Category Archives: Lent

Lent 5C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for April 3, 2022 (Lent 5C)

First Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

The whole world, it seems, is divided into Marthas and Marys, and most of us know which one we are. In Sunday’s Gospel, we hear the familiar story of these two friends of Jesus and their differing ways of showing their love, as Jesus progresses toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus

Christ in the House of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (c.1577). Oil painting on canvas by Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592). Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. (Click image to enlarge.)

Each of Sunday’s readings touches on the idea of progress toward a goal. In the first reading, Isaiah envisions the people in exile, defeated and hopeless, unable to get up; “extinguished, quenched like a wick.” But in God there is hope for new ways, the prophet assures us. God will make a path in the wilderness and create rivers in the desert, protecting God’s chosen people and bringing them home.

Psalm: Psalm 126

Psalm 126 is one of a series of hymns known as “Songs of Ascent” that may have been sung as the people approached the Temple in ritual procession. Celebrating the people’s return to Jerusalem from exile, the Psalm echoes the Isaiah passage: It reminds us that God’s redemption can turn our tears into shouts of joy even though life’s burdens once seemed to be more than we could bear.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

Once a proud Pharisee and persecutor of Christians, Paul thought he had a lot to boast about. But once he felt that he knew Christ, everything changed. He has lost everything that he had before, and all that is now rubbish to him, he says in his letter to this Greek convert community in Philippi. Having gained righteousness from God through faith in Jesus, his new hope rests in the resurrection. As Isaiah advised Israel, so Paul urges the Philippians: Forget what lies behind you. Press on toward the goal of resurrection and life through God’s call in Jesus.

Gospel: Gospel: John 12:1-8

Our journey through Lent with Jesus is nearing its end. In John’s Gospel, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, and now the high priests are worried. Jesus’s miracles are getting too much attention, and the clamor might upset the hated Roman rulers. They decide to kill him if he shows his face in Jerusalem during Passover. Of course, that’s just where Jesus is headed. But first, as told in Sunday’s Gospel, he stops in Bethany to visit Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and Mary shows her love by bathing his feet extravagantly with a costly perfumed oil. Profit-minded Judas objects, but Jesus says, “Leave her alone!” The oil is for his burial, Jesus says, reminding them, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Lent 4C

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Parable of the Prodigal Son (1536) painting on oak wood by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c.1500-c.1566). Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. (Click image to enlarge.)Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 27, 2022 (Lent 4C)

First Reading: Joshua 5:9-12

Repentance – literally, turning back from a wrong path and changing to a right one – forms a consistent theme through Sunday’s readings.

Parable of the Prodigal Son

Parable of the Prodigal Son (1536) painting on oak wood by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c.1500-c.1566). Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. (Click image to enlarge.)

From the people’s arrival at the Promised Land to the prodigal son’s joyous return home, we hear that God is with us through transition and change. In our first reading, the Israelites have come to Canaan, the land of milk and honey, after 40 years wandering in the desert. They celebrate with bread made from the produce of the promised land. Later in Joshua we will discover that people already live on the land. It will have to be taken by bloody force, a darker side of Scripture’s ancestral legends. In this passage, though, we simply share in the joy of completing a long journey.

Psalm: Psalm 32

Hear the message of Psalm 32: We don’t always do the right thing. In our hearts we know this, even as we feel the pain of knowing that we have wronged another, or hurt a loved one. When we step away from God, who loves us and who always stands ready to forgive, our guilt piles up and we groan in sorrow. When we repent – when we stop being stubborn and turn back from our wrongful ways to trust in God – we feel the comfort and joy of knowing God’s forgiveness.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Paul was dealing with an angry, troubled congregation as he wrote his second known letter to the people of Corinth. They are mad at him, and he’s not happy with them, either. But he loves them still and seeks their forgiveness. God gave us Christ to reconcile the world to God, Paul writes. Our new direction as Christians, he tells them, comes when we recognize Jesus not only as human but as the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah. In Christ everything old has passed away, he says. Everything has become new!

Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

It seems easy to grasp the meaning of the parable of the Prodigal Son: God forgives us when we stray and then return. Even if we have been prodigally sinful, God welcomes us home with a father’s joy and abundant celebration. But wait! There’s more: Look at the rest of the story. At the end of this passage, the older brother, hurt because his consistent good behavior won him no such praise, hears of his father’s loyal, long-standing love. And at the beginning of this parable, we hear why Jesus told this story: It was a response to a group of grumbling Pharisees and scribes, showing them that a sinner’s return deserves as much celebration as the recovery of a lost sheep or a silver coin.

Lent 3C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 20, 2022 (Lent 3C)

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-15

Scripture offers us scores of images and metaphors to help us visualize a God who is beyond our imagining. It is no surprise that its efforts to portray some small sense of God’s power sometimes stretch our imagination.

The Gardener and the Fig Tree

The Gardener and the Fig Tree from Luke 13:1-9; stained-glass window in St. Mary’s Church of Ireland in Dungarvan, Waterford County, Ireland. (Click image to enlarge.)

One such image is fire. God led the Israelites in the wilderness as a pillar of fire and column of smoke, and, as we hear in Sunday’s first reading, God surprises Moses by speaking out of a bush that burns and burns but is not consumed. The people have suffered enough in slavery in Egypt, God says. Moses receives God’s call to lead the people out of slavery to a promised land that flows with milk and honey.

Psalm: Psalm 63:1-8

The Psalmist creates the striking metaphor of a voice crying out in the wilderness. The one who speaks – traditionally said to be David in the Wilderness of Judah – is alone and thirsty, yet nevertheless they trust in God. Even in a barren and dry and probably scary place where there is no water, their souls thirst not for mere liquid refreshment but for God: God’s loving-kindness is better than life itself. Even in hard times we trust in God, finding comfort under the shadow of God’s wings, held in God’s strong right hand.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

In verses that draw together the themes of Sunday’s First Reading, Psalm and Gospel, Paul reminds his audience that many of the Israelites died in the wilderness. He argues that these bad things happened because God was not pleased with them. Recalling lessons from Exodus, Paul urges the people of Corinth not to practice idolatry, an issue that frequently arose among this community’s formerly pagan Christians. Don’t put Christ to the test, Paul warns. Don’t complain. These things happened to our ancestors to serve as an example to us, Paul wrote, reminding the people to be faithful during hard times: God will provide strength.

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9

Pilate had murdered a group of Galileans in grisly fashion, and more people had died unexpectedly when a tower fell. A crowd clustered around Jesus, worried. Why did these bad things happen to good people, they asked. Were these people punished because they had sinned? God does not punish sin with suffering, Jesus told them. But repentance – turning away from bad behavior – brings forgiveness and eternal life. Then Jesus told them a parable about a gardener who allowed a barren fig tree one more year of nurturing in hope it would bear fruit. Like the fig tree in this story, Jesus tells the crowd, it’s best to repent and wait for God’s forgiveness and another chance.

Lent 2C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 13, 2022 (Lent 2C)

First Reading: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sunday’s Lectionary readings celebrate our hope in God, even in times of darkness. Last Sunday’s first reading from Deuteronomy about God’s covenant with the chosen people was easy to understand:

View of Jerusalem (1487)

View of Jerusalem (1487), bookplate by Konrad Grünenberg (c.1415-1494), author and artist from Konstanz, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

Give thanks to God with the first fruits of the harvest, not just what’s left over after the feast. Be good to our neighbors and to the poor. The covenant with Abram from Genesis is a little harder to engage with modern ways of thinking, with its talk about sacrificing livestock and poultry to please the Holy One. Looking past the temple traditions of the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East, though, we see what endures: God’s promise stays with us always, even when the darkness seems deep and terrifying.

Psalm: Psalm 27

As we chant this Psalm, try to hear its pattern of trust, hope and petition. First it simply declares our trust in God, our light and salvation, whose strength is so great that nothing can stand against it to make us afraid. But then it takes a darker turn as we hear an earthly king – King David, according to tradition – imagining frightening possibilities, from flesh-eating evildoers to camps full of enemy warriors. Yes, terrible things might threaten us, but the Psalm carries on, trusting God, calling on God to have mercy and keep us safe. Even when we feel under attack, beset with dangers and real-life fears, we can place our confidence in God and ask for God’s protection.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:17-4:1

The people of the church in Philippi in northern Greece had endured much in order to embrace the Christian way. Like the people in Psalm 27, they worried about earthly fears and persecution by their enemies. But Paul reassures them with pastoral advice that might recall the Psalmist’s wisdom: Look to God, through Christ, for our salvation. Stand firm in our faith and find meaning in our lives by making every effort to live as Christ would have us live.

