Good Friday – Year C
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 10:16-25
John 18:1-19:42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Death is ever present\u2026 it is unavoidable\u2026 it is never to be sought out\u2026 but sooner or later\u2026 death comes for us\u2026 I mean\u2026 I’m a L’Chayim<\/em> \u2026 to life\u2026 kind of guy\u2026 life is good\u2026 God said so in Genesis\u2026 but after the eyes of the first people had been opened\u2026 after they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil\u2026 which means that we had become moral creatures\u2026 God had a moment\u2026 because neither of the two creation stories indicates that we were created to be immortal\u2026 Ch. 3:19\u2026 says that Adam will return to the ground from which he was taken\u2026 no\u2026 immortality was never on the table\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in Ch. 3:22\u2026 while we don’t know to whom God is speaking\u2026 God says\u2026 Now that the man has become like one of us\u2026 knowing good and evil\u2026 what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life\u2026 and eat\u2026 and live forever\u2026<\/em> and that’s why\u2026 however we understand it\u2026 humanity was banished from the Garden\u2026 and cherubim were placed on its eastern border\u2026 to protect the Tree of Life\u2026 no\u2026 according to this account in Genesis\u2026 we were never intended to live forever\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet\u2026 even as we know this\u2026 even as we believe it\u2026 even when it’s our experience\u2026 we resist it\u2026 we rebel against it\u2026 I know from my own experience\u2026 and from that of others\u2026 that even when we know that death is coming\u2026 even when it’s imminent\u2026 even when it happens\u2026 there is disbelief\u2026 we say\u2026 I can’t believe this is happening<\/em>\u2026 and we can know all of this\u2026 but that doesn’t mean that we’re ready for it\u2026 how could we be\u2026 as Pastor Michael Fick wrote\u2026 when someone dies\u2026 we may be faced with the complex work of defining our relationship to that person\u2026 and we may experience a strong mix of love\u2026 regret\u2026 sadness\u2026 hope\u2026 and [ if that person had been sick and in pain\u2026 maybe even some ] relief\u2026 but often\u2026 the dominant emotion we feel\u2026 is grief\u2026 and we grieve because we love\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 20\u2026 in our reading from Exodus\u2026 God tells Moses to tell the Israelites that\u2026 I AM has sent me to you<\/em>\u2026 and we may sometimes hear God’s name as I AM becoming who I AM becoming<\/em>\u2026 this is the same I AM in John 8:58\u2026 when Jesus said\u2026 before Abraham was\u2026 I AM<\/em>\u2026 and in today\u2019s Gospel passage in Ch. 18:5 which is translated as\u2026 I AM he\u2026 Jesus actually only said\u2026 I AM<\/em>\u2026 and 600 Roman soldiers fell to the ground\u2026 and a few verses later\u2026 in 18:17 and 18:25 Peter denies Jesus by simply adding the word not to the same form of the verb\u2026 so what Peter is saying\u2026 is that he is not becoming who Jesus invites him to become\u2026 when Peter says I am not<\/em>\u2026 his voice becomes our voice every time we choose to not become who God invites us to become\u2026 even though that becoming can be difficult and disturbing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the last few weeks\u2026 news shows have preceded certain videos from Ukraine\u2026 with a warning\u2026 What you’re about to see is graphic and disturbing<\/em>\u2026 and it is\u2026 and I’m inclined to look away so I don’t have to see apartments and homes in rubble\u2026 blood stained pavement\u2026 children with missing limbs\u2026 bodies lying in the streets\u2026 and hear stories of rape and torture\u2026 but if\u2026 the world over\u2026 we don’t look at the travesty that’s being visited on an innocent people\u2026 our collective outrage will be insufficient to stop it quickly enough\u2026 we are all in this together\u2026 not looking makes it easier to do nothing\u2026 my Lutheran bishop even said that not looking is unfaithful\u2026 and in this\u2026 we’re just like Peter\u2026 denying we know Jesus\u2026 denying that collectively\u2026 we’re somehow complicit in all the places where the lust for power fosters tyranny and war\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when in one moment\u2026 we say\u2026 Hosanna\u2026 which means… save or rescue us\u2026 and in the next\u2026 we shout Crucify him\u2026<\/em> I wonder what part we play in preventing the light of Christ from shining\u2026 and I wonder\u2026 if we don’t