Fairhaven UMC

Well, here we are at the last Sunday before Holy Week begins already. And as we approach the events of that world-changing week, our readings from Scripture gather around the point in Jesus’ life where He is turning His face toward Jerusalem and the cross that He knows is waiting there for Him. And yet, this week in our sermon series on health-related topics, the focus is on resuscitation. And the more I thought about this, the more I thought, Well, we need to rephrase that, because today’s focus is really on resurrection, which is not exactly the same thing.

Resuscitation is for someone who has passed out but is still alive to bring them back to consciousness. Resurrection is for someone who has died. to bring them back to life. And the two may look the same, but they are very different.

Death is a horrible thing, and I know I don’t need to tell you all that. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that death is horrifically final. It brings a pain and a grief that never go away, and the pain might fade a little bit over time, but only a little. And with death, we even experience anger.

I mean, how dare death Do this to our loved one. We are created to live and not to die, and we know that. Death flies, not only flies in our faces, it flies in God’s face too, because God created us in God’s image to live forever. The work that God and Jesus are doing in this week’s readings go beyond resuscitation.

It goes all the way to resurrection. And this can be difficult to get our minds around and to get our hearts around too, because dead people don’t just get up and start walking around. Amen. Yet.

This past weekend… A few of us were able to go to the Pittsburgh Symphony and hear Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, and as expected, it was gorgeous.

And if I may put a plug in for our city’s Grammy-winning orchestra, the concerts were not only wonderful, they were recorded, so keep an eye out for the recording. Anyway, there’s a word that keeps repeating in the final section of that Resurrection Symphony. It’s Alferstein. It’s a German word that means, you shall rise again, which is appropriate for a symphony that deals with resurrection.

But as I was reading our scriptures for this week, both the Old Testament and the New Testament lessons, that word Alferstein kept coming back over and over. You shall rise again. You shall rise again. Our first stain is not something we can do for ourselves, and it’s not something we can control.

God does it for us, and that’s what these readings are about, eternal life that God brings to us. So let’s take a look at these scriptures here. First off, starting in Ezekiel, we hear the story of God leading the prophet Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones. And this, by the way, is where that old song, Dry Bones, comes from.

Do y’all remember that one? Head bone connected to the neck bone, the neck bone connected to that one. You’re right. Oh, hear the word of the Lord. That’s where this comes from, is this particular reading.

What God is showing Ezekiel in this valley is a large army of men from long ago that And the army was defeated in battle years before, and they were defeated so badly that no one escaped from that valley, and nobody was left alive to give the dead a proper burial. They simply lay where they fell. And even today, our historians do not know what army this was or what country they were from. God showed them to Ezekiel sometime around the year 580 B.

C., when most of the people of Israel were captive in Babylon. And because the bones were very dry..

. And that meant they’d been dead for a long time, and there’s no meat left on the bones, no cartilage, no soft tissues, no internal organs, I mean, completely dry, and probably picked clean by animals and birds and insects. So, God says to Ezekiel, that Israel, the nation of Israel, is like these dry bones. The nation is captive in Babylon.

Their land has been taken over. There is nothing left of the temple or the priesthood or the kingdom. And the question is, is there any hope for Israel at all? Is there any way they can go home again? And at that point in time, even the prophet Isaiah, under God’s instructions, was telling Is there any hope for Israel at all? the people, settle down in Babylon, get jobs, build homes, raise families, because you’re going to be here for a long time. That was God’s message to the people in Babylon.

So people who were children, when the nation was deported from Israel, would be old men and old women when what was left of the nation finally came back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem. So God gave Ezekiel a vision that this miracle is possible. What appears to be dead and hopeless and forgotten will live again.

And God tells Ezekiel, prophesy to the bones and say, thus says the Lord God, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, ‘And I will bring you back to the land of Israel, and bring you up from your graves. ‘and you shall know that I am the Lord ‘when I open your graves. ‘I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.’ And the dry bones in the valley, as Ezekiel preached to them, they started to reconnect and have skin and stand up and move around.

It’s like, ‘Alferstehen, you shall rise again.’ When will all this happen for us? Only God knows. But Psalm 130 talks about watching for it. The psalmist writes, My soul waits, and in His word I hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. That’s the original, more than watchmen for the morning. People who watch for the morning are people whose job it is to stand guard on the walls of the city all night long, watching over its gates, making sure nobody gets in that shouldn’t be inside. And while they watch, it’s dark and it’s quiet, and the temptation is to sit down and fall asleep.

