My friends, let’s jump right in today tackling that 1^st reading from Genesis that on face value, is simply horrible—at least the beginning! As I always suggest, we must go deeper.  And we need to go deeper because in the 2^nd reading from Romans, we hear Paul say, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Additionally, in the gospel reading from Mark, we hear our impetuous brother Peter exclaim, “How wonderful it is for us to be here!”  So, how are we to fit this all together?

   Now, the hierarchy within our Church that put these three readings together probably didn’t have as much trouble uniting the three as the common folk with children do because their theology comes from the head alone, instead of from the heart as well.  For them, connecting this reading of sacrificing Isaac to show faith in a seemingly, unfeeling god is not a problem, but is united in their belief that our God sent Jesus as a sacrificial offering for the sins of humankind.  I even picked up a bit of a reflection on TV for this Sunday from a male priest, inviting folks to listen to his message today, and he was saying the same about Jesus coming to save us from our sins. 

   Present day theologians, men and women of the likes of Ilia Delio, Richard Rohr, Sandra Schneiders, and John Shelby Spong, all deny that this cruel sending and mission was given to our brother, Jesus, by our loving God, the same God that Jesus often referred to as Abba—Loving Parent, Daddy, Mommy, as you may want to look at it. 

   Also important in understanding this 1^st reading is remembering that the Jewish people up until this time were used to the ritual offering/killing of their own. But even with that understanding, I personally find it hard to understand a “Loving Parent” choosing to sacrifice their own children. The grief shown us almost nightly on the news from Ukrainian parents, from the innocent Palestinian and Israeli parents confronted with the deaths of their children is proof of this.

   Now, if it is the consequences of how someone lived and acted in the world, then I can understand it more.  This past week, we had a present-day example of this in the murder of Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison camp for speaking against the totalitarian regime of Vladimir Putin.  Our brother Jesus continues to die in our world, over and over again in those who challenge, as he did, injustice anywhere in our world, paying the price for that action.  We need to see anew the Eucharistic “presence” here, in the present, in the suffering, poor and rejected, instead of spending our energies worshipping Jesus’ presence on Catholic altars, alone, apart from the world where Jesus told us we would find him.

   So, once we get past that horrible first part of the Genesis reading, understanding it a bit more in the cultural, ritual context, we can move on to the good piece of this reading that does indeed unite it to the other two readings for this Sunday.  “I will make your descendants as many as the stars in heaven and as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.”  This line speaks volumes about a God who loves us in an over-the-top way! And I think it was ultimately written to tell us that our God doesn’t want such ritual killings, but instead, our living to be our best, for others and for ourselves. 

It says that this loving God wants us to have a human experience that is alive and well and full with family, not one who needs the life of our children in payment for our imperfections, or as a sign of our faith. 

   If the true nature of our God was in this negative vein, then how could Paul in his letter to the Romans speak this lovely line— “if God is for us, who can be against us?” He could speak this line because Jesus had already come, lived, loved, and showed us how to do the same. 

   Jesus’ life was such that as is recorded in today’s gospel from Mark, Abba God spoke through the clouds of transfiguration that [Jesus] “is my Beloved, my Own, [and that the apostles, ourselves included should] listen to [him]” –be like him! 

   Mark’s gospel today also included the lovely line from Peter, “how wonderful it is for us to be here[!]” Now, we could discount this comment as “impetuous” on the part of Peter, or we could consider it as a challenge to ourselves, living in a world that so needs people who will look for the good, proclaim it as such in other people, animals, plants—all of creation really, and do all that we can to make life and existence all that it can be.

   So friends, I started out today lamenting the 1^st reading and its mis-guided connection to the mission of Jesus in the Incarnation.  I believe this is a prime example of how, when we read Scripture very literally, we miss the depth of the message. 

   For us to see Jesus’ coming as no more than “saving us from our sins,” as reparation to a mean-spirited god who made us “imperfect,” which means that, we will probably “sin,” is as Shakespeare said in one of his plays, “Much ado about nothing.” And while this theme isn’t about “nothing,” I would say it certainly is about the wrong theme!

In truth, for the hierarchy of the Church, to make Jesus’ coming and ultimately, his death, all about “reparation for our sins” is to short-change our Loving God, who doesn’t want to control us as the hierarchy does, but wants us to be our best, living out our human experience for ourselves and others.  Such a God wants me, wants you, to proclaim with Paul, “If God is for us, who can be against,” and with Peter, “how wonderful it is for us to be here [!]” Much to do friends—let’s be about it!  Amen? Amen!   

   My friends, being that we didn’t meet on Ash Wednesday this past week, and the fact that ashes will be given out today, just a word or two about why we have this ritual.  Like so much in Scripture, here again, we need to go deeper to find perhaps a hidden message for us.

   The prophet Joel in the reading for Ash Wednesday is speaking about the custom of “rending” or tearing their clothes, covering themselves with ashes to physically say that something was amiss in their lives that they needed to change and on a deeper level, to remind themselves that life is short—the grave is near and now is the time to start being their best.