take a long hard look at the ugliness of the cross\u2026 how can we truly appreciate the glory of Easter\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tonight\u2026\u00a0 all over the world\u2026\u00a0 Jews will be celebrating Passover\u2026\u00a0 at their seders\u00a0they’ll ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is this night different from all other nights\u2026 they’ll recall their Exodus from 400 years of slavery in Egypt… they’ll look forward with hope to new lives of peace\u2026 and as they prepare\u2026 they’ll set a place at table for Elijah\u2026 table service for someone just in case they come\u2026 for someone they hope comes\u2026 the hope that God will make all things new\u2026 and this hope comes from the prophet Malachi in Ch. 4:5 which says\u2026 I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes<\/em>\u2026 great because it means fulfillment\u2026 terrible because it means change\u2026 becoming who we are becoming\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And much of that hope\u2026 is rooted in the goodness of creation\u2026 we are called to speak the truth\u2026 even if our voices shake<\/em>\u2026 and many of us know that speaking the truth can be dangerous\u2026 . it can lead to being shunned… to getting fired\u2026 or attacked\u2026 or even killed\u2026 when we stand on the balcony\u2026 as so many of us have\u2026 and speak truth\u2026 like Martin Luther King, Jr. did\u2026 perhaps like Patrick Lyoya did\u2026 and disrupt the power structures that keep the status quo<\/em> of haves and have nots\u2026 or challenge the false selves in which so much has been invested… or fail to break down the barriers which divide us at so great a cost\u2026 it can cost us our lives in one way or another\u2026 it cost Jesus his\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chaplain David Keck wrote\u2026 the Gospel text is full of people who are certain of themselves\u2026 or who put on a show of being certain\u2026 they were certain that entering the Roman headquarters would defile a devout Jew\u2026 yet\u2026 handing the Word of God over to death does not\u2026 because Jesus was pointing us toward God\u2019s solidarity with the vulnerable and suffering throughout all of creation\u2026 and Jesus is inviting us to become that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So why will this night be different from all other nights\u2026 for us\u2026 this is the night\u2026 that out of love for all creation\u2026 God in Christ freed us from anything that enslaves\u2026 constrains\u2026 or limits us\u2026 so that each of us can die to our false selves\u2026 and can become who we are becoming\u2026 and we believe implicitly\u2026 that the truth of resurrection\u2026 and the hope\u2026 not of immortality\u2026 not of living one moment after another without end\u2026 but of eternal life in Christ\u2026 which is beyond time and space\u2026 ends our grief\u2026 because we will experience God’s love fully\u2026 without end\u2026 and without measure\u2026 and this speaks louder to our hearts\u2026 than the lies of fear and division speak to our heads\u2026 but Holy God\u2026 please make it so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good Friday – Year C Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Psalm 22 Hebrews 10:16-25 John 18:1-19:42 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Death is ever present\u2026 it is unavoidable\u2026 it is never to be sought out\u2026 but sooner or later\u2026 death comes for us\u2026 I mean\u2026 I’m a L’Chayim \u2026 to life\u2026 kind of guy\u2026 life is good\u2026 God said so in Genesis\u2026 but after the eyes of the first people had been opened\u2026 after they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil\u2026 which means that we had become moral creatures\u2026 God had a moment\u2026 because neither of the two creation stories indicates that we were created to be immortal\u2026 Ch. 3:19\u2026 says that Adam will return to the ground from which he was taken\u2026 no\u2026 immortality was never on the table\u2026 But in Ch. 3:22\u2026 while we don’t know to whom God is speaking\u2026 God says\u2026 Now that the man has become like one of us\u2026 knowing good and evil\u2026 what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life\u2026 and eat\u2026 and live forever\u2026 and that’s why\u2026 however we understand it\u2026 humanity was banished from the Garden\u2026 and cherubim were placed on its eastern border\u2026 to protect the Tree of Life\u2026 no\u2026 according to this account in Genesis\u2026 we were never intended to live forever\u2026 And yet\u2026 even as we know this\u2026 