[Propertalk] 4 Lent b 2018 - part 2 b

[Robert P Morrison]

The final part for Sunday.

	 This Sunday, in the midst of Lent which calls us to repent of our
complicity in everything which draws creation from the Love of God;
this Sunday says that the evil WILL be overcome, and that we ourselves
WILL be renewed. We’ll be given whatever means we need to break
ourselves away from any despair and feelings of hopelessness that we
won’t be able to make a difference, for ourselves or for anyone
else. 

	 Lent, in fact, need not be a depressing time. The hope of Lent is
that we will find the time and the ability to see more clearly where
God may be leading us, both as individuals and as groups. The hope of
Lent is that we’ll be able to readjust our lives in terms of the
things which eat away at us, and to strengthen our lives in terms of
those things which bring us to more clear images of God in the world. 

	 God did NOT give Jesus to creation to condemn, as the Gospel reminds
us in what is possibly the most quoted verse in the New Testament. God
brought Jesus to us that we might see in Him the way to salvation, to
renewal, to trust, to health, and to love. God gave us Jesus to help
us understand that death – death of imagination; death of hope;
death of love; death of compassion; death of justice; death of mercy;
God gave us Jesus to see that death of all that is good cannot be. God
hoped, and will ALWAYS hope, that we will be so drawn to look at the
Light, at the Love, at the Mercy which shines in and through Jesus
that we too will be brought into the joy of God. “For,” as Paul
wrote to the Ephesians, when we live in and through Jesus, “we are
what (God) has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God has prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” 

	 Death be not proud, though some have called thee 

	 Mighty and dreadful, for, thou are not soe, 

	 For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow, 

	 Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee; 

	 From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 

	 Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, 

	 And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, 

	 Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. 

	 Thou art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, 

	 And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 

	 And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, 

	 And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then? 

	 One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, 

	 And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die. (1-14) 

	NOTE: 

	1 Death, be not proud | Define Death, be not proud at ... [1]
www.dictionary.com/browse/death--be-not-proud cf. 1 Corinthians 15:26 

Links:
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[1] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/death--be-not-proud

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