The Fourth Sunday in Lent (C), March 6, 2016 - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Jean Louis Forain:
The Return of the Prodigal Son (1925)

For my poem on the Luke 15 text for March 6, "Prodigal Son, Prodigal Dad," please see my poem from March 10, 2013 through the archives on the right or at http://lectionarypoems.blogspot.com/2013/03/fourth-sunday-in-lent-march-10-2013.html


Meeting with the Pastor Nominating Committee

Jeff Curtis asked me in the interview
Which verse of scripture meant the most to me;
I said the one where everything is new,
And where, in Christ, we're from the past set free. 

What made this verse pop then into my head - 
One I believed, but never called it best?
Perhaps in worship, I had often said
Those words, which now, in being asked, expressed.

The old was when we thought we had it planned,
A place for everything, and all in place;
Out of the blue, and on the other hand,
God's newness may be right before your face. 

Paul calls us to be reconciled to God,
That is, be acclimated to the news
Which, in our daily life, we find quite odd:
You cannot stop the love which God pursues.

Scott L. Barton

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.