B18 Sunday 18 March '18 -- Paschal Series Part 9

Preparing with Joy for the Paschal Feast

I

The Charge to Moses and Joshua

II

The Story of Creation

III

The Future Glory of Zion

IV

The Conversion of Nineveh

V

The Flood

VI

A New Heart and a New Spirit

VII

Salvation Offered Freely to All

VIII

Israel’s Deliverance at the Red Sea

Part IX of XV

Sunday 18 March 2018

Fifth Sunday in Lent

The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.  He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?"  I answered, "O Lord God, you know."  Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.  Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord."  So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.  I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.  Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.  Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel.  They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.'  Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.  I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act," says the Lord.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

In the Old Testament reading for this Fifth Sunday in Lent, we have heard the promise of God given through the prophet Jeremiah that the day will come when God will establish a new covenant in which it will be shown for all to see that the people belong to God.  As I thought of this promise within the context of the Old Testament readings proclaimed at the Easter Vigil, my mind went to the reading from the prophet Ezekiel known as “The Valley of Dry Bones.”

Ezekiel is placed by God in a valley of dry bones; a lot of bones.  And in that moment, God asks the prophet if these bones can live.  Ezekiel gives an answer that neither limits God's power nor presumes to know the answer.  The prophet simply replies: “Lord, you know!”

This is a moment in which we need to be attentive to the question asked by God and the response of the prophet.  I say that because this vision of this valley filled with dry bones is a vision that continues to replay itself.  In almost 15 years as a priest, I have stood among dry bones many times.  And I am not alone in this.  Every time we bring the body of one whom we have known and loved to their grave, we stand among dry bones.  And make no mistake about the fact that when we stand in those places filled with dry bones, God asks us also, “can these bones live?”  And the very reason why we pray for those whom we love but see no longer and why we bless these bones and these graves Is because by faith we know the answer that we long one day to know by sight.  We know by the witness of the apostles that Jesus has trampled down death by death and bestowed life upon those in the tombs.  We know Jesus is the firstborn of those who sleep in death.  Our faith assures us that the day shall surely come when even the bones that have returned to dust shall be restored and enlivened by Jesus who is the resurrection and the door to eternal life.

The vision of Ezekiel points forward to the eternal Easter Day that is the Advent of Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  In that vision, the dry bones are brought to live once more.  Life comes through the power and presence of God even in the last place we expect to find life.

There are two main reasons why this is such a necessary and powerful reminder for us who live by faith and not yet by sight.  Remember how we began this Lenten journey: marked with ash crosses on the First Day of Lent.  These crosses were not merely a sign of our piety.  They are signs of our mortality.  When we heard those words with which that cross was imposed upon us, we were reminded that the unavoidable truth is that we shall become dry bones.  And if we did not have the promises that arise from Christ's Resurrection, that thought would likely be overwhelming.  But as Christ is risen, and as he has joined us to his death and resurrection, we need not be afraid, for even these bones shall live!

This is so because the promise of God rooted in Christ's words, “Do not be afraid,” apply even in these days in which we remember our own mortality as we live here and now.  When Ezekiel declares, “Lord, you know,” he is acknowledging before God the awareness that nothing is beyond the power of God even when, or especially when, we are faced with realities that exceed our imagination and comprehension.  God can do all things well, even that which exceeds our wildest imagination.  When we remember that truth, we know that our God is always bigger than our problems and more powerful than everything that seeks to hold us captive in fear.

And how we need that reminder.  How greatly the world in which we live needs that reminder.  And how shall the world about us know this comforting truth if we who are the Body of the risen Christ are not bold enough to stand among the dry bones that are the hopeless places where fear holds so many captive, pointing to Jesus?  Even in Lent, we proclaim Christ, crucified and risen, giving life in the last places we would expect to find life.  Remember this as we go forth into the world about us, trusting that indeed God is always more powerful and loving than anything or anyone else who shall be encountered in our midst.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Rev’d Timothy Alleman

