"and he entered Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey..."

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."

A new Covenant: "I Will Write It on Their Hearts"

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.

 

Come to the Light - the Truth that Sets You Free

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.

"Fulfillment of the Law."

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?”

"Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me."

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?

A walk on the wild side

Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; and Mark 1:9-15.

Last week, the Rev. Geoffrey Hoare told us to sharpen our focus if we are to be transformed - that the glory of God is not realized by staying on the mountain, or taking refuge in past security, but, instead, means leaving the past behind and following Jesus down off the mountain and into the wilderness - the first stop on the way to the cross and the kingdom of God. What awaits us in the wilderness?

This week, in "Enemies," Hoare challenges us to confront that, within and without us, which keeps us from becoming who we are called to be - beloved children of God - to confront the enemies which compromise our freedom and impair or impede us from being in a right relationship with God and our neighbor. How does being in the wilderness help us to do that?

The Rev. Dr. Lou Bouman in "Back to the Wilderness," tells us "To walk in that wilderness, to be alone with my thoughts and with God is one of the things that feeds my soul. But it is not safe. It is never safe. For each encounter with myself and with God changes me forever. Just as it changed Moses when he encountered God in the burning bush, so each encounter changes us. For in the wilderness I cannot escape from who I am, nor can I escape from the one who calls me to be so much more than just who I am. In the wilderness I am laid bare and open to all the things that God calls me to be." In the wilderness when everything else is taken away, we learn the value of things. What is most valuable to us? What is the value of testing? What can we learn in the wilderness?

Transformation - culmination of Epiphany

Scripture: 2 KIngs 2: 1-12; Psalm 50: 1-6: 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6; Mark 9: 2-9

               This last Sunday of Epiphany is also Transfiguratrion Sunday. In the transfiguration we again see the extraordinary come out of the ordinary, this time in the form of a glorious mountaintop experience. Can you think of any “mountaintop experiences” you have had? What does it mean to be “transfigured,” or “transformed?”  Can you think of any thing, person, or experience which transformed you, or altered your thinking or life in some important way?

            The Rev. Jeffrey Hoare in “Epiphanies,” shows us how we can be transformed by sharpening our focus in considering how and why we are doing things:

 “Years ago I was whining to a wise monk, a man now in his 90s, about how dull and fruitless and boring my prayer and my worship seemed to be. He pointed out to me that I was looking for the effects of my prayer and worship in the actions themselves. I was looking for some kind of experience of God, some kind of manifestation of God, some powerful sense of God's presence. I was trying to conjure one by my devotion or engender an epiphany by the fervency with which I sang or sense of wonder that I was able to find as I approached communion. He told me I was missing the point. I should rather be looking for the effects of my prayer in my life, he said, and not in the prayer itself.”

            Hoare shows how worship focusing on stirring up the emotions without discernment can result in “our” will, not God’s will and purposes being served. It can lead to an “us” and “them” mentality. What does he mean by “Nuremburg worship?” How are we to worship God?

            On the other hand, Kate Huey, in her “Reflections,” tells us worship can unintentionally dull us to awareness of God’s presence. She tells us we should be reassured in that Peter, James and John didn’t “get it” even when they experienced the Transfiguration. How did they not get it? What is she referring to by the “thin places” of Celtic spirituality? What do we mean when we say, use or think about “glory?” How is real “glory” obtained?

            Huey asks us to reflect on this year’s Epiphany season with a question or two:

“This text, which manifests Jesus' identity so dramatically, brings the season of Epiphany to a fitting close before we begin the journey of Lent. During this Epiphany season, how have you come to deeper understanding of who Jesus is, and then, a deeper understanding of who you are, as a person of faith? What are moments of insight, when you both saw God's glory and heard God still speaking to you, calling you to the path of discipleship? What are glimpses you have had of a light too bright for any of us to see, that drew a response from you, a desire to do something, as Peter had, to mark this event? Is that something our churches do, like Peter--mark the event, look backward, instead of forward, see only partial truths instead of the big picture? Is it possible that our "work," even in the church, may distract us from more important things? Do we walk right by the brightest lights and sweetest sounds and miss the most important moments of our journey in faith, those thin places, because we were paying attention to something else? God spoke to Jesus directly at his baptism and to the disciples at the Transfiguration, proclaiming him the Son of God: when have we been like the Roman centurion who saw Jesus on the cross and exclaimed, "Surely this man was the Son of God"? What do we need to see, and what do we need to hear, in order to understand, and to follow?”