Looking Ahead to March 21, 2021 -- Lent 5B

 The Scripture Readings this week are: 

• Jeremiah 31:33-34
• John 12:20-26

The Sermon title is Heartscript for New Life

 Early Thoughts: In just a few weeks many of us will be planting seeds and seedlings in the hope of abundant flowers and produce. In fact, I hear that already seeds and garden supplies are selling fast as more people turn back to gardening -- possibly as a result of the pandemic changing our life patterns. Seems like a good week to talk about seeds...

What is our hope for the future? What allows us to take risks (that may well terrify us) as we live into the future?

Maybe the love that is written on our hearts, woven into the very fabric of our beings? Maybe the promise that transformation awaits beyond the risk, even if there is pain and loss in the process?

The words of Scripture echo through the centuries. Once they were spoken to specific people in a specific circumstance. We are not those people, we are not in that circumstance, but they continue to speak to us here and now in our context. We are not the people of Jerusalem about to be hauled off in captivity. But the words of hope that Jeremiah shares about the future still ring true for us. We have not yet reached that point where the law and promise and love of God are so much a part of our being that they no longer need to be taught. But our hope is for that day. We are not standing with the crowds listening to Jesus give what will turn out to be his last public discourse before the crucifixion (the Farewell Discourse that happens later in the Gospel is given only to the inner circle). But we know that fear of change and death, we still need to hear that promise of abundant life that lies beyond the change.

God is still at work in our midst. God is still writing the law of love on our hearts and reminding us that we are loved and forgiven. God is still inviting us to follow the sacrificial way of Christ. God is still promising transformation that leads to abundant life. God is still working for the benefit of the whole world, not just an in-crowd. 

As we move in the direction of transformed lives, what needs to die so that new life can spring from the ground?
--Gord

(Pictures are quilted panels made by a member of Riverview United Church in Atikokan)