5th Sunday of Lent B

Having begun Lent by reflecting on how prayer, fasting and almsgiving address the roots of the economic and financial mess we currently find ourselves in, we went on in week two, having heard the story of the Transfiguration, to think about how, unless we can first imagine something different, conversion and change can never happen. Then, on the third Sunday, I suggested that, if we are to imagine the kingdom of God, then we have to be, at least by the standards of the world, a little bit mad. God’s foolishness, Paul told us that day, is greater than human wisdom. And so last week, we reflected on the madness of a God who loves us with a love so foolish that it makes no sense in human terms and which invites from us, not the obedience that comes from fear but the free loving response of which human nature, at its best, is capable. And now, in this final homily of Lent – next Sunday we read the Passion - I invite you to reflect on the ultimate proof of this Divine madness, the Crucifixion and death of Jesus. Why did it happen and what does it mean?

Well, my response to that question has been heavily influenced this week by a programme called ‘The Great Sperm Race’ which I saw on Television last Sunday and which some of you will have seen too. It was certainly well trailored in the days before it went out on Channel 4. And what it dealt with, and used computer generated images to illustrate, was the incredible story of how each one of us came to be conceived, following the amazing journey made by a quarter of a billion male sperm once they have entered the female reproductive system. And we’re talking biology here, not sex. And by far the most striking feature of this journey was how hazardous and dangerous it is for each one of those quarter of a billion sperm. And in case you are wondering, that’s twenty five followed by seven zeros, millions of whom survive no more than seconds with millions and millions more dying by the minute along the way, until, in the end, if it has more luck than you would need to win the lottery jackpot three weeks in a row, one solitary sperm reaches the ovum or egg, the Holy Grail for every sperm, enters it, links its own genetic code to the DNA of the mother and, if it can survive the many dangers and hazards of the next nine months, becomes us. And as I pondered the sheer enormity of the odds against any single sperm ever becoming a person, it suddenly struck me. No wonder those of us who make it think we are gods!

And yet, no matter how strong and fit we had to be to win the greatest race in nature, the race against 250,000,000, other competitors to become a living person, and no matter the odds against us doing that – and it would actually be more like winning the lottery every week for the whole of our lives – the simple truth we spend those hard-won lives learning and coming to terms with is that, despite the triumph involved in simply surviving such a journey, we are not gods but creatures of the God who created everything that exists. And we learn that lesson the hard way, through painful experience.

Part of it, life itself teaches us, as happens when, as children, we discover that we are not the centre of the universe or, when, as adults, when sickness strikes or deaths comes to those near us, we see with sometimes frightening clarity how tenuous our own grasp on life is. But we also learn this hard lesson through our failures and shortcomings, the whole ageing process being central to it. As the years pass and we cannot do the things we used to do and our conversations turn more and more to doctors and the medication we are on, an experience I am not unfamiliar with myself, it dawns on us that our lives are passing very quickly and that we are not immortal.

And the importance of this is reflected for us in today’s second reading which speaks of how Jesus, during his life on earth, ‘submitted humbly’ and ‘learnt to obey through suffering.’ But what Jesus submitted to was the human condition, what it means to be us, and the obedience the reading speaks of is obedience to and willing acceptance of all that that involves. Jesus, in other words, although he is God, empties himself and experiences in his own person what it’s like not to be God. In other words, what it is to be human. And being human, this was not easy. ‘Now my soul is troubled’ we hear him say in today’s Gospel. ‘What shall I say: Father save me from this hour? But’ he goes on, ‘it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour.’ What Jesus is doing is living to the full what it means to be a human being and in doing so he is showing every person who has survived the ‘great sperm race’ how to do the same, how to become everything we are created to be. Being born, monumental achievement that it was, was not the end of the journey. It was just the beginning. Now we have to learn what being human really means. And that’s what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel.

And at the heart of this whole mystery is death and resurrection. ‘Unless a grain of what falls on the ground and dies’ Jesus tells us, ‘it remains a single grain. But if it dies it yields a rich harvest.’ ‘Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life.’ Such paradoxical statements litter the pages of the New Testament, reflecting over and over again the basic reality we have been meditating on since Lent began; that to enter the kingdom of God, the final destination of the ‘great sperm race,’ we have to turn all human thinking on its head and embrace a whole set of new values which make no sense to the world. We have to die, in other words to one way of thinking and be born to another. And that’s what we celebrate at Easter. That’s what the Christian life is about.

So let me end by telling you what happens to that one surviving sperm. When it reaches the egg, the final great challenge facing it is to find a way through the outer layer or shell. So what does it do? It makes an opening by blowing its head apart. It dies so that it may live.

Now there’s a thing!


BIDDING PRAYERS


In the first reading today, the prophet Jeremiah imagines a new covenant which will not be like the old one. It will not, like the old covenant, be written on tablets of stone. Instead, it will be written on people’s hearts. There will no longer be any need for one person to tell another about God because they will all know him. And so we pray for the wisdom and insight we need to imagine this new covenant, as Jeremiah did, so that it can become a reality among us here.........Lord hear us

If we are to come to know God and not just have heard about God or read books about God, then we are going to have to make what many call ‘a leap of faith.’ This means leaving our heads, the place where we think, and going to deeper parts of ourselves where human reasoning is out of its depth. The Spirit of God who lives and moves in us does so in this deep place sometimes known as ‘the heart’ and we pray for the courage to meet God there..........Lord hear us

The obedience of Jesus the letter to the Hebrews speaks of was obedience to everything involved in the mystery of the Incarnation. It was obedience to what it means to be human, which was why, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the first thing the devil tried to get him to do was turn stones into bread. But Jesus refused, not only accepting the limitations of the human condition but embracing them. And so we ask for the wisdom to do the same every day.........Lord hear us

To accept and embrace the human condition involves many things. It means living with our own weaknesses and the weaknesses of others. It means living each stage of our lives to the full and accepting the limitations that go with being who we are: our illnesses; the gifts we have and the gifts we don’t have; the bad things that happen to us; the mistakes we make, our triumphs and our disasters and, ultimately, the inevitability of our own death. And so ask for this grace........Lord hear us

To accept and embrace the reality of our own death and the death of those we love is not easy. It is something which takes time and the pain of loss and bereavement when those close to us die can last for many years, sometimes for a whole lifetime. And so we pray today for a deep faith in the reality of the Resurrection in these days leading up to Easter so that we can face our own death, whenever it comes, as well as the death of others with trust and confidence in God............Lord hear us

This week’s bulletin contains an item about a proposed initiative in the parish directed at teenagers and young people. How to communicate to young people today the sheer depth of God’s love for them and the part God longs to play in their lives is one of the great challenges of our time. As a result, this project is one of the most important things to happen in the parish in recent years. And so we ask God to raise up among us the committed adult leaders it needs to even begin...............Lord hear us