From Fear and Doubt to Believing and Peace

Pastor Barbara's Sermon for April 23, 3006
Scripture: John 20:19-31 and Acts 4:32-35

Can you imagine what a range of emotions Jesus’ followers went through the day and weeks following his resurrection? Certainly the events surrounding Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion had been devastating. Grief and fear were probably right up near the top. We know that Peter was so scared that he denied that he knew Jesus. Jesus and his followers were seen by the authorities as rabble rousers, troublemakers, folks that were intent on upsetting the status quo. If Jesus had been hung on the cross, would they be next? We are told they are hiding behind locked doors because they were afraid of the crowd. Maybe some of them thought that after Jesus was laid in the tomb that Jesus things would calm down; but surprise, the tomb was empty and Mary Magdalene reports seeing and talking with Jesus early that Easter morning. He sent her to give them the message that he was ascending to God, his Father and ours. I wonder if they expected Jesus to be upset because of how they had deserted him, denied him, betrayed him. What would you have expected?

From our scripture reading we know that Jesus’ came to his disciples, minus Thomas, that Easter evening, apparently entering through the locked door. His first words were “Peace be with you.” And of course the disciples were overjoyed to see him. After showing them the wounds in his hands and sides, he again said “Peace be with you.” For Jesus these words were not just a pleasant greeting. They were a fulfillment of a promise he made to them before his death. He told them that regardless of what they were threatened with in the world, his peace would always be with them. In what we call Jesus’ Farewell Discourse in John chapters 13 to 17, he promises them a life of joy and peace, a life guided by the Paraclete or the Holy Spirit. This peace he offers them is not just a greeting card platitude of a beautiful scene; it is the beginning of the new world, the long awaited world of God’s shalom. This shalom is an inner world of freedom from fear, sin and death, true peace.

As I said earlier, one of the disciples, Thomas, was missing when Jesus came to the disciples in the locked room. He would not believe the others who reported on the visit. Thomas said that “unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” It was a week later when Jesus came again through the shut doors, and this time Thomas was there. Jesus said a third time, “Peace be with you.” Then he went right to Thomas telling him to touch his wounds. Most translations use the word doubt quoting Jesus as saying, “do not doubt, but believe.” Brian Stoffregen, a Biblical scholar, said he consulted not one but six different Greek Lexicons for the translation of apistos, the word translated as doubt and not any of them use the word doubt. Instead he believes the best translation of the Greek would be “not having trust or faith or certainty”. I believe along with Stoffregen that instead of the bad rap Thomas got as being a doubter—we still today talk about a doubting Thomas and almost always in a negative connotation—Thomas was a person of great faith. He was the type of person who wanted to be sure. I see a person who questions rather than just glibly repeats things that others have said without trying to think them through as being a person to admire. Once such a person does become sure, his or her faith can be stronger than those who do not question. Just as growth can come through pain, faith can come through doubts. Fred Buechner says that “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” Stoffregen suggests that Thomas should have been called the Confessing Thomas instead of the doubting Thomas. As soon as he sees Jesus’ wounds, he confesses that Jesus is “my Lord and my God.”

Let’s look at the role Jesus plays in the above encounter. He does not shame or belittle Thomas for putting conditions on his belief. Instead Jesus does what Thomas required. He generously shows himself to him, allowing him to touch his wounds. Thomas’ faith is more important than how he gets to that faith. I’m reminded here of one of the first things I was taught as a social work student, “Start where the client is.” Jesus was more than willing to start where Thomas was and where we are. That’s how important it is to Jesus that we believe. Jesus accepted Thomas as he was, a person who had to be sure, to be certain. From this post-Easter appearance I believe that the implications for us are that Jesus accepts us where we are and gives us whatever he can to get us to where we need to be. One of the most important things Jesus gave to us is the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Comforter of the Advocate. This Spirit, part of the divine Trinity, is with us all the time. When I pray—as I often do—Come Holy Spirit, come, what I’m really asking is to let me be aware of this presence that never leaves me.

Getting back to our Gospel reading, Jesus says blessed are those that do not see and yet have come to believe. Jesus is probably not going to make an appearance to us to help us with our believing. So how do we get help in believing? Is there any evidence on which we can base our faith? What are the signs of Jesus’ resurrection? There are many different possibilities including the Holy Scriptures, the stories passed down to us from generation to generation. The most important evidence for me is the church, both the early church that we read about in Acts as well as the church today in all its imperfections.

