Lent 5: 9 April, 2000
The Rev'd Dr John Davis, Vicar, St Peter's Eastern Hill
I will put my law within them, and I will write it in their hearts; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 31: 32.
We do not need to reach far to begin to understand the implications of this most extraordinary
statement of covenant relationship between God and the people of God. We have been familiar from
our earliest contact with the Church that the Law in its fullness can be summarised, as it was
indeed by the Lord, in the two great commandments: Love God and love your neighbour. Believe in
the relationship. Live it out. They are the imperatives of discipleship. And the two way nature
of the commitment in today's first lesson is such that God too believes in the relationship. God
too lives it out.
Today on the fifth Sunday of Lent we move into what has been traditionally termed Passiontide: the
last two weeks before the feast of the Resurrection. This is the most solemn and careful time for
our final preparation and then commemoration of the Holy Week and Easter events of betrayal,
injustice, service, outreaching sacrificial love, suffering, death and new life for our Lord.
"Create a clean heart within me" is the cry of the response to our psalm. "Restore to me the joy
of your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit". There is hope and expectation here.
There is a sense of promise that is fulfillable.
"Jesus", says today's extract from the letter to the Hebrews, has "become the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey him". That assertion stands as a clear signpost at the beginning of
Passiontide. Know whose way it is we are following. Know what a prize and what an assurance is
made available.
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus", is the polite and gentle request from the Greeks who spoke to the
disciples Philip and Andrew. It is almost like the beginning of the ministry of Jesus some three
years before. This time it is the gentiles coming. And they are not turned away. Indeed their
coming is part of the clear indication in John's gospel that the hour has indeed come. Now is the
time.
There is more than a hint of sharp and bitter anger in the Pharisees' observation that has led us
into today's gospel passage: "Look, the world has gone after him". The Lord has come into
Jerusalem ahead of the coming festival to a huge commotion. We are almost at the beginning of that
last week of weeks. Yes, in the terms of John's unfolding of the purpose and intention of God, the
hour has indeed come. As one commentator puts it: "A strange 'hour' in which every reality will
come to signify its opposite: dying is living, losing is winning."
The challenging demand and the wonderful inclusiveness of the gospel is declared:
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour. Whoever.
As in all the gospel lessons in the Sundays of Lent, the portion chosen throws further light on the mysteries that are to come. Resurrection is what we are being prepared for, but it is resurrection by way of suffering and willing sacrifice. Resurrection by way of the fundamental confrontation between good and evil, between life and death. A typically vivid illustration makes a point of huge importance. The grain of wheat, dying in itself, is the source of many more grains, once it has borne fruit: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain". To increase and multiply, the grain must decompose in the earth.
This is yet another way of approaching the central mystery of resurrection. On Lent 1 we had the temptations and the preparatory 40 days in the wilderness. On Lent 2 we had recalled to us the experience of the Transfiguration: the Lord in shining white light: "This is my son the beloved; listen to him". On Lent 3 we had the cleansing of the Temple and the promise of the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord's body in three days. Last week, we had the promise of eternal life, flowing from the love of God to us: "God so loved the world..." Life comes from 'the lifting up' of the Son of Man "No-one who believes will be condemned".
There has been this development of teaching through the Sundays of Lent to provide each of us who is prepared to hear with a solid theological background to the events of Holy Week and Easter which we will be following from now on. Together as a community we will follow in the way of the Lord, starting next week with Palm Sunday. And once again we will be invited to make the connection between what happened some 2,000 years ago with what happens in our own lives. Resurrection then means resurrection now. As it was for that first group of disciples, so it is with our lives: life now, life forever. And this is to be accomplished by, this has been accomplished by what we are preparing to observe, to commemorate, to re-live, to re-claim in the two weeks we have ahead of us. We are drawn towards Good Friday and then onwards even further. And this is for everyone. As the Lord says in today's gospel:
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself.
The promise of the prophecy from the first lesson comes back to us:
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
There is certainly no current shortage of people who would wish to see Jesus. It may not be quite expressed in that direct way. But there is a deep and searching need abroad, that is seeing people casting out in many directions. Some might well wish to see Jesus without the protections or barriers that the Church has so carefully cultivated over two thousand years. But for all those who might be confused by the many and varied expressions and claims of those who would be followers of the Lord, there are also those who will find comfort and reassurance in the diversity. It is absolutely true that these are not good times for institutions of any sort. And that of course includes the Churches.
But there do remain glimmers of hope. All is not lost. It is possible to travel fairly lightly through these times. It is possible to actually recognise something that is good and positive and nurturing when it is bumped into! There remain many ways to a position of faith and belief and trust in the living God; in Jesus the Christ. One of them, we would beg to assert, is through the living tradition that we in this Anglo-Catholic city church honour, observe and celebrate, vestigial medievalisms, bells and smells and all.
The question must surely be, does any of this encourage, develop and sustain life in Christ? Will a searcher coming here find a community of fellow searchers? Those who are searching will always also need their Philips and their Andrews, to help and encourage them along. They will need people who themselves already have that joy and willing spirit in their hearts. They will need people who themselves will not be dismissive or ungenerous. Who will themselves be attempting to be living out that covenant relationship of mutuality with which we began:
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Now today we have a particular challenge put before us. A few weeks ago, we had the Bishop of Eastern Zambia in this pulpit. His simple and straightforward presentation of his own life and the lives of his people: lives of both pain and joy, touched many of us. At the end of this mass, during the last hymn, there will be an extra collection. Yes, the plate will go around again. This will be happening at every mass today.
The outreach from this church in terms of support for our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world has always been important. This is one aspect of what "living out 'the relationship we have with God means. We have here the chance to make a significant difference and to make our own small statement of solidarity. The money we raise will be sent to the bishop to be used at his own discretion in the areas of greatest need. I commend this to you all most warmly. Please be generous.
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