Walking with Jesus through Lent: Week Three

Rev. Vera I. Bourne

Gods_gnome@yahoo.com

3rd Wednesday in Lent - The Covenant Cup

Matthew 20: 22: "You don't know what you are asking," replied Jesus. "Can you two drink what I have to drink?"

This question delves deep into the innermost corners of our intent, for Jesus asks to what lengths we are prepared to go on his behalf. Have we considered what it has cost others to follow Christ and what it may cost us? To some it has meant martyrdom, for others it has been to live as a loving follower of Christ through both the ordinary humdrum of years or through a series of tragedies and illnesses. Though Toyohiko Kagawa was suffering from tuberculosis when he first embraced Jesus, he felt called to serve Tokyo's slum dwellers while living with them. Cecil Norcott in "Famous Life Decisions" records this statement by Kagawa: - God dwells among the lowliest of men. He sits on the dust heap among the prison convicts. He stands with the juvenile delinquents. He is there with the beggars. He is among the sick, he stands with the unemployed. Therefore let him who would meet God visit the prison cell before going to the temple. Before he goes to Church let him visit the hospital. Before he reads his Bible let him help the beggar."

Jesus is honest with all who walk with him; he never promises a rose garden but instead admits there will be a bitter cup for each of us to drink. For few of us the Christian life is glamorous. Jesus was never a headliner in Palestine; indeed his crucifixion was almost overshadowed by the preparations for the Passover. Most of his disciples find the pathway so narrow they can't be loaded up with too many possessions - and this includes accolades the world would shower on us. Many who have left lucrative careers to work in fields of desperate need where money is scarce are judged by others to be wasting their talents. Others have sacrificed their reputations as they work in difficult situations. Like Jesus, those who have focused on the needs of those of whom society despairs have found their motives misunderstood. Those who make their homes in suburbs where drug dealing and prostitution are rife, those who make feeding the hungry their gift to Jesus, and those who sit quietly by bedsides in Palliative Care units tending the transition of patients with AIDS, have all been chosen for ministries which involve self-sacrifice.

But some ministries are not recognised by any but God. There are sole parents trying to earn an income while maintaining a home and caring for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of a family. There's also the nondescript person who appears regularly to record books for the Blind Society, and donors who respond to Jesus' call for compassion as they offer their blood and their organs to save the lives of others. We no longer have the right to our own lives if we have given all we have and all we are to Jesus. He holds two cups out to us; one filled with the water of life, and the other is the cup of submission. Those who drink from Christ's cups become those who are transformed. The commitment we make to Christ and Christ's commitment to us strangely parallel wedding vows, for we agree to continue our relationship through both the good and the bad times, times of joy and times of sadness, through our life here and our life as we move through death's doorway.

It has been said that among one hundred people there will be one who, by reading the Bible and praying, learns about God. The other ninety-nine persons learn about God by reading the actions and words in the life of this one person. To be a Christian is to be different, to hold values other than those espoused in our society where one's value is determined by possessions, academic excellence and political or economic power. Christ expects us to be different and, curiously, so does the world. The world expects that Christians will be found working with the poor, those who are homeless or abused, in fact in every area where love can help and heal.

Prayer: Beloved Jesus, at Olivet you prayed the cup facing you be removed, if it was God's will. Today we reach out to take the cup you offer us, accepting the price it may cost. Amen.

3rd Thursday in Lent - What Are We Waiting For?

Luke 16: 31: Abraham told him, "If they will not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they would not be convinced even if somebody were to come back from the dead."

Before our radiator boils and we end up blowing a head gasket, the needle in the temperature gauge in our cars rises rapidly to warn us something is amiss. Road safety experts advise if we drive more than two hours without a break, we may well have an accident. Throughout every section of our lives there are warning signs designed to protect us. Electrical appliances come with their warnings, medicines have warnings printed on their packaging and labels, and we are all aware of the penalties for fare evasion.

In private discussions with his friends and disciples Jesus taught about social responsibilities. Today's text is part of the story of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus. The sin committed by the rich man, that sealed his fate for eternity, was that he could see the suffering and need of those around him, yet he was touched by neither grief nor pity. When he looked at those who were hungry and in pain he felt no bond of common humanity, and so felt no compulsion to assist. We are not told whether he deliberately withheld assistance or whether he was so obsessed with his own affairs that he looked through, rather than at, those beggars gathered at his gate. They had simply become part of the landscape.

