish on the third day. A foreshadowing of the crucifixion to come.
Remember in last week’s gospel he had just spent 40 days in the wilderness followed by temptation from Satan. Now in Jerusalem he notes “it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones who are sent to it. How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you are not willing see your house is left to you.”
Now I have to admit that I’m a city boy from the suburbs of Detroit, that I have no idea if chickens really do this. My wife Gayle’s family however, in rural Denmark, South Carolina and used to keep chickens. She assures me that she has seen chickens spread their wings to provide both protection and warmth for chicks. (We may all be getting more exposure to chickens however, as last week the new Secretary of Agriculture- Brooke Rollins suggested that we might bring the cost of eggs down by keeping our own chickens.)
Still, I love the protected and nurturing image and can see why Jesus would be frustrated to be refused while trying to protect his own flock (or chicks)
Because of his intimate connection with the city of Jerusalem many Christians including some from Good Samaritan have gone on pilgrimage to Israel and Jerusalem to see those places where our Savior walked. There is something moving and connecting about walking where figures of history and religion trod. However, we cannot all live in Jerusalem. It was tried during the Crusades and went badly. So where is God? And where do we go to find God.
“Night” is a book by Elie Wiesel about his experience in the German concentration camps. “One day,” writes Wiesel, “as we returned from work, we saw three gallows… The SS [guards] seemed more preoccupied, more worried, than usual. To hang a child in front of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was pale, almost calm, but he was biting his lips as he stood in the shadow of the gallows…
‘Where is merciful God, where is He?’ someone behind me was asking. At the signal, the three chairs were tipped over… Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive… The child, too light, was still breathing Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer; ‘Where is He? This is here – hanging here from this gallows…’”
When I did chaplain training in UT Medical Center, surrounded by suffering, illness and death my prayer with patients always began: “Oh lord we know you are everywhere including in here in this room with us.”
So where do we belong with God?” I’ll wind up with a quote from our epistle lesson today: Philippians where Paul notes “our citizenship is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting the Savior. So, as we wander in our forty days of Lent, help us remember where our home REALLY is. As Augustine of Hippo noted centuries ago: O Lord our hearts are restless until we rest in thee.
Amen