Gospel: Luke 13:31-35

Since the end of the ninth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus and his followers have been on a long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, teaching and healing and arguing with opponents along the way. Now as they draw closer to their destination, some friendly Pharisees warn Jesus that King Herod wants to kill him. Jesus won’t alter his chosen course, though, even if it will lead to death in Jerusalem (which he calls the “city that kills the prophets”). His journey may threaten his life, yet he speaks of his love for the city in a nurturing, motherly image of a hen and her chicks.

Lent 1C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 6, 2022 (Lent 1C)

First Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Lent has begun. We enter the 40-day season that our liturgy encourages us to observe through self-examination and repentance; prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.

Christ Tempted by the Devil

Christ Tempted by the Devil (1818), oil painting on panel by John Ritto Penniman (1782-1841). Smithsonian American Art Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

Sunday’s readings, though, don’t hammer us with thoughts of punishment and penitence. They invite us, rather, to be conscious of God’s love and protection, listening for our call to follow God’s way. We begin with an ancient harvest prayer from Deuteronomy. We hear Moses, addressing the people who will cross into the Promised Land after he dies, offering a tithe of the first fruits of harvest in gratitude for God’s abundance. He outlines God’s covenant with the people, a covenant that comes down to us in the Gospel: We are called to love God and our neighbor and to care for the stranger, the poor, the weak and the oppressed.

Psalm: Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

In the Psalm, too, we offer grateful thanksgiving to God as our protector and provider. In a striking catalogue of many bad things that can happen to good people – evil events, plague, injury, even attacks by lions and venomous serpents – the Psalmist reminds us that we live in God’s shadow. We recognize God as our refuge and our stronghold. God will help us because we are bound to God in love. When we call on God, God will answer. Two verses within the Psalm, slightly altered in translation, are the source for Luke’s words in the Gospel: “He will command his angels concerning you … On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

Second Reading: Romans 10:8b-13

Paul’s thoughts in this passage have often been interpreted in modern times as a call for sinful humans to gain individual salvation by accepting the resurrected Christ as their personal savior. Seen in the fuller context of Paul’s letter to the Romans, though, we recognize that this is not an individual altar call. It is a message calling on an entire community – the mixed Jewish and pagan Christian congregation in Rome – to come together in Jesus’ name. God makes no distinction between Jew and Greek, Paul writes. God, through Jesus, is Lord of all, and gives generously to all who call on God’s name.

Gospel: Luke 4:1-13

Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days. This Gospel message has echoes in the 40 years that Moses and the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, and is echoed in turn in the 40 days of Lent. Immediately after Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert, where he meets temptation while fasting in the wilderness. The devil tempts Jesus, first with food, then – quoting from Psalm 91 – with visions of power and glory, if only he will turn from God. But Jesus stands firm and the devil leaves him “until an opportune time.” In the verses that follow this passage, Jesus goes directly to his hometown synagogue where he will proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed.

Ash Wednesday

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Thoughts on the Lectionary readings for March 2, 2022 (Ash Wednesday)

First Reading: Joel 2:1-2,12-17

On Ash Wednesday we begin Lent. Traditionally a time of penitence and sacrifice, the 40 days of Lent invite us to perform acts of devotion and sacrifice as we reflect on the wrongs that we have done, and recognize the simple truth that we will not live forever.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday (1866), oil painting on panel by Charles de Groux (1825-1870). Stedelijk Museum Wuyts-Van Campen en Baron Caroly, Liere, Belgium. (Click image to enlarge.)

We begin with a reading from Joel, one of the minor prophets. The book that bears his name is only three chapters long, and modern theologians aren’t even sure when he lived. We know that “Joel” means “The Lord is God” in Hebrew; and Joel may have prophesied after the return from exile to Jerusalem. Much of the short book deals with the people’s prayerful response to a plague of locusts, and in that setting, this alternate reading offers a liturgical look at a period of penitence and sacrifice … something to think about as we enter Lent.

