March 17 - Sunday of the 5th Week of Lent, Year B

(Jer.31:31-34; Ps.51:3-4,12-15; Heb.5:7-9; Jn.12:20-33) "Father, glorify your name." Jesus cries out in supplication to Him who is "able to save Him from death," but He prays not to be saved from death, not to be saved from the sacrifice He must make, but only that in His death the Father might glorify His name. His "hour has come," He knows. He hears from His apostles of the Greeks who seek Him, and He knows it is now time for Him to return to the Father and for His apostles to take over the work He has begun – to carry His salvation to the nations. And though He is "troubled," knowing "the kind of death He would die," knowing that it is the only path to the Father, yet He does not ask to be saved "from this hour." His only desire is to fulfill the Father's will by being "lifted up from the earth" in crucifixion and resurrection that He might "draw everyone to [Him]self" and to the glory in the Father He knows. And of course "He was heard because of His reverence." Because His cry is sincere, is a laying down of His life in perfect humility and perfect love, the Father readily answers His prayer. Even in "a voice c[o]me from heaven" He responds, speaking not for the sake of His Son – who needs no such assurance, who is dead to Himself and serves the Father perfectly – but for those whom the Son would save by His "fall[ing] to the ground" in death. For them, for us, the Father answers, for this is the Son's wish. And if we are holy as He, we "all, from least to greatest, shall know" the Lord our God just as He knows Him – we shall have our prayers answered as readily as the cries of supplication of our Savior. And so we shall be saved; and so we shall be preserved from death… and so we, too, shall glorify the Father's name. As the Lord listens to David when he cries out in his penitent psalm, so shall God come and make our hearts clean: so shall He come and write His name upon them as we cry out to Him. And we shall be blessed as Jesus, and we shall stand just as steadfast. Renewed in spirit, our offenses wiped out, we shall stand in the Son's stead upon the cross and in the kingdom. "Your Holy Spirit take not from me," O Lord, for it is the proof of your presence within me; it is the seal of your Son and His blood upon my soul. By your Spirit I know I shall be protected from death; by His touch I am led to my salvation. Father in heaven, glorify thy name in me as in thy Son. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "The Sunset Bleeds Me Clean" (1st half) from Bearing the Birth Pangs, tenth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, may we be made perfect as your Son as we join Him in His sacrifice. YHWH, the Cross of your Son is the source of our eternal salvation. In His blood is written the New Covenant you promised your people. For by His sacrifice our sins are removed and our hearts made new, that your Name might be written upon them. Our sins are forgotten by you that we might remember your glory forever. And we are called to lay down our lives with Him: where He is, so shall His disciples be. And so, upon a cross we must find ourselves, a grain of wheat fallen to the ground. If we hold to our lives in this world, what shall we do but die, LORD? But if we hate the world and even our own lives, we shall find eternal life in you through your Son. Jesus is our Savior. In Him your Name is glorified, O LORD. May your Name be glorified in us as well, as in His blood we are cleansed of our sin and joined to Him in your kingdom.