How do you welcome God’s love? Go in your heart and mind to the cross of Calvary. Thomas Merton wrote: ‘As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the rays of God’s light and fire to a point that sets fire to the spirit of man…God is everywhere, His truth and His love pervade all things as the light and the heat of the sun pervade our atmosphere. But just as the rays of the sun do not set fire to anything by themselves, so God does not touch our souls with the fire of supernatural knowledge and experience without Christ’. Love is nothing abstract. It expresses itself in action as mothers, fathers and children know well. So it is with the love of God for which enduring crucifixion for our sins is the main focus as it is of the Lord’s memorial in which we offer and receive his body and blood sundered apart on Calvary.
The four scripture passages we just heard seem to pair up one with two and three with four. In the old lectionary today’s readings were linked to Jerusalem, still expressed in the entrance verse ‘Rejoice, Jerusalem…’, taking up the idea of the Church as our Jerusalem on earth and in heaven. It seems the first reading from 2 Chronicles, which brilliantly summarises Israel’s history, was chosen to go with Psalm 137 which laments the Jewish loss of Jerusalem and is fitting for rose-tinted mid-Lent when, thanking God for mothers and mother Church, we look forward to the better days of the Easter Feast. The last two readings from Ephesians 2 and John 3 centre upon the revelation of God’s love upon the Cross which I intend to focus upon in this Mothering Sunday sermon.
‘God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy; when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus’. What a wonderful scripture – Ephesians 2 verses 4 to 6 – how it captures the heart of the good news Lent is about. Recognising our sinful nature and that it is no obstacle to God’s embrace of us if we admit it is the key.
Our Lord is the One who shares our suffering, who knows our every weakness, living like us for 33 years yet without consent to sin. His sinlessness isn’t a setting apart from us. It’s the means by which he is able both to sympathise with us and to stand above and beyond us in our sinful frailty so as to welcome us heavenwards. In the seasons of the Church we read, mark and inwardly digest truths that are ‘once for all’ and yet evermore inspire and cleanse our souls. Christ is risen, ascended, glorified so that we can be raised from the works of the flesh, ascend in prayer and anticipate the favourable judgement and glory that’s for all who live in Christ.
The Chinese writer Watchman Nee wrote a short commentary on the letter to the Ephesians entitled Sit, Walk, Stand to remind Christians that as Christ is ascended and seated at God’s right hand, so are we. We are to keep seated with Christ above sin, to keep walking in the Spirit and keep standing fast against the devil.
Those of us who have been involved in the Lent Course using The Chosen film will be familiar with questioning Nicodemus as well as doubting Thomas, characters the film uses with artistic licence to engage with Our Lord’s claim to divinity at the core of Christian faith. Today’s Gospel from St John Chapter 3 has Our Blessed Lord answering Nicodemus with an explanation of the cross – which I shall come back to – and in verse 16 the simplest, clearest statement of his mission: ‘yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life’.
As we move past the centre of Lent towards Holy Week we refresh our faith in the provision made by God in his Son Jesus sent to be the Saviour of the world. The Bible provides at least four perspectives on this provision. It celebrates Christ’s work of substitution carrying our sin upon the Cross. It centres on his sacrifice making us one with God by providing the sinless victim who alone can cleanse our sin. Thirdly scripture celebrates the triumph of Christ upon the Cross breaking the tyranny of evil powers over humanity. Lastly, something touched upon in today’s readings, the Bible celebrates the example of Christ’s self-emptying upon the Cross and the empowering provision of God’s unconditional love revealed there. ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him’.
This scripture John 3:14-15 reflects the last so-called exemplarist theory of the work of Christ upon the Cross in which the very sight of Christ upon the Cross is seen to have transformative power. Incidentally none of the four theories has been officially adopted by the mainstream of the Church. The Creed simply says – and we hold to this saying alone as without error – that Our Lord ‘was crucified for us’.
Peter Abelard, 11th century theologian, is the subject of a brilliant novel by Helen Waddell. One scene from her book has the theologian visiting a forest with his young friend Thibault. Abelard and Thibault hear a terrible cry in the woods. At first they think it is a child in agony, but they discover this terrible cry comes from a rabbit caught in a cruel trap. I quote from the book: ‘Thibault held the teeth of the trap apart, and Abelard gathered up the little creature in his hands. It lay for a moment breathing quickly, then in some blind recognition of the kindness that had met it at the last, the small head thrust and nestled against his arm, and it died. It was that last confiding thrust that broke Abelard’s heart. He looked down at the little bedraggled body, his mouth shaking.’ ‘Thibault,’ he said, ‘do you think there is a God at all? Whatever has come to me, I earned it. But what did this one do?’ Thibault nodded. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘Only – I think God is in it too.’ Abelard looked up sharply. ‘In it? Do you mean that it makes Him suffer, the way it does us?’ Again Thibault nodded. ‘Thibault, do you mean Calvary?’ Thibault shook his head. ‘That was only a piece of it – the piece that we saw – in time. Like that.’ He pointed to a fallen tree beside them, sawn through the middle. ‘That dark ring there, it goes up and down the whole length of the tree. But you only see it where it is cut across. That is what Christ’s life was; the bit of God that we saw.’ ‘Then, Thibault,’ said Abelard slowly, ‘you think that all this,’ he looked down at the little quiet body in his arms, ‘all the pain of the world, was Christ’s cross?’ ‘God’s cross,’ said Thibault. ‘And it goes on.’ Indeed it does – Gaza, Ukraine, Myanmar, Somalia and so on. When we see or experience suffering as Christians we do not do so alone though but aware of the risen Christ, God’s Son who expects nothing of us he is not prepared to go through himself. ‘The dark ring going up and down the whole length of the tree you only see when it is cut across’ is a powerful image of how God’s love is present all times and places though revealed at one time and place on Mount Calvary.
God made humans for friendship. Sin came in as a barrier to such friendship. By dying and rising for us Christ destroyed that barrier. Those who accept the risen Lord Jesus Christ – who become Christians – are raised by grace from their sins into friendship with God. In immense love God gave us life so every human being might receive the grace of the Holy Spirit if they so wish.
To be a Christian is to have welcomed ‘God’s love … poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’ (Romans 5:5).
How do you welcome God’s love? Go in your heart and mind to the cross of Calvary.
Thomas Merton wrote: ‘As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the rays of God’s light and fire to a point that sets fire to the spirit of man…God is everywhere, His truth and His love pervade all things as the light and the heat of the sun pervade our atmosphere. But just as the rays of the sun do not set fire to anything by themselves, so God does not touch our souls with the fire of supernatural knowledge and experience without Christ’. Love is nothing abstract. It expresses itself in action as mothers, fathers and children know especially well. So it is with the love of God for which enduring crucifixion for our sins is the main focus as it is of this the Lord’s memorial in which we offer and receive his body and blood sundered apart on Calvary. For ‘God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy’ may we know that mercy this morning! So to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be glory now and to the end of the ages. Amen
