Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent

March 11, 2007

Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
Year C

I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)

Make us so aware of your mercies,
O magnificent God,
that rejecting demons is a joy.
Carry us
on your wings greater than any dragon's
into and out of the arena,
and raise us up at the last day.
(from Words from the Font, by Gail Ramshaw; Chicago, Liturgy Training Publications, © 1994, pp 36-41)

On my desk are two sets of images on wood. I've had them for over twenty years, and at every parish I've served, they have made their way to my desk. One is a triptych, a three-piece set joined by hinges, and another with a single image. On both the triptych and the single piece are figures of the archangel Michael engaged in battle. Michael is youthful and good-looking, in one picture on a horse with a spear slaying a dragon, and on the other is winged and wielding a flaming sword overheard ready to beat down a grotesque dark-looking satanic figure. For over twenty years these little wooden pictures of biblical stories of good conquering evil have served as my talismans.

When in the year 203 the African woman Perpetua was imprisoned for espousing the cause of Christ, she recorded her visions of what the Christian faith was like. With martyrdom Z`by the beasts in the arena awaiting her, she saw life as a ladder to God and wrote, "At the foot of the ladder lay a dragon of enormous size. Using it as my first step, I trod on its head and went up."

Dragons and serpents are rich in biblical and mythic lore as formidable forces for evil. The tempter in Genesis chapter three is described as "more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made."

And these creatures still fill imaginations, in stories like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Harry Potter series, and the trilogy by young Christopher Paolini about Eragon.

These stories enable us to create some way to describe the immensity of evil's grip and power in the world, in history, and deep within our own psyches.

A child who cannot sleep because fears about terrible calamities keep her awake is facing dragons.
A teenager who cuts herself to feel something else rather than the troubles in her relationships with her parents or her boyfriend or her teachers is facing dragons.

An adult who cannot function without two or three or four drinks during the day is facing dragons.

A world that has the following problems is mired in dragons (these examples are from the One Campaign):
What would you add to the list?

During this Lent, begun on Ash Wednesday, the commitment to the Lenten discipline that includes self-examination and repentance is magnified today.

Lest we are inclined to spend our energies blaming on the cause of sexual promiscuity, global warming, the war in Iraq, or 9/11 on everything and anything without examining ourselves, the cautionary words of Jesus slam into us as they did for the questioners in today's gospel: Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.

Lest we think that we who follow Christ are better than others, or that we are basically good people, or that there isn't anything we can do so we might as well not worry about it, the cautionary words of Paul slam into us as they did for the complacent Corinthians in today's second reading If you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

Lord, have mercy. Each week in Lent we sing the ancient Kyrie, which pleads "Lord, have mercy." Each week throughout the year as the bread is broken, we sing "Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us."

Jesus Christ has broken into our broken human condition so ready to offer mercy. Jesus extends compassion, forgiveness, healing, and welcome beyond the barriers and prejudices we have built and harbored that put people out of our circles.

Jesus sits at table with the tax collector who ripped people off, Zacchaeus, and announces that today salvation came to his house.

Jesus receives the lavish footwashing by a woman who is a notorious sinner, and pronounces her sins forgiven.

Jesus brings healing to a woman on the Sabbath who was bent over for eighteen years, despite criticism for working on the Sabbath day.

In Jesus, mercy trumps everything else that is proposed to him. In Jesus, offering the very heart of God's love for sinners like you and sinners like me while he suffers for it, and dies for it, shows the path of mercy that is in time and by grace taken up by his followers.

At the end of today's gospel, Jesus tells a story about a non-producing fig tree. Rather than cutting it down since it is wasting the owner's land for three years, the gardener convinces the owner that it deserves a second chance.

I need a second chance, and a third, and a fourth. I am so grateful for Christ's mercy, and continually ask for it and pray that I might live with a new and open heart.

I need to be reminded regularly of God's promises. I relish the invitation to eat and drink forgiveness, the feast that is prepared for me with joys beyond my knowing. I cup my hands to my ears to hear that in our lives of mercy and new life others will run to us, and be drawn to the holy ever in our midst.

I cannot survive the assault of what troubles me alone. The gift of others who surround me with prayer, love, and lives of repentance are my strength. Christ, through our circle of mercy, slays every dragon and demon.

On this Third Sunday in Lent, I invite you to name some of your dragons and demons in prayer, those that confront your love ones and the world.

I invite you look deep inside to the depths of your hunger and thirst and to be drawn to the heart of God's mercy in Christ, and the circle of God's mercy in communion with one another. Make it a habit so that others will remark about this community that it is so strong that it can withstand any dragons. Make it a habit so that others will remark about this community they really know how to live as a community of forgiveness and new life. Make it a habit so that others will come to the waters of new life, and eat and drink the meal of mercy.

Make us so aware of your mercies,
O magnificent God,
that rejecting demons is a joy.
Carry us
on your wings greater than any dragon's
into and out of the arena,
and raise us up at the last day.

I.N.I.

The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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