The Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 28, 2004
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Phil. 3:8-14; Luke 20: 9-19
The texts of holy scripture appointed for this last Lord’s Day prior to the beginning of Holy Week speak to our penitent spirits of the process of renunciation that leads to reception of grace. The prophetic word from Isaiah is to “remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” Turning away from the familiar past, “a new thing” of blessing from the Lord may be perceived as it “springs forth.”
This movement of renouncing the past to lay hold of the future is caught in the words of the psalm, “Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.” Forgetting the sorrow and sadness of struggle, the full benefit of fruition is to be enjoyed when God fulfills our petition, “Restore our fortunes, O Lord.”
The passage from the letter to the Philippians is a classical biblical text calling for renunciation of self for the sake of the kingdom of God, of losing one’s life to find it. The apostle declared, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” This attitude demonstrates the fulfillment of that for which we petition in the Collect of the Day, when we pray, “that ... our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found.” This is “the goal” of “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” which is only to be attained by “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”
The parable of the wicked tenants presented in the gospel provides the antithesis of this process, giving an example of renunciation of the good and clinging to “the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.” The tenants renounce the just claims of the owner, mistreating and rejecting the servants he sends, and are thus closed to the potential blessing of faithful stewardship. Their assertion of self-interest even goes so far as murder, killing the owner’s heir in hopes of taking possession of the vineyard. Jesus teaches that their renunciation of the good exemplifies the biblical notion of “the stone which the builders rejected,” and his hearers, who oppose his purposes, “perceive that he had told this parable against them.” In this very realization, the opportunity to renounce their former disbelief and receive the grace of faith might have been embraced.
Look It Up
Read the Litany of Penitence (BCP, 267-9) and consider those things that we are called to renounce for the sake of righteousness.
Think About It
What have you learned from your Lenten disciplines about habits or behaviors that might be forgotten as “what lies behind” in order to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God”?
Next Sunday
Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, April 4, 2004
Luke 19:29-40; Psalm 118:19-29 (at the Liturgy of the Palms)
Isaiah 45:21-25 or Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22:1-21 or 22:1-11; Phil. 2:5-11; Luke (22:39-71) 23:1-49 (50-56)
