Fifth Sunday in Lent

 John12:20-33

Throughout Lent, we have been listening to God to learn how we might practice forgiveness with all our heart, soul, and mind. Forgiveness is rooted in relationship: recognizing that God’s abundant forgiveness is ours because of the relationship we have with God because we are God’s children; and being empowered through God’s grace for us, to forgive ourselves and others with whom we are in relationship.

Practicing forgiveness also helps us remember that faith is never an individual or solo endeavor. It is inherently communal, and while it is personal, it is not private. We are in relationship with God, with each other and with our neighbors beyond our doors. And the fullness of our faith is diminished when our relationships are broken.

But, forgiveness is not a new idea.

 The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that God formed covenants - or relationships - with our ancestors in faith. There was the covenant with Noah, and then with Abram, and then with Moses and the whole people of Israel. But when the Law was given in stone, the tablets were later broken, and when forgiveness was given, it was later rejected.

But Jeremiah says this time will be different.

This time there will be a new covenant.

The covenant is still grounded in forgiveness but, this time, the prophet declares, it will be written on our hearts.

By grace, God writes over whatever pain or wounds we have suffered (even the ones that are self-inflicted), cleanses our sin-scarred hearts, and makes us new and whole.

For us as Christians, we see this new covenant manifest in the person of Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that we see God make people whole, restore their relationships and return them to their families and communities. It is in Jesus that we see justice – the addressing of wrong actions – enacted, and we see man-made or contrived boundaries, barriers and categories broken down.

And that is why, as we approach Palm Sunday and Holy Week, the religious authorities were plotting to kill Jesus.

But in the gospel text, it is also why Greeks were coming to the disciples, and saying, “We wish to see Jesus.”

It’s most likely that these Greeks were Gentiles, outsiders to the old covenant, and yet, here they were coming to see the Messiah, the Son of God who had come into the world.

Once upon a time, the words “We wish to see Jesus” were carved into pulpits, that we preachers would remember our task. But I think I’d like to see those words carved into the lintel and doorposts at the entrance to every sanctuary, so that all of us, as we leave after worship, might remember that, for some, we are the only Jesus a person may meet.

The Evangelist tells us that Philip went to Andrew and then, together, they went to tell Jesus about the Greeks who had come, but after that, the gospel account takes a turn, and we never even learn whether they got to see Jesus.

Maybe they only got to meet the disciples and see Jesus by hearing their stories of why they followed Jesus and watching what their journey looked like.

A few years ago, at a gathering of chaplains at Hood Seminary, I listened as the brigadier general who was, at that time, leading the Army and Air National Guard Chaplain Corps spoke.

Chaplain Chisolm told his story of growing up in Mississippi in a town where his daddy was the school superintendent, and, as he told his story, he told us about the man he called Brother Wallace, who lived next door to the church where he grew up, which was just across the street from his own house.

 

That meant Brother Wallace was a witness to all the mischief he and his brothers and sisters got into, but Chaplain Chisolm said that, even in those years when as a teenager he didn’t think much about God or faith, Brother Wallace remained a constant presence in his life. Not cajoling or coercing or chastising him but just staying connected and interested.

 

At 18 Chisolm enlisted in the Air National Guard and, a few weeks after he graduated from high school, he moved farther away from home, and from his parents, than he had ever gone before - to Texas for basic training. The chaplain told the story of how there, in the old World War 2 barracks at Lackland Air Force Base, he heard God speak to him and as he wrestled with what that meant, he wrote a letter to Brother Wallace. He didn’t know what to do next, but he knew Brother Wallace was someone he could trust with his questions, and who could help him see God more clearly.

 

More than thirty years later, when Chisolm returned home for his father’s funeral, he was speaking again with Brother Wallace, and the older gentleman reached into his coat pocket and pulled out that letter written by the young recruit in a complex time of uncertainty.

“We wish to see Jesus. 

It is a plea that each one of us has probably made in our lifetimes, and that our neighbors, young and old, may only have answered in our openness to accompany them and listen to their stories;

in our “healing actions or attitudes that [affirm] that all people are created in the image of a loving God and, therefore, need and merit, respect and dignity;”[i] 

or in our willingness to show up and be “a visible sign of the Holy” in a volatile and unpredictable world. [ii]

As we near the end of this Lenten season, I wonder how we can help the people around us see Jesus reflected in our words and actions.

Let us pray.

Covenant God,

You see us for what we are, but in mercy You do not cast us aside. In your steadfast love you forgive us our sin.

May we bear your love and mercy into a hurting world in such a way that they will see You in our words and actions.

We pray in the name of Your Son Jesus,

Amen.

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[i] Dr. Vergel Lattimore, Hood Theological Seminary, Salisbury, NC. 2018.

[ii] Chaplain Brig. Gen. J. Steven Chisolm speaking at Hood Theological Seminary, Salisbury, NC. 2018.