Passion Sunday Sermon

SERMON MANUSCRIPT - Year C, Passion Sunday 

– By Fr. Jason Lewis

May the words of my mouth, the meditation of all our hearts, draw us deeper in the life of Christ, further in to the mission of Christ in the world: in the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. 

1. Utterly alone. What strikes me about the Passion story is that Jesus seems to be utterly alone. There are no words of consolation, no friendly voices. Only voices of question, only words of condemnation, only derision and ridicule. And for  those of us who listen to this story on this day there seems to be no reprieve. There’s only layer upon layer of confusion, brokenness, hatred, pain and suffering. Conspiracies for death, shouts for crucifixion, the jeers of the soldiers, the crown of thorns, the spit, the blows to the heard, the mocking words of the bandits and passers-by, and ultimately at the "bottoming out" of it all - the last breath of life and the spirit given over to death. And all through this Jesus seems to be utterly alone – in a place that seems to be abandoned, of complete forsakenness. 

2. There is no other way to do this then to just go right at "the heart" of what is at stake for us this morning. The cross of Christ is either the end of all hope, or it is the beginning of a specifically and profoundly Christian hope. The cross is either the triumph of suffering and death over and against all goodness and all life, or it is profoundly, radically, amazingly something else all together. 

The end of hope, or the beginning of hope - this is what is at stake for us this morning. The grotesque horror of the Passion of Jesus put this question before us: where is God in the midst of suffering? Or more specifically, I think there is a question that is underneath this one. We are not so much concerned about the “location” of God. Our question isn’t really, “Where is God’s location? Where is God’s place of residence?” We are really asking, “What is God doing?” “How is God related to this?” “Does God even care?” And even deeper then all these questions - what is at the heart of them - is this question: “Is God good?” In the midst of pain, suffering, death – is God good? 

3. And here we are the holding in our hands the horns of a big bull, a question we humans have wrestled with for centuries. We have grasped a hold of and have begun to wrestle with the question of Evil, the “Problem of Evil”, as it is classically called. If God is good and all powerful, how can suffering be allowed to exist so profoundly? How can God be good with all of the pervasive evil in our world? Where is God in the midst of evil? If God is good, then why all of this hurt and pain?

Now do you see why I say what is at stake for us this morning? The cross of Christ is either the end of all hope (the triumph of suffering and death over and against all goodness and all life), or the cross is the beginning of specifically and profoundly Christian hope (it has something profoundly, radically, amazingly to say about God’s relationship to evil, suffering and pain). 

-   A few year back my little nephew was born with what we lay folk call “water on the brain.” The long and short of it = Dylan’s development is severely delayed. This has cause significant question within my family, and particularly for Dylan’s father, my brother. What you hear this morning is not theory spun in the cold laboratory of seminary classroom, but the echo of years of conversation with my brother.

-   And it is all around: you don’t have to sit there and think to yourself, “hmm…I wonder where I’ve encounter suffering in my world that this message might apply to.” We don’t have to go far to find profound suffering that raises the questions about the problem of evil, the goodness of God and tentative teetering nature and possibility of hope. 

4. Yet, through the centuries the Church has proclaimed that a Roman instrument of death has become the symbol of God’s love for us. Our faith confessions that the cross of Christ is the very beginning of hope. And how is that? If in hearing your mind has a disjoint here that is okay? Let’s unpack this a little.  The cross is hope. How can we say this? And more importantly how can we know this, experientially know, the hope and love God intends for us in the cross?

a. Our Christian faith tells us that all question about God, the world, and evil must be submitted to the God’s self-disclosure (God’s showing of himself) in Jesus. In Christ, God’s has revealed the nature and character of Godself fully, completely. Jesus is the picture of God in our world.

b. So, what does this say about the cross? More specifically, what sort of God do we meet in the cross? The God we meet on the Cross is none other than the God who in complete and absolute solidarity suffers with us. The cross guarantees that God is present with us. God doesn’t stand safely aloof. In Christ we meet the eternal God, who so radically indentifies with a suffering world that he takes the world’s evil upon himself. Not just the sins of the world, but the unfathomable abyss of evil itself. In Christ, God radically identifies with human brokenness. God loves so much that he is willing to suffer heinous death of Jesus to show us the depth, the extent of that love. Jesus death on the cross is God saying to you, “If love means this, then indeed I will endure it.”  The cross is God saying to you, “When you’re suffering, I am redemptively suffering with you in my love.”

c. And how extensively does God suffer with you? How far does that this compassion go? Well, God would go as far as the cross. For the Roman who invented death on a cross it was the ultimate in vulnerability, human pain, humiliation, rejection and loneliness. The Passion narrative strikes us a stark, painful, humiliating and lonely because that is just what Roman crucifixion was in its reality. The Gospel writer has embodied well the reality itself in his story telling. In the cross God became what we do not ever want to be – an outcast, accursed, humiliated - utterly rejected. God has gone to the very fringes of human existence and beyond – God ventures past the boundaries of existence and journeys into death itself. The eternal God took all of this and more upon himself.