When I occasionally think about the validity of the resurrection the thing that stands out most for me is the transformation of Jesus’ disciples. From a fearful, doubting group, hiding for their life, they become bolder and bolder. In Acts of the Apostles we are told that the whole group of believers was of one heart and soul. They held everything in common and there was not a needy person among them. Also instead of hiding out, they gave with great power their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord. What a change from those days just before and after the resurrection! For them to be one and to testify so boldly, there had to be great belief and great hope inspired by the risen Christ. Pinchas Lapide is a Jewish, non-Christian, NT scholar that believes God raised Jesus from the dead. For him, too, the proof is in the changed lives of the disciples. I want to quote his beautifully written passage: “When this cared, frightened band of apostles…these peasants, shepherds, and fishermen, who betrayed and denied their master and then failed him miserably, suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident mission society, convinced of salvation and able to work with much more success after Easter than before Easter. Then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation.[1]

How do I see the resurrected, still living, still speaking God? If I’m having difficulty believing in the resurrection, in new life, in an Easter kind of faith, I can think about the faithfulness of the people at Deering Community Church. I think of Shirley’s many hours of practicing to bring us beautiful music. I think of the Sunday School teachers, preparing lessons even when they are not sure about attendance; I think about the deacons and the greeters who contribute to making an hospitable welcome and smooth worship experience; I think about our delegates who spend many hours at meetings to support the work of the larger church; I think of the choir members giving up an evening each week as well as coming early on Sundays to practice. I think of the members who quietly make sure the bulletins are folded and the dishwasher is unloaded. I think of the teenagers who are so willing to help with the younger children; I think of the time, care and wisdom of our confirmation and Bible study teachers; I think of those that are willing to come up with extra money to do things that are outside the budget; I think of those who creatively make the sanctuary beautiful with flowers, Christmas decorations, and special cleaning. I think of the Trustees and other helpers who come out for the work days; I think of the children with their wonderful questions and even better answers; I think of the special notes, cards and emails that members write to each other and to me; I think of how the Guild members care for each other; I think of those who handle the money and make the budgets; I think of those that plan and staff our coffee house or our chicken BBQ or work long and hard hours on fund raisers. When I see our church doing all this plus standing up for and welcoming those that are too often shunned by society, working for peace with justice, or donating their dollars to help the needy, I am sure that Jesus is alive. Over and over again these many and varied workings of our church are means by which Jesus becomes real to us and to the world. All of these parts of the body of Christ working together is evidence for me that Jesus lives, that Easter happens, that God loves us. “Jesus lives not because he can walk through locked doors and show his wounds to frightened disciples but because he breathes new life into those disciples through the gift of the Spirit, and commissions them to continue his work.”[2] Let us continue to follow Jesus by loving the world in every way possible just as God did by coming and living among us as Jesus.



[1] Pinchas Lapide, The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, p. 125
[2] Gail R. O’Day, New Interpreters Bible, Volume on John, p.848.

EASTER SERMON BY PASTOR BARBARA

“I HAVE SEEN THE LORD”
April 16, 2006
Scripture: Acts10:34-43, John 20:1-18

What a wonderful day! Easter morning is here. For me it is a time of great joy and celebration, even though I was not so sure about that as I stood on Bear Hill at 6 am with the temperature still below freezing! I certainly needed something to warm me up. One of the ways to warm up is with laughter so I thought I would share with you some bulletin bloopers to warm you up for this special sermon. By the way I have been told that all of these statements actually appeared in someone’s bulletin: Here goes: Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help. / Join us for conversation after the services; prayer and medication to follow./ Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church./ Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones./ and the last one: For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Each of our four gospels has an Easter story. I have chosen the one in John as I want to talk with you about Mary Magdalene. We are told that while it was still dark, Mary went to the tomb. We know that Mary was very close to Jesus; Luke says that Jesus had exorcised seven demons from her; later patristic—male dominated—stories developed that she was a prostitute but there is no evidence for that theory—possibly she had a bad reputation simply because she was without a husband. She was definitely portrayed as someone on the outside, yet she was a trusted friend of Jesus, a person of great faith and loyalty. I can imagine that she had been grieving immensely at the loss of her friend and teacher. She probably hadn’t slept much since Friday. As soon as she could after the Sabbath she hurried to the tomb. She looked inside and saw that the body was gone. Assuming that thieves had stolen the body of her Lord, she quickly ran and told Peter and the beloved disciple. They ran to the tomb and also saw that it was empty and then the men went back to their homes. Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb crying. She was so sad and disoriented that she did not recognize Jesus at first, even when he spoke to her. When he speaks her name she calls him Rabbouni and out of great joy lunges to embrace him. The part of the story that I don’t like is that he says, “Don’t hold on to me.” I wish there had been a long tearful yet joyful embrace. Instead Jesus tells her to go tell the news that he is alive and will soon return to his Father, his God and our God. What this means to me is that we can’t stay in the past, wishing that what’s happened hadn’t happened but we must go on with our life.