The world has not changed much since those days when Jesus walked the dusty roads with his disciples. Although the media - television, radio and newspapers - bring the suffering and need of the world into our living rooms, we make little response. While in some nations millions die from hunger, wealthier nations dump grain and other agricultural products so as to maintain higher prices for the remaining stocks. Warehouses are constructed to house excess production of powdered milk that could have been despatched through governmental agencies to countries where children are malnourished. Faces of hunger and malnutrition exposed on television might awaken our sense of responsibility initially, but when drought ravages those same countries year after year we come to accept it as inevitable. We begin to lose our sensitivity.

We need to be reminded of Jesus' words, recorded in Matthew 22: 37 and 39, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your whole soul, and your whole mind. You must love your neighbour as yourself." In defining what loving one's neighbour could involve he said: "For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in; in prison, and you came to see me there" (Matthew 25: 35-36). Like the rich man we also have testimony as to what God expects of us. It is laid down as succinctly as was the Torah for the Jewish people. We are designated as our "brother's keeper", and that includes for every person and situation Jesus lays on our hearts.

The rich man hoped that the return of someone from the dead would convince his brothers to embrace the needs of those around. But this miracle was not to be, any more than miracles to stir our consciences can be expected from God. We have the Bible records of both God's interaction with humanity and Jesus' life, we have the Holy Spirit's witness - what else are we waiting for before we embrace the needs of those around us? What else do we need before we, as disciples, take responsibility to be Christ's feet and hands, ears, eyes and mouth here on earth? Are we waiting for personal miracles before we set off on our journey with Jesus? When are we going to start loving ourselves as God loves us? Do we really take enough time for restful sleep, are we careful with our diets, are we prepared to eliminate those habits that are damaging to our bodies? Before we can help others, before we can share our beliefs with them, we need to ensure that it is Jesus and not our own glory-seeking that motivates us.

Prayer: How is it, God, that we are reluctant to do those things we expect others to perform? Teach us to shoulder our joys and responsibilities as we make our journey with Jesus. Amen.

3rd Friday in Lent - A Different Set Of Values

Matthew 21:33-46: The stone the builders rejected … has become the capstone.

Jesus took today's text from Psalm 118 verse 23 where it is used to describe the nation of Israel, small, despised and rejected as worthless by surrounding nations. Yet this was the nation chosen by God for special favours.

Have you ever visited the opal fields at Lightning Ridge or Coober Pedy and seen the mullock heaps? To that harsh country where homes are tunnelled underground go prospectors prepared to look at every discarded rock in those mullock heaps for a chance of finding an opal that has been overlooked - thrown out with the rubbish. A secondary form of mining has developed as tailings from gold and silver mining are recrushed and processed, and ore that was left is reclaimed. Similarly what is a pearl but an irritation to a clam or oyster, an irritation that has been coated by many layers of calcium carbonate as the mollusc lessens the irritation? An irritation becomes a pearl of great value.

People who have been discarded as worthless are often God's special jewels. At twenty-six Gladys Aylward was rejected by the China Inland Mission as academically unsuited for missionary work in China. As she knew God had plans for her in China, she scrimped and saved in her position as a housemaid until she could afford the fare. Her story, and the way she brought over 100 Chinese orphans across the mountains and the Yellow River, and then walked them a further 300 miles to Shensi, when the Japanese invaded China, is told in the film, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness." Mother Teresa's work among the starving and abandoned in Calcutta was originally not sanctioned. Yet she persisted and God brought to her side others who would work within the miracle of shared love. Mahatma Gandhi was mocked, beaten and imprisoned when he decided on his strategy of passive resistance, hunger strikes and civil disobedience. His methods have been utilised throughout the ensuing years by all who cry for freedom and justice. It is not that people such as these were created differently; they were ordinary people who refused to buckle under pressure. By so doing they not only blazed a trail for others to follow, but also stirred people of all cultures to new visions, new dimensions of responsibility.

Some of us have had our dreams ridiculed, our credentials questioned and our reputations slandered. Some have been subjected to physical violence, some imprisoned, others killed. Many have quietly acquiesced and compromised those truths once held so dearly. Others have dug in their heels, ignoring all external circumstances and threats, and have pursued their goal. Some have succeeded in having legislation amended, some in setting up new facilities. For others the struggle has been too long and too difficult and, by the world's standards, they have failed. But God's views on failure often differ from ours.

