Sermon on the 3th Sunday in Lent Saturday evening March 19, 2022 Wijk bij Duurstede.

Dear sisters and brothers, news is not only of our time, but of all times. There were no newspapers in Jesus’ time to spread the news, but poignant events spread like wildfire across town and country, and everyone gave their opinion. For example, in the Gospel we hear of a tower that collapsed and people were buried under the rubble. The first reaction is of course always:  What a pity for those affected and their families. Second natural reaction: this could have happened to me too. Third response: what is the actual cause? A construction error? Deferred maintenance? Fourth response: who is to blame and what is a just punishment in this case? But many people feel a need to go further and somehow point to a higher cause. Fate: why does such an accident affect one person and not another? Some are of the opinion that as a human being you have several lives, and that you can make up for the mistakes from your previous life with a new life. We Christians too wonder about a fate that befalls people, Could God have a purpose and which? There is nothing wrong with wondering how to deal on a deeper level with the suffering that afflicts people and good people in general. But we must be very careful not to confuse these questions of the meaning of our lives with the news of the day in the world and in our personal lives. As if God himself is subject to laws of cause and effect.
Jesus answers the people in Jerusalem: “Do you think that only the afflicted were guilty of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem? Absolutely not, but if you do not repent you will all perish in the same way.” In other words, if you think that the fact that this tower did not fall on you is a sign that you are a good and virtuous person, then you do not realize that the fact that you are alive is a sign of God’s patience and mercy. Don’t indulge in speculation about the people around you and what’s happening to them. Come to your senses. Thank God for each day that you are free to start over through God’s forgiveness and acquittal. Think of the parabel of fig tree Jezus told. It at first seemed barren, but through the patience of the gardener and the care of the gardener, finally began to bear fruit.

It’s all about the question: Who is God. Or how does he appear. How does he make himself known in history? How may we who are people of faith, or at least desire to be, know God? The story of Moses at the burning bush helps us on our way. Moses keeps his father-in-law’s flock of sheep in the desert. We should not think of an endless sandy plain, but of a lonely steppe area where the sheep can graze. So Moses turns out to be a good shepherd. Thus he is called, not as a noble prince in the court of the Pharaoh, which he also was, but already a real shepherd who takes care of the flock. His curiosity is aroused by a fire in a bramble without consuming the bush. That is the image of God who dwells in the very heart of his people like a holy fire. Moses has to take off his shoes because of the holy ground on which he stands. That is not to say that this piece of desert is sacred in itself, but that what Moses is being told here is not a play he is watching, but that he is deeply involved. In other words, when God makes himself known, he does not make himself known to people who watch as spectators from a distance. We must humbly enter into a relationship to him when God reveals Himself. He then reveals himself as: I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So there is already a relationship In other words God is not available separately, nor can we speak of God without a deep longing for God. Moses did not yet know God personally but with full respect as the God of his parents and grandparents who again knew God through their parents until the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Each generation again knew God as the living God. That is why Jesus says somewhere: God is not a God of the dead but of the living, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now the same God reveals Himself to Moses and his generation. And how? Like the God who has looked closely upon all the afflictions that his people have experienced in slavery. God is not, as he is often described in philosophy, a static entity, a mover that is itself unmoved and unaffected. He is the one who looks down upon the calamity inflicted upon his people. Our thoughts at this moment are going to the people of Ukraine. We may see him in the same way: from our faith, which is also the faith of our ancestors, that God will not forsake his people.
“But then if I come to the people and say that You will deliver them from bondage, who shall I say who sent me? asks Moses, “I am He who is,” you must say: I am who is has sent me. Actually: I shall be who I will be 3). Whoever I was to your fathers from Abraham, I will be to you in the future. In other words, I am going to start something new with the liberation of my people from slavery. I am always the same and forever new.

We will be celebrating Easter soon. The feast that God makes all things new. That is how it is revealed through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who, as the new Moses of God’s people, liberates mankind from the chains of guilt and death. He raises us to new life through His resurrection. That is the living tradition of our Christian faith. That is our message to the world. Like a bush that burns and yet does not digest. Or as Jesus says: Now this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. That is the holy ground on which we stand. That is life ever new. Amen

Martin Los
1) Gospel of the 4th Sunday in Lent, mass 20 march 2021
2) Epistel: Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15
3) translation form the Hebrew: Samson Rafael Hirsch (1808-1888) commentry on shemoth
picture: Marc Chagall Moses and the burning bush