Sermons
11th March 2007 - Lent 3
The idea that the OT is the bad news book of an angry God and that the NT is its happy reversal with the good news of the kingdom is rather undone I today’s readings. In the OT reading God holds out a gracious invitation to join the feast, to drink wine and milk to eat rich food to seal with God a covenant that will be everlasting Everyone who is thirsty is invited to come to the waters. Whereas in our NT testament readings we are given a series of warnings of the necessary and swift destruction of those who fail to obey the Lord’s call to sanctity, we are shown examples of wickedness being repaid by the sending of serpents and the toppling of towers. It doesn’t sound very much like good news, or at least good news for the very few who might fall within the circle of holiness and moral probity that Paul, in particular seeks to describe. So where’s the good news?
As so often the good news comes from comparing Jesus to Paul, and sticking with the former.
The first thing to remember is that St Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth. Corinth was the venue for the biennial Isthmian games which drew spectators and competitors from all corners of the Graeco-Roman world. These games were celebrated occasions for debauchery and drunkenness and therefore extremely popular. It is the danger of the new Christians in Corinth being influenced by these notorious goings-on that particularly concerns Paul, he fears they may consider themselves immune to infection now that they have professed the faith. So, despite the church in Corinth being almost entirely Gentile in make up Paul instructs them from the history of the Hebrew people, because he sees that people and their religion as examples of both a holy calling and a falling away from that calling. He talks of the Hebrews being propelled through the wilderness by the spiritual rock which is Christ. Christ is not a recent arrival on the scene but the driving force behind Hebrew religion from the first moment of his
agency in creation itself. But Israel, though chosen by God could yet disobey and this is what Paul wants particularly to impress upon the Corinthians. He detects in them a dangerous attitude of spiritual security, do they imagine, he says. That they can attend the debauches of the games and not put their spiritual identity at risk? His warning point in the other direction and enormity of sin, for Paul, leads directly to disaster and death, 23,000in one day. A very busy day of revenge for God that.
But what does Jesus make of all this. Essentially he seeks to break the causal link that appeals to Paul, but he doesn’t remove the idea of judgement being close at hand. Jesus argues that sudden and violent death does not come upon people as a judgement from God, and we might say of course it doesn’t. But Jesus retains the idea that judgement is close by, our own deaths are largely unpredictable, in the case of sudden death there is no time to turn away from sin, to turn towards God. And of course what is revealed through the gospels is that the judgement of God is a loving one, it is a judgement that comes with a particularly tender arm towards sinners. The arms of God seek to enfold us in love, they do not seek to topple towers on top of us or send serpents to catch us out.
We can take crucial lessons though from both Paul and Jesus. From Paul, that there is always a danger that we might think of ourselves as secure as immune from the temptations that surround us. And from Jesus, that far from seeking our downfall, God looks to us in love and says flourish, these are things which will make you prosper, and that was what God was saying in our first reading
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.