Lent 4B March 15, 2015 Numbers 21:4-9 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 Saint Patrick Missionary & Bishop 5 th Century A.D. St. John’s Episcopal Church, Centreville VA Adult Lectionary Forum 2015

Collect for Lent 4B O God, whose glory is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have strayed from your ways. Bring them again with penitent hearts & steadfast faith to embrace & hold fast Your Word’s unchangeable truth, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you & the Holy Spirit lives & reigns, one God, forever & ever. Amen. Collect for Lent 4B O God, whose glory is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have strayed from your ways. Bring them again with penitent hearts & steadfast faith to embrace & hold fast Your Word’s unchangeable truth, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you & the Holy Spirit lives & reigns, one God, forever & ever. Amen. St. John’s Episcopal Church, Centreville VA -- Adult Lectionary Forum 2015 Prayer for Lent 4B [Saint Patrick] Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness & error to the true light & knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever. Prayer for Lent 4B [Saint Patrick] Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness & error to the true light & knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

L ENT 4B: O OH ! S NAKES ! [N UMBERS 21:4-9] Time Stamp: 1452 BC As they wander in the wilderness, Israelites become impatient with Moses and resentful toward God. They are, therefore, punished for such defiance, but God heals them when they repent. God’s Covenants with Moses Israelites again lose faith & doubt God Forgot their own sins set stage for their current misfortunes Journey takes them into an area teeming with sand vipers; people panic God tells Moses to drape a brass serpent on a pole as reminder for those who’ve been stricken Victims must gaze on it as act of faith Illogical to think gazing on a makeshift snake would heal—but that is just what God demands of them Prefigures faith in Christ on the cross Serpent: Satan’s tool in Man’s Fall --Nature’s illustration of effects of sin --Once upright creature reduced to loathsome status Bronze considered a symbol of justice --Bronze serpent portrays sin rectified --Faith in Crucifix for spiritual healing from sin’s venom Serpent as focus of idolatry shows how easy it is for grace to be misused King Hezekiah later destroys the staff 7 The people came to Moses & said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord & against you; pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent & set it on a pole; & everyone who is bitten shall look at it & live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it on a pole; & whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. 4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient. 5 They spoke against God & Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food & no water & we detest this miserable food.” 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people & they bit them, so that many Israelites died. St. John’s Episcopal Church, Centreville VA Adult Lectionary Forum 2015

Time Stamp: 66 AD Faith is God’s gift ; it cannot be earned. By God's grace, our faith empowers us to do work God intends for us to do. Two Houses in Which to Live Paul says its not just do good works Oriented toward an earthly house… --Defined by transgressions & sins --We can't do enough good stuff --We sin because we're not perfect --We need Jesus to save & forgive us because of what we can't do. Oriented toward God’s house… --Grace rules the roost --Stresses importance of reconciliation --Has no place for divisions -- Others become brothers/sisters --Good works no longer defined by ego Lent 4B: It’s a Matter of Faith [Ephesians 2:1-10] St. John’s Episcopal Church, Centreville VA Adult Lectionary Forum 2015

Time Stamp: c. 29 AD In this dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus teaches that all who trust in him will receive forgiveness of their sins and inherit everlasting life. You Must Give it All Up Jesus sums up God’s good purposes for the world Reflects on meaning of his own life Big picture: God’s work in Christ Nicodemus finds Good News puzzling –Demands he abandon all he has accomplished & understood --Become like a newborn, ready to receive world on completely new terms Ethical dimension to understanding --Some things hard to grasp because they ask so much of us --We don’t want to understand, because if we do, we are implicated He is he is like the serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness --Israelites were required to look on that which brought death to receive life --We must look on Jesus’ lifting up in humiliating crucifixion & receive it as part of God’s plan to glorify Jesus & save the world. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whomever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. L ENT 4B: G OSPEL M ARROW [J OHN 3:14-21] St. John’s Episcopal Church, Centreville VA Adult Lectionary Forum Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who don’t believe are condemned already, because they haven’t believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world & people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light & do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”