Amen. But a watchman stays awake through the wee hours out of love for the people in the city, and he watches for those first rays of sunshine to creep across the eastern sky, because when the sun finally rises, his or her job is done. A watchman stays awake, alert, scanning that horizon, looking into the darkness for any possible danger, and knowing for certain that the sun will rise. Every sunrise, every sunrise is a promise of resurrection.

Our first day. All these things point us to the truth that is found in the Gospel of John. And the story here is a familiar one. This is the resurrection of Lazarus.

But as we dig into this passage, we discover there’s a lot of unfamiliar material in here, and the story itself is not completely in chronological order. So let me kind of give some background and set things in the order in which they happen. First off, Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, live in the town of Bethany. We’ve met them before.

A while back, Jesus was teaching in their home, are in the same way. and Martha was cooking and providing food for everyone there, and Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet listening and learning. And Mary was working really hard, and she complained to Jesus and said, Lord, tell Mary to get up and help me. And Jesus said, no, Mary has chosen the better part to learn from him.

And two things we learn from this: Number one, in spite of society’s traditions, Jesus did not think that it was wrong for a woman to sit at his feet and be a student. And secondly, in spite of how that particular conversation turned out, Jesus loved Martha every bit as much as he loved Mary. One thing the Bible doesn’t tell us, actually it did in your version, in your version it did. I was surprised to hear this.

But most people did not know this, is Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem. It usually just says Bethany is nearby. About two miles. So it’s a very short walk.

In fact, the road… Bethany was just over the top of that hill on the far side.

So the closer we get to the cross, the more dangerous it is for Jesus and the disciples to be in Bethany, because this is one of the places the temple authorities are going to be watching. For this reason, Jesus and the disciples have been staying in another town, which is also named Bethany, but this town is called Bethany beyond the Jordan, and it’s about a day’s walk from the Bethany where Lazarus lives. Okay. So Jesus and the disciples have moved to this other Bethany to stay away from the temple authorities who were looking to kill Jesus.

And while they were there, Lazarus fell ill. Mary and Martha were aware that if Jesus came to them, he’d be risking his life. So they probably waited until they couldn’t wait any longer to send Jesus a message. And when they did, they didn’t ask Jesus to come.

They knew that Jesus could heal from a distance. Amen. They’d seen him do it before. And they knew that Jesus loved Lazarus.

So they simply sent a very simple message, Lord, he who you love is ill. They had complete trust in Jesus’ love and in Jesus’ willingness to act as he knew best for his friend Lazarus. When Jesus received this message, he remarked to the people around him, including the disciples, that this illness does not lead to death, rather it’s for God’s glory, so the Son of God can be glorified through it. So whatever happens, Lazarus will live, and he will live in a way that brings glory to God, which is exactly what Lazarus would have wanted.

And then Jesus and the disciples stay where they are for two more days. Yes. And John is quick to add that even though Jesus waited, he really did love Lazarus. He said, Jesus didn’t wait because he was tired or afraid.

He waited for the sake of God’s glory. Now, what we don’t know at this point, or what the disciples didn’t know, is that Lazarus had already died. The place where Jesus has been staying is a day’s walk away from the Bethany where Lazarus lives. So doing the math, the messenger that the sisters sent to Jesus took a day to get to Jesus.

Jesus waits two more days and he waits for a day. And then there’s a fourth day when Jesus and the disciples walk to where Mary and Martha are. So that’s four days. And when Jesus gets there, he is told that Lazarus has been dead for four days, which means that Lazarus must have died very shortly after the messenger left and long before Jesus heard the message.

So why the wait? Why would Jesus wait for, Partly, I’m not certain of all the reasons, but partly, I think, back in those days, the field of medicine was in its infancy. People couldn’t always tell the difference between death and, say, a really deep coma. In fact, this was actually true up until about 200 years ago. So, today, in most cases, we know the exact day and hour when a person passes, but in the past, that wasn’t true.

This is why back in the 1700s and 1800s, people, when they buried someone, sometimes rigged up a bell on a string. They’d put the bell above ground and the string around the wrist of the person who was buried underground, just in case that person woke up, they weren’t 100% sure. And so if the person inside the coffin woke up, they’d pull on the string that’s..

. what we call saved by the bell. So, that’s where that comes from. People did not know back in Jesus’ day.

They could not be 100% certain that someone was actually dead. So, they would wait a day or two after death before they buried someone. And in fact, the traditional wisdom of Jesus’ day was that the soul of the departed sort of hung around its body for four days before it moved on to heaven. That was the traditional wisdom.