5. And why? Did God go to the cross because some external power imposed it on him? No, God goes to the cross because in love God freely choose it!

a. As Jesus was being mocked and spit on that day those who jeered at him thought that they had power over Jesus. They thought that they were the ones who were killing Jesus, the ones who were in control and in charge of Jesus’ life and will.

1. The chief priest and religious scribes saw the death of Jesus as the end of their desire for Jesus, as an expression of their ability to shape and form the religious views and opinions of their day.

2. The Roman soldiers saw the death of Jesus as an expression of their political power; this is what happens when you stir up trouble in a Roman providence. 

b. But no, it was neither of these. The religious establishment, the political powers of the day was not ultimately why Jesus was on the cross. In fact it was not even the physical nails pounded into his hands and feet that held him. The nails didn’t hold him on that cross that day; it was love that held him. 

6. God loves us even to the point of death on the cross. Where is God on that day of the Passion? God is suffering with us and for us on the cross. God is suffering in His Son and it reveals to us the way he is affected by the suffering in this our world. The creation is God’s, and God suffers radically and freely with it.

The cross shows us how seriously God takes the creation. God did not create this world and abandoned it when it turned by its own will to suffering and death. No, God in covenant relationship gives himself to creation. The cross shows us how far he’ll go, how seriously God takes the fulfillment of that relationship. Was it nails that held Jesus to the cross that day? No, it was God’s love for creation!  The cross is the supreme place of God’s self-emptying compassion, his self-imposed vulnerability.

Let us here it again:

The cross of Christ is either the end of all hope, or it is the beginning of a specifically and profoundly Christian hope. The cross either confirms that God has abandoned the world and has failed in his goodness, or it establishes the inexhaustible goodness of God. And the one who can seriously question whether God is all-loving is the one who has yet to understand the Good News, the Gospel of the Cross. 

Jesus: utterly alone? No… God is with Jesus, that is to say, with and for all of humanity! My fellow journeyers, my fellow sharers in the burden of human suffering: hear the good news! - The cross is hope.

Here on this Sunday of the Passion we encounter that God is the One who is by loving choice inextricably with us and for us. 

Indeed, good news for us to share, to embody, for us to live into out in this broken and hungry world. That is why we can still sing praises on this day. Why Hosanna is an appropriate place to end. Hosanna – praise be to God. In Jesus, Our Hope is embodied. May it be so among us. Amen.

Haiti's Work On Us

“We went to go work on Haiti, and Haiti worked on us.” This was a phrase spoken by a fellow team member during our June mission trip to Le Pretre Haiti. We went with our plans to build a well and latrine, and to do a multiday medical mission. But, it didn’t work out that way. The rains kept coming and coming; and the waters kept rising and rising. Le Pretre was cut off by the torrent of the river. We never built the well or the latrine, the children of village never received much needed medical care.*

It was frustrating and difficult. Much good was done, however. Three other amazingly needy villages received medical care. Six desks were built for the school. And we had the chance to live into the namesake of our mission, “The Incarnation Project.” We were bodily present with the Haitians during one of their worst tropical storms. We experienced the flooded streets, the anxiety of the river’s edge creeping over the banks, and the difficultly of travel and “doing” day to day life without the blessing of proper infrastructure. As God was present to us in the storms of our lives in the Incarnation of Jesus, so to where we present with the Haitians in the storms of their lives.

We went to go work on Haiti, and Haiti worked on us. We went to build for others in Haiti, and we found it was our character that was being built. Such is the work of God in us.
The second time to Haiti was different. My first trip I think I was in shock most of the time. Such overwheleming and pervasive poverty! I simply couldn't take it all in. It didnt' make sense to me and I had no words to describe it. I still don't. But, this time the experience shifted. I didn't see anything different in terms of the poverty. I was till struck by its harsh reality and it was still as broad as it was before. The few homes/place that show evidence of being beyond the "scraping by" level are still amazingly far and few between. But my eyes weere beyond the inital shock so I could see more. I saw more joy in their faces, and the exchance of the blessings of family and church relationship. I had the chance to enter a home (a Vester member of St. Paul's Torbeck) and it was good to see the place of their day to day lives. It was simple. It was exteremly spare...but, it was a home indeed.** The human spirit is an amazing thing. And at the root of all of us is the same basic need and desire. To know and be known. Haiti certainly is rich in such knowledge! 

