Lent 2C - 2025
Note: Preached on the occasion of Happening #98, hosted at St. Paul’s.
Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, Year C
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
Grace and peace to you, beloved in Christ, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, as we journey through Lent, we are invited to reflect on the promises of God, the cost of discipleship, and the radical love of Christ that calls us into deeper relationship with Him. Our readings from Genesis and Luke speak to us of covenant, transformation, and the longing of God to gather us as a hen gathers her brood. These themes resonate deeply with the spirit of the Jesus Revolution movement of the late 1960s and the transformative experiences of youth retreats like Happening that we are currently hosting, where young people encounter God in profound and life-changing ways.
In Genesis, we encounter Abram in a moment of profound vulnerability. God has promised him descendants as numerous as the stars, yet Abram remains childless. He cries out, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless?." God responds not with immediate answers but with a covenant, a binding promise sealed by fire and smoke. Abram’s faith is not blind optimism; it is a trust born out of relationship, a willingness to believe in the unseen. This covenant reminds us that God’s promises often unfold in ways we cannot predict or control. Like Abram, we are called to trust in the midst of uncertainty, to believe that God is faithful even when the path ahead is unclear.
This trust in God’s promises is echoed in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul urges the community to “stand firm in the Lord” (Philippians 4:1), to live as citizens of heaven, and to resist the distractions of a world that often values power, wealth, and status over humility and love. Paul’s words are a call to transformation, to live as people who are “being conformed to the body of Christ’s glory.” This transformation is not a solitary endeavor; it happens in community, as we encourage one another to live out the radical love of Christ.
In Luke’s Gospel, we see Jesus embodying this radical love as he laments over Jerusalem: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34). Jesus’ words are both tender and heartbreaking. He longs to gather us, to protect us, to draw us into the fullness of God’s love. Yet, like the people of Jerusalem, we often resist. We cling to our fears, our distractions, our self-sufficiency. We forget that we are called to live as a people under the wings of God’s grace.
This resistance is not new and is oft repeated. In the late 1960s, during the Jesus Revolution, young people across America began to reject the institutionalism, materialism, and alienation of their culture and turned instead to the radical love of Jesus. They were called “Jesus freaks” because their faith was so countercultural, so all-consuming. They gathered in parks, coffee shops, and churches, sharing their stories, singing hymns, and praying together. They sought a deeper connection with God and with one another, much like the youth who gather at Happening today.
At Happening, young people step away from the noise of the world—their phones, their schedules, their anxieties—and enter into a sacred space of connection and honesty. They talk about their faith, their doubts, their hopes as peers. They discover, perhaps for the first time, that they are not alone in their journey. They experience the kind of community that Paul describes, a community where we “stand firm in the Lord” and encourage one another to live as citizens of heaven.
Beloved, this is the invitation and wilderness of Lent: to slow down, to disconnect from the distractions of the world, and to reconnect with God and one another. Like Abram, we are called to trust in God’s promises, even when the path is unclear. Like Paul, we are called to live as people transformed by the love of Christ. And like the Jesus freaks of the 1960s and the youth at Happening, we are called to gather under the wings of God’s grace, to be a community of faith that reflects the radical love of Jesus to the world.
May we have the courage to say yes to this invitation. May we trust in the promises of God, stand firm in the Lord, and allow ourselves to be gathered into the embrace of Christ and keep it Happening. Amen.