Alternate First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-12

An alternative first reading for Ash Wednesday draws from a portion of Isaiah that we heard just a few weeks ago. The prophet, addressing the people returning from exile, makes clear that public demonstrations of fasting and prayer, sackcloth and ashes are not enough to please God unless we also show our righteousness through service and love of neighbor. In language that might have informed both Jesus and his mother, Mary, the prophet reminds the people to oppose injustice: free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and clothe the naked.

Psalm: Psalm 103

Hear this in the Psalm for this day: God made us all from dust. God knows well that we are all only dust. We are human: broken and sinful, often wicked. Yet God’s compassion and mercy vastly exceed God’s anger. God does not punish us as we might fear that our sins deserve, the Psalmist assures us; rather, God shows mercy wider than the world itself, forgiving our sins and welcoming us in a parent’s warm embrace.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Throughout much of his shorter second letter to the people of Corinth, Paul attempts to work out an ongoing quarrel with the people of this contentious little church. In these verses he speaks of reconciliation. He lists the pain and suffering that he has endured as a servant of God, from beatings and imprisonment to sleepless nights and hunger. Accept God’s grace and work together in Christ, he urges the people, as Christ reconciled us with God by taking human form and dying for us.

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

As Lent begins, our Ash Wednesday Gospel seems ideally suited to the season. Jesus, in the middle of Matthew’s extended account of the Sermon on the Mount, teaches the crowd how best to practice almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and self-denial of worldly pleasures. All of these have become traditional Lenten practices. In words that might remind us of the day’s Isaiah reading, Jesus urges the people to practice humble prayer. Shun hypocrisy. Don’t show off. Keep your charity, your prayers, and your fasting to yourself. Don’t brag about your fast. Don’t hoard fragile, transient earthly riches, but store in heaven the treasures that last.

Palm / Passion Sunday B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 28, 2021

Liturgy of the Palms B

The Last Supper

The Last Supper (c.1560), oil painting on panel by Juan de Juanes (1523-1579). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

As we sing this ancient hymn of celebration and praise, traditionally titled “A Song of Victory,” imagine a joyous crowd approaching the Temple, clapping hands and singing out as they celebrate the Lord their God, whose steadfast love endures forever. Its words of joyous praise for God’s works and mercy foreshadow the words we sing in the Great Thanksgiving as our Eucharistic Prayer begins: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! … Hosanna in the highest.”

Gospel: Mark 11:1-11

Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday were once celebrated on separate Sundays, but the celebrations were brought together in the time of ecumenism that followed Vatican II. As a result, we take a quick and startling turn in the course of one Sunday’s worship. First we hear of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding a donkey and greeted as a King by throngs spreading their cloaks and leafy branches in his way, shouting “Hosanna!” But then, later in the liturgy, we undergo a dramatic change of tone when we hear those same crowds angrily shout “Crucify him!” This contrast sets a tone for Holy Week as we follow Jesus to the cross: God is with us in joy. God is with us in sorrow.

Alternate Gospel: John 12:12-16

All four Gospels tell of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, riding a modest mount and hearing the acclaim of crowds; as is always the case, each Gospel narrative tells a slightly different story. John’s version, for example, is the only one that explicitly declares Jesus the King of Israel, and the only one that tells us the disciples did not understand what was going on. But all four versions share the triumphantly waving branches – here explicitly described as palms – and the joyous shouts of Hosanna.

Liturgy of the Passion B

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

These familiar verses from Isaiah introduce us to the suffering servant. Written about the people in exile in Babylon, it prophesies a servant leader who who would receive the enemy’s blows for the people in exile, and eventually guide them back home. While we respect the original intent, Christian readers can hardly encounter these verses without seeing parallels with Jesus, our messiah and king, who suffered for us and taught us to give our backs and turn our cheeks to those who strike us.

Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16

Perhaps the Psalmist had Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in mind as he wrote this Psalm of lament, with its litany of sorrow, distress, grief, sighing, misery, scorn, horror, dread and more. He suffers, his neighbors scheme; they plot his death. Have you ever heard a plaint more pitiful than “I am as useless as a broken pot”? Yet amid all this misery, hope glows like the sun breaking through clouds: Trust in God, place our faith in God’s love, and wait to be saved.

