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April 02, 2006

Anne Jensen - Lent 5

Lent 5 Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ps. 51:11-16, Hebrews 5:1-10, John 12:20-33
Trinity Parish - April 2, 2006

“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. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts…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.;… “ I will forgive their iniquity , and remember their sin no more.”

The people of Israel had not been faithful to their God. Jeremiah makes the comparison to marriage. The Lord was the husband and Israel the unfaithful wife. It is Israel who has broken the covenant, not God. God promises a new covenant, not one carved in stone or written on parchment, but one that is written on the heart, a covenant that abides within each person.

This is huge! God is creating the circumstance to start over! What God envisions is a covenant in which the people truly wish to love and obey God from within, not because the law says so. Love of God cannot be legislated. It must come freely from within. Love and obey…we think of love as a matter of the heart, an inclination that grows into desire, and so it is, ..... but we balk at obey. What? We give control over to someone else? That’s hard—it goes against all that our culture says; it goes against our ego needs. But wait a minute; think of your spouse or your best friend, someone you love dearly. Then imagine 0that your beloved friend expresses a desire or gives you some good advice or even chastises you for your own good or the good of your relationship or some other relationship. You listen and you hear what he or she says.

My own allergy to the word obey improved immensely when I learned that the word obedience comes from the Latin word that means to hear. When we hear the words of the beloved, our response is to act accordingly out of love, or at least negotiate to a place of mutual understanding. Out of love, you work to stay in relationship. Hearing and doing. What we do reflects our love.

Doug and I have an ongoing conversation about what is in the marriage contract or covenant. For example, when I make a request about some chore that he doesn’t want to do, I might point out that it is in the marriage contract. But it also works in reverse. For example, if I have the 5 PM Eucharist and need to go set up, even if he has been sleeping or reading, he gets up and comes with me. I have often said, “Oh you don’t have to come.” And his response is, “Yes, I do. It’s in the contract.” Our actions reflect whom and what we love. Out of love, God is working to stay in relationship with us.

Obedience to God is love of God in action. Out of love, we listen and we act according to God’s desires as much as we are able. The law provides ways to help show that love. God knows we can’t do it all. That’s why God reaches out to us through forgiveness. Jesus taught us to forgive one another as God forgives us. This is central to the new covenant that is written on our hearts. The new covenant is based on grace and forgiveness. Grace is God’s answer to human sin.

As we explored forgiveness last week we acknowledged that usually it is not easy to forgive. When forgiveness is easy, we just do it, and move on. We get stuck on the forgiveness that is hard, when we have been deeply hurt or when we bear the guilt for what we have done or failed to do. Lent is a time to reflect on our own need of forgiveness and our need to forgive others.

This morning we heard the choir sing a portion of Psalm 51, a beautiful prayer of confession. Can we with the psalmist pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me?” In verse three the psalmist says, “For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.” Most of us consider ourselves pretty good people, not overly sinful, and that’s probably true. Yet we all experience sin. Karl Barth quipped, “Of all the doctrines of the Christian faith, sin is the easiest to prove.” The evidence is all around! No matter who we are, we all get soiled and have to take a bath. I find that it is so much easier and such a relief to acknowledge my sin, my ego, my failures, and my foibles, and to receive God’s forgiveness, than it is to remain in the fiction that I am always good.

The psalmist knows that God has the power to reverse his situation—to change him. Not only can God wash away the sin and guilt, God can restore the relationship. He writes, “Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.”

Joy is the fruit of asking God’s forgiveness. The fruit of forgiving ourselves and others is a restored relationship with God, our neighbors, and ourselves. I believe any time we are estranged from one part of that combination, we are estranged from the other two, as well. For example, if we are separated from God, our relationship with our neighbors will be strained and we will not be our true selves.

God has done for us in Jesus what was promised in Jeremiah. Through Jesus we find forgiveness of our failures. Jesus told us the story of the Prodigal Son so that we would understand the magnitude of God’s gracious forgiveness, which makes a new relationship possible. The father in that story did not exact a confession; it was the son who wished to confess. His moment of truth came when he was in the field with the pigs and realized they were better cared for than he was. He returned home willing to be a servant to his father. Are we like that son who realizes that the father offers a better kind of life? Are we willing to return as a servant? Are we ready to be greeted with joy?

Jesus, as we heard in the lesson from Hebrews, is our great high priest. One of the roles of the priest was to identify with the people before God. Jesus as our priest is our mediator and advocate. Through him we find the power to receive in our hearts the new covenant. Through him we have a way back to God. With our new covenant, and a renewed spirit we will have hearts that are growing every day, hungering to know, love and serve God.

As part of our service this morning, we have a rite of reconciliation. Forgiveness is an ongoing part of Christian life. One of my favorite parts of the prayer book is the question in the baptismal service, “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?” Note the word “whenever” not “if”. I find it reassuring that there’s no expectation on the part of the church that we will live sinless lives, and that forgiveness is always a pathway that is open to us.

There are papers and pencils in the pews. This is your invitation to write down what you want God to forgive. What sin do you want washed away? What fear or resentment do you want to unload? Where do you seek reconciliation in your life? Don’t try to write the full story; just use a word or phase. You and God will know the fullness of your heart and mind. If you cannot offer full forgiveness right now, offer what you can. Make a first step or a next step. Let die that part of your ego that keeps you from being your best, most loving self.

After a period of silence for writing, the ushers will collect the papers (folded over) and bring them forward. They will go into a bag, and then on Easter Eve they will be burned in the new fire of Easter. No one will read them.

This morning hear the words of absolution as if they were spoken only for you. Imagine Jesus laying a hand on your head and saying, “you are forgiven; your faith has made you whole.”