So, That’s why Jesus waited to make it the four days. They have made that decision to go, and they get there four days after Lazarus has passed, so he is now buried. So the disciples are feeling very uncertain about this decision to go there for a lot of reasons. The authorities are still looking for Jesus.

Thomas sees very clearly that if Jesus returns to Jerusalem, he will probably be killed. That’s why he says in verse 16, Let’s also go so that we can die with him. Thomas was pretty sure of that. And I’ve read some Bible scholars who think that Thomas was being a little bit too dramatic, but the fact is Thomas was only off by a couple of weeks.

A few weeks after Lazarus was raised, Jesus would be dead. And this is one of the reasons why some of the people at the foot of the cross said, he saved others, why can’t he save himself? The answer to that question, of course, is that Jesus didn’t come to save himself, he came to save us, which is why he stayed on the cross. And we will tell that story on Good Friday. For today, we’re still at Bethany.

As Jesus and the disciples approach Bethany while they are still on the outskirts of the town, Bethany. Martha comes to meet them. Martha, the sister who takes care of everybody. She’s the one who has been greeting people who come to be with the family.

And as she greets Jesus, Martha says to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, Lazarus would not have died.’ But even now, I know God will give you whatever you ask. She’s not saying, Jesus, why weren’t you here? She is expressing faith as in, I know you could have done this, and I know even now there’s still hope. Martha knows that Lazarus died before Jesus got her message, and she is speaking her faith that if things had been different, Lazarus would still be alive, and that even now, if Jesus asks, God will bring him back.

And Jesus does not say, I’m so sorry for your loss, or any of the things that people say at funerals. Instead, he says, your brother will rise again. Amen. and Martha agrees, and she says, ‘I know he will rise in the resurrection at the last day.

‘ And Jesus says, ‘I am the resurrection. ‘Anyone who believes in me, though they die, will live, ‘and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. ‘Do you believe this?’ In other words, the resurrection is standing right in front of you. Auf erstehen, Martha, auf erstehen.

And Martha answers, Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world. And she joins other people who know this now, John the Baptist and Peter and Andrew and the woman at the well, they all know now who Jesus is. And after Martha says that she goes and calls her sister Mary and says, The teacher’s here, and Mary gets up to go to him, and the rest of the mourners get up and go with her, assuming that she’s going to the grave. But she’s going to Jesus, she’s going to life, not to death.

And Mary says exact same words that Martha said, Lord, if you’d been here, Lazarus would not have died. And Mary is crying too hard to say anything more. And seeing this, Jesus weeps with her. Those of us who grieve can be assured that Jesus is with us in our sorrows.

His tears mingle with our own. Meanwhile, the bystanders are always bystanders, right? And they always have opinions. Have you noticed that, these bystanders? Gospel writer John says that some of them talk about how much Jesus loved Lazarus and how much Jesus is weeping, and others criticize Jesus, saying, If he could open the eyes of the blind, why couldn’t he have kept this man from dying? And Jesus ignores them all, and he simply asks, Where did you lay him? and And when Jesus arrives at the tomb, a tomb that’s a cave very similar to the one that Jesus will be buried in, he weeps again. and then gives a command to roll away the stone.

And Martha objects. And I love the King James Version. She says, ‘Lord, he stinketh.’ And Jesus answers, ‘Didn’t I tell you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God.

‘ What’s important to know is that Jesus is deeply moved by our tears and by our sorrows. I think it’s very human sometimes to wonder if our prayers are being heard and if our tears are actually seen by heaven. Let Martha’s story assure you and assure us that Jesus hears every word and sees every tear and he is deeply moved. Jesus feels our sorrow as if it were his own.

And here with Martha and Mary, he begins to weep. We serve a God who knows our pain, who knows our tears, and who is not ashamed to weep with us. Jesus then prays to God, thanking God for always hearing him and for helping his crowd to believe it. And then he cries out with a voice of command, Lazarus, come out.

And Lazarus comes out. still wearing his burial cloths. And they unwrap him and they set him free. And Martha and Mary and all their friends who’ve been grieving are now joining in a celebration of life.

There are hugs and joy all around and happy tears. And everyone who witnessed this miracle believed in Jesus. And that’s where our reading for today ends. But the very next verse tells us the sad story that not every witness to this miracle was faithful.

The storm clouds begin to gather as we hear the words, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And this sets in motion the events that will lead to Holy Week. Jesus. Caiaphas, the high priest, will say, it is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed, by which he means that if Jesus’ popularity isn’t stopped, the people’s enthusiasm for him will turn into rebellion against Rome, and Rome will send armies, and they will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.

