Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 24, 2019

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-15

Scripture offers us scores of images and metaphors to help us visualize a God who is beyond our imagining. It is no surprise that its efforts to portray some small sense of God’s power sometimes stretch our imagination.

Moses and the Burning Bush (1642-45), oil painting on canvas by Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671). The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. (Click image to enlarge.)

One such image is fire. God led the Israelites in the wilderness as a pillar of fire and column of smoke, and, as we hear in Sunday’s first reading, God surprises Moses by speaking out a bush that burns and burns but is not consumed. God, who is and always will be, calls Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt to a promised land that flows with milk and honey.

Psalm: Psalm 63:1-8

We began the penitential season of Lent by recalling the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert, defying temptation and preparing for his ministry on earth. Psalm 63 is set in a similar place, a barren and dry land where there is no water. The Psalmist seeks God with a thirsty soul, aching not only for liquid refreshment but for God, whose loving-kindness is better than life itself. Through prayer, the Psalmist’s hunger is satisfied. Upheld by God’s strong hand, the poet sings for joy under the shadow of God’s wings.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Paul, writing to the people of Corinth in a time when early Christians were still working out their relationship with Judaism, recalls Old Testament stories in which Israelites were struck down for failing to keep God’s ways. Paul holds up these Israelites who strayed from their commitments as examples for the early Christians to consider when they felt that God was testing them with hard times. Learn from them, Paul urges. Be faithful, don’t stray, and know that when hard times test us, God will provide us strength.

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9

A group of people came to Jesus, worried about a group of Galileans whom Pilate had killed and 18 others who died when a tower at Siloam fell on them. Did these bad things happen because the victims had sinned? Absolutely not, Jesus says. Echoing the wisdom of Job, Jesus declares that God does not punish sin with suffering. But, Jesus goes on, repentance defeats death, bringing forgiveness and eternal life. Like the gardener who defers cutting down a barren fig tree to nurture it in hope it will eventually bear fruit, we hope for forgiveness and another chance.