Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.

    But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
 

Today's Epistle is from the Letter of Paul to the Hebrews, beginning at the 5th Chapter:

    In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear.  Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;  and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

+ A Reading from the Gospel of John, beginning at the 12th Chapter:

    Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."  Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus.

    And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.  Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him.

    "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify thy name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."  The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."  Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.  Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out;  and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  He said this to show by what death he was to die.

    In Jeremiah, the Lord talks about making a New Covenant, a new covenant which will be written on the hearts of His people, Israel.  The reason that it will be written on the heart, and not taught is that it is a Covenant of Love, not of Law.

    The Covenant with the first Israel was and is a covenant of Laws -- commandments -- and salvation under that covenant consists in adherence to the "letter of the Law".  The New Covenant -- in Christ Jesus' blood -- which we are members of, is a covenant of Love.

    We are not excused from all Law, all Commandments -- merely loving or merely calling on the Name of the LOrd is not enough.   We still have to live the righteous, the Christian life, but our relationship with God is not one of subject or slave, but one of joy -- the mutual love of Father and children.

    In Jeremiah, the Lord promises:  "...they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest..."  This "knowing" is not only of the mind -- intellectual -- but of the heart and the soul.  We are changed inwardly by Baptism, we are given Faith in Him, we are made to seek and  love Him, and the farther away from him we fall in sin, the more miserable we become.

    He also promises: "...I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."  Our God, the Christian God, is not a god of vengeance, nor does He seek the death and suffering of sinners.  He is a loving Father, quick with forgiveness, and quick to gather in His prodigal children.

    We fall short of His glory, His holiness, His perfection because of our imperfect, created natures.  He, however, reaches across that vast, unbridgeable gulf to touch us, to draw us to Himself, to flood us with His glory, to bless us with His holiness, to transform us in His image.

    We are not creatures merely of space and time, but of eternity;  not merely creatures of flesh and mind, but of soul also.  We are assured of immortality in Christ Jesus, through the sacraments -- Baptism, Confession, Communion, etc.

    By embracing the New Covenant, by eating (as Christ commands us) His Body and Blood, and by living the life He commands us to live -- loving God, our neighbor, and ourselves, we are lifted up, we are transformed, we are exalted as Children of God.

    In today's Gospel, Jesus foretells his approaching Passion and death, and says:  "...I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  He, Himself is to be the propitiation for our sins; He is to be the conduit -- vine -- whereby we -- the branches -- are lifted up to the Father in glory.

    "By His Bloody Death and Glorious Resurrection", as the Anglican prayerbook says, "...we are made clean...our souls are washed in His most precious Blood."  In every Sunday's Eucharist, and especially in this Lenten season, we are made clean and transformed by his veritable Body and Blood, shed for us that we might again become inheritors of Heaven.

    In Paul's Letter to the Hebrews, read today, he talks about Jesus offering up "...prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears..." Jesus was a man, as we are human, and feared, as any human would, the suffering and death that He knew was coming.  Nevertheless, as man, he accepted his fate, that he might win for us eternal life, "Himself to Himself once offered", and "...he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him".

    In the Lenten Season, we, too are called on to suffer a little with Him by fasting and abstinence, and to remember how he suffered and died for us.  It is not the suffering that is important, but the Will of the Father, which made the suffering a way of bringing all of us back into union with Him who made us.

    Let us go forth, therefore, praying for remembrance and transformation . . . .

        In the Name of
        The Father     +
        And of the Son
        And of the Holy Spirit
Amen.