Amen. Now, Caiaphas is wrong about this. Of course, the Romans couldn’t care less what Jesus was or what he was doing. But in a weird way, Caiaphas was right.

Because if Jesus doesn’t die for the people, then we are all destined for destruction. So as this week comes to a close, the darkness is falling. But in the darkness we hear whispered the word, Alfersteen, Alfersteen. Amen.

Amen.

Welcome to week three of our Lenten sermon series on vital signs. This week’s spiritual health topic is on staying hydrated. We know how important it is physically to drink enough water every day. We know if we go out running or walking or take part in a sport that we need to take water with us.

We also know that a person can only last about three days without water, and that’s assuming it’s not hot out. On a spiritual level, though, what is it that keeps us spiritually hydrated, and what does it mean to be spiritually thirsty? Well, Now, I’m no fan of AI, but every now and then Google AI comes up with something that’s not too bad. I asked Google, what is spiritual thirst? I was just curious what it would come up with. Here’s the answer it gave me.

Spiritual thirst is a profound, innate longing of the human soul for purpose, meaning, and connection with the divine, often described as a deep craving that transcends material satisfaction. Symbolizing a need for God, this inner dryness or soul dehydration is frequently quenched through prayer, reading scripture, and the pursuit of righteousness. Not bad for a machine, right? Not bad. So the opposite of spiritual thirst could be described as joy or the assurance of God’s presence and care.

And Isaiah 12.3 says, …

with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. So when we think about life, we want our lives to have meaning, to go on beyond the short number of years that we have on this planet, and this also is a kind of spiritual thirst. Each of our scripture readings for today, from Exodus, Psalms, and the Gospel of John, each one talks about thirst in one form or another. In our reading from Exodus, we read about actual physical thirst— Psalm 95 revisits the events in Exodus, and the Gospel of John, we listen in on a conversation next to a well.

Now, I wanted to spend the bulk of our time today with that conversation at the well, but the other two readings have important things in them that I don’t want to miss, so we’ll start with that and then move through into the big story. So, starting in Exodus, the people of Israel…

We’re set free from slavery in Egypt not long before the events of this particular reading. They are now on their way to the Promised Land, but they have a ways to go yet. And at this point, they are not too far from Mount Sinai, which tells us they don’t have the Ten Commandments yet. Their journey so far has been long, and it has not been easy, and the people have been grumbling the whole way.

And at this point, they have set up camp at a place called Rafirim, which means place of rest, and it’s anything but restful. Okay. Immediately, the people start complaining that there’s no water. Now, this raises all kinds of questions that the Bible does not answer, questions like, is there really no water nearby? Did they actually look? Why would Moses stop in a place where there’s no water? Why do the people not dig a well? What exactly were people expecting Moses to do about the lack of water? We don’t have answers to these questions.

What’s clear is that the people expect Moses to do something. And Moses comes to God and says, They’re about to stone me. What should I do? God’s answer indicates that the people are showing a lack of faith. After all the miracles that they’ve witnessed, they’re still doubting God’s presence.

They doubt God’s care. They doubt God’s ability to provide. And God is not happy about this. Scripture says that the people were testing the Lord, and they were certainly testing Moses.

So God tells Moses to take his staff and take a few of the elders and go to the rock at Horeb, which, by the way, is another name for Sinai. So it was within a day’s journey of the Mount of Sinai. And he says, Little side note, Horeb was also the location where Moses saw the burning bush all those years before. So, Moses strikes the rock, and water comes out, and the people have all the water they need, and Moses names the place Massa and Meribah, which means testing and quarreling.

So, So what does this mean for us? There are a number of ways we could apply this information, just to name a few. When people test God and quarrel with God, it might be an indication that God’s people need to work on their ability to trust, because God is infinitely trustworthy, and God’s people don’t need to be afraid. It might be an indication that God’s people need to work on their ability not so much to love as to receive love— And we see this frequently just as an example in people who are caught in addictions. Deep down, they don’t think they’re worthy of love, which of course isn’t true, but it makes it tough to reach them.

It may be an indication that God’s people need to get to know God better because God does care for us. God can never stop loving because God is love in the same way that water is wet, right? God’s love doesn’t depend on us because God’s love is God’s nature. And so these are some of the things that the people of Israel were wrestling with as they traveled through the wilderness to the Promised Land. During this time, they needed to learn that God hears and God cares and God knows what we need and God will act and God will provide.

That’s from Exodus. From Psalm 95, just want to mention briefly, Psalm 95 says that God is the rock of our salvation, verse 1, which echoes the events at Massa and Meribah. God is the source of water. God is the source of all we need, and we are called to worship.

