Scripture: Psalm 118: 1-2; 19-29; Mark 11: 1-11; John 12: 12-16; and Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 14:1-15:47
We have studied God's covenants with us this Lent. We know of his love for us. This week, holy God lays it on the line . Things are not what they seem. The Messiah makes a triumphant entry into God's holy city. What kind of king enters Jerusalem on a donkey, and a borrowed donkey at that? Hosanna, which means 'Save us!' A king washing the feet of his disciples. The Lord's Supper in the upper room. Gethsemane. Betrayal. Trial. Torture. Scourge. Humiliation. Crucifixion. Surrender. Forgiveness. Death. How does God bring about his plan of salvation? Read The Rev. Bill Carter's "The Best Things Are Borrowed."
What does he ask of us? What are we, as disciples, called to do? This week we remember how the Savior of the world is the One who borrows a donkey to ride downhill to his cross. Are we willing to fetch donkeys? See Thomas G. Long's "Donkey Fetchers."
Scripture: (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13 or Psalm 119:9-16; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33)
This week we study some of my favorite verses in the Bible. This Lent we have considered the covenant relationship of God and his people, studying covenants made after the great flood, with Abraham, Moses, and his deep love for us in giving us his Son, a gift of salvation. This is presaged in Jeremiah : "The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah... this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Read what The Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake has to say about God's covenant relationship with us in "Breaking News."
In the great Psalm 51, it is David, with a broken and contrite heart, who finds God, asking God to create in him a new heart, and to renew a right spirit in him. I believe David knew God's heart and God's plan to cleanse us of our sins, in the blood of the lamb. I believe he knew Christ 1,000 years before Christ's birth.
The author of the Book of Hebrews helps us see Jesus in his glory, as a servant king, and as a priest of the order of Melchizedek - the King of Salem, Righteousness and Peace who offers blessing and bread and wine to Abraham. The Rev. Rick Morley tells us, in "Unbidden," that early Christians identified Jesus as this "priest-king," ministering to the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Whether, or not he is Melchizedek, he is like him - he comes, unbidden, when we need him, and he comes to serve and bless us, and with righteousness and peace, and the Sacred Meal.
Like the prophet Jeremiah and David, we will know our LORD. From Jeremiah: " No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, '"Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' says the LORD; 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sins no more.'"
Thanks be to God, through the gift and sacrifice of Christ our Lord, which we receive each week in the joy and thanksgiving celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we are restored in a right relationship and covenant with our Lord and God, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Scripture: Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21
This week's gospel includes, probably the best known Bible verse to Christians and non-Christians every where: John 3:16: "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."
We often forget the context in which the author of the gospel of John gives us this verse. The respected Jewish leader, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus by night to learn what he must do to have eternal life. This week's lesson follows the account of Jesus telling him he must be born again, or anew - the Greek word means both.
As we take stock of ourselves and what, or who, God calls us to be, The Rev. Rick Morley reminds us that the covenant God has with us is that he will always love us, and that part of what we have to do is believe in his Son, who is lifted up. See "Lifted High."
Alyce M. McKenzie asks us: "Who are you when no one's looking?" and "Are you a master of light or shadow?" in "Walking in the Light, Reflections on John 3:14-21."
Finally, Paul Tillich tells us just who Jesus is, drawing on the "I am" sayings found in John's gospel. Jesus is the Truth. See Tillich's The Shaking of the Foundations, Chapter 14. "Doing the Truth."
In Lent, we take the time and opportunity to seek out the darkness in our lives, and open up to the light which God gives us - Jesus. This week, more than any other this season, we are to focus on Jesus, and Jesus alone. He is God's saving grace, and righteousness in person. If we believe in Him, and believe Him, and God's love for us, and all things God has planned for us, his beloved, will be added. As Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians, we are saved by God's loving grace, and not by any works of our own, so that no one may boast.
The focus then is not on us, but on Jesus, the Way, The Truth, and the Life.
Scripture: Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22)
As we came down off the mountaintop with Jesus and began our Lenten journey to Calvary, we are told that Jesus, who Peter recognizes as the Messiah, the cristos (the Christ) must suffer. Immediately Peter rebukes Jesus, substituting his vision of the Messiah for God’s plan, Jesus tells Peter to leave such ideas and himself, if necessary, behind – not to be a stumbling block for God’s will for us.
We have also studied “covenant” from the promises God made to Noah, Abraham and, this week, to Moses and Israel with the 10 Commandments and the Law (torah), on their journey to the Promised Land.
This week Jesus drives the moneychangers out of the Temple. What is the significance of that? What is the significance and function of the Temple in the life of the Jews at that time? Jesus told Jewish religious leaders about destruction and rebuilding of the Temple, the central place of worship for Jews. What is the significance of that? See The Very Rev. Anthony F.M. Clavier’s Sermon.
What does Jesus teach us this week about obedience to God’s law in our faith? Jesus tells us that he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. How does he, and how are we to fulfill the law. What is God’s way to the Promised Land? See Dianne Bergant’s “Words of Eternal Life?”
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38
In the last two weeks we journeyed from the season of Epiphany to the Season of Lent, ushered in on Ash Wednesday. The Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Hoare helped us sharpen our focus in order to be transformed into the life God calls us to be - to see the glory of God as we give up our own control and surrender to God's will for us. This is what Jesus is preparing his disciples for as he explains that in order for his mission to be fulfilled, he must suffer shame, humiliation and death on a cross. This immediately follows the transfiguration story in the gospel of Mark.
At the beginning of this week's gospel lesson, Peter proclaims Jesus to be the Son of God, and almost immediatley after that he rebukes Jesus when the Lord told his disciples of his impending suffering, shame and death. How does Jesus respond to Peter? What is going on here for Peter? For Jesus? See "The Foolishness and Weakness of God - No One There, Only Jesus," by The Rev. Martin Smith.
Jesus tells us that we are to deny ourselves, and take up our crosses and follow him. What does he mean? How are we able to do that? See "A Leap to Faith," by Michaela Bruzzese, Alone with God . What is Jesus telling Peter when he says "Get thee behind me Satan? See "Seeing Past Satan," by Lauren Winner, Journey Toward Resurrection."
What must Peter have felt? What did he go through when he experienced the mountaintop transfiguration of Christ, seeing him as the Son of God, but then is told to get behind Jesus as Satan? When he denied Jesus three times before the crucifixion? When he was given the "keys to the kingdom?" Why does Peter's heart break? See "The Heartbreaking Messiah," by The Rev. Dr. David l. Lose. Why does God love a contrite heart and spirit? What can we take from this during this Lenten Season? What can we give?
