SOME of you may have visited the Egypt Centre on the campus of Swansea University. This small museum contains a fascinating collection of artefacts from a civilisation which is both strange and intriguing. In Ancient Egypt, gods were everywhere. Almost everything was worshipped as a god. This included the River Nile, which brought life, crops and fertility. Also there was the bull Apis in whose likeness the Israelites fashioned a Golden Calf. Another was Anubis with his black dog’s head, who was responsible for funerary rites. But in order to worship a divinity you first needed to know their name, and know who they were. 

In this morning’s first reading we hear that Moses is shepherding his father-in-law’s flock in the wilderness of Sinai. It is a difficult place: arid, rocky and mountainous. In the Ancient World, mountains were places for encounter with the divine. So when Moses sees a bush that is burning, but is not consumed by the fire, he wants to investigate what is going on. This leads to a meeting with God which will result in the Exodus, the journey from slavery to freedom; from Egypt to the Promised Land. 

God begins by saying who he is:

“Duw dy dadau wyf fi, Duw Abraham, Duw Isaac a Duw Jacob.”

‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ (Exod 3:6)

God has heard the cry of His people and is preparing to do something about their situation. He will lead them from Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses then tells God that if he explains to the people that the God of their Ancestors has sent him, they will ask, ‘What is his name?’ The point of addressing a divinity by name was that then they would then listen to your prayers. This leads God to reply:

“Ydwyf yr hyn ydwyf. Dywed hyn wrth bobl Israel, ‘Ydwyf sydd wedi fy anfon atoch.’”

‘I Am Who I Am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.”’ (Exod 3:14)

God refuses to be named. God is who God is: the Creator of all, God of all. Almighty God is not to be reduced to a name or a category. However, He loves His People and intends, through Moses, to lead them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. This journey is the event that will establish the people of Israel, and it also will provide the template for Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. 

Lent, at its heart, is a penitential season for Christians to prepare to celebrate the Passover which offers salvation to the whole world. This is why St Paul uses the story of the Exodus to remind the faithful of the importance of humility, and of knowing and acknowledging our need of God. As the Israelites were fed with spiritual food — manna — so Christians are fed with the Living Bread — Jesus Christ. As the Israelites were refreshed with spiritual drink, Christians drink the Blood of Christ, and are washed in the waters of Baptism. As Moses strikes the rock at Massah and Meribah, the Rock is Christ, upon whom we can build with sure foundations, against the storms of this world. Nourished by the Eucharist, we are fed by God, with God, so that He may transform us, so that we can share His Eternal Life. The Corinthians are taking this for granted, hence Paul’s warnings in the Epistle. Like the people of Corinth, we need to avoid sin, and turn back to God, and be sustained and upheld by Him, so that we can grow in faith.

Turning to this morning’s Gospel, we do not know who the Galileans that Pilate killed were. Galilee was renowned as a hotbed of political revolutionaries, full of people who wanted to free the Jewish people from Roman Rule. Forty years after Christ’s Passion, Rome will crush a revolution in Judea, and slaughter many people. Our Lord’s message to His followers is simple: repent. Repentance means changing your mind. Repentance means loving your enemies, and Repentance means living your life in a radically different way.

Once again, Jesus tells people a parable. A fig tree has not borne fruit in three years A man makes three visits to the fig tree. These visits represent the Patriarchs, the Prophets and the Gospel — the warnings given in Scripture to repent — and also the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Despite the guidance, the fig does not bear fruit, therefore it should be cut down

However, the unproductive tree is not cut down, but instead it is given a reprieve. The gardener allows the fig tree another chance. This is grace: the free gift of God, granted and not earned. Only through God’s grace can we hope to bear fruit. God, the gardener who created humanity in Paradise, will offer himself as both Priest and Victim upon the Tree of Life, to bleed and die for love of us. This gardener will meet Mary Magdalene by the empty tomb on Easter Day so that we, and all humanity, may share Christ’s risen life. The fact that we are here today is proof that for two thousand years this tree has borne fruit in the Church.

God loves humanity, which is why — like the fig tree — we are given another chance. We are granted the opportunity to repent, to turn back to the God who loves us, and who longs to see us flourish. Our lives as Christians are a continual cycle of falling short, and turning back in repentance to the source of grace, love, and mercy: God. We receive God’s gifts, even though we are not worthy of His generosity, but that’s the point. Our Heavenly Father satisfies our deepest needs and desires out of love for us, so that, enfolded in His love, we might become more lovely, and be filled with God’s infinite love and grace. Only when we are watered by God’s love can we truly bear fruit. We are all forgiven, and we are all loved. That is what the Cross demonstrates: God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Jesus’ willing sacrifice stands for all time, and fundamentally changes our relationship with our Creator and each other. Ours is a faith rooted in love, freely given for the life of the world and for every individual human being.

So, my brothers and sisters, let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal mystery so that we, and all the world, may give glory i Duw Dad, Duw y Mab, a Duw yr Ysbryd Glân. I’r hwn y priodoler pob gogoniant, arglwyddiaeth, a gallu, yn awr, ac yn oes oesoedd. Amen.