This psalm reminds us not to harden our hearts as the people did in the desert when life gets tough. but to keep our hearts soft towards God and our minds and our ears open. Amen. Psalm 95 also, just as an aside, is a very important psalm in the history of the church.

For the liturgical churches, Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Episcopalian, this psalm is a part of their daily prayer service. And it’s not foreign to the Methodist Church either. It’s John Wesley practiced daily prayer, and the daily prayer service that’s in the back of our hymnal on page 877 mentions Psalm 95. So this is very much a part of our tradition and the part of church tradition for the past thousand years.

And history like this, in my opinion, is too important to ignore. So I recommend this Psalm 95 to you for personal prayer time, as it has been used down through the centuries. But last and certainly not least, we come to the Gospel of John. chapter 4.

And this is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. I love this conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. I love who Jesus is when he’s talking with her, and I love who she is when she’s talking with him. And today, as we’re talking about hydration and thirst, we meet at this well two people who are thirsty—the Jesus is thirsty for water, but he’s also thirsty to be known for who he really is.

And the woman, whose name we don’t know, is thirsty for friendship and respect, and also to be known for who she really is. Before we listen into this conversation, just a little bit by way of background, Jesus and the disciples have been traveling from the northern part of Israel to Jerusalem in the south, and at this point in their journey they’re about halfway there. Jesus has told the disciples he’d like to rest, and he has given them an assignment to walk into the nearby town and get lunch. The Samaritan woman, like all Samaritans, was a descendant of generations of intermarriage between the Jewish people who were left behind when the Babylonians came and took them all captive.

They were the ones left behind. Marriage between them and Gentile Assyrians who invaded from the north. So, they were, at best, as they were considered, like half-breeds by the Jewish people, and that comes with all of the cultural, religious, and racial prejudice that you can imagine. And needless to say, the events in this story would have been a total scandal in Jesus’ day, because Jews didn’t talk to Samaritans, and Samaritans didn’t talk to Jews.

And nice men back then didn’t talk to nice women in public, no matter where they were from. So this conversation breaks all the rules. Or we could say this conversation shows us how to build bridges in places where people say bridges shouldn’t be built. Let’s listen in.

Jesus is sitting by a well, resting. And this well is located on a mountainside near Samaria. It’s a very old well. It’s almost noontime.

And while Jesus is resting, a woman comes along carrying a water jug. Now, Jesus immediately knows that something’s wrong because women don’t come to wells at noon or alone alone. Women of the village come to get water early in the morning before it gets hot, and they travel together for protection. A woman traveling alone is unprotected.

So when she sees a man sitting at the well, she’s immediately on alert. This situation could be dangerous, and every woman, even today, knows this feeling when you’re in a strange situation with an unknown man. Jesus breaks the ice by asking her, May I have a drink? And she asks him, How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink? Because Jews and Samaritans don’t share cups. They don’t share anything.

No plates, no houses, they don’t share food. They don’t…

it’s simply not done. And Jesus answers, If you knew God’s gift and who it is that’s talking to you, you would ask him for a drink of living water. Now, there’s a double meaning in Jesus’ words here: living water as in spiritual water and living water as in running water, like what you find in a creek or a river, not in a well. Running water is fresher and better tasting than well water because it’s naturally filtered.

And she answers him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket.’ Now, Jesus has said something of interest, at least if it’s maybe a little bit ridiculous in her eyes, but she’s starting to think he might not be a danger. He might be a little crazy, maybe, but he’s not a danger. And when she says, ‘Sir,’ the word is Kyrie, as in Kyrie eleison, as in Lord have mercy.

And she continues, Lord, sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and watered his flocks with it? See, she knows her history. Jacob was here once on that very spot, and his 12 sons who started the 12 tribes of Israel, they are the men who dug this well. And that’s important to her.

And the truth is important to her. Truth is important to Jesus, too, so he says to her, Go call your husband and come back. See, Jesus already knew what her truth was, but there’s no way she could have known that. And her words cut like a knife, his words cut like a knife.

She’s probably thinking to herself, why did he have to bring that up? Aren’t I good enough to talk to? What am I, chopped liver? She’s ticked off now. And she spits out her answer in Greek: Uk eko andra. Don’t have a man. And she doesn’t say kyrie this time.

And Jesus answers, ‘Well said.’ ‘Truth is, you’ve had five husbands, ‘and the man you have now isn’t your husband.’ ‘And he says this not unkindly, ‘and he doesn’t walk away.’ And she answers, Kiryeh, I can see that you’re a prophet.

