PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
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Lent 5, April 6, 2003
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
Is the new covenant democratic or republican? Is it multilateral or hierarchical? Is it Christian without being Jewish? Is the fifth Sunday in Lent the real Passion Sunday, since the triumphal procession will eclipse the passion on the following Sunday, and the resurrection will eclipse everything on Easter?
The promise of God to the covenant people spoken so beautifully by Jeremiah proc"Shos the end of a mediated relationship between the individual and God. It is the democratization of the covenant. It is the end of hierarchy. Psalm 51 underscores the unmediated relationship of the sinner with God, Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Where is the prophet convicting the sinner? Where is the priest? Where is the sacrifice? It is not that the priesthood is ended. It is not that there will be no more prophets. It is not that no one will have a privileged relationship with God. Everyone will have a privileged relationship. Everyone will be priest and prophet. Protestants recognize this liberation immediately.
What then about the New Testament readings? Hebrews uses the language of hierarchy. Now there is an ultimate priest, but a priest nevertheless, one who is appointed but in some sense earns the position through suffering. Now there appears to be an intermediary between God and people, one who must be obeyed in order for us to have a saving relationship with God. Is this the new covenant? It sounds old fashioned? Isn't this what ran amuck in Jerusalem? Obey the law; make the right sacrifice; win the prize. Well, maybe. Hebrews is a long way from Nicaea.
"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself," doesn't sound like the voice of a priest. It sounds like the voice of God. It sounds like, ". . . this is the covenant that 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 on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." It sounds like a direct relationship between God and people. So does Hebrews if the high priest and God are one. At the Council of Nicaea, the church concluded that this is true, and it should have concluded that the church therefore had no business being hierarchical, dominated by the priesthood.
The inquiry of the Greek Jews is part of the "hour having finally come for Jesus." It is the beginning of the work of Christ bursting out of the confines of Palestine to claim the whole world. That bursting will be the passion of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. It is the vortex of God's action to be directly and personally related to all people. It is an action grounded in the original covenant and inclusive of it. It is not an abandonment of the Jews. A new division of humanity is defined, not Jew and Gentile but children of light and children of darkness. (John 12:36, Hebrews 5:8)
This act of God articulated by Jeremiah and accomplished in Jesus the Christ is simply proclaimed as "a personal relationship with God," direct and unmediated. As revolutionary as this proposition is, it sounds commonplace in the church. Why? Do we take it for granted because we don't really have a personal relationship with God but rather something quite commonplace like selftalk. Or, do we take it for granted because a personal relationship with God is described without any sense of God's glory, mystery and power -- because it is described as if it were a relationship with a pet or a genie in a jug? A sermon on the passion might help us break through the common place to the awesome reality.
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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