Third Sunday of Lent - 2018

Third Sunday of Lent I Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.” Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. (2nd Reading - 3rd Sunday Lent) For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.  It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” REFLECTION "For Jews demand signs ... " At the time of Jesus, Jews were expecting God to send a Messiah to deliver them from the tyranny of the Roman occupation of their land. Naturally they believed that this would take an exceptionally charismatic leader who would command great leadership and power. They were looking for any sign that such a powerful Messiah was rising up. Reports about Jesus, what he was teaching, the powerful miracles he was performing, began to raise hopes that he was the one. But any hope that Jesus was the Messiah were crushed by his Crucifixion. The two disciples, on the road to Emmaus, reporting events to the risen Jesus, whom they did not recognize, summed it up this way:  He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. (but then) The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Lk 24:19 ... and Greeks look for wisdom". In order to have a full and prosperous life one needed to acquire a body of knowledge about the how and the why of the this world's systems. For the Greeks, the sum of all this knowledge added up to wisdom. In the city of Athens there was a meeting place called the Areopagus, where people would gather to share and debate their ideas, in search of wisdom. In the Book of Acts, chapter 17: St. Paul goes to this meeting place to share the wisdom of the gospel.  Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Acts 17:19ff So Paul begins by commending them for their inclusion of religion in their search for wisdom. However, he goes on to point out that their ideas about God are all wrong. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. Vs. 24 Paul goes on to affirm that it was indeed God who put into man's heart a desire to know him, but this would be fulfilled in a new life, after death and resurrection from the dead, (as seen in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.) When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” Vs. 32 "Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" The argument of the Roman cross is: the one who can kill is the one with real power. The rebuttal, proven by the Cross of Christ is: the One who gives life has true power and authority. The Cross of Christ/Resurrection of Christ, are linked as one. They are inseparable from one another. Paul sums it up succinctly: If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 1 Cor. 15:14    The assault against our faith is the crosses we suffer. That is why Lent is such an important time for us. For in Lent, we deliberately take on the enemy's crosses inflicted against us, our suffering and the suffering of others, that bears down on our life, constantly threatening to rob us of the goodness of life, and to destroy us in the end. We all struggle with the one and the same enemy, with the cross of suffering and death, whether we be religious or not. We commend the scientist and the politician in their search for remedies, and readily join with them in their efforts to advance life and peace. But the hope that empowers us, that is never defeated within us, comes not from our efforts alone, but from the power and inspiration flowing from the Cross of Christ and his resurrection. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 1 Cor 15:53 "Take up your cross and follow me" During these days of Lent, through prayerful examination, seek to identify the crosses that are working against your faith, that undermine your hope and the peace it brings you. *+* physical suffering, your own, and that of love ones, especially children *+* injustices, against you and others, seeing the unjust prosper *+* convincing arguments against faith coming from modern science *+* discredit of religion by fundamentalist ideologies, Christian and others *+* scandals caused by religious leaders *+* personal sins, your own life's failures *+* the voice of doubt casting an ever-widening shadow over your faith *+* that cross that seems to never be healed, that returns to haunt you *+* others you name

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