Rector

The Church of the Holy Cross

X

The Gathering of God’s People

XI

In Praise of Wisdom

XII

The Gifts of Wisdom

XIII

The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace

XIV

The First Passover

XV

Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac

B18 Sunday 11 March '18 -- Paschal Series Part 8

Preparing with Joy for the Paschal Feast

I

The Charge to Moses and Joshua

II

The Story of Creation

III

The Future Glory of Zion

IV

The Conversion of Nineveh

V

The Flood

VI

A New Heart and a New Spirit

VII

Salvation Offered Freely to All

Part VIII of XV

Sunday 11 March 2018

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Israel’s Deliverance at the Red Sea

Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21

As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them.  In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord.  They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?  What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?  Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'?  For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."  But Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.  The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still."  Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me?  Tell the Israelites to go forward.  But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground.  Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers."  The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them.  It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel.  And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.  Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.  The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.  The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.  The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers.  At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic.  He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty.  The Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt."  Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers."  So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth.  As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.  The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained.  But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.  Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.  Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians.  So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.  Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The rose vestments remind us today that our Lenten journey is roughly half-way complete.  And today, as we enter this second portion of this Lent and anticipate the coming Easter feast, the Easter Vigil reading that I want to focus upon on this Sunday of Joy is Israel’s Deliverance at the Red Sea.

This deliverance came to the people at a time when they were escaping their bondage as slaves in Egypt.  Israel had entered first into Egypt at the invitation of Pharaoh who commanded Joseph, second in command in Egypt, to bring his father and his brothers and their family to settle in Egypt in order that they would survive the famine that raged throughout the region.  But with time, Pharaoh and Joseph, and the brothers and father of Joseph, all died.  After their death the memory of these men was forgotten.  Without that memory, Pharaoh and the Egyptians came to despise the children of Israel and forced them into slavery.  Under the leadership of Moses and his brother Aaron, the time of deliverance came at last.  God softened the heart of Pharaoh so that the ruler of Egypt gave the people their freedom and sent them away.

The Easter Vigil reading before us today finds the people at the verge of leaving Egypt, and suddenly Pharaoh regrets his decision.  Pharaoh and his army chase after the people in the hopes of forcing them into submission once more.  And when the people panic, seeing that the Egyptians are on one side of them and the sea on the other, that they are trapped, Moses promises the people that God will deliver them.  God does indeed provide deliverance.  The people cross the sea on dry ground.  And when the Egyptians seek to follow, the ground that was dry for Israel is muddy, and does not allow the Egyptians to pass and draw near to Israel.  After Israel had fully crossed over, the waters returned, and the deliverance of Israel was complete.

It’s a powerful reading that is before us.  Remember, however, that the point of such powerful readings is not that we would simply delight in the salvation and deliverance provided by God for someone else.  These readings ultimately serve as reminders for us of the power and the ability of God to act on our behalf and for those needs that are in our own life.  Therefore, in these final days of Lent, we do well, friends, to ask of ourselves, “What is our Red Sea?”  Where in our lives right now do we need God to act on our behalf and bring us deliverance?  What is it that we are facing these days that feels utterly hopeless and that might just make us afraid, even as the Israelites were afraid when they saw that they were in a trap between the sea and their enemies?  The story of the deliverance of Israel at the waters of the sea is the means of grace through which our God says to each of us in our own unique place of need: “I am with you, and I will deliver you!”

How fitting this message is for a Sunday marked by joy.  What else is there that can fill us with joy than the knowledge that God is our help and salvation who provides deliverance and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  And hopefully we remember that joy both in those moments in which are not in need of deliverance and in those moments when the next thing threatens to overwhelm us.

I find it rather ironic to be talking about the deliverance of the Red Sea on this Sunday when the Old Testament reading for the day finds the people grumbling in the wilderness.  Clearly, they have not remembered the deliverance of God.  This is one of those moments where I am thankful that I am not God.  In today’s reading, the people grumble over this food called manna.  It was this very food that God provided for them at an earlier time when they complained about a lack of food.  This food was provided for them daily.  By this point they had also complained about a lack of meat to eat.  God had responded by providing them meat daily at evening even as the manna was provided daily in the morning.  These same folks complain about a lack of drinkable water in the wilderness.  Moses struck the rock with his staff at the command of God, and water flowed from a rock for the people to eat.  And in all these moments, the people forgot the hardship of slavery in Egypt and long for the “good old days” of Egypt, forgetting the burdens and hardships of slavery.  And despite all this, God continues to show mercy and provide for every need of the people.