*Another mission trip to complete the planned work we had for this trip is being planned for the fall of 2011.

**Once the Incarantion Project website is launched later this summer I'll direct you all to that link and you can go see a photo journal of our first trip in February and this second trip in June. Pictures of my visit to this home will be included.

Home from Joplin

Yesterday I drove down into Joplin Missouri to deliver the 2nd truck load of necessities collected from the Episcopal churches in the Kansas City metro area. I will share a few of my initial responses with you here.

Seeing the magnitude of the devastation was certainly overwhelming. As I drove into the section of the city that at the heart of the tornado's path it was like driving into another world. Everything was quiet, everyone had a "certain look" in their eyes. No one honked their horn, no car radios where on, no one was talking. It was a silent hush. And there was a gravity in the air that I can't explain. The horror of the event was still palatable as I enter the devastation path. 

It was inspiring to see all the relief workers, professional first responders (I saw police cars, firetrucks and response vehicles from all over the United States) and National Guard there. It is good to see so many others seeking to help the people of Joplin.

I'm going to share one lament, one negative comment, and then I'll close with what was most inspiring to me. But, I must express my sadness at a story that Father Frank (the Episcopal priest who is rector of St. Philip's Joplin - their building is still standing!) shared with me. A few days after the storm Father Frank began to hear rumors of a prayer service that was being organized for the entire community. He heard it would be held on Sunday, but he had no other details and had not been contacted. So, he called up a few of his fellow pastors in the area and they too had not received any details about it or been invited. Odd. But, his fellow pastors where Roman Catholic, UCC, and Lutheran. They then started to piece things together. They then called the Jewish and Muslim community in town and they also had not heard anything about the prayers service. Sad. I don't want to dwell on this; but as a "recovering fundamentalist" my heart gravitates toward lamenting over this, and praying that we can find another way to live out our faith that truly reflects what we confess with our lips - there is only One God! It is us who have divided him up and claimed this God as our own. But, if we truly believed our monotheistic faith, then we would not be so threatened and fearful of praying together. An inter-faith prayer service where Christians, Jews and Muslims will offer prayers to the One God according to their way of prayer is being held on Monday evening at 6pm.

Okay, I can't leave you on that note. Because truly, I came away from that trip more inspired than discourage and I want to share that sense with you by leaving you on a positive note. Probably the most inspiring thing for me was listen to the talk radio station in Joplin (FM102.9) for the 4 hours I was down there. They have been on air covering the storm since 4pm last Sunday. And after the storm they have dedicated themselves to being a "community billboard" to help victims and aid workers communicate. Folks would call in and say, "I can help in this way, here is my number," or, "I'm looking for Joe Smith, what do I do?", or, "I'm from this church and we are having a cookout and afternoon of games for families with young kids just to give them a sense of normalcy for a few hours." The outpouring over that radio station was simply amazing. A few times my heart was overwhelmed at the stories I heard; and often a smile came across my face as I thought to myself, "yes, this is it, human being beholding other human beings and saying 'I love you, I am here for you in your time of need'." Allot of folks in Joplin right now - the victims and relief workers - are giving glory to God as they serve one another as Christ showed us how to serve. I believe in Jesus Christ and I believe that he is calling each of us (even if we are unaware of the source of that call) to live out his life in relationship to one another. I saw that in Joplin yesterday. Christ is present. Christ is Risen!

Holy Week Pilgramage: What Can Seperate us from the Love of God?

I know what is coming. I've walked this Week before. It's not easy. I know a good and holy work is done in me each Holy Week, but the spiritual/emotional/intellectual/personal ups and downs of faithfully walking with Jesus during is final days is trying indeed. It is not for the faint of heart. But, walk it we must. And to a good end.

We start with Palm/Passion Sunday. We begin by praising God for his arrival. Waving palms and shouting for joy, we sing out, "Yes, he has finally come to be free us, he has come to be our King!" But, when it turns out that this is not the King we asked for or wanted, we simply turn away and receive the instruction from those in power who seek to kill all that threatens their position. We turn from praise to crying out "Crucify him! We want Barabbas! Crucify him!" In a matter of an hour of worship we go from light into the Darkness.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we slowly walk with Jesus during his final week. The first three days are a solid footing. A good begin to spend this time with our Lord. Sure we are devoted. Sure we want to worship and be with Jesus! And so we come Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday out of our desire to follow well, to be devote and listen. And it is good.

