Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent
​Pat Tomich, Assistant Executive Director for Mission Integration

As our Lenten journey draws ever closer to Holy Week, the readings draw us more deeply into the mystery of transformation and renewal. Throughout this sacred season, we are invited to recognize the newness God continually pours forth. Yet we live in a world weighed down by division, uncertainty, and despair, and it can be hard to perceive this promise. We hear Isaiah’s words call out to us: “See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19). Even in the barren places of our lives—times of grief, struggle, or regret—God is making a way.

Our journey of faith reminds us that renewal often comes through struggle. Psalm 126 assures us that those who sow in tears will one day reap in joy. Life is full of these cycles—seasons of waiting and wondering if change is possible, yet faith calls us to trust that God is at work, even when we cannot yet see the fruit. The earth, too, longs for restoration, groaning for healing from the harm inflicted upon it. Lent invites us to enter into God’s renewing work—not only within ourselves but in the world around us.

Paul urges us to let go of what is behind and press forward in faith: “I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). How often do we cling to past failures, old wounds, or patterns that keep us from growing? Lent calls us to transformation, to release what burdens us so we can move freely toward the life God desires.

Jesus embodies this call in his encounter with the woman caught in adultery. As the crowd gathers, ready to condemn, he responds with radical compassion. “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” (John 8:7). In a world quick to judge, what if we chose compassion instead? What if we let go of resentment, self-condemnation, and fear, stepping instead into the newness Christ offers?

God is doing something new. The question is, will we have the eyes to see it—and the courage to step into it?