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4th Sunday of Lent (B)
It’s easy to think, and then begin to believe, that there is something terribly wrong with our world. Instead of light, there seems to be so much darkness-- within the world, and sometimes even within our own hearts. We heard in the first reading today about “infidelity and abominations”, words written several thousand years ago. But we are very aware of the realities in our world today of corporate scandal, and sexual misconduct, and the acceptance of killing unborn children. Instead of life, there seems to be so much death. With the war in Syria, and the overdoses associated with the opioid crisis, and people walking into schools and nursing homes with guns and killing innocent people—death surrounds our fragile lives each day. And so, it is natural to wonder: “Is there any hope? Isn’t humanity so sick that it would be more realistic to just give up?”
All three scripture readings we just heard touch on that same question. The first reading speaks about a situation where all hope seemed to be lost, for the people had broken their covenant with their God. The second reading explains how we were, or are, dead to our covenant with God through our sins because of faulty options, wrong decisions, and poor priorities. And in the gospel reading, Jesus points out that he would be crucified, lifted up on a cross, and murdered. And so we could conclude that the human family is really lost. We could conclude that the human family might be seen as sick and dying.
But that is why it is important to remember that there is another power in this world. It is the power that brought us here together today. The power of the new covenant unleashed in the death of Jesus on the cross. During his life, Jesus had formed a small group of a dozen people. He had organized, inspired, and held them together. They had started the struggle for a better world full of hope, because they believed themselves to be backed up by Jesus and by God. They were part of a new covenant grounded in the cross of Jesus. That group did not disappear after his death. It remained because of the Easter phenomenon we call resurrection. We belong to this covenanted group of the cross and resurrection. This covenant, this movement is our hope in this world, because it is a covenant of light.
Let’s be clear about what kind of light we are talking about. It is God’s light—and it is God’s power. So many religious people think that they have to somehow save themselves from the darkness and death which is all around them. Really, all we have to do is allow God to save us. But many people have a hard time making that distinction. It is a very different thing to try to save ourselves, versus being open to the power of God and welcoming it so that God can save us.
You know there is a type of flashlight, that needs no batteries to work. You simply shake it for a while, and the energy you generate by shaking will run the light for a certain amount of time. Basically,you make the light shine. It is your energy used in shaking that creates the light. This is opposed to the more traditional flashlight, which relies on an outside source of energy (like a battery) to produce light.
I found this flashlight image helpful in thinking about the salvation offered us in the new covenant through Christ. It is more like the traditional battery-operated flashlight. You first have to have heard of batteries and know where you can get one. Then, you have to believe that the little cylinder called a battery is a source of power—believe enough to obtain one and install it. But when you do, you have light that lasts a long time. It is a light whose power comes from outside yourself, a power you get from somewhere else.
Too many people think they can generate their own light, and they often can for a while. But when the source of the power is yourself, the light only lasts so long, and it gets tiring trying to keep renewing that light. But once you realize that the covenanted community of the church, the Body of Christ, is a source of power for the light of salvation, and you know where to obtain it, and you really believe that you will in fact find light, then you have a steady source of power outside yourself to tap into. That’s the value of actively participating in this covenant of the light of Christ, and being faithful to that covenant.
When we are dwelling in the light of our covenant relationship with God, even strange things in life can become a blessing to us. And blessings often come from where we least expect them. That’s because, with practice, everywhere we go, God is. But we spend years avoiding that insight. We wrench and distort of own lives because we want to move under our own power. We want to shake our own flashlight and generate our own light. It often takes us a long time to practice learning how to move under God’s power.
This Lent we have been reflecting each week on how “practice does not make perfect.” The first reading indicated that the people and leaders of Israel were “practicing all the abominations…” and in the gospel, Jesus points out that people have the option to practice works which bring either light or darkness into our world. But in the second reading, St. Paul makes it very clear that it is “by grace (that) you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you—it is the gift of God; it is not from (your) works, so (that) no one may boast. For we are (God’s) handiwork…”
How do we confess that we are saved by God’s grace while at the same time practicing on our own the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and service? I’d share two things that I think make this possible. The first is humility. Once we become aware that salvation is all grace, we step into a realm infused with humility before the gift that God gives. Ours is not a striving, attaining, merit-based faith that chalks up how much we have done for God. Instead, ours is a faith full of grace which we receive with utter humility from the One who gave his only Son to be our savior.
A second resource is worship. The more we gather in worship as a community, and the more each of us centers our lives in private prayer, the more we come to experience the grace of God as the “gift of all gifts”. In hearing the Word, we learn from Jesus to turn the other cheek when someone hurts us, to be quick to forgive and generous in love. In the Eucharist we are reminded that our Lord’s broken-body and shed-blood show us the depths to which God would go to save us. At Mass, we always pass the peace reminding ourselves to be instruments of God’s peace.
In the words of spiritual writer E.V. Elder: “The more we allow God to be the God of ourlives, the more we realize that we are incapable of attaining perfection on our own. In thespiritual life, practice alone does not make perfect. We need God for that. Our role is tosurrender to grace, to all that God is doing (in) us. Redemption is about openness, acceptance, humility, and abandonment into God’s loving arms. It is about discovering our true riches, notin silver and gold, but in the wisdom and love of God.”
Yes, there is so much wrong with our world, and often with ourselves. But there is also a power available to save us. All is not lost, and we are not alone. That’s what we assemble here to practice celebrating week after week!