And then the action starts on Maundy Thursday. We enter into the upper room of the last supper. Jesus serves us and washes our feet; and he shows us how to serve one another by washing feet - sharing the daily task of preparing for the fellowship of meal at table with one another. And in the midst of this meal the betrayal begins. One of us leaves to betray our Lord. And when we are asked to pray with him in the garden we fall asleep. The altar is stripped...the aumbry candle of our devotion to the presence of Jesus is blown out and the aumbry door is left hanging wide open. The bread and the wine are left uncaried for on the altar of repose (rest). The precious bread and wine of Jesus presence among us is left exposed in the wide open. Any one can come into the church and knock it off the table, they could so easily stamp the bread underfoot. They can drink the wine freely without recognizing it as Jesus' life. There might be a few who come and pray at the altar of repose...but then again maybe not. Maybe someone will forget to come at their hour. Don't all disciples fall asleep from time to time? Maybe no one identified themselves to come for an hour to keep vigil. Maybe Jesus is left, just we've left him before.

And then Good Friday. The world's verdict upon the presence of God among us. God comes to offer a new way, a way of shared life for one another, a way of love and wholeness. But it threatens our position and status far too much. We understand how the world works and how to get what we want in this world. And the last thing we need is Another coming into our world and telling us how it really is. How our life, religion, and resources, and not for our own security and purposes, but to be shared with others. We don't need this confrontation. We don't need this exposure. We will not share. So, we kill God among us. Good Friday is the world's verdict upon God. And on this black day it seems the world's verdict stands. Wars, famine, poverty, economic/social/political oppression for the benefit of the rich continues. In a world who has enough food to share with everyone, people still die of hunger. Christ is still crucified among us. Will the world's verdict of Good Friday still stand?

The silence of Holy Saturday. Resting in the tomb. The Church rests in stillness. No Eucharist on this day. The only day of the year that no bishops or priest bless. Only still silent prayer, if that is still possible. A few come. Maybe a few women...two or three. They'll come to the tomb...they come and pray, maybe see the aumbry hanging wide open. Open. Resting. Silent. Still. Waiting beside the Tomb. What will come of this?

The Easter Vigil begins in the darkness of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and continues to wait in the Holy Silence of the Tomb of Saturday. In the darkness and stillness we begin to remember. A new fire is lit from outside and it is brought into our awareness. The light is not of our own making...it is from another. And amazingly there is just enough light now that we begin to remember the old stories of how God is with us and God acts in the world.

The Story: God has created all things and has acted mightily throughout history to restore and redeem. We remember the creation story. God's spirit over the chaos, bringing order and boundaries for life to thrive and bud. God has created this Good world. We remember that God doesn't desire to destroy this world...sure, there was our sin, and the Flood. But, God has hung up his warriors bow in the sky vowing to never seek to destroy the earth again. God has chosen life for humanity. Abraham is called. A new remnant for all the nations to be called back to God is born. We hear the story of the prophets when the remnant forgot who it was and became a valley of dry bones. Has the remnant for the redemption of the world died? Is it a pile of dry bones never to be raised again (the question of Holy Saturday)? No! Ezekiel sees the wind blow life over the bones...and they join together again. Bone upon bone, sinew attaches to sinew, flesh covers that which was once dead and new life is given! AND THEN and earthquake, a surprise:, those who had been remembering and worshiping in darkness now see a new light. Light, a Holy Noise! THE ANNUNCIATION OF ALL ANNUNCIATION: RISEN! Yes, JESUS IS RISEN!

It is a walk of all walks. A pilgrimage into the world's and our own darkness. A descent into the blindness of our own turning away from God and the crosses and tombs we erect and dig. But, underneath, around, before, above and through it all is the amazing love of God. Holy Week into Easter is the Truth, the Story, of God's Love that reaches out beyond all boundaries, even beyond the line we've drawn in the sand of our world that seeks to eradicate God's presence among us. God loves us to the cross, to the tomb, to the dead and beyond. It is ultimately a pilgrimage into the Love of God. What can separate us from the love of God? Highest, Depths, Spiritual Darkness,  Death? Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ! Nothing! And well, my friends...that is Everything... 

A Spiritual, Intellectual and Life Earth Quake: Mission to and Return from Haiti

It's been a month now since my return from Haiti (hence, my lack of blog posts). Returning from a place like Haiti can certainly send one's mind into a spin. While in Haiti I felt like my heart and mind were caught on fire about questions concerning poverty, oppression, justice, and our common responsibility to one another as human beings. It is like my political, economic, social, ethical and religious consciousness have undergone an "earthquake." I don't think I'll ever see the world the same again. At least I hope not.

