Friday, March 20, 2009

4th Sunday in Lent

Date: Sunday March 22, 2009 4th Sunday in Lent Readings: 2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23 Psalm 137: 1-4 Ephesians 2: 2-10 John 3: 14-21
The Books of Chronicles are more a history of Israel and Judah than the books of Kings.
Throughout these books, the infidelity of the Kings, the leader of the people, the priests, and, in imitation of the Kings, finally, the anawim, the ordinary people, delve into the infidelity, disregard of God's precepts and ordinary courtesy.
God had enough! So, after centuries of His prophet's warnings, He allowed them their choices. They no longer deferred to him and His messengers. As a result, they were exiled to Babylon. Their Temple was destroyed and their Holy City was razed and burnt to the ground.
Now they were in captivity; slaves of the gentile Babylonians. What could be worse?
The Psalms tell of their captors begging them to sing their beautiful hymns and psalms. But, how could they? They remembered the glory of Jerusalem and the Temple, but they were gone. In their sadness and guilt, with nowhere to turn, they could no longer recall or sing their prayers and psalms.
However, God had not forgotten them. He sent Cyrus, king of Persia, to be their Messiah, their Savior. After fifty years, they were free to go home and rebuild their city and Temple. Most of the survivors had died but a remnant remembered the Glory and returned to Jerusalem to begin the rebuilding.
Do we, in our age, see the parallels?
Every daily newspaper blares out about the inhumanity to Mankind. What has gone wrong so many have lost their way?
The same newspapers exploit the stories of injustices toward our fellowman. The print media offend our sensibilities with their candor and lurid details. The Electronic media flaunt their prurient ways and the popularity of their radio and TV shows is evidence against us of our buying their goods. Even the newest space age communications are reaping billions from the display, for anyone to see, pornography in its most deviant forms. Without customers, those forms of idolatry would dry up, overnight.
However, we excuse them in the name of the first Amendment.
The framers of the Constitution would turn, NO, whirl in their graves at these weird interpretations of their words. We better turn, NO, whirl about and follow God's ways.
What are God's ways? Are they difficult? Not at all!
The letter to the Ephesians lays out the Plan of God for all to be saved. We can be brought back to life through our Faith. The Grace we receive there from, will cause us to become like Him! Believe!
Jesus told Nicodemus, He must be lifted up (on the Cross) so, just like the Israelites looked upon the lifted up serpent and were saved from snakebite, we can look upon the Cross of Christ as the instrument of our salvation.
God gave up His only Son's life so we might have eternal life with Him.
Accept the gift of Faith. It is perpetually offered!

Alternate readings for the fourth Sunday in Lent

1Samuel 16: 1b, 6-7, 10-13a Ephesians 5: 8-14 John 9: 1-41 Psalm 23: 1-6
Response The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want
At times, in our fallen nature, we think events as reported in Scripture are just happenstance. Samuel was unhappy with the reign of Saul. He had warned the people of Israel the pitfalls of human kings. They should rely on the Lord alone. However, they wanted what they wanted and would take no advice from man or the Lord. God therefore, told Samuel to give them a King. Just as Samuel had outlined, Saul was not a good leader of their religious community. Instead, he wanted to go his own way.
As a result, God became annoyed with his reign and decided to end it.
The power of Kings was awesome, and Samuel was reticent to anoint a replacement as he feared retaliation almost as much as he feared the Lord. Under the instruction of the Holy Spirit, he, nevertheless, went to Jesse, the father of 8 boys to look for the successor of Saul. He was attracted to a good looking, strapping boy and thought he was the selection of God. He was reminded, by God, of the previous King who was selected because of his stature, good looks and ability to fight. He must have been flabbergasted when none of the first seven boys was God's choice. Asking Jesse if he had any more sons, Jesse told him of his youngest who was a shepherd. Samuel was probably just as befuddled when the Lord selected David, a young boy, to lead His people.
How many times are we swayed by outward appearances? Celebrities influence our decisions regarding clothes, makeup, demeanor and choices. We must force ourselves to make moral and faith decisions in line with the Church's proclamations. Some of the leaders of the Church have failed, just like Saul. However, remember, the Holy Spirit is with the Church (that's us) just as much as He was with Samuel when David was the Choice of God.
The psalm reminds us who is the Good Shepherd. He doesn't lead us into rough waters where we can be swallowed up in the current of daily living. We go there of our own free will. Be a participant in the banquet of the Lord, daily if possible. And, He will be with us all the rest of our days!
Christ came to save the Jews. He offered them life and light. They turned Him down flat.
Paul, a Jew, was selected by Jesus and went on to spend the rest of his life and gave his life, to spread the Good News to the Jews in diaspora and to all the Gentiles who listened to the Lord and desired communion with Him in His Church. Paul warns us of the danger to our immortal souls, if we do not turn away from the low standards of some of the celebrities and reach the high ground of holiness. We may not be dead in the usual sense of the word, but, we can arise from the state of sin to enjoy forever, His blessings he has promised.
The long story of the man born blind and his ultimate healing because of his faith, should be an example of the providence of God with respect to our own physical and spiritual lives. His parents were afraid to authenticate their son's healing for fear of being kicked out of the assembly.
We often look at the culture of the day and "go along to get along".
Stand up for the values of the Gospel! Don't allow a few moments of pleasure releave you of the eternal joy we can expect if we but walk with Him in the way He pointed out to us while He was present in person.
Now He is present in the Eucharist, in the assembly, in His Word and in the lives we exhibit for all to emulate.

No comments:

Post a Comment