Preferring Nothing to Christ

Exodus 32: 7-14
John 5:31-47

In today’s reading from Exodus God challenges Moses about the creation of a golden calf. Moses tries to defend the people and makes appeal to a tradition that stretches far back in biblical memory:

‘Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise: I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage for ever.’

Memory plays a key part in our life of faith. On a personal level we have the memory of the gifts and promises in our own faith journey, on a communal level we come together in worship to remember and relive our shared faith story. We ritualise those key moments so that they are placed firmly in our collective memory.

During Lent we are invited into the wilderness, to journey with the Israelites towards the Promised Land. We too must face the times when the journey is hard. We will feel the pull of easy solutions and things that seem to offer us some respite. The invitation is to rely entirely on God and not on things that we can fashion ourselves. God’s promise held true for the Israelites and holds true for us today.

Where in your life are you being invited to rely on God?

Isaiah 49:8-15
John 5:17-30

Each year in Lent the Church gives us the opportunity to revisit the story of our salvation. It’s a story of faith and great ideals, of times of bitter disappointment and the utmost courage. In the first readings in our weekday lectionary we are invited to identify with the people of Israel. God chooses a people to be the bearers of hope and light. God chooses a people to a beacon of faithful love. Their initial hope and courage is tested to its limits when they find themselves in Exile. Just when they feel that every last glimmer of hope is lost Isaiah paints a vision of a joyful return to Jerusalem. After years of soul wearying waiting God declares that now is the ‘day of salvation.’ Into the depths of their despair and fear of abandonment, God speaks words of hope:

Does a mother forget her baby at the breast,
or fail to cherish the son of her womb?
Yet even if these forget,
I will never forget you.

Given the situations in our world today it may take more than our usual courage to hear Isaiah’s words and to know that this is a message for our times. We may not be able to influence the world situation, but every small gestures of hope in God’s promise can strengthen us in heart and mind.

Where in your own life do you most need to hear God say: ‘At the favourable time I will answer you, on the day of salvation I will help you.’ ?

Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
John 5:1-3, 5-16

Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.

This passage from Ezekiel comes towards the end of a long and complicated vision of the new Temple. Beginning at Ch 40, Ezekiel’s vision fills seven chapters and its details can be hard to follow. By the time we get to Ch 47 there is a change and the mood is one of hope and healing. Water flows out from the Temple and wherever the water flows there is life.

The idea of a tree that can both provide something good to eat and be medicinal is a very comforting image. We’ve largely lost the practice of turning to nature for our healing.

After our experience in the pandemic of having to consider the life and death implications of everything that makes up our daily lives, we need Ezekiel’s message of hope more than ever.

Where do you look for healing?

Isaiah 65:17-21
John 4:43-54

Naming a child carries such significance. In biblical times the naming of a child could serve as a way of remembering a significant event. The name Moses comes from the root verb ‘to draw’ or ‘pull out’, because he was drawn out of the River Nile. His name would always be a reminder of God’s providence.

Today’s passage from Isaiah imagines God naming Jerusalem and her people. The names ‘Joy’ and ‘Gladness’ carry such huge potential and all the more so because Jerusalem has suffered destruction and her people exile. It’s as if God sees what they can’t. This promise of restoration and new life speaks directly to the despondency the Israelites feel as they find themselves in exile.

Can you imagine a name that God might give you?

Joshua 5:9-12
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

This is the second time this Lent that he hear the parable of the Lost Son. I find it helpful to read the three parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son together. Luke’s narrative skill invites us into each scene, and we almost have no choice but to respond. With each parable the invitation goes deeper. We know these stories so well.

If you are preaching today or listening to a sermon there’s sure to be something said about repentance, mercy and God. We need this message more than ever in our world today. But there’s something else which links these parables: each scene ends in an invitation to rejoice and celebrate. Each parable encapsulates that special joy you feel when you find something which you thought you had lost. To feel that joy you need first to have noticed that something was missing. Then you need to go in search of it. In Luke’s parables this joy finds communal expression. I have always loved the phrase ‘we are going to have feast, a celebration’. Joy is almost always doubled when you invite others to share it.

These parables all speak to me of the centrality of celebration in the story of our salvation. The quality of our love and mercy are mirrored in our capacity to rejoice and to celebrate. I’ve come to value the people in my life who naturally rejoice or who make the simplest of gatherings a celebration. It’s worth quoting Amy J Levine a second time here:

‘Do whatever it takes to find the lost and then celebrate with others, both so that you can share the joy and so that the others will help prevent the recovered from ever being lost again. Don’t wait until you receive an apology; you may never get one. Don’t wait until you can muster the ability to forgive; you may never find it. Don’t stew in your sense of being ignored, for there is nothing that can be done to retrieve the past.

