5th Sunday in Lent 2025
April 6, 2025
“I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:19
The Rev. Rod Sprange, St. Andrew’s Woodhaven
What I love most about preaching is that it forces me to sit and really engage with the lectionary passages. It is rather daunting on a Monday to think come Sunday I have to stand before you lot and try to make some sense of scripture that was written at least 2000 years ago, some as much as three thousand Scripture written in ancient languages, and in a vastly different cultural context. Then, to try and help us to find what it means for our lives today. The lovely part is that most preachers live with the readings all week. We are constantly thinking about them, and praying that God will open up our hearts and minds to what we are reading. It becomes an intimate interaction with the texts. You might try writing a sermon some week as a spiritual exercise, not necessarily presenting it, but really thinking about what you would want to share with others that you have discovered in engaging deeply with the texts. For me it’s a great privilege to share these reflections with you, and I thank you for that.
Each of today’s texts was written in a very difficult time. In second Isaiah the people of Judah have been in exile in Babylon for a long time and had given up hope of ever returning to Israel and Jerusalem. Paul is writing to the young church at Philippi. He is writing from his prison cell, probably in Rome where he is facing the death penalty. Jesus is having dinner in the home of his friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary knowing that the religious leaders were out to kill him and his dear friend Lazarus who he had only recently brought back to life. And their home was in Bethany not far from Jerusalem where his enemies were actively plotting his death.
Despite these stressful situations, each text is full of hope and love. As the church, we are in a stressful time, some are losing hope for the future, but we can be heartened by the words the prophet Isaiah had for his people, the words that he received from God “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” The people in captivity would be saved and allowed to return to their homeland. The Persian King Cyrus would eventually defeat the Babylonians and set the captives free and help them in restoring the temple. Something only the prophet could yet discern.
We are struggling to discern how God is doing a new thing with Christ’s church; with us. Some days it is hard to feel hopeful, but we can be assured that God will bring about something new, something even better. We need patience because it will happen in God’s time.
Paul’s teaching and the emotionally charged story of Mary’s astonishing act of total love and devotion in anointing Jesus’s feet can each help us as we work to discern God’s will for us and the church now. There are two underlying critical things to understand which should challenge us and fill us with hope. The first is God’s love. The second is the faith of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament, give us a wonderful word for God’s love of us. It is Chesed - the best we can translate it is God’s steadfast love. But it is deeper than that, it is perfect love, faithful love, everlasting love.
In Isaiah God tells the people not to remember the former things, but to perceive the new thing he is doing. The former thing, was the exodus, how God rescued the Israelites from enslavement to the Egyptians. I don’t think the message is to stop remembering that great story of salvation, but to stop thinking that it was a one-off. They were to stop living in the past and to have faith in God’s covenant given to them in love. And which promised a future. They needed to continue to find ways to worship the one true God. To remain faithful to God and be ready for their eventual deliverance from the Babylonians even if the first generation might not live to see it.
Paul was writing from prison, probably in Rome, where he was later executed. Despite his dire circumstances Paul’s letter is a happy one full of hope. Part of the message in today’s excerpt from the letter is that compared to the cost and value of the resurrection, all the other traditions were like rubbish. He was concerned about how some of the new churches had made non-jewish Christians of lesser status. There were some groups that insisted that gentile men couldn’t convert to Christianity unless they were first circumcised based on Jewish law. Converts were seen, by some, as second class Christians. Paul, after his encounter with the Risen Christ, realized that he couldn’t claim righteousness based on his commitment to the law, but through having faith in Christ. His goal was to achieve the faith of Christ. Christ’s faith was unshakable. His obedience absolute. He loved the Father perfectly, and showed his love and compassion for all those he met. Paul’s goal, and our goal, is to have the same faith in and love for Christ.