Lots of folks want to prove or disprove that the resurrection happened. There were no witnesses to the resurrection itself. As Barbara Brown Taylor says, “The resurrection is the one and only event in Jesus’ life that was entirely between him and God…No one on earth can say what happened inside that tomb, because no one was there. They all arrived after the fact….but as it turned out that did not matter because the empty tomb was not the point. Jesus had outgrown the tomb. The risen one had people to see and things to do.” Taylor continues to point out that he appeared not once but four more times to his friends and disciples in the Gospel of John and every time he appeared to them, they became stronger, kinder, wiser, more daring. When Mary recognized Jesus is when the miracle really happened. “I have seen the Lord”. This is the miracle—that Mary and we can encounter the Christ, the living God. We too can say “I have seen the Lord.” Biblical scholar Sarah Dylan Brewer says this about the resurrection, “Our vision changes. When we take in the new life Christ offers, we can see Christ’s presence everywhere—in Creation and the creativity that is God’s gift, in the eyes of a child, in the heart of an enemy. In injustices and wounds, we see opportunities to participate in the risen Christ’s healing and redemption of the world….We learn to see others as people God loves….As we see those whom we saw as unlovable, we experience the unreserved graciousness with which Christ loves us.”

For me Easter is all about a God whose love lives and overcomes death. We live in a world of great trouble, a world that is filled with wars, hatred, domination systems, greed, oppression and violence. I believe that so many human beings do not feel they are good enough, not really sufficient for living life; instead folks are insecure and that drives them to grab more power, more admiration, and more possessions so that they will feel they are enough. Unless we have a spiritual practice that keeps us deeply connected to this God of love and life, we will continue to feel alienated and not good enough. I don’t believe this spiritual practice has to be a Christian practice. It could be Buddhist or something else. We Christians claim Jesus as our path to God. Other people claim other paths or gates which are right for them. I believe the God of all our great religions is a God of love, a God that overcomes death. Love is what lives. Love is the source of life. The central Easter message is that love has the power to raise new life. It is because God loves all of us so much that Easter happened. When we find a way to stay deeply connected to God in prayer and to others in a beloved community, then we will realize how deeply loved we are and that we each are sufficient, that we each have a special mission in this world. The story of Peter that we heard today from the Acts of the Apostles makes clear that Jesus’ message is for all peoples, not just the nation of Israel. Peter says that it is now clear to him that God shows no partiality. Ethnic background, race, culture, socio-economic status, and the rest simply have no part to play; there are no external prerequisites for becoming a Christian because God is impartial! It reminds me of the United Church of Christ’s “God is Still Speaking” publicity—we accept everyone—whoever they are and wherever they are on their life’s journey. There are absolutely no requirements for membership in the Church, the body of Christ, except that you love God and your neighbor, confess Jesus Christ as your leader and do your best to follow the teachings of Jesus. As v. 35 in the Acts reading says, "In every nation (or 'ethnic group') any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:35).