Tell me, our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say the place to worship is in Jerusalem. Which by the way was true, and it was a major cause of dispute between the two nations. Jesus honors her with a complete and theologically sound response worthy of a professional religious leader. He says, The time is coming and is now here.

when people will worship God in spirit and in truth. But know that salvation is from the Jews. We worship what we know. You worship what you don’t know.

But God is a spirit. And those who worship God worship in spirit and in truth. And she gets it. And she starts to wonder about him.

And so she needs to ask. She says, I know Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will teach us all things. And Jesus answers, I am he.

I am he. By the way, those are the exact same words that God said to Moses at the burning bush when Moses asked God what God’s name is. I am he. And she believes him.

And as a result, Jesus’ first evangelist will be a woman. Amen. At just that moment, the disciples return and they are boggled to find Jesus in a conversation with a strange Samaritan woman, but they don’t ask any questions. She takes off for the village down below, leaving her water jar behind, and she says to the people of the town, ‘Come see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done.

Could this be the Messiah?’ And the whole town heads up the hill to meet Jesus. Meanwhile, the disciples are saying to Jesus, eat, eat, and Jesus says, I have food to eat that you don’t know about. It’s called doing the will of him who sent me. And like Jesus, when we are in the center of God’s will, doing what God created us to do, and being who God created us to be.

Physical food loses its importance. Athletes experience this. So do musicians and actors and others who perform for a living. Don’t really need to eat right now because this is spiritual food.

This is spiritual hydration. This is what satisfies Jesus, to see the Samaritans coming up the hill to meet him, to see them coming to believe in a God who loves them. And Jesus comments, he says, look, the fields are white under the harvest, and he’s probably looking at the white turbans on all the guys’ heads as they were coming up the hill. The social barriers have come down.

The prejudice and hatred are gone. And Jesus and the disciples will stay in Samaria for two more days, which is completely not right in the eyes of the Jewish people. The old ways are over. It is no longer us versus them, but it’s all God’s children together.

And this is what satisfies the thirst of our Lord and the thirst of the people who love him. Which leaves us with the questions. Which strangers do we see around us who we can welcome? How can we help knock down the walls of prejudice in our own day? How might we offer someone a hand up? It all begins with having that conversation with Jesus. We live in a world right now that is dying of thirst.

Thirst for truth. Thirst for God’s love. Thirst for peace and for unity. Thirst for compassion.

Jesus is waiting for us at the well. Who can we invite to come? – Amen.

Well, as you know, today is the first Sunday of Lent, and it’s also the first Sunday of our Lenten sermon series called Vital Signs. Pastor Dylan preached the first sermon in this series on Ash Wednesday, basically an introduction to the series. and to the idea that there is a parallel between the way we think of physical health and the way we think of spiritual health. And if you missed Flash Wednesday, that’s okay.

We’re kind of starting again at the beginning today. And I’m going to draw our attention to all three of the Scripture readings that we heard a moment ago, Genesis, the Psalms, and Matthew. Before we dig into the scriptures, though, I wanted to mention a book that I just finished reading called American Sirens by Kevin Hazard. And this is the story of the very first EMS service, emergency medical service, in the United States that employed people who were actually trained in medicine— And it happened right here in Pittsburgh in the Hill District.

The AMS was called Hill House. Do you all know about this? Have you guys heard? Okay, good. Some of you have heard about this. I did not know about this until like about a month ago.

I was thinking, this is cool. Back before there were ambulances, if there was a medical emergency, people would call and either the police or a funeral home for a hearse, for transportation to the hospital. And because there was no medical care given on the way to the hospital, many people died before they got there. But the men and women at Hill House were trained by a doctor who taught them to do first aid and do it on site before they were transporting people.

And that doctor’s name was, I hope I’m pronouncing this right, Safar, Dr. Safar, originally from Austria, moved to Mount Lebanon and worked at Presby. and he was the inventor of CPR. And I’m wondering how many of us have been trained on CPR? Okay, so that was a world changer also right there.

We have Dr. Safar to thank for that. He taught CPR to the people at Hill House and also things like how to start an IV drip and how to intubate somebody who’s not able to breathe on their own. And these men and women saved lives and were the model for services across the country.

So, we as God’s people are sometimes, in a sense, called to be spiritual paramedics. And I think sometimes we’re a little bit shy and uncertain about that, kind of like the first EMS workers were. We’re kind of looking at, we can’t do that. Can you do that? Really? You know? But we can do this because it’s one of the things that God created us to do.

