5 Lent/Year B
March 21, 2021
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 119:9-16; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Today is the 5th and final Sunday in Lent…next Sunday, when we gather, it will be to celebrate the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday…the beginning of Holy Week...a week when the scriptures invite us to walk with Jesus in his final days of his journey to the cross…where he is lifted up from the earth, in the glory of God’s love, for all to see and to believe…that truly…this is God’s beloved Son…
In our gospel reading today…we get a sneak peak into the story that will unfold during holy week…another part of the greatest love story ever told… the story of God’s love for all of us, for all of creation…
It is always my intention and my hope, and maybe some of you as well, is that as I embark on this yearly journey through the season of Lent, a season of fasting, repentance, prayer, meditating on God’s Holy Word…that I would emerge from this time, as captured so perfectly in the words of today’s collect, with my unruly will and affections as a sinner brought into order, and that by God’s grace, I would love what God commands and desire the same things God desires for all of us, and that somehow, among all the swift and varied changes of the world, my heart, our hearts, would surely be fixed where true joys are to be found…In Jesus…in serving Jesus, by following Jesus in the way of love, that God has written on his heart…
In our reading from Jeremiah today…we were reminded that this love of God, as revealed to us in Jesus…is indeed written on our hearts, also…
But here we are again, near to the conclusion of the season of Lent…and I confess, that I have fallen short, every day…in turning my eyes and heart to be focused on Jesus…where true joys are to be found…
I confess that in this past year of the pandemic, and in the current days of the pandemic that we still find ourselves striving to navigate…that I am sometimes very wearied by the swift and varied changes taking place in our world, and have felt helpless, at times, as to how to make a dent in the magnitude of all the social issues plaguing our society…the hatred and the violence this past week inflicted upon our Asian American siblings in Atlanta, the divisions between God’s people that prevent us from working towards an end to these pandemic times…the children who have fled from homes overtaken by violence…the families whose lives have been uprooted and in disarray this past year…
In my weariness, I have sometimes neglected to put my hope in God, my trust in God…sometimes forgetting that by God’s grace and mercy, the love of God, the dream of God, and all that I need is already within me, written on my heart…And in accordance with our scriptures, we believe that Jesus is the One who was sent to remind us of that, to invite us back to the center of our hearts, time and time again, to tap into that love of God, to realign our “unruly wills” with God’s will…and to follow Jesus…to go out into the world, seeking and serving Jesus, in the people we meet, where true joys are to be found…
As often is the case, while I was looking for something to share with our children at St Peter’s this week, I came across a little spiritual exercise that stimulated my brain and heart to think more about the love of God written on our hearts, and our invitation to seek, serve and follow Jesus, in proclaiming this love to the world, with the people we meet…
Take a look at this blank coloring page…It’s a heart shape….and nestled in it, are lots of big hearts and little hearts….That’s what we initially see…we see the big picture…we see the outlines…we see what’s on the surface…
Now, let’s look again…After several times going back to this heart coloring page, I discovered something else that I didn’t notice on my first couple of glances…I discovered the word LOVE nestled in the centermost part of the heart…
It made me wonder…it seemed so counter-intuitive…to think about focusing on something, when our brains are so scattered and worried about all that is going on in our world…How can we focus when we are wearied by all the swift and varied changes in the world?
Yet, the more I went back to this picture, and focused on it, from different angles, that’s when I discovered the hidden message that had been there along…Love was there…all along…even when I didn’t see it…or didn’t know that it was there…
That’s the power of Love, God’s love, as it is revealed in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection…It is this Love that helps us focus …It is what helps us to see God’s love in all the hard places and in all the joyful moments…
As upside down as Jesus’ teachings and invitations to follow him in the way of love appear to be at times, such as this one: Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life… He invites us to return again and again to the center of our hearts with Him, to tap into the love of God that is written on our hearts, to realign our “unruly wills” with God’s will…and to follow Him…to go out into the world, especially in a time such as this when life is so very difficult for so many people; and to seek and serve Jesus, in all the people we meet: friends, family, neighbors, those we diagree with.. It is in centering our hearts in Jesus, where true joys are to be found and where God’s love and light becomes a beacon of hope and healing for all people, and in all places…
So, where do we begin…when the needs all around us appear to be so great?
We begin with Love…God’s love…what the world needs now is love…sweet love…
Music after the sermon: What the World Needs Now is Love.. (Lyrics by Hal David, Music bt Burt Bacharach)
Refrain
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some, but for everyone…
Kathi Jones/Pianist
Rev Julie Platson,
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, AK