Lent 5 year B Sermon
What a sobering thought…
that Jesus was predicting for his friends ‘the kind of death
he was going to die’
why can’t we just bask…in the warm glow of the resurrected Christ…why can’t we just… rest easy in the new covenant…
One minute we’re praising God… singing hymns and songs… maybe even raising our hands in a celebration of God’s
love and forgiveness… and the next moment we’re plummeting off a cliff marked crucifixion. Why cant we leave it out? [pause]
‘…this is the covenant I’ll make with the house of Israel after those days…says the LORD…I’ll 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.’
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; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.’In the time of the new covenant…God’s will is to be written on our hearts…and in the time of the new covenant…
it’s the story of Jesus life… that teaches knowledge of God’s will for us…and the story of Jesus death…
that give’s us the ultimate demonstration of God’s forgiveness…and it’s the story of Jesus resurrection... that gives us hope…as we recognise that God’s love is stronger than death.
Without the full story of Jesus written on our hearts…we can’t follow him all the way … and the full revelation of God is hidden from us. Without the full story written on our hearts…we might take our focus off the one…who’s prepared to die…for God’s new covenant of mercy and forgiveness.
We take our eyes off what loving us…cost Jesus… and what loving us costs the one he called Abba…
Without the full story written on our hearts… our praise and thanksgiving are focussed on the blessings of discipleship. Heck… if the whole story was written on our hearts… following Jesus might end up costing us something…
we might end up making sacrifices ourselves…and the next thing you know… we’d be facing our own Good Friday.
Whoa whoa whoa Diane back up the train before you get carried away preaching…are you trying to tell us…
the law… Jeremiah talks about being written on our hearts… is the same as Jesus’ teaching… the same as the story of Jesus life… death and resurrection…
Absolutely I am…and let me ask you a question.
Is it written on your heart… or just something you hear on Sunday morning … or read in the Bible?
how can God fill our metaphorical hearts…
with the knowledge of his will for us? [pause]
A friend told me a story the other day… about a young man who’d been a youth worker in a Pressie church in Dunedin. Now he’s got another job outside the church…He told my friend…that these days… he just doesn’t have time to be a Christian. He’s far too busy. He told her he found it
much easier to be a Christian…when he was being paid for it.
My guess is that this young man never allowed God to have access to his metaphorical heart…I suspect he never took the time to invite the author of the story in …to his heart.
So his understanding…was a head thing
…like memorising the times tables… he knew how he was supposed to live…but didn’t have anything to help him live it…like a relationship with the one… whose story it is.
In Jeremiah’s time hundreds of years before the life of Jesus… maybe you had to be a prophet to have that kind of relationship with God… You certainly weren’t allowed to have an image of God to relate to…
When they were young… Jewish men studied hard…
to memorise the words of the Law… as a way to remember God’s will for them…and if they were good at it …as they got older… they’d memorise the words of the prophets too…
And paradoxically… they’d study Jeremiah’s prophesy… that one day… God’s will…would be written on people’s hearts and everyone would know God.
For us living in new covenant times…one thing’s for sure
…God isn’t going to tattoo his will for you… onto your vital organs…so your doctor discovers it when they open you up for heart surgery…
No the prophesy is about our metaphorical heart…
that tender place in each of us… where love is given and received…where relationships are formed…
The part of us that learns to love… from being loved…
and learns the meaning of grief and pain and sorrow…
from losing the ones we love…
It’s the part of us that aches and curls up into itself…
when love is betrayed. And the part of us…
that can become hard and refuse… to take the risk of loving. [pause]
So how do you open this metaphorical heart of yours…
to let God into that tender… vulnerable place…
so the knowledge of God’s will for you can be carried within it?
Well today I’m going to teach you one way…if you’re willing.
Sometime in the next week I want you to
Find a quiet place…away from the phone and interruption.
2. Get comfortable.
3. Pray briefly what you need to pray then
Imagine all the people and situations you’ve prayed for …being covered by a cloud of forgetting.
Now it’s just you and the presence of God
5. Invite God to fill you with his Holy love and then
6. Spend some time just loving God and being loved – listening instead of speaking.
Let’s try it now just for a couple of minutes…
and if you don’t feel comfortable doing this… then just be generous to those who want to try it by waiting patiently while they do:
OK close your eyes… Imagine all you pray for covered by a cloud of forgetting so on top of the cloud it’s just you and God…[pause]
Invite God to fill you with his holy love. And just spend a moment loving God and letting God love you.
Silence [two minutes]
It’s my experience that this kind of contemplative prayer takes practise…over time you get better and better at it…
I’ve left some notes on how to do this on the back table…
It’s also my experience that taking time with God like this soon becomes an indispensable part of every day…an appointment with God I place higher than any other priority. A time when I am filled up again… with the strength I need to carry on as Jesus’ disciple.
To do this of course may require you sacrifice something else…it might cost you something…it might cost you time …you might have to extend yourself…
Such a small sacrifice when we remember the cross don’t you think.
You know we are free to practise the presence of God…free to invite God into our hearts… anytime and anywhere…especially here in this place of safety… among friends and followers of Jesus. That’s why some people just sit with their eyes closed during the songs.
I know there are many of you who long to deepen your relationship with God. Just in the past week two of you have confided in me… a desire…a thirst…to go deeper into relationship with God.
If you’re really serious about allowing time for it to transform your life then why not make yourself accountable for it… to someone whose spiritual wisdom you trust…perhaps talk to your Elder about your progress.
We need to be accountable because it so easy for us to give up…As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote ‘If the heart is devoted to the mirage of the world, to the creature instead of the Creator, the disciple is lost…However urgently Jesus may call us, his call fails to find access to our hearts. Our hearts are closed, for they have already been given over to another.’
And I say how else can we be healed and comforted …or lead to the knowledge of God’s will for us… unless we spend time with him and listen for his voice.
How else can we develop the willingness to forgive as we have been forgiven? Or the strength to follow Jesus… no matter what the cost?
When we’re prepared to open ourselves to let God write the story on our hearts… every chapter will be recorded there… especially the story of the cross…for how else can God tell us just how much we are loved?
How else can we then pray sincerely the prayer of the Psalmist?
‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Don’t cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me… a willing spirit.’
So may you be filled with eagerness…and excitement…to take the steps to open your very heart…so
so the king of glory may come in… to write his story there.