Let’s look again at Mary Magdalene. She was such an unexpected person to be chosen to spread the news of Christ’s resurrection. Just hear the hope and excitement in her voice as she says, “I have seen the Lord!” For the followers of Christ, this message she brought turned the world upside down. She did not expect to be the bearer of this good news but when her Lord sent her, she said yes. She teaches us that no matter whom we are or what kind of life we have been dealt, we have hope because of God’s deep and unconditional love for us, the love so big that God came to live amongst us as Jesus. Our lives are constantly being made new. That’s what Easter is all about. Unconditional love, new life and saying yes to God’s call in our life. This seed of hope is planted in the soul of each human being. We don’t have to live a life of oppression, injustice, violence and war. When we look around at terrible situations in Iraq, in Israel/Palestine, in Darfur, Sudan, in Niger, just to name a few of the areas of conflict, we may think there is no earthly solution. Maybe there isn’t an earthly solution; however, there is the possibility of a Divinely inspired and led solution. At the Stop the Next War Now Peace Conference a couple of weeks ago, Michael True showed us one horrible situation after another that was resolved without violence: apartheid in South Africa, the bus boycott under the leadership of Martin Luther King, the People’s Revolt in the Philippines in 1986, the Berlin Wall in 1989 just to name a few. For me and others at this conference, these stories gave us tremendous hope.

The message I want to leave with you this Easter Sunday is that God loves us deeply and unconditionally; that God is in everyone we see; that there is hope; and that you my sisters and brothers are being called to transform yourselves and this world. God is calling us to follow Jesus, to be part of this New Life. All we have to do is to answer Yes, just as did Mary Magdalene. If we connect deeply with that divine love and share it with each other, we will truly celebrate Easter every day of our lives. Amen and Amen

4-9-06 Sermon by Pastor Barbara Currie

PREPARING FOR EASTER
Palm Sunday Sermon
Scripture: Mark 11:1-11, Psalms 118:1-2, 19-29

The final act of the great drama of Easter has begun. Today is a challenging day for preachers. I spent two days of researching and thinking before I put a single word on paper. Early on I decided this year I would not combine the Palms and Passion liturgies as I had last year. Now what do I mean by that sentence? The Passion liturgy is the scripture that describes Jesus’ journey that last week of his earthly life leading up to crucifixion. For folks who go to church many days of Holy Week, these scriptures will be read on Maundy Thursday and/or Good Friday. We ministers are encouraged to include both on this the 6th Sunday in Lent so that folks that go to church only on Sundays won’t go from Palm Sunday celebration to Easter celebration. It is important to reflect on the rest of Jesus’ week and I do hope that most of you will be with for the Maundy Thursday service later this week. One of our esteemed preachers, Fred Craddock, has said that it is often difficult to tell the difference between Palm Sunday one week and Easter the next week. The tone of the services is identical; the only real difference is in the foliage: palms one week and lilies the next. So today we will focus on the festive atmosphere of the parade into Jerusalem, yet also look at what we may have to do to prepare for Easter.

I just love the Hosannas and the palm branches waving, having the children and some of the adults process into the sanctuary. From ancient times, palm branches were symbols of victory and triumph. The Romans would reward their champions in the Olympic games by giving them these branches. Throughout the Old Testament there are indications that the Jewish people carried palms with them for festive occasions. Last year one of the children, 5 year old Jack, was sick and so missed church on Palm Sunday. When his family came home with the palms, he asked how come, what were they for? His brothers replied, “People held them over Jesus’ head as he walked by.” Little Jack fumed, “Wouldn’t you know it, the one Sunday I didn’t get to go to church, Jesus showed up.”

In the early pagan world this time of year was like New Year’s is for us, a new beginning. For Christians, Easter is that new beginning. Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week, our preparation to understand and accept the resurrection that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. This was the time of Passover, the greatest of all the Jewish feasts. People from all over Israel made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the liberation or freeing of the Jews from slavery in Egypt during the days of Moses. Our Gospel lesson tells us about the crowd of people gathering, like for a parade. When they saw Jesus, they yelled out Hosanna and even put their coats on the ground for his passing by. Remember for the past three years, he had been traveling the region performing miracles, raising the dead, curing illnesses, teaching about love and peace, often accompanied by the less than desirable people: women, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans. I’m sure these folks and the twelve disciples were part of this procession. The whole community was excited. Yet don’t forget, the same people that called Hosanna or Save Us on Palm Sunday, yelled “Crucify him,” on Friday. The same folks that shouted, “Give us Jesus” as they waved their palms, yelled, “Give us Barabbas” on Friday. As much as we can enjoy the festivity of the Palm Sunday crowd, yet in retrospect we know that this cheering crowd either disappears or becomes a jeering crowd just 5 days later.

