"Babylon? Christ!" - Sermon for the 5th Sunday in Lent, 3-22-26

Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost;

we are cut off completely.

†

The whole house of Israel was in exile. Held hostage in far-off Babylon.

As good as dead.

Dry bones in desolate graves.

Resurrection was unthinkable.

Restoration unimaginable.

Their hope was lost.

How is your hope these days?

You have bones and sinews and flesh.

But what about your breath?

We live in a bloviating Babylon.

Full of hot air yet lifeless.

Noxious gas instead of oxygen.

Our breath is in exile.

Held hostage by an onslaught of news.

Events global and local.

Beyond our control.

Both shocking and banal.

Biblical Israel and ancient Babylon.

Image and symbol; parable and metaphor.

The one: people of promise and paradox.

The other: oppressors, greedy and guilty.

Israel was Israel.

Oppressed peoples were Israel; are Israel.

Occupied peoples were Israel; are Israel.

Colonized peoples were Israel; are Israel.

Enslaved peoples were Israel; are Israel.

Forever looking over its shoulder.

Anxious, breathless, hopeless.

Babylon rises, Babylon falls.

Another Babylon takes its place.

Babylon was Babylon.

Rome was Babylon.

London was Babylon.

Berlin was Babylon.

Washington was Babylon; is Babylon.

Israel is Babylon.

The Church was Israel; is Israel.

The people of the New Covenant.

Born an outlaw; persecuted.

Catholic; counter-cultural.

Reformer; boundary-pusher; truth-teller.

But the Church was Babylon; is Babylon.

Still people of the New Covenant – yet:

Politically powerful; condones conquest. 

Nationalistic; cultural mirror.

Inquisitor; concealer; excommunicator.

At the same time Israel and Babylon.

Champion of exiles; chaplain to empires.

How is your hope these days?

It comes down to breath, to spirit.

What air do you breathe?

Whose air do you need to breathe?

What spirit is in you?

Whose spirit do you need in you?

What death is entombing you?

Whose voice do you need to raise you?

On whom do we set our hope?

Do we set our hope on a rival Babylon?

A new monarch or president?

An improved parliament or congress?

Politics that align with our faith?

This might work for a moment.

We live in the world.

A better Babylon is the best we can do.

Lesser evil is the cost of Eden’s exit.

We are flesh, made good and very good.

Imago Dei; in the image of God.

But sin-tainted; destined to die.

And Babylon cannot save us.

No, we do not set our hope on Babylon.

Babylon disappoints.

We set our hope on Christ.

Crucified and risen.

His promise and power.

Our conversion of heart and life.

We set our hope on Christ.

And this hope will not disappoint us.

God’s Holy Spirit-sent love sees to that.

It is God’s dream.

A dream-deferred? Perhaps.

Slow to come by our measure.

Four days death-stench in a tomb.

Lord, if you had been here!

Forty years wandering in the wilderness.

Seventy in exile.

Now two-thousand and counting.

We have bones and sinews and flesh.

And we have the Spirit of God.

Filling our lungs.

Oxygenating our hearts.

Inspiring our minds.

Opening our graves.

Calling us out of our tombs.

Yes, we live in Babylon.

But we live for Christ.

Unbind us, and let us go. †

Father Daniel S.J. Scheid, SCP

5^th Sunday in Lent A – March 22, 2026

All Saints’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco

“Babylon? Christ!”