5th Sunday of Lent - (RENEW)

April 6, 2003

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

 

The first reading today from Jeremiah places somewhere between the last two weeks. Jeremiah witnessed the fall and destruction of Jerusalem and prophesied God's promise of restoration and renewal. Jeremiah says that those in exile will return home and those uprooted will be replanted.

He further promises that God will make a covenant with His people not written on stone like that with Moses, but written in the heart. We use the word "covenant" so frequently that it might trip off our tongues rather casually; but covenant is a promise and commitment that cannot be broken without serious consequences. When God established a covenant with all and each of us, He knew exactly what it entailed. God and every person are bound in an unbreakable relationship, so strong it will survive even death itself.

In other words, the will of God is not something imposed from without, but something discovered from within. Nor is it exclusively for the "chosen" but accessible to all, from the least to the greatest. This new covenant is ours if we but open our hearts. And how do we open our hearts?

The Letter to the Hebrews hints at the answer but it is not simple. It involves a word, which most do not like to hear: obedience. Only the openhearted can afford to obey. Only the openhearted can possess the trust to obey. The Letter invites us to open our hearts and trust ourselves to walk in Jesus' footsteps

The gospel figuratively and graphically demonstrates the meaning of this trustful obedience. Only through trust will the grain permit itself to die. Only through obedience will the covenant come to flower. When Jesus says: if anyone would serve me, let him follow me; it is call to serve.

Imagine a seed, a good seed, even a perfect seed being content in being a seed. Should the seed trust when someone says: Bury yourself and die. Give yourself to total destruction as a seed so that you can realize whet the beauty of life is all about

Jesus comes asking us not to surrender simply part, but all of ourselves, total commitment. To live the new life of the new covenant we are asked to die to "egoism", to the mirage of self-sufficiency, to the shadowed image we have of ourselves.

So let's not kid ourselves. The covenant which Jesus promises is not cheap grace. It requires sacrifice and suffering that will eventually demand the death of self-will -- all or nothing. Is that what you got you bargained for when you received your ashes? Is that what you expect when new life rises from the embers and fire of the Easter vigil like a phoenix? We are empowered to re-commit ourselves to the service of others who with us and like us struggle to obey and struggle to blossom.