Genesis 12.1-4; John 3.1-17
“A lantern in the wind" …
A book title … the biography of Mary Ellen Chase, an American educator, teacher, scholar, and author. … one of the most important .. New England literary figures of the early twentieth century.
Mary Ellen Chase … a lantern in the wind.
I came across her name in a recent blog by Fr. Richard Rohr - and, by the way, if you want to engage with a first-rate writer of good thought and life, check out Fr. Richard Rohr, his blogs, his books … a gift for our times.
Fr. Rohr quoted May Ellen Chase in her summary of the Prophet Jeremiah … a man of intense passion, with a vision for what could be, with endless questions and challenges to the nation: “Why not?”
Jeremiah was my first real engagement with the Bible … Jeremiah caught my attention … his honesty, passion, impatience, reluctance, anger - anger at God for putting him up to this task, and just plain frustration with a nation bent on using God, but not loving God … and through it all, Jeremiah’s incredible connection to God.
God burns in his belly … a message for the nation, for the nations of the world …
But few are interested in what Jeremiah has to say.
Jeremiah … accused of treason, a troubler of kings and priests … arrested, imprisoned … tradition says he was stoned to death in Egypt by his own people.
On this, the Second Sunday of Lent, we do well to consider Jeremiah … this man of great intent and focus …
He’s a man who believes God is right, love is the only way, truth has to be a part of the deal …
And justice … always justice …
Justice for those who are the first to suffer at the hands of the privileged and the powerful …
Those who suffer the abuses of priest and king …
The poor of the land … the widow, the orphan, the stranger at the gate.
Jeremiah gives everything for the cause of God … this Lantern in the Wind … hanging from the highest heavens of hope, shining bright with the light of God, blowing in the wind … the winds of the Spirit, for sure, the fierce winds of hell … but the lantern is not loosened, the light shines … it dances across the land of Judah, and to this very day, it dances in the hearts and minds of God’s people, everywhere.
The light dances here, in the story and spirit of Westminster Presbyterian Church … literally, with all the light pouring through our windows … spiritually, the light of heaven falling upon our souls … the Spirit nudging us, calling us, challenging us …
To become lanterns in the wind …
But let’s step a bit - to the beginnings of our story … all the way back to Abram and Sarai … when God paid them a visit.
With an invitation … a command … a calling - to leave behind the usual and the commonplace … for all of us, in such times as ours, to set aside the familiar things, things we already know, what we trust, what we love, where we feel safe … go from your country, says God, your kindred, your father’s house … to a land I will show you!
With a promise: I will make of you a great nation …
Greatness … greatness is the possibility … greatness in love and faith, hope and goodness, peace and kindness, decency and mercy, courage and vision, imagination and invention … greatness to transcend the boundaries, greatness to heal the wounded, greatness to lift up the fallen, greatness, to restore the broken … greatness in our dreams and in our labors for a better world.
Not a day should run its course until we have wrestled with the angels of God, and what this greatness means … to question ourselves, search our souls, seek the kingdom of God … ask as Nicodemus does, How can this be?
Jesus says to Nicodemus: don’t pretend you don’t know … you know that you know … you have it all in your traditions and stories … you’ve got Moses and Jeremiah; you’ve got the law and the prophets - what you lack is courage … the courage to go a little deeper, a little higher … this business of life requires some risk-taking … going further than you thought you could …
Jesus says to Nicodemus: no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit …
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity … the Psalmist writes: cleanse me from my sin … purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Ezekiel writes: I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness….
In the ancient world, water was precious … by water, Israel was saved from the fury of Pharaoh … by water, Noah’s ark rode out the storm … by water, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River … at the wedding of Cana, water is turned into wine.
Of water and the Spirit …
Jesus uses the image of wind to describe the work of the Spirit … something fresh and invigorating, a good wind blowing … wind, free and unpredictable, blowing here, blowing there … the Spirit of God is like the wind.
Wind is not ours to make or control … it is ours to receive.
By water and the Spirit … the material and the invisible … the daily routines of mindfulness and prayer … and the promise of God to be at work in all things for good.
By water and by the Spirit …
Here we are, today, the second Sunday of Lent … with communion, the LORD’s Supper, the Eucharist … the bread, broken; the cup, poured … this is my body, this is my blood!
Just bread, just some juice … we say the words, and the living word of Christ is present … Christ is here, to make all things new.
A lantern in the wind … it’s light shines bright, the light of faith, hope, and love; grace, mercy, and peace … dancing all around us, in the corners of our mind, in the quiet places of our soul … places of hurt and fear, loneliness and insecurity … the wind is there, the lantern weaves and dances … there is light … we’re encouraged … called to the things of God … to walk with Abram and Sarai to a land only God can show us … to be born anew in the goodness of Christ …
To become for the world, a lantern in the wind.
Amen and Amen!
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