This Sunday like last Sunday has more than one name. Last week it was a choice between Lent 4 and Mothering Sunday . This week we have an even greater choice – lent 5 , St. Patricks Day of Passion Sunday .

For our purposes we’ll choose Passion Sunday . it has rather a special place for me as it was on this Sunday 41 years ago that my son was born .

Passion Sunday today can sound a bit risqué  but it doesn’t refer to that sort of passion .

We are nearly at the end of Lent -two weeks to Easter Day so I wonder what we have learnt during Lent . Have we come nearer to God ? better at understanding what it’s all about ? or are we in the same confusion we were when we began.

I would like to think that through house group or personal studies the first is true and I know for me I learnt a lot from the house group to which I belong , not just about Jesus and God’s wonderful gifts to us  but about me as well.

The readings we have heard this morning I hope can help us to understand what the coming Easter really means .

In the Jeremiah reading we have the profit telling us basically that things are going to change .  The old covenant that has stood for a long time is going to be superseded and the people are reminded that they broke that one that was made before . it was their own doing .

The good news is that our ever patient God is willing to give them ( and us ) a second chance despite everything and that this time we won’t need to be told about it it will be written in our hearts .

Can it be that hard to keep ?

If we look around it is obvious that it has not been easy to do . the world is constantly telling us to pay no attention to it ;the world has lots of other things to offer us . do we really need this new covenant in today’s science driven world ?

Imagine just for a moment where we would be if Jesus had taken the same viewpoint , where would we be today. Almost certainly not in this church , even if we still believed we needed to honour and obey God . It would be back in the old routine of sacrifice of animals or worse .

The reading from Hebrews  tells us the sort of example we are to follow . Jesus was special , very special  a priest after Melchizedek ( the one who met with Abram or Abraham as he would become . he could have side stepped all the problems of life so easily but instead he was obedient to his fathers plan and ultimately he was prepared to keep to the plan and go to the cruel cross for what? For a people who didn’t really want to know . who egged on the Romans and let him die .

The really ‘Good News’ is that he did that for us – for you and me to save us from what we deserved . he was the new way the way that put us right with God , who sent us the holy spirit  to guide us when he was no longer present in flesh on this earth .

All this begs a very important question ; how are we responding to that sacrifice to that second chance ?  are we any better than before do we have Jesus’ covenant written on our hearts as Jeremiah puts it .

Well as the saying goes no one is perfect ( at least no human) so we are going to get it wrong from time to time but if we can realise that from the working of Jesus in us then we are at least halfway there .

The need is to do better each time and try not to repeat past mistakes .

Easter is when we celebrate Jesus’ coming back to life but also we look forward to him coming again to judge us for who we are and how well we’ve done – or not .

We were told not to keep this amazing news to ourselves but to tell everyone we meet.

So we must  ask ourselves  – have I  improved in Lent and where am I heading ? 

Are we worthy of the term Christian or to put it another way- if we were arrested tomorrow on suspicion of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict us ? Let’s hope the answer to that is yes – but there is still time to think about it and if needs be do something about it.