God has equipped us, and through scriptures we have been trained in God’s truth and in God’s love. Yeah. And we are here in this world with troubles around us on a daily basis, equipped by the Holy Spirit, which, like Hill House, was a new thing once. You remember in the Bible when Pentecost happened.

Before that, somebody needing spiritual help usually had to go see a priest. But now with the Holy Spirit equipping everyday believers, we are able to bring God’s words and God’s care to people where they are. like EMS, keeping folks on their feet until they can get to a church or a pastor or a spiritual counselor or even to God in prayer. Amen.

So kind of keeping this thought in the back of our minds as we head into today’s scriptures. Our reading today from Genesis is kind of like a prequel to Matthew’s gospel. It tells the story of why people need Jesus. In Genesis, we meet the first human beings ever, and in this passage, the human race, all two members of it, come down with a fatal condition called sin.

In this case, their sin took the form of not believing God, not trusting God, and they answers. In this passage, we hear a little bit from Genesis 2 and a little bit from Genesis 3. In the chapter 2 piece, God has created the man who is called Adam and placed him in the garden of Edom, and God tells him he can eat fruit from any tree in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says, If you eat from that tree, you will die.

In Genesis chapter 3, we see Adam and Eve together. Our reading today skipped over the part where Eve is made from Adam and the two of them introduced and so forth. So a little bit later, Adam and Eve are walking in the garden and a serpent shows up. And the serpent tells Eve that God was lying about this tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He says if they eat its fruit, they will not die. But God told them that they would because if they eat it, they’ll become like God, knowing good from evil. So the snake is not only calling God a liar, but he’s saying that God is holding out on them. So Eve takes two pieces of fruit from the tree, gives one to Adam, takes one for herself, and they both eat.

Amen. And their eyes are opened, and they realize that they’re naked, and so they sew fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, and that’s where our reading for today ends. But there’s more to the story. When God found Adam and Eve wearing fig leaves, God was angry, and he asked them who told them they were naked.

And Adam and Eve told God the whole story, pointing fingers at each other, and then God kills a couple of animals and dresses Adam and Eve in their fur. – So, because fig leaves are not enough to cover sin. Only death can do that. It was a hard lesson, and Adam and Eve never forgot it.

It was a lesson that points to the cross, because only death can conquer sin. Before we move on to the other readings, I want to draw out just a couple of things from this Genesis passage. Number one, since the beginning—this is just completely aside, but point of interest—since the beginning of organized religion, theologians have pointed to the fact that Eve is the one who took the apple, and she was the first to be deceived. Believe it or not, this is the foundational reason why women have been barred for ministry for 2,000 years.

Amen. Theologians have other arguments, but when you dig down, this is what you find at the foundation. Secondly, notice that Eve had not yet been created when God told Adam not to eat the apple. Adam had to share this information with Eve, which I am sure he did.

And I point this out because they were both involved in the decision to eat. Third, looking at this from a health perspective, if something is poisonous and if it’s eaten, which happens accidentally from time to time, we need to know what to do, how to save a life. Adam and Eve did not know what to do, but God did. So the diagnosis in this case was lack of faith or lack of trust in God.

The prognosis for lack of faith is death, because we cannot live apart from God, our Creator. However, death is not immediate in this case, it is progressive, but the lack of faith is fatal 100% of the time. The treatment is God’s word and God’s love. God’s word has healing power, power even to bring the dead back to life.

And this is the good news of the gospel. So then we can move on to our psalm from King David, who is very aware of what we’ve just said. David was not a perfect person, far from it. But David loved God.

In Psalm 32, we hear David confessing his sin and then sharing in the joy of God’s forgiveness. When David prays to God, he asks for mercy. He knows that his sin is serious. He doesn’t mince words about it.

And, He doesn’t say anything like, well, hey, Lord, Moses wasn’t perfect either. Look how you used him. David doesn’t deflect. He says straight up, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I do not hide my iniquity.

Confession like this is one of the tools in our spiritual EMS toolbox. David assesses the situation correctly. He confesses, I have sinned and I need your forgiveness, Lord. And God hears David and the healing begins.

David says, Steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. And then last but not least, we turn to our reading from Matthew, where we see Jesus kind of going through the spiritual equivalent of paramedic training. Even though he, even Jesus, he needed to practice a little bit before he went out to do God’s work. So the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness alone to fast and to pray and to spend some time with God.

Jesus was not wandering around lost in this case. Matthew writes that he was led by the Holy Spirit in order to be tested, and he was not And Jesus’ conversation with the evil one proves that he is indeed ready to be our Messiah. And he also sets us an example at the same time. So how does Jesus handle temptation? He’s got three temptations.

