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| Crucifix from Florence, Italy, gift of friend | . |
I Will Inscribe My Law on Their Hearts
Good Friday 2012 Meditation
By The Rev. Marcia McRae
At Nelson Chapel
AME Church
For Holy Week Community Lunch,
Bainbridge, GA
Year B RCL: Isaiah
52:13-53:12, Psalm 22,
Hebrews 10:16-25, John
18:1-19:42
We meet as the
family of God today for our final lunch of this Holy Week. We have not
neglected to meet together, and we have encouraged one another to love and good
deeds, as our reading from Hebrews encourages us to do.
As part of
God’s family, shining the Light of Jesus in this community in a variety of
ways, we have more love to share and more good deeds to do to bring more people
into God’s family. Among those good deeds is sharing the Good News that is
written on our hearts and minds: Jesus died for us – for all people. Jesus died
to restore us to right relationship with God.
While we
enjoy fellowship and good food here, let us think of this hour on that Good
Friday and ponder the torture Jesus suffers for us.[1]
John’s Gospel in the 19th chapter says it is about noon when Pilate
gives up trying to save Jesus, gives up trying to placate the crowd. It is
about noon when Pilate sits on the judge’s bench and hands Jesus over to be
crucified. Pilate hands Jesus over to die for us on the hard wood of the cross.[2]
This reality gets to our hearts.
The heart of
the matter is Good News: Jesus dies on that cross to create for us that
new relationship with God. In that new relationship, God writes God’s law on
our hearts. Some translations say: “I will...inscribe it upon their hearts.”[3]
God inscribes the law on stone tablets for
Moses to take to the people. Now, God inscribes
the law on our hearts. To inscribe is to write deeply, to etch. In geometry to inscribe is “to draw...one figure within another figure so that the inner (is) in
the boundary of the outer at as many points as possible.”[4]
God inscribes God’s law on our hearts so
that it is in the boundary of our hearts at as many points as possible
– at as many points as possible in our
lives. This anchors our hearts to God so that we can know God more deeply,
more intimately, than we know facts.
This anchors
our hearts to God so that we can remember that God forgives.
God blots out our sins. God says: "I will remember their sins no
more." In our technological age, we might say God erases our sins so completely, they can’t be retrieved. God erases them from God’s hard drive with
top security software. That’s expensive software. I’ve looked into it with a
friend.
Computer
experts tell us there are cheaper alternatives. One way is to shoot a bullet
into the hard drive. My friend asked her son, an expert hunter, do this. So,
one day, he takes rifle and hard drive into the woods and is gone a long time.
My friend gets worried. What has happened to her son?
Finally he
returns and says: “It is not easy as you would think.” He says it is really
hard to shoot a bullet through a hard drive to wipe away the memory. It is
something I can’t do....I have no firearm.
My tech
friend says to erase the memory in my old computer I can hammer a nail into its
hard drive. If it’s hard to shoot a bullet into a hard drive, how much harder
is it for non-muscular me to hammer in a nail?
It is easier
to hammer a nail through human flesh....Jesus’ dies on that cross to erase
our sins from God’s memory. Jesus dies
on the cross for us. God totally wipes
out our guilt. God totally forgives
us. God remembers our sins no more.
When we confess our sins and turn them over to God, we should remember them no
more. He who has promised IS
faithful.
God forgives. God remembers no more. AND God renews
a
right spirit, a steadfast[5]
spirit, within (us)”. As one commentator notes, God restores...(our) lost
relationship, our lost harmony between us and God[6].
Jesus stretches out his arms of love
on the hard wood of the cross to draw
all people to him[7] –
to draw all people into relationship with God the Holy Trinity.
“Therefore,
my friends” – my brothers and sisters in God’s family – “since we have
confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living
way that he opened for us through...(his flesh)...let us approach with a true
heart in full assurance of faith...Let us hold fast to the confession of our
hope without wavering, for he who has promised IS faithful.”[8]
This IS Good News to share! God loves us. God forgives. God restores
our relationship because Jesus stretches out his arms of love on the hard wood
of that cross so that everyone might come within the reach of his saving
embrace...[9]
Lord Jesus,
we lift our hands in praise and thanks to you. We are your hands and feet and
mouth in this community. We pray, Loving God: “So clothe us in your Spirit that
we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to
the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name.”[10]
We pray in the name of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Bibliography
The American College
Dictionary.
C.L. Barnhart, Ed. in Chief. New York:
random House. 1966.
Barclay, William. The
Gospel of John. Vol. 2. Revised Edition. Philadelphia:
The Westminster
Press. 1975.
Barclay, William. The
Letter to the Hebrews. Revised Edition. Philadelphia:
The Westminster
Press. 1976.
Book of Common Prayer. New York: The Church Hymnal Corp., and The
Seabury Press. 1979.
Daily Office. Mission St.
Clare. Accessed: March 24, 2012. http://www.missionstclare.com/english/March/whole/morning/23m.html.
Dios
Habla Hoy: La Biblia. Nueva York: Sociedad Bíblica
Americana. 1983.
The Four Translation New
Testament. Minneapolis: World Wide
Publications. 1966.
Handy Dictionary of the Bible. Ed.: Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Publishing House. 1965.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays.
San Francisco:
Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary. General Ed.: Paul J.
Achtemeier. San Francisco:
Harper & Row Publishers, 1971.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard
Version. New York: Oxford University
Press. 1989.
Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version.
New York: Oxford University
Press. 1989.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish
Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University
Press. 2004.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/.
Accessed March 16, 2012.
The New American Bible for
Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn
Press. 1986.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce
M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University
Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Vox Modern Spanish and English
Dictionary.
Editors of Biblograf, S.A. and of NTC Publishing Group. Chicago: NTC Publishing
Group. 1986.
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...With God’s help we will respect the dignity of every
human being.
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...Con el auxilio de Dios,
respetaremos la dignidad de todo ser humano.
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Baptismal Covenant
Book of Common Prayer
p. 305
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Pacto Bautismal
El Libro de Oración Común pj. 225.
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[1] Note: Photo is of a crucifix
from Florence, Italy. A gift from a friend.
[2] Book of Common Prayer.
“Morning Prayer II”. P. 101.
[3] Jewish Study Bible: Jewish
Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 991.
[4] The American College
Dictionary. C.L. Barnhart, Ed. in Chief. P. 628.
[5] New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. P. 695.
[6] Harper’s Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 457.
[7] Book of Common Prayer.
Morning Prayer II”. P. 101. Text adapted.
[8] Hebrews 10:19-23. Lectionary
Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/.
Accessed March 16, 2012
[9] Ibid. Paraphrased.
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