We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Sometimes this seems a little daunting when we think of characters like Paul and it seems inappropriate to put ourselves into the same category. But as Paul said, not all are called to be apostles, or preachers, or administrators. However, all are called to be disciples and each is invaluable to the body of Christ, the church. Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, gives us a very different view of discipleship. Remember, she was the one that Martha wanted Jesus to scold, because instead of helping Martha with the traditional women’s role of waiting on the men, had instead sat at Jesus’s feet as a student to listen to his teaching. Jesus complimented her and said she had done the better thing.
In today’s reading, they are gathered in the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. The men were probably reclining at the table. Mary does two extraordinary things. She breaks open a one pound jar of nard, traditionally used in anointing bodies before burial. It was worth about 300 denarii, equivalent to a years wages for a labourer. A hugely extravagant act of love. She then humbles and demeans herself by letting down her hair in the mixed company and wiping his feet with it.
Jesus realizes that she has understood his teaching about going to Jerusalem to be killed. She has decided to use the burial oil while she can.
Imagine what Jesus’s life was like at this point in his ministry. Some had walked away because they didn’t understand his teaching, or it was too hard. The Jewish leaders were plotting against him and he knew what would happen to him when he confronted them in Jerusalem. This night he was in Lazareth’s house in Bethany. Too close to Jerusalem for comfort. He knew that Judas Iscariot was plotting against him. The level of stress and anxiety for Jesus must have been extreme.
Along comes gentle Mary, and in an act of absolute devotion and love, pours soothing, aromatic perfume over his feet. Then abandoning all norms of behaviour for a woman, she lets down her hair in front of all the men, and then uses it to wash Jesus feet and wipe up the excess oil. While others may have been shocked by her behaviour, Jesus must have felt great comfort and caring by her perfect expression of love and insight into the danger Jesus was facing.
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. As we travel with Jesus through Holy Week, let’s try and remember what Mary did for Jesus, and think about how many time Jesus must have remembered and been comforted by her act of love. I wonder if it influenced his decision to wash the feet of all the disciples, including Judas. An act of servant love which Judas betrayed. Jesus instructed the disciples saying ‘what I am doing for you you are to do for one another.’ We need to remember that. And think about how comforting that memory of Mary’s act of devotion and love must have been for him on his lonely journey through ridicule, torture and death.
Isaiah, Mary and Paul showed faith and hope despite hardship and situations which seemed impossible. Isaiah listened to God’s word, and courageously proclaimed those words. Paul told the fledgling church in Philippi how grateful he was for them, continued to provide them with teaching, and despite his own predicament talked about how he was striving ahead to reach the goal of discipleship. Mary showed not only her love and devotion to Jesus, but demonstrated her faith and faithfulness. She gives us an important example of what discipleship means. She spent time listening carefully to Jesus’s teaching, she believed in him, trusted him, and her faith led her to act out of love, devotion, and compassion. An act of extravagant love in response to the extravagant love we receive from God
These passages from scripture leave us with some challenges. We are challenged to listen to Paul and work at strengthening our own faith, aiming for the faith of Jesus. And, remembering Chesed, God’s Steadfast extravagant love, another challenge is to improve our love of God and our neighbours, following the perfect model of Jesus and the moving example of Mary.
How might we strengthen our faith? Some of the things we can do include:
- attending and really engaging in worship
- Spending time with people we respect who demonstrate a strong faith;
- Improving our prayer life, giving thanks for God’s generosity
To follow Mary’s example of discipleship we might try:
- Reading scripture looking for the Good News, both on our own and in conversation with others;
- Looking for the good in everyone we meet;
- Practising kindness and compassion
- Looking for opportunities to show and share our faith.
This is the final week in Lent for 2025. Still time for self examination and repentance. Here are three questions to ponder this week:
1 In what ways do I betray Jesus’s love?
2 What am I doing to strengthen my faith?
3 How am I living out my faith in loving service.
May this last week in Lent be a nourishing time of reflection leading us with faith into Palm Sunday and Holy Week,
Amen
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