Life-Giving Spirit
The Sunday Gospel Readings in Lent of Year A have been challenging and inspiring. There is potential for developing a series about them for discussion and learning. We might call it: “Conversations with Jesus in the Gospel of John”. This is the sequence of the conversations in this Lenten Season:
1st Sunday in Lent - Jesus talks to the Devil: The Test in the Wilderness
2nd Sunday in Lent – Jesus talks to Nicodemus: Be Born from Above
3rd Sunday in Lent – Jesus talks to the Samaritan Woman at the Well: You Can Ask for Living Water
4th Sunday in Lent – Jesus talks to the Man Born Blind: “Who is he sir? Tell me so that I may believe.”
5th Sunday in Lent – Jesus talks to Mary and Martha of Bethany: “I am the Resurrection and the Life”
Now, wouldn’t that make a good series? In a sense, being in church, we have already had it. But I think developing another venue for these discussions would be worth our while. The Sunday just days ahead is the conversation Jesus has with Mary and Martha of Bethany, when their brother, Lazarus has died. There are challenging and magnificent elements in this passage from John 11. They are all the more powerful as we put them alongside the Valley of Dry Bones passage from Ezekiel 37 and the Indwelling Spirit passage from Romans 8.
I will be delving into some of that material later in the week. In the meantime, below is a format of a few passages from the Fifth Sunday in Lent readings. They can be used with the prayer tool called Anglican Prayer Beads, aka The Anglican Rosary. If you know what that’s about, try out this round of verses for prayer. If you don’t know What that’s about, reach out to me right away. You will want to know about it.
The Cross:
I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; * in his word is my hope. (Psalm 130:4)
Invitatory Bead:
I open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live…then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord. (Ezekiel 37: 13-14)
Weeks:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” (Jn 11:25)
Cruciform:
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit since the Spirit of God dwells in you… he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:9, 11)
Invitatory Bead:
[The Lord’s Prayer] … Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (Jn 11:43-44)
The Cross:
Wait for the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy; with him, there is plenteous redemption. (Ps 130:6 & 7)
