Imagining New Ways of Being – 21 March, 2021

The brokenness of the earth and our lives does not symbolize our failures. It symbolizes our humanness and need for God’s forgiveness, grace, and love. The readings this fifth Sunday of Lent remind us of that. Repentance is a way that God promises to draw all near. It is only when we recognize this that we are able to imagine new ways of being in the world, ways that reflect God’s love and intention for the world. –– Katherine Lauer Rigler

John 12:20-33

Verse 24 contains the nugget of a parable, reminding us of the various images of seed that Jesus employed to speak about the mystery of change that leads to new life. Through the way of the cross Jesus does not give in to the tactics of the world promoting violence, the ideology of winners and losers.

In context, there are Greeks seeking Jesus who have come to Jerusalem for the Passover. . .

The setting gives Jesus the opportunity to speak about the coming reversal of fortunes that is mentioned in all four Gospels: “Those who love their life in this world will lose it; those who hate it will keep it for eternal life” (25). Those who desire to be leaders must first seek to serve.

Then an epiphany occurs in the form of yet another voice from the clouds confirming glorification of God’s purpose through Jesus: suffering love will initiate everlasting life. The grain of wheat that dies will bear much fruit. Those seeking to serve Jesus must be transparent to his glory. In that service, they then will be leaders so that those who wish to “see Jesus” may clearly come to know God’s plan: new life after death. –– Sara Webb Phillips

Hebrews 5:5-10

This text draws the parallel of Christ as high priest to Melchizedek, who also served as a king (and appears in Genesis 14 as a part of Abraham’s story). As high priest, he would have authority to enter the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the temple where intercessions for forgiveness of Israel’s sins would be pleaded before God. . .

The writer of Hebrews here appears to make a case for Jesus’s priestly authority, since he was not a member of the tribe of Levi and could not have been an Aaronic priest. . . If David was a priest in the likeness of Melchizedek, then Jesus, the Son of David, must also be a priest of the same order. –– Sara Webb Phillips

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The prophet’s future expectation of the restoration of Zion. . . includes a homeland return of the once exiled refugees. . . No longer will the Law be external, to be adhered to, but an internal one of response based on relationship. The basis of this covenant contains echoes of Hannah’s song, later echoed by Mary’s Magnificat. . . God’s way projects forgiveness in such a way that hearts become receptive to an internal moral guide, and as such leads to a natural response of love from the forgiven to the forgiver. –– Sara Webb Phillips

Katherine Lauer Rigler, a Presbyterian Minister (PCUSA), serves Saint Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson, Texas.

Sara Webb Phillips is a United Methodist minister serving Grace UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a former co-editor of the journal Liturgy published quarterly by The Liturgical Conference.

Homily Service 42, no. 2 (2008): 56-67.