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Might Paul have been thinking of the Suffering Servant, too, as he wrote of Jesus’ death on the cross? We understand Jesus as both fully human and fully divine, and all the Gospels show us glimpses of a Jesus who knew his stature and God-sent mission. Yet in this relatively early letter of Paul, perhaps quoting an even older Christian hymn, Paul tells of a Jesus who willingly set aside his divinity, his equality with God – “emptying himself” – to bear the horrific pain of crucifixion as a vulnerable, frightened human. Jesus took on the full weight of all that suffering to show us the true exaltation of God’s love, calling us only to respond with love for God and our neighbor.

Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47

Now we come to Mark’s account of Jesus’ passion and death. The palm branches and hosannas are only memories now. We hear the dark, painful way of the Cross as we prepare to walk through Holy Week with Jesus. Watch closely as we see first Jesus’ followers, and then even his friends, slip quietly away, deserting him, leaving at the end only those few most close to him, and a Roman centurion – a pagan, a soldier of the hated empire – whose faith showed him the light and thus opens the way to us all.

Lent 5B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 21, 2021

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

The Lectionary readings during Lent follow a consistent pattern: The Sunday Gospels take us on a quick journey through the life of Jesus, from his baptism in the Jordan to his last week in Jerusalem.

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630), oil painting on oak wood by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. (Click image to enlarge.)

The Hebrew Bible readings showcase God’s continuing covenants with the people. In Sunday’s first reading, the Prophet Jeremiah, recognizing that the people suffered exile because they broke the covenant their ancestors made at Mount Sinai, announces a new covenant. This will not be written on mere stone but directly on our hearts. Having God’s love indelibly marked on our hearts offers us a way to remember, even when we’re struggling, that we are commanded to love God and our neighbor.

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-13

This familiar Psalm is attributed by legend to King David himself. It imagines David wracked in repentant guilt over sending his general Uriah to certain death in battle so he can have Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bathsheba, for himself. In poetic words that mirror the promises of the covenants, we hear of David’s shame and grief. He makes no excuses, but begs for God’s mercy and forgiveness. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” David begs: a clean slate on which God can write a new covenant of love.

Alternate Psalm: Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119, the longest of all the Psalms, carries a message of covenant throughout its many verses: Those who follow God’s laws and teaching, modeling their lives on Torah so as to walk in God’s ways, will reap rewards. Within that framework, though, each of its 22 eight-verse stanzas offers its individual approach. Its verses addressed to God, “With my lips will I recite all the judgments of your mouth,” echo Jeremiah’s first conversation with God when he was called to be a prophet: “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy,” to which God responded, “you shall speak whatever I command you. … Now I have put my words in your mouth.”

Second Reading: Hebrews 5:5-10

The letter to the Hebrews is not a letter to a specific congregation but a broad appeal to formerly Jewish Christians who had returned to their original faith late in the first century to avoid persecution aimed at Christians by Rome. Its unknown author makes the case that Jesus, as Christ, stands in the great tradition of Jewish high priests that extends all the way back to Melchizedek, the king and great high priest, who blessed Abram just before God made the first covenant with Abram and Sarai. Since Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation who intercedes on our behalf forever, the writer tells the people, there is no longer need for priestly sacrifice.

Gospel: John 12:20-33

In the verses just before these (which we will hear next week on Palm/Passion Sunday), Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, riding a young donkey through joyous, palm-waving crowds. This week hear about a group of Greeks who ask Philip to arrange a meeting with Jesus. When Philip and Andrew take the request to him, Jesus responds with a surprising reply: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Just as Jesus must die to bear the fruit of salvation through his resurrection, Jesus says, we are the seeds of faith, called to grow in discipleship like kernels of wheat that must fall on the ground and die in order to grow.

Lent 4B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 14, 2021

First Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

In Sunday’s first reading we hear a strange account of poisonous snakes sent by God to punish an ungrateful people – and a curative bronze serpent that seems suspiciously like an idol.

Moses and the Brass Serpent

Moses and the Brass Serpent, (late 16th century), oil painting on oak wood, by the flemish painter Jacob de Backer (c.1555-c.1591). Schorr Collection, United Kingdom. (Click image to enlarge.)