God watches us and knows the anguish we have suffered. God is aware who has stood and fought stacked juries; who has practised love in the face of hate. God also knows those who have put aside their dreams and hopes and are, just as silently as yeast changes the nature of dough, changing the nature of those around. God knows who has stumbled, and the names of those who moved forward to help them to their feet. God is aware of the talents with which we have been born and the use we have made of them. God has seen monuments of faith and hope erected on the lives of those many never valued. Our potential will never be developed until it has been tried in the crucible of circumstance and the refined product is revealed. So often those with the most attractive spirits are those who seem to have been winnowed by life's circumstances. Just as Jesus by his death and resurrection provided new hope for the world, so we, by the way we set the sails of our lives, may provide new impetus for others.

Prayer: God of miracles, you have watched lives that have been written off produce a harvest of hope and love. Stay with us when life seems too difficult to endure. Amen.

3rd Saturday in Lent - Found And Restored

Luke 15: 32: For this is your brother; I thought he was dead - and he's alive. I thought he was lost - and he is found!

This story has been echoed over the centuries as explorers who were deemed lost have been discovered alive. Those overwhelmed by avalanches have stumbled exhausted and snow-blinded into the arms of searchers. Service personnel who have been "missing, presumed dead" behind enemy lines have, years later, found their way back to neutral territory. Patients, whose organs are so diseased and distressed as to place their lives in jeopardy, have discovered anew the joys of living normal lives after organ transplants.

September 11th 2001 marked a new phase in American life as for the first time the United States suffered attacks by agents of a foreign power. In the ensuing days as survivors were dug from the wreckage, it appeared that many who were deemed lost had been found. Those prisoners held by the Taliban, whose intended trials seemed but a formality before their execution, were released as the Taliban fled their strongholds. Those who were believed dead were discovered alive, those who were lost were found.

But this text has a far deeper meaning, for it also embraces our souls. So many years we wandered afar from God, squandering those resources with which we had been born. Some lost all hope and sense of worth before they remembered those pleasanter days spent in God's presence. Perhaps we had run from God, fearing too much would be expected of us, mayhap there were folk who insisted their concept of a strict, judgemental God was the correct one. It could have been that in putting aside all those things associated with our childhood, we also moved God from our focus. In the ensuing years there may have been many times when we didn't want God to see or know what we were doing. We had soiled our reputations; we had let down those who counted on us. We had allowed our desire to be loved to overtake our common sense and we became emotionally aware of inappropriate people. We squandered our opportunities in our need to gain the approval of others.

Throughout all the time we wandered, as it were "in a far country," God waited patiently. Like the father in this story of the prodigal, God never ceased watching and awaiting our return. God never lost faith in us; never stopped believing that at some stage we would remember, and return. God, though not counting the days, was aware of the emptiness our absence had created, for just as our heart's ache when we are separated from those we love, God's heart ached when we forsook our spiritual home. Then as we turned, dispirited with our lot and ashamed that in our impetuosity we had wasted our talents in an unprincipled display of self-indulgence, God waited.

God watched as we approached, as we turned aside from all the distractions that had previously fascinated us. The road back seemed long, and at times we stumbled, but we were going home. As we approached our journey's end we became aware of God's presence, God's love enfolding us as securely as would a lover's arms. And as we wept with shame at our failures and joy at our homecoming, we knew God too was weeping. For the child who had been presumed dead was alive, the one who was lost is found.

Prayer: Creator God, we cannot understand how you can love us so much, how you go on believing in us when we have lost faith in ourselves. Yet, no matter what we do, you never reject us; never shut the door in our faces. You have waited so long for our return, you have run to meet us, covering over half the journey, so we would not be discouraged and give up. Take our hands and hearts today and make us truly yours. Amen.

3rd Sunday in Lent - Fountain Of Living Water

John 4: 13-14: Jesus said to her, "Everybody who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I give will never be thirsty again. For my gift will become a spring in that person, welling up into eternal life."

What relevance has this story, set at a well close by Sychar, to events in our walk through life and, more particularly, through Lent? Here are three themes closely interwoven; yet each has a message for us today. We find Jesus speaking, in broad daylight, to a Samaritan woman and asking her for a favour; then we see the interplay between the meanings of the word water. Where do we fit into this story? Since we are followers of Jesus it is important we examine his words and actions, so that we may emulate them.

