Roll Tide in Hebrew

Lent 2A

John 3:1-17, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

St. Matthias

March 08, 2020

           Sometimes when you look at something – hear something – or even feel something different from anything you have ever felt before – it just doesn’t make sense.  There we were – in Jerusalem – the holiest city in the world and everywhere you looked – someone was trying to sell you something.  This is where King David from the Old Testament ruled over Israel – where Solomon built the Temple – and where Jesus was crucified on Golgotha.  We saw all this while someone tried to sell us souvenirs.  If you walk the Way of the Cross – the famous Via Delarosa – you pass right by the Alabama Store – you heard me right – they have an Alabama Crimson Tide store in the Old City of Jerusalem where you can buy a shirt that says Roll Tide in Hebrew.  Of course, I bought one.  I had expected lots of churches and synagogues and mosques and there were.  I expected monks and nuns and Hasidic Jews and they were everywhere.  I came to Jerusalem to see the Western Wall of Solomon’s Temple and I did and at least a dozen shops will sell you what they claim is a piece of that wall.  Except it isn’t.  This was the Gatlinburg of the Holy Land.  It wasn’t what I expected.

This is what Nicodemus may have been thinking in our Gospel lesson this morning.  His meeting with Jesus wasn’t what he expected.  Sometimes you have to think and look at things in a different way.  Jesus said, you must be born again.  But, you can’t do that.  It is biologically impossible.  But we can be SPIRITUALLY born again and again and again.  I hope each week when you come to worship – you leave with that feeling of spiritual rebirth.  The reason we should always begin the day with prayer is so we can begin each day brand new in the love and service of our Lord.  A good breakfast starts your day off right physically and a good Devotion starts your day off right spiritually.  I think it also reminds us that God is with us from the beginning to the end.  When we Pray – we should always spend more time listening than talking.  Prayer in the morning helps us to listen throughout the day for the voice of God.  It will likely also give us a different way of looking at our day.

           The Apostle Paul is also telling the Christians in Rome that they need to look at things in a different way.  They were apparently all hung up on doing things the right way – following a checklist of religious rules – and if you did THINGS the right way then you would be OK with God.  It’s funny how we often hear the very same message today.  Turn on any TV Evangelist and you will likely hear that you have to believe this way or that way.  In Bessemer, there is a very large billboard that I pass every Sunday morning on the interstate and it says in probably 10 foot high letters, REAL CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE!  You are supposed to go to a website which I guess will tell us what it is exactly we are supposed to believe.  I am betting that whoever put up the sign thinks they have God all figured out and if I don’t agree with them – then I would be wrong.  No wonder God is amused with us. 

          

Paul tells the Romans they are putting the cart before the horse.  God does not love you because of what you do.  The answer is in our scripture lessons this morning.  Believe!  Believe in God.  Believe that God loves you and then share that love with someone else.  Do that and you will be following God’s will.  It is as simple as that and we need to really stop trying to make it more complicated.   And each day you will find that you believe more in God and hear God more clearly and know God in your life a little better.  Then the next day you start again.  And the next day. And the next.  And each day you will find that you are reborn once again.

After a few days in Jerusalem, I began to notice some things I didn’t see, hear or feel the first couple of days.  We stood in a crowded Church – one of hundreds – and a group of Coptic Christians sang a song I had never heard before in a language I didn’t know – but you just knew that God was there.  We saw the rabbi’s and it struck me that here were the direct descendants of the rabbis and elders who marveled at a young Jewish boy, named Jesus from Nazareth, who spoke with such power and wisdom.  There was the path that Jesus took to Golgotha – the actual path.  And then one day, our guide, Edan, took a small group of us to a chapel in a place I don’t think I could have ever found on my own.  It was centuries old and was built by monks and has perfect acoustics.  We stood in the center and I sang – Dona Nobis Pacem Pacem.  It’s hymn number 712.  And for the first time since I lost most of my hearing in my right ear from the flu – I heard my voice.  Normally I can’t hear myself anymore when I sing, but now I could.  I saw rays of light shining through the windows and felt the very presence of God.  For the rest of our time there, I saw God in the marketplace.  As millions of people crowded through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, that holiest of cities – I could see God – I could hear God – I could feel God. 

I invite you to a holy Lent.  Look, hear and feel differently.  Know that God is here even when you don’t realize it.  Soon it will make sense and you will find a new way to live in the world.  You may even realize that yes you can be born again… and again….and again.  It will make sense to all your senses.  And you can stay right here.  AMEN.