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Third Sunday of Lent Year C
March 23, 2025
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”
When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,
God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!”
He answered, “Here I am.” God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers, “ he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. But the LORD said, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.
Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians
and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”
God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you.
“This is my name forever; thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11.
R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills,
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
that our ancestors were all under the cloud
and all passed through the sea,
and all of them were baptized into Moses
in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink,
for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was the Christ.
Yet God was not pleased with most of them,
for they were struck down in the desert.
These things happened as examples for us,
so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.
Do not grumble as some of them did,
and suffered death by the destroyer.
These things happened to them as an example,
and they have been written down as a warning to us,
upon whom the end of the ages has come.
Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure
should take care not to fall.
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent,you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
"God does not play dice with the universe" is a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein. It comes at the end of a passage where he writes: "I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves." (1)
I must confess that I too have found this to be the most basic question, the ultimate issue at the end of any search for meaning that you pursue to the end. "Is the universe a friendly place?" or "Is God on our side or against us?" Today's gospel reading asks us to do some work on this and come to a personal conviction. Since it is the foundation our life stands on it has to be our conviction, not just what the religion or someone else teaches.
Probably everyone knows someone who readily admits they've got past the religion thing and are happily doing their best to live a good life and look after others when the need arises. They don't deny the idea of a god; it's just that they "don't know for sure". They are agnostic. Live a good life and look after each other describes pretty well the Humanist's philosphy of life.
Our question is: Is that all there is to it? What if God does care for us? Is it okay to turn away and say: Sorry, but I'm not convinced by any of the proofs I've heard. And besides, why doesn't this god show he cares by stopping these disasters - earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, fires, buildings falling down, - not to mention war and the indescribable suffering inflicted by mad leaders on innocent victims? Why?
Short answer: We don't know.
But Luke is using the stories to issue a warning: "If you don't repent you will all likewise perish."
Repent, that word again. Read: Change your way of thinking and of living your life. Get your priorities right. Get real about the real, and see what you could be doing, yourselves, about these tragedies you complain about. Why don't you move houses off flood plains, eliminate poverty with fair wages and working conditions, avoid accidents by driving responsibly, shut down the smokey furnaces and distribute fairly the water you take from rivers, leaving the stream healthy to the end? Why? Why don't your stop thieving from weaker peoples, and crushing with war those who won't bend to your will? Why don't you look after your children properly? Why?
That sample might represent some of the things we could change in our thinking and our deepest attitudes. "But I'm not in that field," you say. "I can't do anything about that." I think we're all part of the one social consciousness and what each one thinks and does has its effect on the attitude of the whole society. "No one is an island."
We are, it seems , on the brink of world-wide disaster. It is a time when we need hope. If only we would trust that the universe is a friendly place we might stop treating it - and each other - as resources, as opponents, as enemies. We might learn some respect, based on a new awareness of humility and its role in a 'good life'.
A Christian's trust is based on nothing less than God's solemn and binding promise, first given to Abraham, then to Moses, through leaders and prophets down the ages, climaxing in the pledge of salvation assured in Jeshua's conquest over death itself. It's worth remembering, though,, that even Jeshua lost his nerve and cried out in torment from the cross: "My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?" Then he got it together, to end his life in total surrender to the Father: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. It is finished." And he bowed his head and died.
We may falter. We may fail. But there's a world of difference between arming your nation to create an ever more efficient killing machine, and waiting in peaceful patience, for time and the lovingkindness of God to resolve issues. Trust though is not a two-way bet. We need to work on it until it is total surrender into our Parent's care, with full confidence that we will not be abandoned.
Am I still hedging my bet? Hoping in God, but not quite totally? It's not that I hope we'll escape the worst of it, but that our Father who loves all of us, with no favourites, will bring the human family to a better state, if not in avoiding disaster then by leading us through the purifying experience to make us more mature at last.
"Lead, kindly light, amid th'encircling gloom..." (John Henry Newmann.) (2)
Another old favourite comes to mind:
Nearer, my God, to Thee, / Nearer to Thee;
E'en though it be a cross / That raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be / Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee, / Nearer to Thee.
Friends may depart from me; / Night may come down;
Clouds of adversity / Darken and frown
Still through my tears I’ll see / Hope gently leading me
Nearer, my God, to thee, / Nearer to thee.
"Turn back, O Man, forsake thine evil ways!" (Godspel, the musical.) We form our convictions in the secret depth of our heart, privately, but we strengthen each other by sharing in our community - also in the civic community, the social media communities - wherever we have a presence. I am told the internet is awash with people called Influencers. You can't help but admire their initiative!
Just now I'm watching Jim and Adrianne, cafe owners (in Canberra perhaps?) who are protesting against the current tyranny and expressing support for the American people in their present distress. They are putting some kind of symbolic tariff on drinks that come from the USA. They even have the flag upside down, the international signal of a ship at sea in distress. They said their gesture has gone viral. Simple but effective in raising awareness.
As Christians, along with many others of different religions, we are firmly convinced that God is on our side. Our misson is to share our trust with everyone, that God is faithful to his promise to bring us through whatever is to come. Effectiveness depends on how firmly we hold that trust. Our conviction will be convincing, if we let it quietly be seen and felt .
How do we go about this? What impact can we make - really? For me, it's not a matter of offering comfort by minimising the threat, but rather I see a need to help people see the threat for themselves and avoid a state of blind denial. In gospel terms, to "Stay Awake", "Stand Ready" and "Be Prepared." Now is the time to set our response on deep, strong conviction that God does care for us as a parent for their child, and has revealed that commitment in the life, the death and the rising of Jesus of Nazareth, the well-loved Son.
The greatest revelation at the start of our historic period was to Moses who saw a bush in the desert, burning without the leaves being reduced to ash. The story is in the first reading and should form part of the foundation of our conviction, for from first to last our conviction is that God has taken the initiative to "save" us. To save us from ourselves really, as we tend to revert to more primitive states and treat each other with behaviours that would make an animal blush with shame. God is on our side. It is our Parent's greatest concern not to have us fail.
Notes:
(1) See https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=797
(2) Worth a read and some reflection: https://www.bing.com/search?q=lead+kindly+light+lyrics&pc=GD01&form=GDAVST&ptag=3110
(3) There's a classic verse in Psalm 20 that often sounds like a mantra in my head:
Some rely on chariots, others on horses, but we on the name of the Lord our God. Ps 20:7 NAB
Many translations have "boast of chariots" etc. The boasting is just an expression of the trust they put in the superiority of their arms. Jeremiah says it's more about how well we understand that the Lord wants everyone to exercise loving devotion (care), justice (respect) and righteousness (fairness) on the earth:
This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches. / But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises loving devotion (a), justice (b) and righteousness (c) on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24
(a) In Israel's history, God's "hesed" was seen in his unwavering commitment to his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel, despite their frequent unfaithfulness.
(b) The Hebrew word "mispat"... signifies [God's] standard of rightness and fairness...
(c) In the Hebrew Bible, "sadaqah" is frequently associated with God's character and his expectations for his people to act justly and righteously. (Strong's)