even as we believe it\u2026 even when it’s our experience\u2026 we resist it\u2026 we rebel against it\u2026 I know from my own experience\u2026 and from that of others\u2026 that even when we know that death is coming\u2026 even when it’s imminent\u2026 even when it happens\u2026 there is disbelief\u2026 we say\u2026 I can’t believe this is happening\u2026 and we can know all of this\u2026 but that doesn’t mean that we’re ready for it\u2026 how could we be\u2026 as Pastor Michael Fick wrote\u2026 when someone dies\u2026 we may be faced with the complex work of defining our relationship to that person\u2026 and we may experience a strong mix of love\u2026 regret\u2026 sadness\u2026 hope\u2026 and [ if that person had been sick and in pain\u2026 maybe even some ] relief\u2026 but often\u2026 the dominant emotion we feel\u2026 is grief\u2026 and we grieve because we love\u2026 On March 20\u2026 in our reading from Exodus\u2026 God tells Moses to tell the Israelites that\u2026 I AM has sent me to you\u2026 and we may sometimes hear God’s name as I AM becoming who I AM becoming\u2026 this is the same I AM in John 8:58\u2026 when Jesus said\u2026 before Abraham was\u2026 I AM\u2026 and in today\u2019s Gospel passage in Ch. 18:5 which is translated as\u2026 I AM he\u2026 Jesus actually only said\u2026 I AM\u2026 and 600 Roman soldiers fell to the ground\u2026 and a few verses later\u2026 in 18:17 and 18:25 Peter denies Jesus by simply adding the word not to the same form of the verb\u2026 so what Peter is saying\u2026 is that he is not becoming who Jesus invites him to become\u2026 when Peter says I am not\u2026 his voice becomes our voice every time we choose to not become who God invites us to become\u2026 even though that becoming can be difficult and disturbing\u2026 For the last few weeks\u2026 news shows have preceded certain videos from Ukraine\u2026 with a warning\u2026 What you’re about to see is graphic and disturbing\u2026 and it is\u2026 and I’m inclined to look away so I don’t have to see apartments and homes in rubble\u2026 blood stained pavement\u2026 children with missing limbs\u2026 bodies lying in the streets\u2026 and hear stories of rape and torture\u2026 but if\u2026 the world over\u2026 we don’t look at the travesty that’s being visited on an innocent people\u2026 our collective outrage will be insufficient to stop it quickly enough\u2026 we are all in this together\u2026 not looking makes it easier to do nothing\u2026 my Lutheran bishop even said that not looking is unfaithful\u2026 and in this\u2026 we’re just like Peter\u2026 denying we know Jesus\u2026 denying that collectively\u2026 we’re somehow complicit in all the places where the lust for power fosters tyranny and war\u2026 And when in one moment\u2026 we say\u2026 Hosanna\u2026 which means… save or rescue us\u2026 and in the next\u2026 we shout Crucify him\u2026 I wonder what part we play in preventing the light of Christ from shining\u2026 and I wonder\u2026 if we don’t take a long hard look at the ugliness of the cross\u2026 how can we truly appreciate the glory of Easter\u2026 Tonight\u2026\u00a0 all over the world\u2026\u00a0 Jews will be celebrating Passover\u2026\u00a0 at their seders\u00a0they’ll ask: Why is this night different from all other nights\u2026 they’ll recall their Exodus from 400 years of slavery in Egypt… they’ll look forward with hope to new lives of peace\u2026 and as they prepare\u2026 they’ll set a place at table for Elijah\u2026 table service for someone just in case they come\u2026 for someone they hope comes\u2026 the hope that God will make all things new\u2026 and this hope comes from the prophet Malachi in Ch. 4:5 which says\u2026 I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes\u2026 great because it means fulfillment\u2026 terrible because it means change\u2026 becoming who we are becoming\u2026 And much of that hope\u2026 is rooted in the goodness of creation\u2026 we are called to speak the truth\u2026 even if our voices shake\u2026 and many of us know that speaking the truth can be dangerous\u2026 . it can lead to being shunned… to getting fired\u2026 or attacked\u2026 or even killed\u2026 when we stand on the balcony\u2026 as so many of us have\u2026 and speak truth\u2026 like Martin Luther King, Jr. did\u2026 perhaps like Patrick Lyoya did\u2026 and disrupt the power structures that keep the status quo of haves and have nots\u2026 or challenge the false selves in which so much has been invested… or fail to break down the barriers which divide us at so great a cost\u2026 it can cost us our lives in one way or another\u2026 it cost Jesus his\u2026 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