In our Mark scripture, we are told that at the end of the parade Jesus enters the temple, looks around at everything and then leaves with his disciples. It is the very next day in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that Jesus enters the temple, upsets the tables, and drives out the moneychangers and the merchants with their animals. . He emphasizes that his Father’s house is a house of prayer and these folks have made it a den of thieves. I talked to you about this story a few weeks ago as in the gospel of John this passage comes earlier in the life of Jesus. In the other gospels it is after the “cleansing of the temple” that the authorities get together and decide how to do what they have to do: arrest, try, and kill Jesus. Even though the people cried “Save us!” the day before, there could be no salvation in that world at that time. They and we have to patiently follow Jesus on his journey to the cross. This is not an easy thing to do. There are many things that stand in our way.

I’m going to ask you now to go on a visual journey with me. You can close your eyes or keep them open—whatever works best for you: Imagine the road where you live. Picture in your mind what it looks like, where the trees and the fields are, where the other houses and barns are. Are there parked cars in sight, any ducks or geese, any dogs or cats? Imagine yourself standing outside along the road. Now imagine seeing a large crowd of people coming down the road. In the middle of the crowd you notice a man riding on a small donkey and when he gets a little closer you recognize him as Jesus. You can see that some people are putting down branches, throwing flowers, some of your neighbors are also rushing to the street and laying things down. What would you lay down? How would you praise him? As Christians, one of our missions is to praise God and to praise his son, Jesus. There are many ways of praising him: written, spoken, sung, painted in a sign, performed in a dance. It’s what we’ve been called to do. In 1 Peter 2:9, “..you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called your out of darkness into his wonderful light.” What about each of you? Do you praise him? Is there something stopping you from praising, making a joyful noise along with this Palm Sunday crowd? Is there anything standing in your way of yelling out praises? Do you withhold your joyful shouts because of pride? Because of temperament? How many of you have looked down upon those Christians that yell out, faint, maybe talk in tongues? Have you made excuses that it’s just not your temperament? Maybe saying, I’m not expressive; that’s not the way my social/religious group does things?

Or I wonder if maybe it’s fear that stands in your way. The classic example here would be Peter, the Rock, who denied Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed. Peter had the perfect opportunity to witness, to testify. He could have told the crowd about how he stood beside Jesus when he healed a deaf man, a blind man, made the lame walk, walked on water in a storm, brought people back to life that had died. He could have said, “Yes, I follow him, he is my Lord.” But instead he responds that he did not know this man! There’s lots of reason to be scared. Think about what happened to one of the Christian peacemakers in Iraq. What if you praised Jesus to your neighbor or to your co-worker and they thought you were a religious nut? So if Jesus was riding the donkey down your street and it’s fear that stands in the way of your praise, would you be willing to lay it down?

Maybe it’s not fear but doubt. Maybe you are not at all sure of this Easter stuff, this Savior stuff. Even if you come to church regularly, you may doubt deep down inside that Jesus could possibly be God, to say nothing about rising from the dead. Maybe you come to a United Church of Christ denomination because they aren’t like those Baptists or Roman Catholics that have to believe all these impossible, non-scientific things. It’s true that everyone is welcome here wherever they are on their journey! It’s tough to praise Jesus when you are filled with doubts and disbelief. Could you possibly lay any of these things down as you see Jesus pass by? Maybe it’s guilt, maybe it’s riches unshared, maybe its just too many worries and burdens that keep you from praising Jesus.¨

There may be many different reasons that we would not take the opportunity of Jesus walking up the street to connect, to praise, to worship at his feet. I now call you back to Deering Community Church for a poem and then a few closing remarks about the journey of Jesus. Bruce Prewer wrote this poem about five people in the modern world and how they dealt with the arrival of Jesus. Although it kind of breaks the flow of my sermon, I’ve decided to take that risk as I really like what he has to say. This poem is about a farmer in town buying a new car, a young woman busy in an office, a real estate agent, a bored wealthy woman at home, and a university professor. Let me share it with you now.

THE ARRIVAL : On the day when Jesus the prophet arrived in our town,/Joe Farmer was very busy choosing a new car./He heard the distant cheering:/"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."/Mentally he made a note and promised himself /to hear the prophet; some day,not now./Joe was far too occupied with trade-in price, fuel consumption,/and the virtues of the ST or the LJ model,/and whether either car was better than his neighbour's.