Samaritans and Jews did not mix; they despised each other. It was a conflict that had lasted centuries, and the Talmud had much to say about Samaritans, and none of it edifying. Jewish men also did not speak to strange women, let alone in broad daylight, nor would they seek favours from women. Jesus simply ignored all these conventions and treated her as an equal. He was tired, hot and thirsty, and had no bucket. From her he sought some cool water she could draw with the bucket she brought with her. In turn she mocked him, for his behaviour defied convention. And so they began their discussion on the topic of water.

The Jewish people often spoke of the thirst a soul experiences for God as a thirst that could be satisfied only by living water. Isaiah 12: 3 states: "With joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation." This water is said to flow from the throne of God; the very river of life. When Jesus offered the Samaritan woman living water, he was in fact introducing himself as the Anointed One of God, the one expected by people of both races. She misunderstood his offer, believing he was offering a physical miracle, a water that would permanently quench her thirst. But Jesus halted her banter and focused his words on her marital state. She paused in astonishment, for this man - a stranger - knew all about her.

As disciples our physical bodies are not transformed as are our spiritual bodies. We are human, just as Jesus was human. In a normal day, we drink enough fluids to keep our bodies healthy. However when we are by circumstances deprived of fluids, we become feverish and delirious. Our words are no longer coherent, or reasoning is flawed. Our souls also reflect the need to be sustained, but their nourishment comes from the spiritual springs, the living water Jesus offers each of us. And just as he offered this water to one who was considered unclean and unacceptable according to religious and traditional mores of his day, so he makes no distinction as to whom he offers the water of salvation.

Looking back, we can identify those times when our souls were thirsty, for our behaviour bore witness in the feverish and delirious lifestyle we adopted. We forgot that we are eternal beings belonging both to this existence and the next. Though we believed our lives were progressing, really we were floundering in the quicksands of self-indulgence. Though our eternal souls could not be soiled, we were certainly mudding up our lives. We tossed this way and that, from one distraction to another, until God broke through in the guise of either friend or stranger and held to our lips the cup of living water. This was God who made no bones that all we had become was known. Yet as we felt the first few drops of that water pass our lips we knew we were at peace and at home. As our strength and sanity returned, that cup was extended again and we drank deeply until all that had been soiled was made new. And as our relationship with God deepened, our daily walk became more secure, and we shared God's love, we discovered God had made a new cup to hold the water of life. To hold the living water from eternal springs, we have now become the cup offered to ease thirsty souls.

Prayer: God of life, you have never withheld your gifts from any. Remind us never to withhold your message from any we meet. May we be trusted to hold the cup of life. Amen.

3rd Monday in Lent -The Dangerous Truth

Luke 4: 29: They sprang to their feet and drove him right out of the town, taking him to the brow of a hill on which it was built, intending to hurl him down bodily.

This could easily have been an item in tonight's news, its source from any of a number of countries including our own. The truth often causes fear and anger to those who cannot bear to hear reality. It is far easier for many to stay cocooned in fictions manufactured by political or religious authorities than to tackle the truth. To acknowledge the truth could force our admission that we were wrong, that we have punished those who had not committed a crime, or thrust from our presence those we had condemned unjustly. In countries where indigenous people have been dispossessed of their land and policies of genocide practised, to apologise for mistakes of past generations is beyond some government officials. The blindfold of justice has slipped, covering the eyes of all who will not acknowledge the extent of the crime.

It hasn't been any easier in previous generations for those who presented new knowledge and new truths. In October 1632 Galileo was called before the Inquisition because of his theory of planetary rotation that proved that it was the sun and not the earth at the centre of our universe. To the Roman Catholic Church this was an heretical statement, and he was forced to live in seclusion the rest of his life. Joseph Lister was ridiculed when he proposed the use of antiseptics during surgery as a method of curtailing the sepsis that was affecting patients. Charles Darwin who developed the theory of natural selection was condemned as evil and an agent of Satan, for he denied the cherished belief that at the conclusion of the Biblical six days of creation, all plant, animal and human life had been created as we know it today.

When money and power are threatened, the truth often becomes a casualty of convenience. Those who advocated the abolition of slavery and apartheid were condemned and ostracised by those who twisted Biblical texts to justify their assertion that coloured races were made to serve white minorities. No person, religious or political force that advocates "us and them" divisions in society, education and before the law wants to discover that the truth they espouse is prejudice based on incorrect facts. There are even folk who believe that any modern translation of Scripture that alters any word or line from the King James' translation is twisted and an outrage against moral principles.

