lenten blog | March 19, 2025

Performative Religion Won't Cut It

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 19th:  2 Chronicles 20:1-22; Psalm 105:1-15 [16-41] 42; and Luke 13:22-31.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is the last day of winter.  It doesn’t quite feel like winter though.  It’s supposed to be sunny and in the 60’s today.  The snow has melted and the daffodils are poking through the ground.  I’m looking at my yard and dreading all the raking I need to do.  It feels more like spring than winter.  This feeling of spring has a name.  It’s called meteorological spring.  It’s a season based on the annual temperature cycle and it spans from March 1st  to May 31st.  Meteorological spring isn’t based on the earth’s rotation around the sun.  It’s based on how it feels, but how it feels doesn’t change the fact that we’re still in winter.

Today’s Gospel feels like Jesus is telling a story of exclusion, but it’s really about a surprising openness.  He uses images of the narrow path and the closed door, and disparaging words of rejection.  It feels like the focus of the passage is on the deserved plight of the excluded:  “‘There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.’”  This is how the passage may feel, but the context reveals something else. 

The ones excluded presumed a relationship that was not there.  They were not recognized by the owner of the house.  Jesus appears to be scolding the ones who have a veneer of religion, but nothing deeper, nothing substantial, nothing real.  Luke tells us that this exchange took place as Jesus “made his way to Jerusalem.”  This travel imagery began in Chapter 9 and propels the Gospel forward toward its conclusion in that holy city.  It is within the context of what will happen to Jesus in Jerusalem that this passage needs to be understood.  It is within the context of the conflict and rejection of Jesus as prefigured by Herod’s threat at the end of today’s passage that this passage needs to be understood.    

The ones who presumed a place of privilege will discover that they are strangers, unknown to the owner of the house, and they will be bewildered by this reaction.  They will insist that they had interactions, but they were so facile they were recognized as meaningless.  Jesus is warning those who practice a performative religion that if nothing more sincere is offered, then their presumed welcome will end with an unpleasant surprise.

This exclusion of the pretenders, however, opens the way for the unknown and unexpected to be welcomed and included:  “‘Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.’”  This is the work of Jesus and the gospel.  The passage may feel like it is about exclusion, but the ones excluded have done this to themselves by trying to fake a real religious connection.  What the passage does emphasize is the openness to any and all who come to God with sincerity of faith.  And this unexpected welcome turns orthodoxy on its head:  “‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’”  There are some who are mean and judgmental, callous and unforgiving, who may well expect that they deserve entrance, but Jesus is warning that instead it may be the ones they exclude who are invited to come inside.

Faith is not about appearances.  It’s about what is in the heart.  Lent is a time to look inward and see what no one else can see.  It is with this in mind that tonight we offer a Mid-Week Pause Lenten Prayer Service.  It begins with a short Service, maybe 10 to 12 minutes.  And then leaves the remainder of the hour in the church’s sanctuary for prayer, reading, meditation or even just quiet so that we have the chance in our busy schedules to pause and look inward.  All are invited to join us at the Hatfield church at 7:00pm.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.