I’m not sure I could be so willing to continue to give and give as God does for these people.  I find myself getting frustrated at these folks who seem to never learn to trust in God and rejoice in the presence and deliverance of God, confident that no matter what they face, God is always bigger than the problem.  And then I remember that as long as I have these responses, there is still work to be done in me to prepare myself to enter the Kingdom and keep the eternal Easter.

I say that because how quickly we can be exactly like the Israelites who panic beside the Red Sea and who grumble in the wilderness.  Time and time again, God has shown us that all that is needful for us has been provided to us by God, who has brought us in our lifetimes through some very difficult moments.  For as long as we are alive in this world, longing to be found worthy to enter the Kingdom of God through the grace of Christ, we will face difficult moments once more.  What shall we do when those moments come to us?  Will we panic and grumble?  Will we trust in God?  God has shown us again and again that God is faithful even when we are faithless.  Therefore, in these Lenten days, may we, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus, grow in such a way that our first inclination will always be to praise God and to rejoice in God both in easy times and in difficult times, knowing that with the help of God, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Rev’d Timothy Alleman

Rector

The Church of the Holy Cross

IX

The Valley of Dry Bones

X

The Gathering of God’s People

XI

In Praise of Wisdom

XII

The Gifts of Wisdom

XIII

The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace

XIV

The First Passover

XV

Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac

B18 Sunday 4 March '18 -- Paschal Series Part 7

Preparing with Joy for the Paschal Feast

I

The Charge to Moses and Joshua

II

The Story of Creation

III

The Future Glory of Zion

IV

The Conversion of Nineveh

V

The Flood

VI

A New Heart and a New Spirit

Part VII of XV

Sunday 4 March 2018

Third Sunday in Lent

Salvation Offered Freely to All

Isaiah 55:1-11

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.  I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.  See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.  See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.  Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

In today's Epistle, Paul speaks of the difference between the Law and the Gospel.  He speaks of a freedom that is found in the Gospel; a freedom that is life-giving.  I want to explore today the words of the prophet Isaiah in light of the freedom found in the Gospel proclaimed by Paul and the Church.

One of the readings that we shall hear when we celebrate the Great Vigil of Easter at the end of this month is a portion of the 55^th chapter of Isaiah titled “Salvation Offered Freely to All.”  This reading begins with some of the most beautiful and comforting words found within all the Scriptures.

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;

and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!”

Even today, these words are shocking.  In our own day and generation, we know that it simply isn't possible to buy without money.  And if we are honest, our greatest issue in these words is that our culture simply isn't inclined to look favorably on those who partake of what they have neither purchased nor earned.  But for a moment, forget all our cultural assumptions and modern thoughts that arise from this passage and think of this message as it would have been received by those living under the Law prior to the Gospel.

The Old Covenant is all about the purchase of salvation and attaining the favor of God.  Under the Old Covenant, nothing was free.  The religious life of those living under that Covenant was centered on the rituals that took place at the Altar.  These rituals were all about sacrifice.  The Law specified a variety of sacrifices and what exactly was to be offered to fulfill the obligations of each of the sacrifices.  It's worth noting that the specifications of the sacrifices even envisioned the very real possibility that some among the people of God would not be able to afford the expense of purchasing the necessary items for the sacrifice.  Thus the Law often gives an alternate and lesser cost for the poor who would not be able to pay in full.

As a side note, by the way, it is here that we see most clearly in the Gospel that the Incarnation occurs in the midst of poverty.  When the Blessed Mother comes to be purified by sacrifice on the 40^th day of the life of her firstborn son, Jesus, the sacrifice offered by her and Joseph is the lesser sacrifice in place of the one that would be too burdensome on them.

It should be pointed out, however, that even at a discount price, it was expected that those who brought sacrifices in accordance with the Law would be making a sacrifice.  Free offerings simply were not acceptable.  We know this in part because on two occasions during the reign of King David when a sacrifice was required from the King for the people, David rejects outright the free offer of the gifts needed for sacrifice that someone tried to give him at no cost to the King.  David proclaims that he will not offer sacrifice to God that costs him nothing.  In the heart of the King, he is certain that he must feel the weight and burden of making sacrifice.

