Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year B - 22nd March 2009

One Day at a Time

We all like films with a happy ending in which the good people are finally saved. In the 'westerns', it is the cavalry who ride over the hill. In crime stories, the police arrive in the nick of time. The Old Testament reading today is also a rescue story. The Jewish people had been in exile in Babylon for forty years when Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon and allowed the exiles to return to Jerusalem and their own land.

The Christian story is something like these rescue stories: God does come to save us. But it's more like the experience that people with addictions go through when they submit to the 12-step process. They must confront their problem, admit their weakness, and acknowledge their need of a higher power. God does not force himself on us. Just as the surgeon will not operate unless we sign a written agreement, God respects our freedom: we have to accept salvation.

During the season of Lent we are encouraged to confront the disorder in our lives. It's different for everyone. Maybe it's selfishness ... dishonesty ... laziness ... meanness ... irritability ... irresponsibility. As long as we resist facing these unattractive sides of ourselves, we are in denial. In today's gospel, St John describes this struggle in terms of darkness and light. "Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light." Sin is the option for darkness rather than light, for the ugliness of our own selfish ways rather than the beauty of God's ways.

In our struggle to emerge from darkness into light, we are not alone. God does not wait for us to make the first move; the initiative comes from him. And he will stop at nothing in order to save us. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

Who is this God who loves us so much? Why did he go all the way to the cross? Because he loves us, that's why. Such a simple answer, yet beyond our understanding. What does he see in us, that he should go so far?

In the westerns and the police dramas the story ends with the rescue and the scene fades. But not with those on a 12 step programme; they have to take it one day at a time. It's the same for us who come to faith in Jesus Christ. Over and over again we have to reject the darkness and choose the light. Salvation is something we have to accept, one day at a time.