I'm not quite sure what all this will mean or how I am being changed by God in the middle of all this. But, I know I am being changed, and while it is painful at times, I am glad for it. I feel newly connected to things that are meaningful and connected to the real situation of the world (clean water, sanitation, children's education, community and economic development,etc.). Are you surprised theology is not in there? Well, theology (and the remaking of my theology in relationship to a living and dynamic God who is active and present in the world) is at the root of all of this. Why was I in Haiti? Because of my theology. I believe in the Missio Dei and the Trinitarian Externality of God's movement toward all of creation, humanity and particularly the poor and marginalized (read the Gospel of Luke). And why do I feel a call to be connecting to Haiti through The Incarnation Project*? It is because of renewed, dynamic and living theology, and the love God that I feel b being birthed in my heart for the Haitian people. God has called me to consider what it means for all to be One in Christ. What else can I do but stay connected with this calling which is deeply about loving people through getting them clean water, sanitation, education and a sustainable community.

*What is the Incarnation Project?

The Incarnation Project is a partnership of Episcopal Churches in the United States (St. Christopher's - Pensacola FL, Holy Nativity - Panama City, St. Mary Magdalene - Kansas City MO, St. Thomas the Apostle - Kansas City, KS) working collaboratively to assist the Church and School of the Incarnation in Le Pretre Haiti with the purpose of assisting the people of Le Pretre in establishing a self-sustaining community through education. Clean water, sanitation, support education and the buildings to carry out such education are key priorities of the project.

The Antithesis of Matthew 5: An Invitation to Growth in Grace and a Community of Wholeness

Jesus offers the antithesis of Matthew 5 (vs. 21-48 - 6 antithesis: murder, adultry, unnecessary divorce, oath swearing, retaliation, and enemy hating) to get at the root of what causes these broken ways of relating to others to enter into our lives. He is not merely seeking to convict us of our brokeness in effort to have us run into the arms of an merciful God (although this is an adequate reponse!). This is not simmply about conviction, mercy and justification. No, he is calling us to live lives that are beyond our current ability to live and is calling us to ask for God’s grace to enable us to grow in grace. The Sermon on the Mount is a call to enter into an ongoing transformation of the "heart". Here we have an invitation to enter into the process of learning how to live lives characterized by right and good relationship with others.

The antithesis are a call to grow in grace. They call us to pray for God's grace to help us live a life that is beyond our natural ability to live. And so, let us pray: may God help us move from: (1) anger, to love, (2) from lust, to respect and right relationship, (3) manipulative relationships, to mutual love and care, (3) to swearing of oaths and signing contracts claiming power and rights, to open, trusting, whole relationships where we have faith in one another’s integrety, words and intentions. May God help us, by grace, to move from: (5) retalitation, to disproporiate acts of humility and service, (6) hatred of our enemies, to  an "unnatural-othercentered-upsidedown-agape" way of life. May we grow in grace from broken relationships  with ourselves and with others, and be made whole persons who live in community of wholeness. 

The antithesis are an invitation to enter into the process of such a transformation, as well as a call to live in a a communal way of life that  is made possible only by growth in God's grace.  

Welcome to One Logos

"One Logos" - why the title of this blog? The title of this blog is born out of the belief that at the root of all that is Good, True and Beautiful there is one central reality being reflected - the One Logos, the One Word ("logos" being the transliteration of the Greek for "word" or "reason"). Central to my Christian faith is the believe that there is a One to which all things point. I once heard it said by a person much wiser than I, "Any story well told ultimately serves the One." This blog will comment on many different subjects, issues and events. But, ultimately, regradless of its reflections and musings, underneath it all I hope to catch glimpses of, offer reflections upon, the One Logos.

Why one more blog? Aren't there enough already? Well, sure there are plenty of blogs to choose from. And where they speak of what is Good, True and Beautiful they are a reflection of the One Logos as well. I encourage you: "Pick up and read!"

But, each reflection has it own unique contribution to offer. Each strand of a beautiful tapistry is needed to reveal the awe and wonder of the woven image. My strand offered? That of an Episcopal parish priest in south Kansas City with a passion to see the church live out a life that is engaging, relevant, healthy, vibrant, and that reflects and shares the Light of Christ in the world.

A central question for me and this blog: from my finite, incarnated/embodied existance - from my point on the map of time, space, and context - where do I see the One Logos at play, at work in the world? Will each post ask this question directly? No. And they need not to. But, where what is said points to what is Good, True and Beautiful in the world, then I hope we'll see the One at play. May it be so...