Instead, go have lunch. Go celebrate, and invite others to join you. If the repenting and the forgiving come later, so much the better. And if not, you still will have done what is necessary. You will have begun a process that might lead to reconciliation. You will have opened a second chance for wholeness. Take advantage of resurrection—it is unlikely to happen twice.’

— Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine

Are things in this past week for which you can say ‘we are going to have feast, a celebration’?

Hosea 5:15-6:6
Luke 18:9-14

The prophets were all called to deliver challenging messages to people who found themselves in crisis. It was largely a crisis of faith. One question occupied the hearts and minds of the people: Has God abandoned us? As political alliances failed and the prospect of exile loomed, Hosea speaks to the injustices present in daily life and worship.

His message is uncompromising, but there is always a glimmer of hope. God promises to be faithful and that he will come to their aid is ‘as certain as the dawn.’ Israel has its part to play. The covenantal relationship relies on their co-operation. It relies on a type of love that is deep and true. But Israel is half hearted:

What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears.

It’s all too easy to become half-hearted about so many things in our lives. Lent offers us the opportunity to look closely at our hearts. The promise of the dawn is God’s pledge that all we most deeply need and desire is held in his love. For those places in our lives where love seems to quickly disappear, Lent offers the chance to change our hearts.

How is God calling you to deepen your love this Lent?

Hosea 14: 2-10
Mark 12:28-34

‘One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put this question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel. the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind, and with all your strength.’

heart
soul
mind
strength

It’s in the person of Jesus that we see what this commandment means. As we journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem we will see the depth of his love and just how much his heart, soul, mind and strength are focused on his Father.

Whenever I hear these verses from Mark I think of words I read by Sr Joan Chittister osb:

To live a religious life takes all the life we have.
To live a religious life takes the heart of a hermit,
the soul of a mountain climber,
the eyes of a lover,
the hands of a healer,
and the mind of a rabbi.

What would it mean for you to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?

Jeremiah 7:23-28
Luke 11:14-23

‘Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses.’

The onlookers in today’s Gospel challenge the very nature of Jesus’ power to work miracles. Jesus has cast out a devil and rather than accepting this as a miracle, the onlookers set up a polarity: Jesus has either done this through the power of God or Beelzebul. They want proof of Jesus’ power, but he won’t give it. He turns their reasoning back on them. I suspect his warning about households being divided rather goes over their heads. They have already categorised Jesus.

In our daily lives it takes grace and faith to work against division and to assume the good. It is so easy to close a conversation before it begins. We don’t have to look far to see ‘households divided’. Our press is able to pit one group against another with remarkable ease. Social media adds layer upon layer of division where an erroneous opinion can spread like wild fire.

The Gospel today is a personal challenge to us to examine the seeds of division which take root in our own hearts. Christ asks us to be with him and not against him.

How can you be with Christ today?

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19

Moses said to the people; Now, Israel, take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord God of your Fathers is giving you.

Scripture scholar, Walter Brueggemann, sees the whole of salvation history through the lens of ‘land’. His book -The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith- has given me some useful insights. As landless Israel wanders in the wilderness it is the promise of land which keeps them going. Our text from Deuteronomy today more than hints at the fact that with land comes responsibility. For the writers of Deuteronomy faithfulness to God and God’s commands is everything. Entering and being able to stay in the land both depend on this faithfulness.

For the Israelites the experience of the Exodus and the giving of the Law were concrete experiences on which they could draw when the way ahead seemed hard. Just as Israel will learn to cultivate and guard the land they have been given, so too they will learn to cultivate and guard their hearts. The Law is a safeguard of love and guarantee of God’s presence.

How do you safeguard love in your life?

Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10
Luke 1:26-38

‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.’

Do you ever stop and wonder how different our faith might be if Jesus had just appeared on earth, fully grown and ready to start his mission? We would lose a great deal in terms of our understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. There would be no need for Mary or Joseph or visits from angels.

When Luke tells the story of the Incarnation he paints a scene for us with a few sentences and over the centuries artists have supplied the things that the text doesn’t tell us. Whether it is a stylised icon depiction of Mary poised and assured or a contemporary scene of Mary in her kitchen, the artist captures this defining moment in salvation history.

Mary’s ‘yes’ is our ‘yes’ too. Our whole faith journey, begun at baptism, is an invitation to say ‘yes’ to God. Every small ‘yes’ has the potential to prepare us for a big ‘Yes’. All we can do is try to be open and ready to do what is asked.

How can you say ‘yes’ to God today?