GOD IN A TENT

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MARCH 4, 2007

Luke 13.35:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you."

Today's gospel gives us a hint of troubles to come. It bids us look forward to Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. To the culmination of our Lenten journey - Holy Week, that great week for christians. And in his reference to the 3rd day we are reminded of that great third day - the day of resurrection.

Having contemplated last Sunday Jesus' 40 days in the desert, today's gospel bids us make a leap in time, as Jesus looks to Jerusalem. To the journey he must accomplish. To his pilgrimage.

Jesus' ministry began with 40 days in the wilderness. It concludes with a weekend in Jeruslaem - the weekend of Passover.

So today we see the purpose of Lent: to accompany Jesus on his journey to Jeruslaem; to unite ourselves with the suffering Christ - our Saviour and Redeemer.

Our Lenten journey is entwined with Jesus' journey, and is prefigured by Abraham in the 1st reading (Genesis 15.1-18). Here God promises Abraham blessings. His initial call from God was to leave his home and his people, and set out on a journey of faith. So he is called the father of faith - the Patriarch of the great religions.

Abraham is the prototype for us all. Not just in our Lenten journey, but in our life's journey. To live by faith.

Abraham was promised that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed. That his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky.

This has certainly proven to be true. Through the Jewish people - the chosen of God - the world has received its Savior, and been blessed. And Jews are all over the world, in every culture an country.

But the promise at the end of that 1st reading seems to have been fulfilled more in the breech than in the observance. It is a brave person who will suggest that the Jewish homeland should stretch from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates!

The Promised Land has very rarely been a land of promise - more a flashpoint and a tinder-box. Now Israel must share that land with gentiles - as much as they would like to have it all to themselves.

Even more pertinent, several times they left that land and were slaves in Egypt and Babylon. The slavery in Egypt is also a Lenten theme. It began as a refuge from famine when they travelled to Egypt for its grain and found Jospeh, their kinsman. Later they became slaves of Pharoah. This culmintaed in the Passover and the escape through the Red Sea - a prefigurement of Jesus' Passover from death to life.

That was all concluded by the 40 years wandering in the desert of Sinai - just like Abraham's journey generations before. But there was one difference. Whereas for Abraham God was the goal, this time their God journeyed with - in a tent.

He was not their goal....he was their companion. God lived in a tent, which they themselves had to carry. The tabernacle of the Most High.

This was the tent that St Peter referred to at the Transfiguration. You remember that when Jesus appeared in all his glory, Peter said "Let us build 3 tents". 3 tabernacles. He knew the glory of God was present, just as it was in the desert of Sinai.

God dwelling in a tent seems far removed from our concepts. But it teaches us that we are not to regard this life, this world, as a permanent home - but as a place of journeying, until we reach our Promised Land.

St Paul makes this point in the epistle to the Philippians: "They glory....with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven" (3.19-20). Similarly the writer to the Hebrews says: "Here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come" (13.14).

Our society, of course, emphasises the here and now:

- the things to do

- the things that we need

- the achievements necessary for a good life

- all that is on offer

Lent challenges that.

By giving up things that are part and parcel of our daily lives, like food, drink & pleasures, we accept that there is more to life than what this world offers.

By finding time and effort for prayer and worship and meditation, we see life as a journey, a pilgrimage.

Lent is a stepping out in faith, like Abraham.

In their journey of faith the people of Israel had God living in a tent amongst his people.

Whenever we come into this church we see our tabernacle on the high altar. Veiled to remind us of the journey in the wilderness - and Jesus' journey to Jerusalem.

"Let us go up to Jerusalem" Jesus would say later on. And one of the apostles added "That we may die with him". They thought it was stupid to do so. It would mean trouble, conflict, suffering and death.

Today he holds up to them the necessity of his journey to Jerusalem. That this is his purpose, and the fulfilment of his ministry.

And that is where our Lenten journey is leading us. To die with him? Only to the extent that we should take up our cross and follow him.

And so the die is set. And our Lenten journey is one in which we unite ourselves with the suffering Christ - who is our Savior and our Redeemer.