At coffee break 22 year old Esther Romantic/ also heard the uproar coming from High Street./ She felt an impulseto go and join the crowd/with those who welcomed the prophet, /for stories about him had strangely shaken and encouraged her./ But Esther's wedding day was only seven weeks off./ and she still had thinking to do about the flowers, shade of eye shadow,/or whether on the tables /she wanted with every place card a wishbone. /

For Jim Smiley the real estate agent/ it was infuriating: Time was money!/Here he was stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of town,/thanks to these idiots with grins, slogans and palm branches,/ supporting this new fool Jesus /who had said some rotten thingsabout real estate. /Jim was due in four minutes at Toorak Place /to meet with a wealthy client. /Jim yelled at a policeman patrolling the edge of the procession:/"How about some law and order!"/

Some did not even hear the cheering nor cared./Beth Goldsmith with fingers covered with rings /was watching "Days of our lives"when the prophet/ walked within one block of her residence./They interrupted the programme for an eyewitness report/ on the progress of the street demo. /Beth took the opportunity/to fetch another pot of coffee and two aspirin.

Professor Nicodemus was lecturing at the Uni./He noted the small number who had turned up today,/and even they were restless./He asked the reason./They gave him the news that the prophet /Jesus was leading a demo to the Central Mall. /On an impulse Nicodemus dismissed the surprised students /and hurried off down High Street where, /somewhat embarrassed,he joined the crowd /and found himself shouting "Hosanna!"/At the sound of his own voice,the Prof felt his own soul/-as if a birth was about to take place-leap for joy within!/ And it seemed as if /all things were becoming new./ Opportunity knocks. Sometimes.

The ones who praised him and then deserted or jeered him may have done so because Jesus did not fulfill their expectations. They wanted a royal King, one that would lead them into battle and be victorious over the Roman powers. They were disappointed with the Messiah they got. Instead, Jesus did not bear arms; he did not lead armies. He came in peace, bearing a message of peace and love; he died asking forgiveness for those who have contributed to his death. One of the last things he said to his disciples was to put your sword away. We are called to follow Jesus, to be vulnerable, to love and care for others, to be humble. Will we hear the Palm Sunday story today and forget it until next year? Or will we have the courage to lay down the things that keep us from praising and following Jesus. I invite all of you to walk in the spirit of Christ. We can’t save the world, but maybe we can make a difference this very week in someone’s life. Remember that Jesus has promised us that we will not walk alone, but that we will have the Holy Spirit, the Divine love and comfort of God wherever we go till the end of time.

¨ The structure of this part of the sermon is taken from Rev. Matthew Rogers at SermonCentral.com.

4-2-06 Sermon by Pastor Barbara Currie

A NEW WORLD
Scripture: Jer. 31:31-34 and John 12:20-33

Our Jeremiah scripture passage was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE when the Babylonian forces won the war, and Jeremiah was forced to go with a group of Jews to seek exile in Egypt. This Babylonian captivity lasted till 539 BCE when the Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylon and allowed the Hebrew exiles to return home. So we have here the descendants of the remnant of the Jewish people that Moses had originally led out of Egypt, being again exiled there. In the Hebrew Bible there is much said about how these Israelites had not kept the covenant made with God under the leadership of Moses and that they were punished by being conquered and exiled again. At the point of our scripture reading, Jeremiah tells the people of Israel that God is offering them a new covenant. This covenant is not between individuals and God; it is between the whole community and God. The Lord will forgive them and remember their sins no more. This covenant is not going to be written on stone but in the hearts of the people. As with all ancient peoples, the heart was the seat of the emotions, the intellect, and especially, the will and moral life.

In this covenant that Jeremiah talks about, God is promising that God will be their God, and they shall be God’s people. They won’t have to teach each other about God as they will all “Know the Lord”. The laws, the commandments, become synonymous with “knowing God”. Such a covenant would create such a close relationship between God and the people that the people would automatically do the Lord’s will. Part of knowing God is to know what God desires. God has said over and over again that knowing God means that we accept God’s demands “to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.” God’s covenant written in their hearts would transform the community into one of glad obedience. Can you imagine what this world would look like if we would all seek to keep God’s commandments, especially that second greatest commandment, love our neighbor as our self? Throughout the Bible we are told that God wants us to be loving, forgiving, peaceful and just. Jesus reminds us of this covenant when he instituted the Lord’s Supper, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Lk. 22:20b). Just as the Hebrews or Israelites are the heirs of the first new covenant, Christ has become the bearer of the New Covenant that we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper. Every time we have Communion, we are offered forgiveness and a chance to begin again in our intimate relationship with the Holy One.