We’ll find three different things. Number one, in medicine, the rule number one, first rule is first, do no harm. In God’s service, rule number one is trust God. Trust God.

If someone challenges God’s authority, we answer the challenge with God’s words and not our own words. Trust God. And Jesus shows us how this is done. So the first temptation is to turn these stones into bread.

So Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, and he’s hungry. Now, this temptation is just flat-out cruel because most of us don’t fast that long, but when people fast, usually after the first day or two, you’re not really hungry anymore. Your body gets used to not having food, and you carry on with life. But there comes a point where you start to get hungry again.

And that’s usually the body saying, okay, that’s enough, now you need to eat something soon, right? And Scripture says that Jesus was at that point. He was saying, his body was saying, eat something. So this temptation is just absolutely cruel because the devil uses that against him. And he suggests that he doesn’t need God’s help at this point, he should just turn some stones into bread.

Now, could Jesus do this? Probably, yeah. But Jesus knows the point is he’s here to do God’s work in God’s way and to set an example for us. Yeah. And that means trusting God his Father to provide.

So, it’s interesting that in both Genesis and here in the Gospel of Matthew, the enemy’s first line of attack involves food. Food is a very personal need. And in both situations, eating improperly would show a lack of trust in God. Same temptation, different circumstances.

But Jesus, who’s sometimes called the second Adam, answers correctly. and He says, We don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Spiritual paramedics trust God to meet physical needs. Second temptation is, Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple, where Satan says, Prove you’re the Son of God, throw yourself off.

Because it says in the scriptures, God says, God’s angels will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. We know that from our song, right? Eagles Wings, that song Eagles Wings. And what he’s saying is, here’s an easy way for you to get people to believe in you. Because if you jump off and survive, people are going to believe, they’re going to know you’re something special.

Scripture says the angels will keep you safe, so jump off. Prove you are who you say you are. But Jesus doesn’t need to prove himself. He knows who he is, and people will believe in him because of who he is, not because he shows off.

Like Jesus, we need to be aware that not everyone who quotes Scripture is doing God’s will or sharing God’s truth. God’s enemy knows how to quote Scripture, too. The key is to remember that God loves us and we can trust in that love. – No more.

And also, we love God. We don’t need God to prove God’s self to us, and we don’t need to prove ourselves to God. God knows we love Him. So as Jesus puts it, don’t put God to the test.

If we have doubts, and we will sometimes, bring them to God. Bring the questions to God in prayer. Trust God to verify the truth of God’s Word. Spiritual paramedics.

.. Third and final temptation. The tempter shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, past, present, and future, all the great leaders and great nations, all the great and terrible events of human history.

And he says to Jesus, ‘All these I will give you if you bow down and worship me.’ Back in the 60s, the original Star Trek had an episode called City on the Edge of Forever. And whenever I read this passage, I think of that episode. Captain Kirk has landed on a planet where he finds a time portal, this big stone thing, time portal in which he can see what looks like a movie of the history of the Earth.

moving in front of him. You see ancient Greece and ancient Egypt and ancient Rome and the European civilizations coming up and all that kind of stuff, and he’s watching all this go by through this time portal. It’s really compelling to look at. Powerful.

Powerful. and I imagine the devil showing Jesus something like that, the grandeur and the splendor of all the nations down through history, and he says, I will give all of this to you if you will bow down and worship me. Now, this offer is tempting because it avoids the cross. Jesus is here to save the world, and if He can do it without the pain and humiliation of crucifixion, wouldn’t that be worth it? Of course, there’s always the question, Does this world belong to the devil in the first place? Is it his to give? And the answer is sort of yes and no, right? Scripture does call the devil the god of this age, but he is not all-powerful.

His power is limited, his power is temporary, and his power is not over everything. It does not encompass the whole ball of wax. So God, on the other hand, is the creator of the world and everything in it, and God made the world good, and this world belongs to God. So Jesus dismisses Satan with the words, away with you, Satan.

And for our benefit, Jesus quotes the commandment, worship the Lord your God and serve only him. So for spiritual paramedics, the word is, the rule is, worship only God. As we live our lives, we can remember these temptations from these temptations, that there is no place so difficult that Jesus has not already been there and done that. There is no temptation we face that Jesus has not already overcome.

So we serve in His name and in His power. As we go out into the world to care for others in Jesus’ name, we take these three paramedic principles of the Spirit. Trust God to meet our physical needs. Trust God to confirm the truth of what we speak.

And worship only God. And we go then with God’s blessing and God’s guidance into a world that desperately needs spiritual paramedics. Amen. Thank you.