2nd Sunday in Lent 2026

Sermon: 2nd Sunday in Lent 2026

Texts: Genesis 12:1-4, John 3:1-17

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Many human actions have spiritual meanings attached to them, but perhaps none other compare to that of the journey. To move in the direction of a goal, to venture into the wilderness of the unknown and reach the desired place, it is the image of spiritual development par excellence. During Lent, we are all on a journey with Jesus Himself to the end goal of His ministry. We are also called to journey away from worldly attachment and venture towards God. Moreover, we are all on the journey we call life, from birth to death, we are in this movement of our individual lives into their completion. Life is very much about the journey. But it is not just simple movement. It is not purposeless. The journey is a mission. There is a goal in sight, a striving that gives the journey meaning. We don’t go out of our comfort zones just because. Our readings very much testifies, it is God who calls us out into the great adventure. It is God who is asking us to engage with life’s meaning and to develop your gifts. As the poet and priest Malcolm Guite wrote: “Most of us are under pressure, external and internal, to do everything, be good at everything, be accountable to everyone for everything! It is not so. In the divine economy, each of us has a particular grace, gift, and devotion. Finding out what that is, and learning how to be guilt-free about not doing everything else, may be part of what our Lenten journey is for.” Indeed, God calls us each into our own journey, but they are never separate. They all converge here, they converge into the deep well of goodness that we can share with each other. Our journeys inevitably come together in the community of the beloved. So never

think the journey to be individualistic. It is personal, but inevitably meant for the relationships we are called to build.

In our Genesis reading today, we can testify that the faith in which we build our community, starts with a journey, the Journey of Abram to the land which God sent him to. Our faith has always been a moving and alive thing as Martin Luther described. The believer is ultimately a migrant upon the earth. We migrate according to the directions of the Lord who called us into being. Thus, “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.” God called Abram to journey away from his homeland and see where God would take him where God would make of him a great nation, and He would bless him and make his name great, so that he would be a blessing. And what is the fruit of this journey? What does Abram have that will bless the world? Paul seeks to point us to the answer: faith. The trust of Abraham in God’s promises for goodness in the world. Anyone who would believe like Abraham would be blessed as he was. And for us Christians, this faith is expressed fully in our trust that through Christ, we have received God’s Spirit. That through Him we have been born anew to a life of divine love and mercy. By faith we become a people that are marked by this way of faith.

This way of faith is however not easy. Our journey is full of uncertainties. To leave one’s homeland is to leave every known comfort, to miss what is familiar and go to what is strange. The same way that migrants today from all over the world move to perhaps find a better life, they leave what is known to them and head into a place where perhaps the language and the customs are not the same, and which they would need to face the challenges of settling in a new place. The one who journeys will be

challenged and their limits tested. But our faith is the certainty that we can trust God to keep us, that He will lead us over to a good land where we can fulfill our purpose for a good life.

I read this text, beloved, as one who is touched by a similar journey as migrants like Abram. Even though I did not go through the many legal nightmares that migrants across the United States face daily, I know at least from experience what it means to go from a homeland to a place that is originally not my own. A place where customs, language, and culture are different. During my candidacy interview with the Synod, I was asked if I had any experience in multicultural ministry and I said, pretty much everything I’ve done is multi-cultural ministry, for my service here is done in an environment different from the one I grew up in, in a language and culture that is not my native one. I’ve enculturated myself into the New England way of life, for the sake of the gospel and in service to those God has called me to love. Part of my journey away from home to the place God has sent me, is to learn to trust God, to see God’s love shining through what used to be unfamiliar to me. And that can be such a grace, beloved. Because you see that God makes no partiality of people. You get to see that our faith is in a God that is more expansive than our imaginations, that can move through our differences and bring into One Body what was once separate and strange. It is part of God’s goodness that you and I have built a meaningful relationship through our faith in this Jesus that unites us even when we come from different places. To that I can testify, that my journey has led me from love to love in Christ Jesus. I’ve been blessed by this church, in the same way I pray I’ve blessed you in some way.

So we can reflect this Lent, how God wants to expand our horizons, He wants us to see beyond the comforts we have built around our selves to go out into the unknown with a daring faith in God. We abstain from fear to grow into trust. God walks with us every step of the way, both in the light of day and the darkness of night, our faith is on the One that loves us. As Jesus told Nicodemus the heart of the gospel: “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 saved through him.” Our life journeys ultimately reflect this core of the gospel message, that our whole life and believing stands confident, it is rooted in the love of God for the world. That our striving is all nurtured by this reality that can never be hid again. We can bear the unknown because we trust the One who sends us, the One who was the world in His hands. We trust that love is the thread we can confidently hang on to as we journey through the darkness, the thread that gives meaning, that forges a path for us as we reach wherever God sends us to. So indeed, we must as Jesus said in the Gospel: be born anew through the water and the Spirit, we need to start seeing the world through our baptism and the Holy Spirit we received. No longer, as we journey, are we called to think in an worldly way, seeing the world as this place to make enemies in. We are called to see the world as the place that God loves and seeks to embrace in that love. That carries with it a new perspective, beloved, the perspective of the Spirit, which Paul says in Galatians that produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the fruits we make space for during Lent. So let us embrace the journey, beloved. Let us embrace this

movement of our lives toward Love. Let us make Lent a time where we focus on being known as being from God, because we center our lives in the water and the spirit that marked us as belonging to Christ. Let us exercise a migrating faith that is able to see God everywhere we go, for in every corner God wants us to love the world to its original goodness.

And Beloved, it is because of this love, because we are born from the water and the spirit, that I will exhort to you the following action during your Lenten journey this year and beyond: Pray for Peace. Make peace a priority not only within you, but with your neighbors, your communities, and ultimately within this whole country. I cannot end without acknowledging the difficulties that face our world in this moment. War never changes. It is always a blemish upon humanity. We were created for community and mutual embrace. So let us not despair, but have faith, even just a tiny bit. Our role today is more important than ever, that we become great prayers for peace, that people around us can see peace active in us. Part of the journey we take as a church is towards the Kingdom of God, we plant the Kingdom everywhere we go, and in doing so, we seek to build the vision of Isaiah: they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.” This is also part of the journey beloved. That we should move away from the ways of war into the ways of peace-building; just a few months ago, during Advent, we welcomed the Prince of Peace into our midst. Now we want to build upon His example. Real strength is found in the weakness of the cross, it is in the little way of Jesus. We are born again so that we may unlearn the violent ways of the world and instead practice the love of God that shines forth from the life of

Jesus. I reiterate the core of the gospel: For God so loved the world, the whole world. So we inhabit our faith when we pray and have mercy even for those we do not know, understand, or even consider our enemies. We pray for the wholeness of this small world in which we all live, in which God has graced to make Himself known as Love. So let us pray for this bold, peaceable, migrating faith in the God who sends us out into the world to love it fully: