Mid-Week Lenten Sermon Series
"The Dust Returns"

based on 'Choruses from the Rock'
by T. S. Eliot

I

Wednesday, March 13, 2019 – John 3:1-18

I

"The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying."
T. S. Eliot

Reflections: (continued from last week, March 6, - see below)

Sighting the eagle soaring in the summit of heaven Cain and Esau take to the hunter’s circuit seeking the promised leftovers.

Hagar and Ishmael march through the desert under configured stars.

Bathsheba mourns through the perpetual seasons.

Ruth travels from autumn to spring/Naomi from dying to new birth…

As the rag-tag rejected borne from above enter the Kingdom of God.

Such is the downward ascent of a God with us.

Recall the back stories of Cain and Esau – Cain’s offering is rejected and his brother Abel’s accepted by God – Cain kills Abel and God marks Cain so he is not killed.  Esau, Jacob’s twin is cheated out of the birthright bribed by a bowl of porridge. 

Abraham bans Hagar and Ishmael to the desert away from Sarah and Isaac. 

Bathsheba, wife of King David (he had her husband killed in battle) mourns the loss of Absalom, their son. 

Ruth and Naomi scheme to escape to Naomi’s homeland. 

These are the rag-tag rejected – travelers on the journey of salvation. Why mention them?  Because they are the object of Divine action and part of the cycles of earth and heaven, spring and autumn, birth and dying.

Nicodemus  - Teacher of the Law – one in the line of the Chosen – comes by stealth of night to Jesus.  Why is this night different from all other nights?

Nicodemus, too, has traveled under configured stars but remains in the dark.  Remaining in the dark makes life easier.  So often ignorance is bliss, not seeing is better than seeing the truth of who we are:

Outsiders: Cain, Esau, Hagar, Ishmael, Bathsheba, Ruth, even Naomi!  Outsiders often see it more clearly – their need, that they are indeed in the dark.  Their birth from below is in the darkness.  But these often do not prefer the dark as they are drawn toward the light…bourn from above as wild ones of the Spirit…the rag-tag rejected look to the one who is lifted up on crossed-beams like the Serpent in the wilderness.

Most would rather stay unexposed than join the brassy band of those, who, gazing upon the visage of the crucified one, become God’s daughters and sons.

Holy exposure to the light brings us into the world of spring and autumn, birth and dying.  Yes, we live in the midst of being pulled from autumn into winter and by spring into summer.  We live in that brief space between birth and death.  We live between the ache and the awe.

Lent is a movement toward spring.  During Lent we observe our predicament:  the pull of autumn toward winter – the pull of spring toward summer.  We are born astride a grave.

No more pretense:  “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

There is no way out – no exit.  But there is a way ‘in.’  In Christ – in Christ – in the Word that becomes flesh – in the one lifted up - all the scattered children of God are drawn into the Divine.  There is no way out – but there is a way in – in Christ.  Look to the one lifted up.  See!  Your liberation is at hand. 

Amen

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