2 Lent, Yr A (2026) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
2 Lent, Year A (2026) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Genesis 12:1-4a St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
John 3:1-17
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
“A powerful magnitude 7.1 earthquake shakes parts of Malaysia.”
“11 million under flood watch as storms bring heavy rain and snow to California.”
“UN warns millions in Somalia face malnutrition and starvation.”
“Ukraine remembers its dead as war enters a fifth year.”
These were some of our recent news headlines.
Earthquakes, floods, famine, war…
on any given day,
we hear the same news stories over and over.
Let us step back in time
and check out the news headlines according to the book of Genesis:
“Adam and Eve expelled from Garden after eating forbidden fruit.”
“Man kills brother in jealous rage.”
“150 days of floodwaters cover the earth.”
“Noah and companions only living creatures to survive.”
“Language turned to babble due to lust for power.”
Earthquakes, floods, famine, war…we hear the same news stories over and over.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void
and darkness covered the face of the deep.” (Gen 1:1-2a)
Or, as Eugene Peterson translates:
“God created the Heavens and Earth –
all you see,
all you don’t see.
“Earth was a soup of nothingness,
a bottomless emptiness,
an inky blackness.”
Out of the inky blackness God created Light.
God created day and night.
God created earth and water,
trees and plants,
stars and moons,
fish and birds,
cattle, reptiles, and wild animals.
God created human beings.
And… IT WAS GOOD!
And then the life-denying headlines began….
stories of greed, power, lust, and envy.
Which brings us to today’s story in Genesis…
it is a pivotal moment.
It is a story in which we hear that the same powerful and divine Word,
that created the world out of chaos and inky blackness,
is again at work creating a new hope and a new possibility.
Since creation,
God has been struggling with a repeatedly rebellious, violent, and corrupt humanity.
So…
the Lord said to Abram:
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
“I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you,
and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
“I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you I will curse;
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (Gen 12:1-3)
Now, what God is asking Abram is not easy.
God asks Abram to leave behind life as he knows it…
to leave behind his identity with a people (a nation)
and to leave behind his familial identity as well.
God commands Abram to sever all family ties,
which in those days guaranteed life itself,
and to adhere to a transcendent loyalty to God.
“So Abram went,
as the Lord had told him;
and Lot went with him.” (Gen 12:4a)
Abram let go of an old way of life and embarked on a journey into new territory,
new promises,
new hopes,
new life.
Today’s Gospel reading also offers the invitation to new life.
Nicodemus seems to have some inkling that Jesus offers an invitation
to embark on a journey filled with new hope and new life,
but he’s not quite so sure.
He comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness.
He is, after all, a learned leader of the Jews.
He can’t risk his reputation being seen asking questions of Jesus.
Nicodemus at least understands that Jesus comes from God
because he sees that Jesus’ life exudes a power that can come only from God.
Yet, as he and Jesus converse,
they speak to one another on different planes.
Nicodemus tries to understand birth and rebirth in human terms.
He can’t quite grasp the work of the Spirit
outside the confines of his own thinking and reasoning.
He is stuck in his own earthly, bodily, human thinking.
We are not so different
as we struggle to understand how God is at work in this world.
Even when we consider ourselves to be people of faith,
we have many questions.
How often do we wonder how a benevolent God
can allow the tragedies of our newspaper headlines to occur,
despite our understanding that God allows us to make our own choices?
How do “natural disasters” enter into the equation?
How do children born with cancer who have not yet made any choices in their lives
enter into the equation?
How does that fact that, on average,
a child in sub-Saharan Africa dies of malaria every two minutes,
enter into the equation?
Jesus responds to Nicodemus’ struggling by saying,
“The Son of Man [must] be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
“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.”
“Indeed, God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be healed through him.”
With our daily headlines
that speak of earthquakes, floods, war, famine, disease, and violence,
it is difficult to see the cross as the moment of God’s victory.
Despite the headlines,
or perhaps because of them,
Abram left behind all to follow God into new territory.
God left behind all to become human,
to live life as one of us who suffers,
to share with us the pain and confusion of our own lives.
Nicodemus leaves our story today,
without any sign of greater comprehension or faith
from his encounter with Jesus,
although later we learn that he returns to anoint Jesus after his death.
Through his Gospel story John invites all to a life of faith,
to “come and see”
in their own time.
Our decision to follow may come as quickly as it did for Abram,
or it may take a long time to wrestle with our questions.
Faith is an ongoing work of the Spirit.
The good news is that God so loved the world -
even such a world that would crucify Jesus –
that God became human to live and die and rise to new life
so that we may have eternal life, beginning here and now.
All that is needed for new life,
new hope,
and a new world has been accomplished.
God beckons us to come and follow.
Amen.
