• "Just Past the Halfway Point in Lent"
• Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
• March 6, 2005
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

We are just past the halfway point in Lent. The Fourth Sunday in Lent has been observed historically as a break from the Lenten fast. It is sometimes called Mothering Sunday, based on the theme of the epistle, or Refreshment Sunday, based on the theme of the gospel.

The epistle (Galatians 4:21ff.) says, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Jerusalem above is the church, which Revelation describes as "the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (21:2). New Jerusalem is the home of the redeemed, the heirs of the promise God made to Abraham through Isaac, which has been fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah.

The new Jerusalem stands in contrast with first century Jerusalem which St. Paul said was "in bondage with her children." The religious leaders in Jerusalem in St. Paul's time were zealous to follow the law of Moses and the rabbinic traditions but they rejected Jesus who fulfilled the law and the traditions. They were in bondage because they were committed to a form of religion but they missed the essential thing towards which the form pointed.

This lesson provides food for thought about our own religion. Our religious practice finds its fulfillment in the worship of the Son of God, in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). True religion sets us free from the consequences and dominion of sin. Our religious practice becomes misdirected when the duties of religion become ends in and of themselves; when we feel bound to do religious things even though the things we do don't free us from sin and its consequences.

It is possible to observe the Lenten fast in ignorance of its purpose. We can give things up without thinking about why we are giving them up. God doesn't really care whether you eat cookies or candy bars or have wine or not. God does care that we turn away from sin and develop self-control.

The goal of ascetical discipline is a detachment from things that enable us to either enjoy things or abstain from things as best suits the glory of God and the good of others in any given circumstance. As we abstain from things and turn to God in prayer, we find fulfillment in the presence of Jesus. We gain control over our desires because we lose our idolatrous attachment to things. We learn to enjoy the creation as a gift from the Creator and not as the end of life.

The ideal is expressed by St. Paul in Philippians: "I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (4:12-13). This is what it means to be citizens of Jerusalem above, which is free.

The title, "Refreshment Sunday," comes from the gospel (John 6:1ff.), in which Jesus refreshes the hungry multitudes. The gospel begins with a situation of great need: lots of people and little food. Jesus began his creative miracle by taking the inadequate resources and giving thanks to God for them. The resources were multiplied and made sufficient to meet the need.

We typically respond to great need, not by giving thanks for what we have, but by complaining about what we lack. This story provides us with a new pattern: as Ephesians says, "Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (5:20 NKJV). We can give thanks always because Jesus is always with us. Even if we are sick or struggling, Jesus, the Lord and Creator, is able to make "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28).

If Jesus is with us, we know that even death itself has been overcome. As Romans says, "I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (8:39). In everything we give thanks, not for the pain itself, but for the presence of Christ who redeems and uses even the pain for our good.

What keeps us from giving thanks? It is, I think, our desire for things to be other than they are. We want some good that we think we should have rather than the good that God has given us; and so we complain that things aren't as we want them to be rather than giving thanks for the way things are. Being thankful depends upon the way we look at things.

To give thanks in everything, we need eyes of faith to see what God is doing. God works in all things for good. God uses everything to further the salvation of our souls. God uses everything to rid us of sin and develop virtue in us. But the good that God does, that good for which we can give thanks, may not be the visible result we want.

Thus, giving thanks involves a surrender to the will of God. When we give thanks for what we have rather than grumble about what we have not, we accept what God has done and ask him continue his work. And we discover that the presence of Jesus gives us sufficient resources to meet each need.

Eucharist is a Greek word that means "thanksgiving." We come to the altar with great needs and inadequate resources-needs at home, needs at work, needs in our relationships, various physical and emotional needs. But we come to the altar, not to focus on the needs, but to offer the Eucharist, to give thanks for what Christ has done on the cross and for his redemptive work in our lives.

In the Eucharist, Jesus performs another miracle of creation. He multiplies his presence, distributing himself to each believer, making our inadequate resources sufficient to meet the needs of life. As Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35 NEB)