5 Lent 2024
Channel: St. Bartholomew's, Livermore
Date: 2024-03-17

Collect: Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Scripture (John 12:31-32): Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

Reflection:  These words of Jesus were spoken in reaction to some of his disciples telling him that some Greeks had requested to see him.  Seems like a bit of an overreaction, no?  It isn't.  It's an extreme reaction to an extreme situation.  The division between Jews and Greeks in Jesus' time was no less profound than the partisan divides we see in our nation and our world in our own day.  It would have seemed more than a little odd to Jesus' disciples that Greeks wished to see their Teacher, and even more odd if Jesus had agreed to such a meeting.  So Jesus takes a simple situation and makes it much bigger and more complex.  He isn't just a teacher, and his mission isn't just to be a Jewish revivalist.  He is the Creator and Judge of all the cosmos, and his mission is to draw all people, without a single exception, to himself.  We struggle with this just as much today as people did in his time.  Jesus surely did come to save us, but he came to save our enemies, our detractors, those on the opposite side of the aisle, just as much.  If we are going to fully accept his salvation and all the gifts that come with it, we must accept the whole package, and that means accepting that he also came for those we find difficult if not impossible to reconcile with.  Coming to terms with this impossibly big truth is the great work to which we are called as these latter days of Lent move us toward the observance of Jesus' Passion and Resurrection.