The lectionary texts for this Lenten season are among my favorites! In the Gospel of John, we have the opportunity to explore the many layers of meaning the writer offers. John 3:1-17 (March 1) is an opportunity to explore the many things it can mean to be born of the Spirit. How might our rich understanding of sanctifying grace help us expand the experience of our people who were perhaps taught the importance of a one-time decision for Christ? How might you speak grace into that mindset?
John 4:4-52 (March 8) is an opportunity to give thanks for the witness of the longest sustained conversation Jesus has anywhere in the gospels with anyone. And it’s with a Samaritan woman, an outsider by gender and nationality. What barriers does Jesus break down here? A few weeks ago, I stood among several hundred people who had gathered on a freezing, windy morning to greet the Buddhist monks who were stopping for a lunch break on their 2300-mile walk. (Later that afternoon, thousands gathered for their afternoon stop.) Well, I thought to myself, the Christians cannot get it together to walk for peace, so I will need to support the Buddhists who are doing that. I stood in front of the protesters and sang “We Shall Overcome” to prevent their ugly rhetoric from reaching the walkers. It was easier for me to picture Jesus as part of the walk than it was to picture him as receiving the hate-filled yelling done in his name. Might this conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well help us imagine how to have interfaith dialogue? Affirming what we can, offering a witness to the things we do not hold in common, coming from the place of respect and curiosity?
John 9:1-41 (March 15) is a reminder that in the gospel of John, all things are moving toward the ability of followers of Jesus to see, rather than to remain blind. Writing in To See Clearly, Excerpts from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard says, The world’s spiritual geniuses seem to discover universally that the mind’s muddy river, this ceaseless flow of trivia and trash cannot be dammed, and trying to dam it is a waste of effort that might lead to madness. Instead, you must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness; you raise your sights; you look along it, mildly, acknowledging its presence without interest and gazing beyond it into the realm of the real where subjects and objects act and rest purely without utterance. “Launch into the deep,” says Jacques Ellul, “and you shall see.”
John 11:1-45 (March 22) is about Mary’s confession, arguably just as important as Peter’s! “I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world. For a fascinating exploration of this text as new digital scanning technology makes some ancient papyri available to scholars, read Diana Butler Bass’s sermon. This sermon inspired my 2024 pilgrimage in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene.
March 29 (Palm Sunday), and the texts come from Matthew’s Passion narrative. For me, hearing the narrative is a helpful bridge from the triumphant entry of the Palms to the wondrous celebration of Easter the following Sunday. For those who cannot or will not attend Holy Week services, a reminder of the full story might be essential to grasping the power of the good news.