When we answered Jesus' invitation to follow in his footsteps, we became part of a movement that is seen as threatening. We, who denounce shoddy building practices that threaten lives, who ask for an end to domestic violence or lobby for reform within the prison system, are seen as dangerous, for not only do we threaten the status quo, but we could cost money to those who would prefer to let things ride. While ever we stand in silent protest, while ever we fast either publicly or privately as our protest against demoralising legislation and injustice, we are classed as agitators. Jesus called us to be like lights set on a hill, yet there are many who would snuff that light by whatever means possible.

But it is not always others who are threatened by the truth, for we are no less guilty. Count the times we seek approval from those we know will encourage us, or will cover the mirrors of our soul so that we don't see clearly the harm we have caused. It is hard to be told that because of own actions or attitudes, God needed to send another person to complete the work we were assigned. No one likes to be told that they are responsible for another's pain, yet we have hurt others. We need to be encouraged to unlock the doors our memory has closed and ask forgiveness for our words and actions. To be a disciple we are asked to share Christ's reputation. His love for openness and honesty enabled many to discover the love of God, yet at the same time he was marked as a troublemaker. Are we also prepared to wear this badge?

Prayer: God of truth, give us courage so that we may speak the truth even when we face those who wish us harm. Keep us reminded that these too are your beloved children. Amen.

3rd Tuesday in Lent - Cutting the Ties

Obviously Peter needed a ruling when a friend had repeatedly caused him or his family harm. The Rabbis insisted that a man should forgive his brother three times, and similarly one could only ask three times for forgiveness from a friend or neighbour. Peter believed he was being generous when he forgave his friend the first few times, but when the problem continued he was at his wit's end. We know Peter was impulsive, so things must have been close to breaking point when he brought this question to Jesus. We will never know what course of action he had planned if Jesus had agreed that to forgive seven times was more than reasonable. But Jesus did no such thing. He pointed out that in God's dominion forgiveness was unlimited, and unqualified, and that those who choose to walk as disciples are expected to offer forgiveness such as this. Forgiveness does not equate with approval, for though we forgive we do not class such behaviour or words as acceptable.

In the prayer Jesus gave his disciples, he linked God's willingness to forgive our errors and selfishness to our willingness to forgive those who have hurt us. God's mercy is limitless, so is God's love. As God is merciful to us, we are asked to be merciful to others. It is hard to forgive someone, especially a friend who has let you down, but it seems harder still to forgive someone who has deliberately and calculatedly set our to defraud or ruin you. Perhaps your peace has been wrecked by malicious gossip, or dangerous driving has cost a precious life. Sometimes it is just impossible, no matter how hard we try, to forgive someone. But God is aware of circumstances such as these. At such times all we may be able to do is to ask God to forgive these people, and to grant to us the willingness to forgive. This mark of obedience, no matter how reluctant, is enough to enable the first step toward reconciliation.

While we continue to hate certain people our lives remain bound to theirs. Forgiveness cuts these ties and we are freed to live without these restraints. By withholding forgiveness, we freeze part of our personalities; forgiveness restores us to full life. An initial step to take in this process may be to pray regularly for our enemies. As we sincerely seek God's blessings on their lives, we discover God's peace enveloping us. And as this peace permeates our being we begin to change. We no longer seek revenge; in fact we begin to care genuinely for these people. Concern for their good becomes part of our loving expression of Christ's love. Christians always stand out in a crowd as being different, and this difference is the genuine and sustained caring we share.

When we offer forgiveness to others, we return to God the responsibility to judge the behaviour of others. Forgiveness allows us to step out of the way and concentrate on the tasks with which Jesus has entrusted us. No longer will our minds replay a never-ending loop of those words or behaviours that hurt us so badly. Dr Norman Vincent Peale, once preaching in Sydney, told of a woman who had a disease he diagnosed as "eczema of the soul." She simply could not forgive or forget the wrong her sister had committed, until finally her body manifested this illness in a form of dermatitis. Sooner or later our bodies do reflect our thoughts and emotions. Unresolved incidents, which could have been laid to rest by a display of mercy and forgiveness, will erode not only our joy and peace of mind, but also our well-being. Resentment, hatred and anger are burdens that impede rather than enhance our walk with Jesus. Forgiveness cuts ties to those negative and destructive emotions and sets us free to walk unimpeded on our journey with Jesus.

Prayer: Merciful God, we who have such need of your forgiveness today come asking that you keep us ever mindful of our responsibility to forgive others. Hold us close as our minds and lips form those words that will free us of these cords of resentment and anger. Amen.

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