5 Lent Year B
3/17/24
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 119:9-16; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Collect of the day: Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The opening collect for today, often makes me smile and chuckle a bit to myself when I hear the words “unruly wills”….but after I think about it for a moment, I guess it does describe us pretty well at times. I think we spend a lot of time trying to figure out whose will we are following, or I should say, whose will we think we are following…God’s or our own….The mind and the heart have quite a reputation for not being on the same page…so indeed….our thoughts and actions can be a little disorderly and unruly at times…And often, at first glance at the scriptures, those words don’t always bring those unruly thoughts and wills into focus easily…
It takes practice, it takes discipline, and God’s grace, to try and make sense of the scriptures. It takes practice, it takes discipline, and God’s grace, to bring those unruly thoughts and wills into focus…It takes practice and discipline, and God’s grace to learn to love what God commands and to align our desires with God’s promises …It takes practice and discipline and God’s grace, in the midst of all the swift and varied changes of the world, to allow our hearts to be fixed where true joys are to be found… that is, in Christ Jesus.
We don’t easily wrap our minds around the idea of loving what someone commands of us. Our minds don’t easily accept the swift and varied changes of the world.
We don’t easily acknowledge that we have sinned, against God or our neighbor, or ourselves. We don’t easily understand why things have to die, for something new to begin. We don’t easily get it when Jesus tells his followers things like this: “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
But, even in the midst of all of life’s uncertainties and all the unknowns, and the things we struggle to understand, we can consider this message of promise and hope: that the peace that surpasses all our understanding, in times such as these, can be fulfilled in us and our neighbors, when we strive to be in a loving relationship with Jesus and one another. And a relationship with Jesus, begins in the heart with this desire and hope… “I wish to see Jesus.”
When we begin, simply, with those words…“I wish to see Jesus”…they can move us to set aside time to meet with Jesus… to get to know him more fully, through the reading of scriptures, praying them, discussing them with others. We can get to know Jesus more fully by setting aside time to sit in silence, and allow the thoughts in our heads, in our minds, to subside for a time so we can hear the good news being spoken about Jesus and his love, in our hearts…And we can get to know Jesus more fully, when we allow the fruits of God’s love, made known to us through Jesus’ heart and ours, joined together as One…to inspire us and move us to seek the face of Jesus in all whom we meet and serve in our daily lives…
It is in the meeting and the joining of our hearts with Christ and one another, when the Holy Spirit reminds us of the promise of a new covenant between God and his people, as foretold and spoken through the words of Jeremiah…But 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…
It is in the meeting and the joining of our hearts with Christ and one another, when the Holy Spirit reminds us of the words of the psalmist today…with my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. I treasure your promise in my heart…
Our Lenten journey is winding down now, with Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, just a week away…
At the start of Lent…we were invited to examine our hearts…and throughout Lent…attend to them in ways that would help us turn back to God, turn back to Christ…to re-align our unruly wills…to better align with God’s will and vision of a beloved community that flourishes when all know that they are loved, valued, and respected as the beloved child of God they were created to be.
As you reflect back on these past few weeks…Have you sought ways to see Jesus, in your own life, and the lives of those you encountered along the way? Have you taken the time to look inward to see what corners of your lives have been cluttered with the things that have built up and hardened your hearts? Have you spent some moments in silence, letting go of the things that have taken away the joy and peace that wants to live and breathe in your heart? Have you engaged in certain practices this Lent that have allowed you to strengthen your love and relationship with Jesus and your neighbor?
Now that we’ve seen glimpses of Jesus again throughout this Lenten season, are you prepared to walk with Him once again on his journey to the cross during Holy Week? Or will you be tempted to look away because it’s too much to bear?
This is a time like no other…a time to focus all the more on seeing Jesus in the events of Holy week...even though we don’t fully understand in our minds why it has to be like this: Jesus dying on the cross, for the promise of his resurrection to be fulfilled, why things have to die, for something new to begin, and how it is...that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
For if we keep our eyes on Jesus throughout Holy week, through his death on the cross, and keep watch and see Him rise again on Easter Sunday…it will all become clear…we will see the glory of the cross….we will see how it is that “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
By the grace of God, our unruly wills and sinful ways are forgiven. Jesus’s death on the cross, his resurrection and ascension, has opened the way once again for us to begin life anew, over and over again.
We are given the opportunity, each and every day, to begin and begin again in the heart with this desire and hope… “I wish to see Jesus.”…and then to go…to go out into the world to seek and serve Christ…in all persons…loving God and one another, loving your neighbor as yourself…….with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…
Prayer/Hymn: Open our eyes, Lord – Bob Cull (#229 –praise chorus book)
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch him, and say that we love Him.
Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen, open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.
Rev. Julie Platson, St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
*PHOTO: 4th c. Christian Mosaic
Lullingstone Chapel
Eynsford, England