Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:(1-4)5-10
John 12:20-33
Psalm 51 or 51:11-16
There is a wonderful story about an elderly nun and a young priest.
Despite her age and arthritic joints, she was an exceptionally busy nun. She worked in the gardens, and also helped to care for patients at a nearby hospital. She provided spiritual guidance to many youngsters whose parents had benefitted from her gentle instruction years earlier. She visited prisoners in the local jail, and she maintained a correspondence with dozens of people whose lives she had touched in one way or another. She was a quiet and patient person.
People found themselves drawn to her because of the simple faith she displayed whenever she talked about Jesus. Folks said that when she talked about Jesus, her eyes sparkled and her voice was filled joy.
Early each morning, before she joined the other sisters for morning prayers, she would spend several hours praying alone.
One morning while she was praying, Jesus appeared to her. He didn't say anything, he just knelt down beside her and smiled - and she experienced a sense of peace and comfort that was indescribable.
As time went on, Jesus continued to visit her. Sometimes he would talk about how God loved all of God's children - that there was nothing they could ever do to stop God from loving them. But often he remained silent and simply joined her in her prayers as he'd done that first morning.
When the priest came to the convent to hear the sisters' confessions, the little nun told him about her visits from Jesus. Now the priest was young and recently graduated from seminary where he'd learned that visions and such things are extremely rare; and that reports of such incidents are seldom real. He was quite sure that the old nun was simply imagining things. So he told her that she wasn't really seeing Jesus, and instructed her to stop letting her mind wander during her prayers.
The sister returned to her daily routine as she'd been told. She wasn't sure she agreed with the priest's interpretation of her experience, but she'd lived a life of obedience - so she worked hard to be sure her mind wasn't wandering during her prayers.
Despite her best efforts, however, Jesus continued to visit her in the mornings. So when the priest came again, she told him that even though she'd worked hard to keep her mind from wandering, Jesus was still visiting her.
The priest became irritated and told her rather sharply that she needed to stop dwelling on such nonsense, and that she was not seeing Jesus. So she returned to her daily activities once again - this time determined to stop "seeing" Jesus. However, as you've probably guessed, Jesus still kept showing up. So once again she told the young priest that Jesus continued to visit her.
Well by this time, the priest was really angry. He thought the old nun was trying to play him for some kind of fool. So he decided to put a stop to this once and for all. He looked at her and said, "If this is really Jesus that you are seeing, then the next time you see him, I want you to ask him what I confessed at my last confession - no one but God could possibly know what that was."
So the little nun agreed to do as he'd asked her.
Well, sure enough, Jesus came to visit her the next morning. And she asked him what the priest had confessed at his last confession. Jesus sighed. Then he smiled, shook his head a bit, and said, "tell him I really don't remember."
Isn't it wonderful that we have such a forgetful God?
Jeremiah tells us that God promises we will be forgiven our iniquities, and that God will remember our sin no more. He says that we will come to know God in our hearts. He reassures us that God hears the pleas of today's psalmist who begs God
Jeremiah tells us that God has promised to make a new covenant with us. A covenant where all our sins will be forgiven and washed out of the way so that we can find God, so that we can come to know God, so that we can hear God.
As we near Holy Week, we come to that hour once again - when God pleads with us to take up the cross and follow the Son of Man so that we may truly come to know God.
How do we make sense of all of this?
Perhaps we can borrow from the Eastern Orthodox tradition for a moment - and see if we can sort it out.
In that tradition the Feast of Mary of Egypt is celebrated on the fifth Sunday of Lent. Mary of Egypt was a fifth-century actress and courtesan in Alexandria, Egypt. Now "courtesan" is a just a nicer sounding word for a prostitute or a mistress who caters to the desires of wealthy men.
The story goes that out of curiosity Mary joined pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem when she was 29. While at the Holy Sepulcher - the tomb where the body of the crucified Jesus was placed - she had a conversion experience.
She found herself experiencing a remarkable sense of cleansing - a freedom from the weight of sin and iniquity which had filled her life in the courts of Alexandria. As she emerged from this experience, she heard a still, small voice. The voice told her that rest awaited her if she crossed the Jordan River.
Mary never returned to Alexandria. She spent the remainder of her life as a hermit, but one who shared hospitality with strangers who came to meet her in the Judean wilderness.
Mary of Egypt came to know God. Mary believed God. God gave her the gift of forgiveness and she accepted it. She didn't argue with God, saying, "Oh no, I'm not good enough." Or "I've sinned too much." Or "God, you couldn't possibly forgive me." She simply accepted and believed that God had indeed forgiven her sins, and that she was now clean as snow....that God remembered her sins no more.
What would have happened if Mary hadn't allowed herself to believe in this forgetful God of ours? If she'd decided that God couldn't possibly have forgiven and forgotten ALL her sins? Would she have been able to hear that small voice of God calling her to a new life? I think not.
What are the beliefs and ideas which keep each of us from hearing that still, small voice of God? How often do we reject God's gift of forgiveness? How often do we keep reminding God that God can't possibly forgive and forget about what we did - or didn't do - yesterday - or last year - or 40 years ago? How much time do we spend arguing with God that God's forgiveness really can't be the free gift of Grace that God says it is?
During Holy Week, we are called to bring ourselves to God - to bring ALL of ourselves to God - our weaknesses, our mistakes, our doubts, our bitterness, our despair - to bring the darkest and deepest places that we've kept hidden in our hearts - to bring everything to God - to place it all in the Holy Sepulcher on Good Friday so that on Easter morning, we can indeed rise with Christ, knowing the true meaning of the resurrection - that those things which have kept us from hearing God's call have finally fallen to the earth and died so that we can live and bear much fruit.
Isn't is wonderful that we have such a forgetful God?
AMEN.