   This past week, I was thinking along these lines as I had the privilege of being with a neighbor and good friend in the last hours of her life, Sharon Martin, as the family had called me to the hospital to give support and additionally, asked me to preside at her Celebration of Life.  Sharon was the type of person that one would want to emulate in their own life because, simply put, she was a very good person, and I believe always tried to “be her best.”

      So, my friends, we can look at this yearly ritual in the same way—a reminder that perhaps we aren’t all we should be, if we truly claim that we are following our brother Jesus. Additionally, thinking on the words that go with the “giving of ashes,” “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return,” it seems that they can serve to simply remind us of our small, but not insignificant place in our world.  We have significance, but we must see that in balance with all the rest of creation.

 We are no more or no less, but in many ways, equal to all created life in its many forms as each has a contribution to make, that without, life would be less good for us.  With that in mind, we really, each of us, should do all that we can to protect our beautiful world, and all of life, in all its many forms.

   Joel, looking at life in this deeper sense, is telling the people, ourselves included, “Don’t rend [or tear] your clothes—but rend your heart—”tear it open,” so to speak, making it big enough to hold not just your own needs, but the needs of others too. 

   With this, the example of the Congress in Washington comes to mind in their current tendency to turn in on themselves, striving to simply care only for our country, in a selfish way, ignoring our responsibilities to others in this world, to share, to lift up, so that more can have what many of us have, the basics of life, that those without, can only dream of!

   Shifting back now to today’s 1^st and 2^nd readings we see that they are basically about being saved—the Genesis reading is about Noah and the Flood, an event that kills every living thing—people, animals, and plants, except for those that made it into the ark.  Peter follows with a reading comparing the flood waters to those of baptism and of how “water” has the possibility of cleansing—saving us, as it were. 

   Now whether you hold faith in the fact, that on the surface of the story from Genesis, God caused the flood to basically wipe out all that was evil, except for Noah and his family and the other creatures aboard the ark; there is a larger story that we should hold onto as we move once again into the holy season of Lent.

     Suffice it to say that stories of floods and other natural disasters in the times when the Old Testament books were written, were ways to describe events that possibly happened, but that the people didn’t understand.  And what they didn’t understand and couldn’t explain were put into the realm of God for cause and effect.

   So the larger story that we should hold onto from Noah and the Flood is that at the end of the devastation, we are told that God gives the sign of the “rainbow” and of how when a rainbow appears, from that day forward, it should remind the people of the covenant made between God and humans for all time. 

   The rainbow basically says—in its beauty, that our God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us.  An additional piece, in the beauty of the rainbow, would be for us beautiful creatures, given birth and a chance at a human experience, through the magnitude of our loving God, to treat our world, all created life—plants, animals, to say nothing of people, with great reverence and care, that I alluded to earlier.   

   That is why, on a social plane, it is important, and necessary, for our country to be part of the international projects like the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization (WHO)—one that works with all countries involved to see that equity exists between all peoples—both on matters of health—and working with other countries for the good of our planet—it just can’t be about us, anymore!

   It is important my friends to always, as Christians, as followers of our brother Jesus, to walk in his path, to accept and believe in the God that he shows us through his life among us.  His “Abba,” a very relational word, akin to “loving parent” is one who loves each of us unconditionally, Jesus tells us, so to accept then, and believe in a god who would destroy all of creation out of anger and lack of patience with those this same god made “imperfect” in the first place, doesn’t seem to jive with the God of Jesus.

  Jesus, in Mark’s gospel says basically the same, “This is the time of fulfillment—change your hearts and your minds.”  And being Jesus’ followers—will always mean, going deeper.  Looking back a final time at the story of the flood, we can only imagine the damage that such a catastrophic event caused—the chaos really.   Our present-day world has experienced floods that we have named “catastrophic” and the news media has shown us the devastation.

   My friends, Lent is a wonderful time that calls us each year to come to remember, if we have forgotten, our place in all of creation.  We need to remember that the earth, in all its beauty, is not only for our use, but for all our human sisters and brothers, our animal sisters and brothers too, as Francis of Assisi would name them.  If we don’t remember “our place,” it is possible that the “chaos” spoken of in the Genesis reading today could visit us in our time, as in the fires across Canada this past year and climate change that has brought fiercer storms of all kinds.   

   Lent is also a time to look at the inequality we allow to exist in our great country due to racism, sexism, and the like.  My friends, perhaps this Lent, we might choose to, spend, “a bit more time in the desert” with Jesus, whether we do that through more prayer, more reading, more “giving up” or more “giving to”—whatever it might be as we bring into clearer focus who we are as individuals, what our true place in this grand universe is, and where we may have been remiss in sharing our gifts with others.

A blessed Lent to all as we discover what is our piece to do for the good of all.  Amen?  Amen!