Third Sunday in Lent
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Readings: Exodus 17: 1-7 and Romans 5: 1-11
“Since we are justified by faith; we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It seems an almost throw-away line – ‘Since we are justified by faith’ – almost taken for granted. But this verse, this chapter from St. Paul begins to draw to a conclusion the arguments he has put forward in the preceding chapters: the question of Law versus Faith.
If you remember, in the readings about Abraham last week, we heard from the previous chapter of Romans, where Paul said, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” But we are in a more favourable situation than Abraham, because Jesus came to reconcile humanity to God, and he conquers death. We accept this gift through Jesus – a genuinely liberating message. This idea of ‘justification by faith’ was radical teaching in Paul’s time. In the Roman mindset, winning glory for oneself or for one’s family was a primary goal of life, and seeking honour set up serious competition. Paul invites his readers to abandon this ambition, and, instead, to seek to ‘share in the glory of God’; something that comes as a gift, not an achievement. An author Anthony Towey notes that ‘the religious mind is tempted to do things for the sake of what other people think than for the motives of God-friendship. But,’ he says, what he calls ‘performance religion’ is futile. The life of the Spirit, rather than the works of the Law, is the mark of the true believer.
Well now, on most Sundays in the year when there is Matins, we sing Psalm 95, also known as the Venite. It is a good, joyful introduction to our worship, “O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.” The psalm apparently comes from the pen of King David, and has been used in worship ever since. After the opening verses of praise, the psalm acknowledges that we are God’s people, and the sheep of his hand. But then comes a warning, that the faithful should not turn their backs on God and lose faith when things go wrong. It’s as if God starts speaking in verse 7, “Harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works.”
In many places in the bible, we see that people’s faith can be shallow and faltering, even with hard proof of God’s activity. We find the Israelites in the Exodus passage today squabbling with Moses about lack of water. This is the ‘provocation’ the words of the Venite talk about. It wasn’t really Moses they were having the argument with, but God. When we test God it shows that we have ceased to trust. We deny that he is our Maker and that we are the sheep of his pasture. Perhaps this is a reminder that conversion, or repentance, isn’t always a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but a choice that has to be made day-by-day, encounter after encounter.
But sometimes it seems that God tests us, and people’s reactions are very different. Some accept suffering as a part-and-parcel of life, while others cry out with the unfairness of it all, or the age-old question: Why me? In the Old Testament we have Abraham being tested to the point of sacrificing his son; we have Job crying from the depths of suffering whilst protesting his innocence all the time. It seems that those whom God loves, he tests, and that somehow they are blessed through it.
In the passage from Romans, Paul says that because of being justified by faith, believers can boast in their sufferings. He was encouraging early Christians who were facing persecution and who found the path of faith difficult; he urged them not to lose hope. We are given those familiar lines that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and that hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
I know many of you will remember John Ziesler, who worshipped here for many years. He and Sally moved away from Malvern about three years ago, but they’re still ‘going strong’. John wrote a scholarly commentary on the Epistle to the Romans in 1989, and he comments on those lines about suffering, endurance and hope. He says, “Suffering produces endurance – this should not be taken as an unqualified statement. Suffering does not automatically produce endurance; sometimes it may instead produce bitterness, or even collapse.” But John says that it is those who have Christian faith and hope who will not collapse under suffering, but will meet it with active fortitude. He also looks closely at the word ‘character’ in the next phrase – ‘endurance produces character’, and suggests that a better translation would be that ‘endurance proves God’s sustaining power.’ Then, as for’ character produces hope’ John Ziesler expands this to say, “Finding in experience that God is an unfailing source of support, we are led to have confidence in the future.”
‘Hope’ in New Testament writings means far more than ‘I hope it will be sunny tomorrow’, when you or I have little control over that; in fact, no control! Christian hope is confidence in God for the future. So, where Paul says, “Hope does not disappoint us”, John Ziesler expands again, “Hope does not let us down; we are not living in a fools’ paradise.”
The Reverend Christopher Woods points out that people living in the Western world can learn from those living in developing countries how human character can become grateful and hopeful even with very little in the way of financial and material provision. If we have everything we want, in terms of consumer possessions, then we can often reach a ‘brick wall’ of hopelessness and lack of vision for the future. I was speaking to a couple just this week who have returned from a holiday in the Caribbean who were struck by the level of poverty amongst the residents, amidst the wealth of the tourists, but how the locals were apparently happy and content, even with the little they had. I have often been amazed how those with little, in our terms, can be free of the bitterness you might expect on account of their circumstances. What we might dwell on is how those who are struggling can lead the rest of the world by example, through trust in and awareness of God’s love.
St. Paul rejoices in the hope that those ‘in Christ’ will enjoy freedom from condemnation of their sin at the end; at the Judgment. This is a benefit of being ‘justified by faith.’ John Ziesler, once more: “In the meantime, there may well be suffering, but when rightly endured this suffering can lead to even greater confidence in God, because through it all we can be sure of God’s love for us.’ It was this love of God, and trust in God, that the complaining Israelites in the wilderness had forgotten.
Another writer puts it like this; “Paul has the clue; God’s mercy is there, all around us, long before we even think to look. The hard part is not that we have to deserve it, because we don’t. The hard part is just that we have to accept it.”