Isaiah
43:16-21
16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the
sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and
warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like
a wick: 18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I
will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild animals
will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the
wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the
people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
Philippians
3:4b-14
4 If anyone else has reason to be confident in
the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a
Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under
the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as
loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because
of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I
may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own
that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power
of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in
his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not
that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press
on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I
do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward
the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
John
12:1-8
1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to
Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they
gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table
with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed
Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one
who was about to betray him), said, 5 "Why was this perfume not sold for
three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" 6 (He said this
not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the
common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, "Leave
her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
· There is something in
all of us that fears the new and desires the familiar. Some even prefer a
familiar and known but unhealthy situation rather than take a chance at
something that could well be new and better. I suppose that it’s the
strangeness of human nature.
· Our memories contain
things both old and new, but not as we know “old” and “new” to be. Still what
are the “old things” we might remember and consider?
· Hatred
· terror
· war
· sin
· suffering
· slavery
· robbery
· These are all thing
that destroy life, whether quickly or slowly. These are the things that our
stories and our movies use as a setting for some heroic tale of overcoming the
odds or escaping the situation. Death and the weariness of life are always old.
Repeated history is always old.
· What then might be
new?
· Birth
· Life
· Love
· Rescue
· Survival
· Escape
· These are life-giving
things. Anything that gives life can be counted on as “new.” The birth of a
child is always ‘new’ and it is usually celebrated.
· In Christian terms,
Resurrection is always “new” and whatever Jesus does leads to newness and to
new life. That is his mission and the mission he gave to his church. It is see
in our baptism where each of us has risen to new life and the newly baptized
are still reborn in Christ Jesus.
· We may wonder what
God might be doing that might be new. I think that it really comes down to
Resurrection and new life, given to each of us in the free gift of grace, so
that the world might be made new in and through each of us.
· So when we gather as
we gather today, God is doing something new.
· When we commit
ourselves to the poor of the world as Jesus reminded his disciples in our
Gospel reading, God is doing something new.
· When we come to the
realization of the value of the salvation, as Paul did in counting all
as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…
God is doing something new.
· Maybe God “means the
world” to us and maybe each one of us “means the world” to God. This may be why
Mary, Lazarus’ sister, anointed Jesus for the day of my burial. And
this may be why Jesus permitted her to anoint him.
· We will always be
surprised by what God is doing. It might not be what we expect and it might not
even be exactly what we want. But it will be new. That “newness” is something
to be remembered on the day of Resurrection, this Easter, every Easter, and on
the day of our own Resurrection.
· Remember what God has
done in Christ Jesus, and know that it remains new.
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
No comments:
Post a Comment