FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
(Laetare)
Readings:
Key Verses (using the New Revised Standard Version):
Gal. 4:30, 31: “But what does the scripture say? ‘Drive out the slave and her child…’ So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave [woman] but of the free woman.”
John 6:11-12: “Jesus took the loaves, and… distributed them… so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’”
Reflection
My church has the Lenten custom to recite the corporate confession of sin near the beginning of the service. Following the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, the people may either stand or kneel. I often wonder what visitors are thinking at this point. Does it seem disorganized? What should I do? And, yes, it does feel a little awkward to stand next to someone kneeling or vice versa. The original intent of the Book of Common Prayer apparently was to allow whole parishes, not individual parishioners—barring, of course, a physical impediment—the option to have the congregation stand or kneel. Everyone would follow the custom of the church, but the ambiguous wording has resulted in the split situation I’ve described.
Today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians shows a few other divisions resulting from similar ambiguities. Paul revisits the story of Hagar and Sarah, Abraham’s wives who bore him Ishmael and Isaac, respectively. After Isaac was born, Sarah had her husband banish Hagar and Ishmael. Isaac grew up to become the father of Israel, both the man and the people, a patriarch of Judaism. But Paul makes a very clever distinction between the two youths. Ishmael’s mother is a slave; Isaac’s is free. And only Isaac was promised by God before natural conception. Therefore, Isaac is a child of freedom, promise, and the Spirit. All this sounds great—up to the point where Paul equates not Isaac, but Ishmael, the banished slave child, with present-day Jerusalem and the Law!
And not only that, but Paul sees history repeating itself. Why did Sarah have Abraham drive out his firstborn and his slave-mother? The Hebrew and Greek versions, both of which Paul likely would’ve known, are vague. Is Ishmael playing with, or laughing at, Isaac? Paul reads the latter, and then compares that bullying to present-day Jerusalem, the seat of Judaism, persecuting would-be believers in Christ, trying to subject them first to the Law. No wonder this very complex passage has been stricken from most modern lectionaries. It’s been read as a seal of approval for supersessionism (Christianity supplanted Judaism), and even anti-Semitism. But, as with the rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer, that’s probably not the original intent of Paul, who asserted and even boasted about his Jewish identity.
To make sense of all of this, we have to note that Paul is writing to the Galatians, a Celtic people, pockets of whom were spread out all over Europe. They were just about as far from Judaism as any Pagan could get, and despite that, Paul doesn’t want them to become Jewish. It’s as if this entire letter is Paul’s way of saying, “No, no! Stay who you are!” Paul knows that Gentiles have been able to keep the spirit of God’s Law without even knowing it, or being commanded to. And so I think he wants them to become better Galatians through Christ, just as he, too, is understanding his own Jewish faith anew through Christ. Sure, both sides may need a little readjustment. The Galatians will have to renounce their worship of other gods, and more purity-minded Jews will have to sit at table with Pagans. But in Christ, there is to be no distinction between people, only freedom.
As we approach the memorials of our deliverance from earthly slavery and spiritual bondage, let us also drive out the mother of anything that keeps us enslaved to disunity; the son of whatever nurtures division. Let us live like children of freedom: Christ's type of freedom—because it’s not as easy as it sounds. It often means seeking God alongside people we never may have expected to meet, whose walks of life may differ from our own; who come to us in God’s image, and through whom God’s Spirit has something to teach us—for, in God’s house, standers and kneelers equally will always be welcomed.
Prayer of the Day
Grant, we pray you, Almighty God,
that we, who worthily deserve
to be punished for our evil deeds,
may mercifully be relieved
by the comfort of your grace;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
—Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Book of Common Prayer, 1662
Almighty and everlasting God,
increase the number of your faithful people
through the fruitfulness of your Spirit,
so that those who are born of earth
may become reborn of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
—Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Gelasian Sacramentary, 5th century; adapted translation from Latin by Joseph A. Soltero
Hymn: “In Christ there is no East or West”
(Words: John Oxenham, 1852-1941; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero from The Hymnal 1982, and The New Century Hymnal, 1995
Tune: ‘McKee’, African-American melody, adapted and harmonized by Harry T. Burleigh, 1866-1949)
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Christ no South or North,
But one community of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.
In Christ there is no Jew or Greek,
In Christ no slave or free;
Who serves and loves and lives in God
Is surely kin to me.
In Christ shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find.
God’s service is the golden cord
Close binding humankind.
In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Christ meet South and North.
All Christ-like souls are one in him
Throughout the whole wide earth.
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