By Natalie Davey...
Today’s sermon, on this fourth Sunday of Lent, was based on John 13: 21-38. In verses 31 and 32 Jesus says one word five times, an act of repetition that Alan used as his sermon’s central theme: Glory – or, as I have reframed it, “The Act of Glory.”
There were so many actions that stood out to me in this passage that it has been more challenging than usual to craft a short piece…a longer essay feels more in order – one that could look even more closely at how Jesus used the act of sharing a meal to reach out to Judas, even at the very end. Or there was Peter’s call to action – to find the betrayer at that very same table. Yet he could not see, and therefore act, with any understanding of what was to come. Then there was the mysterious declarative act of “Glory” from Christ who, through his words to those who sat close to him then, still speak to us now. These words pointed toward Calvary…what was to be the greatest action of God’s love for humankind would come so quickly after that last supper…an action that, as Alan highlighted today, had already begun! This is a temporal mystery to get one’s mind around – what was, what is, what is to come…symbolized in the cross.
There are also the “acts” that we live out in response to the ongoing push and pull of belief and unbelief. These are the mundane acts that drive our days, onward and upward to Glory. As christians we have the privilege to rest, even (or especially) in our weakest moments, in the amazing truth of Christ’s sacrificial act of love – pointing us to show that same love to others. And ourselves.
To God be the glory. Great things He hath done.
Listen to this sermon here!