Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:11-16

Hebrews 5:1-10

JOHN 12: 20-33

Sermon – April 2, 2006

Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. Psalm 51:16

We pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Just like many of you, my life is crazy! It is an attempt to balance: family life and home responsibilities; work life and responsibilities; and my relationship with God and my church. Most the time, I feel stressed out and pulled between all my lives and trying to multitask so I can at least seem to balance. It doesn’t always work! Most the time each part of my life doesn’t get the time it needs. I have to do what I can.

That’s why Lent is a special time for me. As an ordained person, I am supposed to have a deep relationship with God that I nurture all the time. And that doesn’t always happen.

Sometimes my prayer life is hit-and-miss. I have always said that I covered myself with “walking prayer.” That’s prayer anywhere and anytime. That’s the prayer we don’t sit still for. That’s the prayer we lift up when someone’s name comes into our head: at the sink, in the shower, or in the car. Anywhere – anytime – any place.

But I need more than that; I need to stop, sit silently, read prayers in our Book of Common Prayer and the Bible. I need to STOP – so God can speak to me rather than having to hit me over the head with life changes, disappointments, anger, abusive behavior, and sometimes illness. I have experienced all those negatives, which fill everyone’s life. It wasn’t until I stopped being in charge and let God into my life that everything got better for me.

The church blessed me by suggesting or requiring me (it’s all a matter of perspective) to have a “Spiritual Director,” someone who gets to know me and attempts to help me develop a long-term, close, life-reinforcing relationship with God. This is a person who helps by suggesting ways for me to live a “Rule of Life” including daily prayer.

Will you open a Book of Common Prayer near your seat to page 137. My spiritual director knows TIME is always an issue for me. So he gave me permission to use the short form of daily office. Look here at the top in Psalm 51. Join me in the reading the first four (4) lines:

Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

Imagine starting each day with just saying those words. It puts a completely different spin on all my attempts to balance and multitask. It stills my body, my mind, and my heart; and lets them open to God. Even if I didn’t say or do anything else, just sat there and listened. What an idea!

That’s why I need Lent. I need to stop, because the Lord knows the secrets of my heart and I need to stop and think about them.

A small group has been meeting here on Wednesday nights. We join for dinner around 5:30, eat and talk about the prayer book and different forms of prayer and then come in here and pray. Everyone is welcomed to join us – just come.

The Lenten readings take us each week on a walk with Jesus to the Cross. Those readings show us places in the Old Testament that point to Jesus and what this all means. This week we heard in Jeremiah that “The days are surely coming said the Lord when he will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” It won’t be like the old one telling what you can and can’t do by law, because most have not kept that covenant. It will be new and it will be written on our hearts. He will forgive our sins and remember them no more. We can start all over again. This is God’s promise then and this is God’s promise now. If we love God in our hearts, we won’t be sinning. We will be working at our relationship with God.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

I was a young adult when a rock musical came out about Jesus. It made Jesus so real for me. So, I went on the Internet to find out about it after reading today’s lesson from Hebrews. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears. The Internet told me that Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Introduced in 1970, it highlights the political and interpersonal struggles of Judas Iscariot and Jesus, and is told largely from Judas's irreverent point of view. Funny how that isn’t what I remember at all. I just remember how real it made Jesus. Because when he was human, he had feelings like you and me. He got angry. He cried. In couple of places, he even sounds nasty and mean. I just remember how real it made Jesus.

So when I read the Bible I see a real person, who taught me real lessens, who experienced similar anxiety, who experience similar pain, who had to multitask and attempt to balance, who showed me how I should live and treat others and how I should love God. He taught me how to love God with all my heart and how to love my neighbor as myself. There was or is no Greek or slave or black or young or straight: there just are people made by God and in God.

Jesus also showed me that he had to go away to pray, to be alone or with a few, and he showed me that taking time out is very important. Next week with Palm Sunday we have many opportuntities to join in services, to join the walk to the Cross, to take some time out, to come here to pray, to even come here and be alone or with a few.

This year, as we walk with Jesus to the Cross, we are going to keep watch: Maundy Thursday, April 13, after the Agape meal, after the foot washing, after the altar is stripped, after the sanctuary light is put out, you can take some time to be alone or with a few and come to a garden to stay awake while Jesus prays. You can sign up to come here and join the Watch, to pray, to be silent, to experience waiting with Jesus.

I mentioned earlier that God frequently has to knock me over the head to get my attention. One experience happened at my very first watch. I even signed up for the first part, the earliest, the easiest, and fell asleep. I, like those Jesus took with him to keep watch while he prayed, fell asleep. I couldn’t sit still, be quiet, pray and just keep watch with Jesus. I, who wanted to be so good, wasn’t or couldn’t!

That’s why Lent and taking part in all the services and experiences here are so important to me. I need to stop and take time. I need to listen and share and watch. So as I take this annual walk with Jesus to the cross, I can focus on what it means in my life. My life has been profoundly blessed, since I started really working on my relationship with God. My journey will never be perfect or as good as I want it to be, but if I don’t work at it all the time, all my attempts at balance and multitasking will not be worth anything at all. God does not cast me away from his Holy Spirit; he gives me the joy of his saving help and he sustains me with his bountiful Spirit, because I know that I need him everyday and in everything – all the time. And I know that I have to work at it – all the time.

I hope you’ll join us here in the next two weeks, as we all walk together and with Jesus. So we can really know and experience the joy and celebration of Easter. Amen.

Deacon Barbara Jensen

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Monmouth Junction, NJ