It is in this context, among folks like David who held strong beliefs that sacrifice ought to involve a cost and a burden, among persons like Mary and Joseph who had the option of a lesser price that nevertheless would have been a burden, that Isaiah, speaking in the name of God, proclaims grace, a free gift with no charge.

“Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Imagine for a moment how shocking those words must have been!  Everything is turned upside down.  The familiar is no more.  These words and these emotions are precursors to something greater to come.  This prophetic Word of God anticipates that moment in the story of the people of God when in the Incarnation of the Word of God and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Christ a feast is set before us at which the gifts offered are truly free, and we are welcomed and invited by a gracious God to fully partake without cost or burden.  Jesus sets before us a new and better way, a life that is truly living.  He gives us a place at the Feast that is the Kingdom of God that we can never earn, for it must always be free gift not only for us, but for all people, even those whom we think have no right to this grace when we fail to be amazed by grace and think like David that a burden should always be felt.

Does that mean there is no burden?  No!  There is a burden.  But the Gospel lifts the burden from us rather than simply imposing a lesser burden in place of the full weight.  And when the burden is lifted from us completely, it is taken fully by Jesus who carries us and our burdens in perfect love and offers himself for us and our salvation, for our very life.

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which dues not satisfy?”

“Come to me; listen, so that you may live.”

There are countless voices around us seeking to gain our attention.  How easily we can be distracted by those whose words and promises ultimately are empty promises that offer us nothing and take from us what we already have.  At times, these others look and sound so good.  And if we manage not to get distracted by them, it likely will not take long before we feel like the disciples who are left alone after the masses in John 6 went away from Jesus to pursue things that are not life-giving nor satisfying.  In the wake of that departure, Jesus asks the Twelve if they also wish to leave.  The moment that follows is one of those rare moments before the Resurrection when Peter gets it right:

“Lord, to whom shall we go; you have the words of eternal life.”

Before us, dear friends, Jesus once more sets a rich feast; the Gospel and the Eucharist – Bread for the Journey to the Kingdom of God and the eternal Easter.  He is our food and drink, and the very price of grace paid in full by him, that allows us to partake freely and live.  In these Lenten days, may we feast boldly upon Christ, knowing that in him we have life.  And then, even more boldly still, may we be in the world about us as beggars who delight to tell all other beggars where to find bread and eternal life.  And as beggars who know it is only grace, always grace, let us delight in all who come as they are to Jesus, that they too might find life in him who is life-giving and satisfying for all our needs and all our burdens.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Rev’d Timothy Alleman

Rector

The Church of the Holy Cross

VIII

Israel’s Deliverance at the Red Sea

IX

The Valley of Dry Bones

X

The Gathering of God’s People

XI

In Praise of Wisdom

XII

The Gifts of Wisdom

XIII

The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace

XIV

The First Passover

XV

Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac

B18 Sunday 25 February '18 -- Paschal Series Part 6

Preparing with Joy for the Paschal Feast

I

The Charge to Moses and Joshua

II

The Story of Creation

III

The Future Glory of Zion

IV

The Conversion of Nineveh

V

The Flood

Part VI of XV

Sunday 25 February 2018

Second Sunday in Lent

A New Heart and a New Spirit

Ezekiel 36:24-28

Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.  Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Today I want to focus on the promise of God made through the prophet Ezekiel in which God promises to give a new heart and a new spirit; a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.

It's an incredible promise that God makes to us and to all the people claimed by God.  It's a transformation that is filled with grace.  It’s a gift that is necessary for our salvation and that of the world.

Think for a moment about those words.  Remember what the heart does for the body.  The heart pumps life throughout the body.  And if we have a heart of stone, how well will that heart pump?  We know the answer.  A stone heart, a hardened heart, cannot pump.  And if it cannot pump, it and what it is keeping alive will inevitably die.  This is true not only for our bodies.  It is true also for our souls.

The prophet's words call to mind that in the heart of God, it is not acceptable that the people whom God holds there in love should die.  God's desire is that we shall live.  And in that desire, God acts on us and for our behalf to bring forth life.  God gives us a new heart; a heart of flesh that is capable of pumping and sustaining life.