This might just strike us as another of Scripture’s ancient legends, easily ignored. But then we turn to John’s Gospel and find Jesus alluding to this strange passage to set the context for his famous words in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”! This connection makes the serpent story a little more difficult to ignore. Perhaps it’s as simple as this: When we feel that we’re surrounded by serpents, look up and remember that God is with us.

Psalm: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Following that startling passage about poisonous snakes and bronze serpent idols in the first reading, the Psalm appointed for this day provides some relief. Give thanks for God’s enduring mercy, the Psalmist tells us. Even when we are foolish; when we rebel and when we sin, and even when we are afraid, once we cry out for God and repent, return, and give thanks for God’s mercy, God hears our prayers and showers us, like children, with healing and salvation.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

We find no actual serpents in the Letter to the Ephesians, a document likely written in Paul’s name by a later follower. But it imagines something just about as frightening and potentially deadly: a shadowy spirit, a “ruler of the power of the air.” Those who prefer passion and the flesh to life in Christ can be lured by this spirit, the writer says. But like those healed by gazing at Moses’ bronze serpent, we are saved by God’s mercy and raised up by God’s gift of grace through Jesus; not by anything that we can do to try to earn salvation.

Gospel: John 3:14-21

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” For many Christians, this week’s lessons could start and finish right there. But wait! What is that serpent doing there? We might wonder if Jesus is teaching from Torah, with which he and his followers would have been intimately familiar, and Numbers is his text. We cannot yank John 3:16 out of its context without considering the verses that surround it. In his nighttime conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus makes clear that we all have power to choose between darkness and the light. Just as God provided the Israelites a way to repent and be healed, so God offers us healing grace through Jesus.

Lent 3B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 7, 2021

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

During the first three weeks of Lent we remember God’s three great covenants with the people: God’s promises through the ages given to Noah, Abraham, and now Moses.

Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple

Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple (1626), oil painting on oak wood by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. (Click image to enlarge.)

God’s thunderous voice shakes Mount Sinai as the awed people hear the Ten Commandments that sum up the principles by which we live with love for God and each other. Hear God’s voice and follow these commandments, God has told Moses in the verses just before these bedrock principles, and you will be God’s treasured possession among all the people.

Psalm: Psalm 19

In an appropriate sequel to the first reading, we hear this familiar hymn of praise and thanksgiving, sung in beautiful, poetic language, exulting at the beauty and wonder of all God’s creation, God’s gift to all the people of the world and to all the span of the universe. Within that creation, the hymn sings on, God’s laws and statutes – the great commandments – give us wisdom and joy and lead us to righteousness.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Paul’s first letter to the people of Corinth begins with a simple but challenging pastoral issue: The community is splitting into factions, each following a different leader. Paul urges them to stay united by following the Cross, Paul urges them. Never mind if their Jewish and Gentile neighbors mock Christians as foolish for worshiping a man who was brutally executed on the Roman cross, he says. The cross was a symbol of pain, shame and degradation, a seemingly foolish conclusion in the eyes of people who were expecting a warrior Messiah who would overthrow Rome with power and might. But that doesn’t matter, Paul writes, because Christians prefer God’s foolishness to mere human wisdom. God’s weakness far outweighs human strength.

Gospel: John 2:13-22

During the first weeks of Lent we quickly touched on Mark’s narrative of Jesus’ public ministry, from his baptism and prophetic teaching to Peter’s recognition that Jesus is the Son of Man, the Messiah. Now we turn to John’s Gospel for the rest of the season, beginning with John’s colorful account of Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple. This narrative appears in all four Gospels, but curiously, while Matthew, Mark and Luke all place it at the beginning of Holy Week, in John we find it near the beginning of the Gospel, during an earlier trip to Jerusalem for Passover that none of the other Gospels mention. Moreover, John alone goes into such detail: Not only did Jesus throw over the money changers’ tables, but he made a whip of cords to lash them in his anger at their exploiting the poor in the name of God. At the end, Jesus foreshadows his own passion and death. To the outrage of temple leaders, Jesus likens his own body to the temple and declares that he will raise it up three days after its destruction.