The Adventurous Lectionary – The Second Sunday in Lent – March 1, 2026
Genesis 12:1-4a (4b-9); Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5; 13-17; John 3:1-17
Lent is a time of mindfulness, self-awareness, and sacrifice to be more attentive to God’s movements in our lives. In every season of the Christian year and every season of life, and also beyond Christianity, God’s call is universal and ubiquitous. God is still moving in our lives and the world, and faithfulness to God invites us to be on the move, too! God is alive and wants us to come fully alive, revealing God’s glory in daily life. God is still speaking, moving, and calling, and present in our spiritual journeys as both comforter and challenge.
THE CALL TO ADVENTURE. The story of Abram’s (Abraham’s) call celebrates the forward movement of life. Despite the brevity of the text (12:1-4a) and the absence of Sarah (Sarai) as an equal protagonist, the passage points to forward looking spirituality. With Abraham Joshua Heschel, we can feel Abraham’s and our legs praying as we consider this passage. Brief though it is, the passage invites the preacher and congregation to ask, “Where do we need to move forward beyond our current – even positive – past? What adventures await us if we explore new ways of mission and worship? Where will our spiritual walk take us?”
These same challenges are at the heart of (Sarai’s) Sarah’s experience. Although absent from the text, Sarah is nevertheless an active participant, and her involvement cannot be overlooked by the preacher.
Changes in attitudes and changes in latitudes are connected, as singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffet avers. Movements of the Spirit can be just as challenging as geographical peregrinations. In both cases, we must leave the familiar and adapt to a new landscape – or seascape – of possibilities. Divine movement builds on the past but lures us toward untraveled futures, personally and institutionally. In the post-Covid world, churches must move or stagnate. They must explore new ways of ministry and outreach. Given your congregation’s current situation, numerical, financial, contextual, demographic, theological, where does your congregation need to change? Where do you need to forward within the challenges of life?
PROTECTION ON THE JOURNEY. The Psalmist provides a word of assurance to pilgrims. God is with us and will protect us. Of course, we know that there is no guarantee that our journeys will succeed or arrive at their appointed destination. Still, we can move forward with trust that God will guide us on the way. We can be faithful, as Mother (Saint) Teresa says, be faithful even if we are not successful in reaching our goals. Still, in times of challenge, we ask from where will our help emerge? Where will our congregation find the resources to move forward? Where is God in the pilgrimage? How do we respond when the ever-present God seems absent in our personal and congregational lives?
FAITH AS TRUST AND RESPONSE. The reading from Romans also highlights Abraham’s journey. In his interpretation of the text, the apostle Paul describes God taking the initiative in our adventures. We travel forth, not to earn God’s love, but to faithfully respond to the love we have already received. Our pilgrimages involve a dynamic call and response, in which God calls, we respond, and our response leads to new manifestations of divine creativity. Grace is prevenient or prior and calls us to agency not passivity. Faith involves trusting that God will make a way where we perceive no way and that possibilities can emerge where we see only dead ends for ourselves, our congregations, or our nation. Abraham’s and Sarah’s faith was not blind, nor should ours. Abraham and Sarah trusted God, but, I suspect, they also inventoried their “stock” (their cattle and sheep, in this case!) We need to ask questions, raise problems, and debate the varied understandings of God’s presence in our lives and the scope of our role in salvation. Still, there comes a time to embark on our holy adventures, whether we traverse a wilderness or launch out into the deep.
BORN ANEW IN A GOD-LOVED WORLD. The encounter of Nicodemus and John has so many twists and turns, it’s difficult to find one clear path through the text. The perceptive preacher can focus on being born anew, becoming a new creation, as Abraham, Sarah, and Lot were called to be. He or she can also describe the free-wheeling movements of the Spirit, unbound and unconfined by human creed and ritual. All these can be encompassed by God’s overarching love for the world.
The aged spiritual leader Nicodemus needs to be born anew. He needs to be energized by the Spirit to transform his past and embrace God’s future. The Spirit is not at our disposal. It blows where it wills, and blows beyond our doctrines, ecclesiastical structures, and concepts of revival. The Spirit takes us beyond the known roads and even beyond Christianity. We must be willing to change course and explore new possibilities to be faithful to the Spirit’s work. (For more on the Holy Spirit, see Bruce Epperly, RESTLESS SPIRIT: THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM A PROCESS PERSPECTIVE, Energion, 2022.)
The words of John 3:16 are more than a slogan to be placarded at sports events; they describe the divine intentionality and universality. God loves the world in its entirety, body, mind, and spirit. God loves bodies, our very finite and human bodies, regardless of sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity, diversity of flora and fauna, and diversity of humankind. God wants to save everyone. The Word and Wisdom of God is embodied throughout creation and in the complexities of our lives. There is no room for anthropocentrism or double predestination in this passage. Salvation touches all creation, embracing our cells as well as our souls. There are no limits, outsides, or impediments to the ubiquitous and graceful providence of God.
God’s love is on the move, and it invites us to construct larger and larger circles of love, moving from our individual salvation to saving the world.
This Sunday, let us live adventurously, secure in God’s all-pervasive and all-encompassing love. God is out to love you, not hurt you, and God’s love companions you in every season of life. We can expect great things from God and great things from ourselves. With God as our companion, we cannot fail, and in trusting God, we can take risks, innovate, and expand the circle of God’s love in our congregation and community.
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC. He is the author of over eighty books, including Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet; Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-Human World; Messy Incarnation: Meditations on Christ in Process; and Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries. His latest books are Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-human World and Three Wise Wisdom: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna (volume seven in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” series along with the recently released Lenten devotional, Just a Little Walk with Jesus: A Spiritual Saunter with Mark’s Gospel and Whitehead and Jesus: An Adventure in Spiritual Transformation. He is married to Rev. Kate Epperly, D.Min. and lives in Potomac, Maryland. He can be reached at [email protected].
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