The Scriptures are filled with moments of transformation that reflect the giving of a new heart and a new spirit to the people.  Today we have heard the story of Abram and Sarai who received new names and found new life as Abraham and Sarah.  We have heard Paul reflect on this patriarch and matriarch of the people of God.  And could we find anyone else who so greatly reflects a transformation brought on by God?  Remember that the apostle who praises Abraham and proclaims Christ as the hope and salvation of the world is the same man who as Saul persecuted the Church and approved of the killing of the deacon and martyr, Stephen.  It was this Saul who went to Damascus in the hopes of bringing others to the same fate as Stephen.  But on the outskirts of that city, Christ appeared to this man and gave him a new heart and a new spirit, a new identity that would cause him to be known by a new name.

Throughout the history of the Church, this transformation has continued.  As I thought on this, my mind went to the story of John Newton, the author of one of the most well-known hymns of the Church, “Amazing Grace.”  This man was an English captain of a ship that transported Africans to slave markets where they were sold as property into slavery.  At some point in his life, a conversion experience brought him to embrace the Christian faith and begin questioning everything he had known in his life.  Because of that conversion, the giving of a new heart and a new spirit by God, this slave trader turned into a great advocate for the end of slavery and the respect of all persons, especially those who were seen not as humans but merely as property.  And when John Newton wrote the words of that great hymn, he did so with a spirit of penitence, longing to be washed clean of the sins that had marred him for so long, commending himself into the hands of a merciful God.

If we were to explore the history of our faith, we could find countless others like John the hymnwriter and Paul the apostle whose stories reflect the promise that God desires to give us a new heart and a new spirit.  But the point of this is not that we would merely reflect upon these others.  This promise of God comes to us as we journey through Lent, longing to be transformed that we might be accounted worthy through grace to have a place in the Kingdom of God and keep glad Easter forever.  This promise is not merely for someone else!  This is for us.  God longs to transform us daily, to complete in us what is lacking, to give us a new heart that is above all the heart of God, a new spirit that is unmistakably the Holy Spirit at work in us.

The Lenten question for us, then, is simply this: How is it that we need a new heart and a new spirit?  What is it that we need God to fix and complete in us?  And the difficult part of this for us all is that I cannot answer that question for you, nor can you answer that question for me.  The answer comes to each of us when each of us are willing to walk with Christ and ask for the gifts of wisdom and discernment that we might know how we need to grow in this springtime of the year that we call Lent.

As difficult as that is, this is the easy part.  If we are to grow, we must change.  If we are to receive a new heart and a new spirit, we must submit to God and allow God to transform us into the persons that God desires us to be.  It means giving up control of our own lives and allowing God to be God with us.  It means that we must allow God to remove everything that is sin and death from us and replace these things with life and salvation.  And as much as we might say we are willing to experience that transformation, how often do we seek to tell God how to be God and to act as we desire.  But whenever we do that, we are failing to submit to God.  And when we do so, we are in fact clinging to that old heart that is dying and to our own spirit and wisdom, thinking that we know better even than God what is right and good.

As we journey through these Lenten days, remember that Christ longs to work in us and form us to such a degree that when others see and hear us, they are encountering Christ who through us reaches out to heal and to love all persons without exception.  And as we are shaped by Christ to be like Christ, we might just be surprised at the growth that occurs in us; a work that can be attributed to no one else than God.  We might even find ourselves in a place like John Newton, who having submitted fully to God and allowed God to transform him to be a new person with a new heart and a new spirit, lamented his old ways and strove with all the strength given him by God to walk in the light of God in a way that is truly life-giving.  May our Lenten journey truly be so transformative, that when we keep glad Easter, Christ will be proclaimed in our words and deeds not merely in this holy house of prayer, but in our homes and workplaces, and in all the world.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Rev’d Timothy Alleman

Rector

The Church of the Holy Cross

VII

Salvation Offered Freely to All

VIII

Israel’s Deliverance at the Red Sea

IX

The Valley of Dry Bones

X

The Gathering of God’s People

XI

In Praise of Wisdom

XII

The Gifts of Wisdom

XIII

The Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace

XIV

The First Passover

XV

Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac