Past & Future
Lent 3
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Sometimes a full moon looks so big, so close, that it seems as though we could reach out and touch it: so beautiful, so close. Sometimes it is actually closer, but mainly it’s the atmosphere acting like a magnifying glass. But of course, we cannot touch it. But a few people have. The first, of course, was Neil Armstrong’s “One small step” from Apollo XI.
The world watched and everyone remembers exactly where they were in that moment. Those of us in central Florida during the 1960’s had a front row seat. We could see the launches. If you went to Titusville or Cocoa Beach, you could feel the whole world shake. I remember my parents getting my brother and me out of bed to watch Armstrong walk on the moon on TV. It was exciting and is generally regarded as the greatest human technological achievement of all time.
But it wasn’t just a moment.
Landing on the moon was the culmination of a decade of intense research, experimentation, development, engineering and testing by the best minds in the world. It cost a great deal of time, effort and money. It cost the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee who died when cutting-edge technologies failed during a test of Apollo I.
From the vantage point of having visited the moon and having successfully returned to Earth, all the steps along the way, all the costs, even the deaths, get seen through the lens of triumph. The sacrifices were worth it. This is the stuff of museums, histories, documentaries and movies.
But what if they hadn’t been successful? What if Neil Armstrong nor anyone else had ever walked on the moon, or if they never made it home safely and no one else ever tried? Every mistake would be magnified and even the victories won along the way would be tainted by failure.
Our epistle today is a brief snippet from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Earlier in the letter, he explained that in Christ we are saved by grace through faith. In chapter five, he begins to explain the impact and fruit of our salvation.
You hopefully recall that Paul had been a brilliant and zealous Pharisee who was literally hunting Christians when he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. From that moment forward everything in his life changed. We tend to note his great mind, tenacious will, stamina and zeal, which were all redirected for Jesus instead for against him, then made him the greatest missionary the Church has ever known.
We can take note of the power of conversion in this extraordinary example. But that’s not actually the main point.
Imagine that he is writing having been to the moon and back again. He is not writing from the standpoint of a technological achievement, but he is writing from the standpoint of the ultimate achievement in human history – the reconciliation of the world to God through the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at the first sentence. Paul writes that “we are” justified by faith, not that we will be. “We have peace with God through Our Lord Jesus Christ,” it’s not a goal, it’s an achievement. It’s done. We “have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”
From that vantage point, Paul can see meaning and purpose in his whole life. He can look back and see how God made use of every talent and strength he has had as well as every failure and weakness. He can look ahead to every opportunity, every hardship and every suffering he may face as leading to the glorious victory that has already been won for him by Jesus.
And he knows that, although he was an extremely learned, devout and faithful Jew, he could not have gotten where he is or be certain about his future except through Jesus. Paul did not earn his place or his “peace with God.” It was won for him, and for us, by Christ. Paul notes, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” He goes further to say, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
The great German theologian Karl Barth put it this way, “By faith we are what we are not.” In other words, by faith in Christ Jesus we become reconciled to God. Being reconciled, we are saved. We can join Paul and count everything that has ever happened to us and ever will happen to us as progressive, if sometimes painful, steps along the way to our already complete victory. We could not do this of our own accord, only through Jesus.
You are saved by God through faith in Jesus – and faith, too, is a gift. This gift of life is the living water Jesus offers the Samaritan woman at the well. She is an outsider, on the fringe. She’s no angel – 5 husbands, working on number 6, likely going to the well at noon to avoid other people, and she’s talking to a stranger who is also a Jew.
She hasn’t repented. She hasn’t even confessed. But by faith she can be what she is not. Knowing Jesus, loving Jesus and following Jesus redeems every moment of her past and defines every moment of her future. The spring of living water flows from her relationship with Jesus; total redemption, total reconciliation with God. Which is pretty cool. She was just after a bucket of water, after all.
As Paul would write decades later, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And so comes the question: Where are you? Are you confident in the victory won for you? Are we taking it for granted?
Lent is not a season of us trying to be good enough. It is our solemn reflection of how we appreciate and exemplify what Jesus has done. Jesus said, “The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.”
This is your day to stake, or re-stake, your claim upon your faith in Christ, a faith that has been given to you by God out of his perfect love for you. From now on, when you look at the moon, remember we’ve been there and back again. But he did it. And remember that Jesus has won the victory for you. He did it. And feel the living water flowing.
AMEN!