This new covenant with God is call for rejoicing yet it is a huge and difficult proposition. The inward markings of the people as God’s people are true in the Jeremiah times as well as in our time. The way that others will know our God is in the way we live our life. This is an awesome responsibility. Others will know God and the Christ because of what they see in us. Much as we say we love God, it’s not easy to submit to God’s will and allow ourselves to be touched by the Divine. We may like the idea of being touched by God; however, there is a cost to that touch. If we truly give ourselves to God it restricts our choices and dictates our preferences. We are already so busy and have so many responsibilities as parents, as students, as workers. We have social and civic responsibilities; we are on town committees, historical societies, and choral groups. Parents tell me that they want their children to know about God, but they just can’t come to church because of the soccer games on Sunday mornings. We have programs and projects to run. We have houses to keep up, to say nothing about all the yard work that needs to be done this Spring. How much time can we allow to the life of our church and the carrying out of Jesus’ teachings? How much money can we give to the work of the church? Did someone say something about tithing? Do you know what that means—10% to God’s work? You’ve got to be kidding. It’s so much easier to take the secular road rather than God’s way. As long as everything is going smoothly in our life, why not move God to the sideline? We’ll say our prayers, maybe even a blessing before meals, come to church once in awhile if nothing else is scheduled! Let’s just put God on hold while we take other calls. How many of us listen to God’s voice first? How many of us will spend lots of money on pleasure but feel we can’t raise our pledges?

In our gospel lesson this morning, Jesus begins to talk about his death. He tells us that his heart is troubled and wonders if he should ask God, his Father, to save him from this horrible upcoming death. He quickly reminds himself that the reason he came to this world and to this time of death was to glorify God. Earlier he has reminded us that the person who loves his life will lose it and if we want to serve him, we must follow him. My sisters and brothers, following Jesus is not an easy thing to do. However, the gospel lesson tells us that Jesus will give eternal life to those who do follow him. He also tells us to walk in the light while we have it; if we walk in the darkness, we will be lost.

The promise of this gospel lesson is that the power of sin is never greater than the power of God within us. The point of our Lenten season of repentance is that we have to be willing to let go of something in order to be filled with the power of God in our hearts. It isn’t those chocolate goodies we give up that will bring us to God. Giving them up can remind us a little bit about how hard it is to sacrifice. The more important sacrifice is to relinquish any “stuff” that we value that stands between us and God, anything that keeps us stuck on the world rather than the path of Jesus. Jesus says we must die in order to live. We have to shed our cocoons and be transformed as our baptism promises, empowered by the strength of our God. It won’t be easy; however, it is possible because Jesus came to live with us and die for us in order to show us the way to live. When Jesus says those who love their life will lose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life, it doesn’t mean that we should not have self-esteem, self-love; what it means is that loving one’s life in the world too much, having a preference for worldly things instead of spiritual things can blind us to God’s love and grace. As one of my references put it, “Hatred of one’s life means rejection of the claims of the ‘world’ and willingness to serve and follow Jesus.”

So what does our new world look like? The significance in John’s gospel of the Greek or gentile men seeking out Jesus in Jerusalem and Jesus’ welcoming them, symbolizes that this new world of the Christ is a world that includes all nations and peoples. It is a world where our priority will be on knowing and following God in a community of believers. In this community that I like to call the Beloved Community, taken from Martin Luther King, Jr. we will take the road less traveled, the difficult road of sharing and caring and loving each other and all we come in contact with. We will pray for our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. We will let go of whatever worldly things that keep us from following the teachings of Jesus. As we move through this Lenten season to Holy Week and Easter, let us pray for strength, wisdom, courage to grow in the Spirit, to open our selves to the Divine inscription of the New Covenant written in our hearts. Let us pray always and then get up and walk in love, knowing that Christ walks beside us, remembering God’s promise to be with us always, to the end of the age. Amen