felix hominum

The proper liturgical phrase for Holy Saturday

“Are we there yet?”  Any one who has spent time in a form of cultural character building exercise known as the family vacation will have experienced the ritual and almost liturgical repetition of this phrase.

We drove across the northwest USA in a 1974 station wagon.  The kind that Chrysler used to make, with the engine that consumed gallons per minute and where the various parts of the rear seat belts were forever tucked under the living room sofa that was called a “back seat”.  It was covered on the exterior with that charming 70’s wood paneling which was popular not only on certain brands of American automobile, but throughout numerous suburban basements.  In retrospect it was probably a good idea, ahead of its time.  If your wood panel station wagon got into an accident, you could repair it easily with supplies from your own family “rec room”.

And still the cry went up to the father:  “Are we there yet?”

Father was always the one to drive.  On we would drive, through towns and cities, wilderness and mountains.  Leading us on with blazing headlights by night, and a pillar of exhaust and fumes by day;  the kind that only an 8 cylinder Detroit horsepower factory can produce.  We never  questioned his ability to get us to where we needed to go;  only his ability to get us there quicker.

The phrase rang out in our father’s ears for mile after mile (this was all before metric).  During the day we passed the time in games, in counting things, and of course, in fighting among ourselves.  The scenery was always new – that is what makes the journey exciting. It seems that even back then, we kids would always try to claim “our seats”.  And heaven help you if you encroached even one finger’s width on someone else’s territory.

For a while the journey itself was interesting enough, with its stops and interruptions and breaks for this and that.  But after a while one gets tired of merely journeying and actually wants to “get somewhere.”

...

I have discovered that what goes around comes around.  There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall.  It is located in the Monashee mountain range of British Columbia.   The drive itself is measured in hours now.  It is 12 hours, with at least 3 or 4 stops along the way.  I first traveled it over 25 years ago.  And these days I hear the voices carry on the great tradition, and I feel my sense of place in the great congregation who hands on that which it has received.

They have slowly come to know the place name signs along the highway, and the turnoff just past the small town, then finally onto the logging road, and then the place where that road ends as well.  It is I alone who hike through the mountain to get the boat (where I am going you cannot come now!) – for they too must pass over water to get to their destination. 

They think I should be hurrying.  But to tell the truth when I have hiked to our destination, and launched the boat, and see them waiting on the far shore through the cabin’s binoculars, I stop hurrying.  I sit on the dock, and I rest.

I am here. 

Soon enough, I will come for you.

Good Friday in Jerusalem

 

 

Why the Cross - sermon notes for Good Friday (part 2)

or I might go with something like this:

 

Why the Cross?

So why did Jesus have to go through it all? Why did he have to be rejected by the people, condemned by the Jewish and Roman leaders, abused by the soldiers and nailed to the cross to die in agony?

We’re not likely to give an exhaustive answer to that question today. As someone has said, the mystery of the cross is shallow enough for a child to paddle in but deep enough for an elephant to swim in! But down through the centuries, Christian thinkers and teachers have studied the scriptures and given a number of answers to the question, “Why did Jesus die on a cross?” Let’s look briefly at four of them.

Some have said, “He died as a sacrifice for our sins”. In the Old Testament, people who sin against the Lord are instructed to bring an animal and offer it as a sacrifice. So the people would confess their sins over the head of the animal and then it would be slaughtered as a sacrifice for sin. Another time that sacrifice was offered was when covenants were made between God and his people – binding agreements in which God made promises to his people and they responded with pledges of loyalty to God. Jesus used this sacrificial language at the Last Supper when he said that the bread was his body given for us, and the cup was the new covenant sealed by his blood, and we also noticed it today in our first reading from Isaiah which talks about the suffering servant as ‘a lamb being led to the slaughter’ – surely an allusion to sacrifice.

Others have said, “He died as a ransom to set us free”. This is an illustration from the slave market. In the ancient world people could be sold into slavery for all sorts of reasons, the most common one being that they could not pay their debts. But the custom was that a family member could buy them out of slavery by offering a ransom price – this was known as ‘redeeming’ a slave. Jesus uses this sort of language himself, when he says in Mark 10:45 that ‘the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many’. In this view, we humans are slaves to evil and sin, but Jesus by his death has paid the price that is necessary to set us free.

A third way of understanding the cross has been that it is a good example for us to follow. In this view, Jesus is the faithful servant of God who does what his Father asks of him, no matter what the cost may be. And when he goes to the cross, he doesn’t retaliate or wipe his enemies out with thunderbolts as we might expect from the strong Son of God; rather, he prays that they may be forgiven. The New Testament writers see this as an example for Christians to follow when they are persecuted for their faith: we must continue faithful to God, and must respond to our enemies with love and not with revenge.  Jesus carries a Cross, and call us to carry it as well.  "Take up your cross and follow me".

A fourth way of understanding the cross sees Jesus as the substitute, the one who takes the place of sinful humanity and dies the death that we deserve for our sins. Barabbas, the rebel who Pontius Pilate set free on Good Friday instead of Jesus, is an illustration of this. Barabbas had rebelled against the empire, and the punishment for that offence was crucifixion. But Jesus, who was innocent of all such crimes, took his place and died the death that Barabbas deserved, the result being that Barabbas could go free. We also, in this view, have rebelled against God and are deserving of punishment for our sins. But God’s love for us is so great that he came himself in the person of his Son and bore the punishment for our sins, so that we could be forgiven and could be free to enjoy fellowship with God forever.

These four illustrations – the cross as a sacrifice, as a ransom, as an example, and as a substitutionary offering – are all based on the teaching of the scriptures, and they all have light to shed on what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

So what does the Cross tell us?

First, the cross shows us that this is what we are like as human beings – the one who is all love, all truth, all mercy, all goodness, all grace, comes into the world, and we reject him. To quote from John again, ‘And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil’. Am I so in love with the religious systems I’ve based my life on that I can’t hear the voice of God in Jesus questioning those systems, asking what they really have to do with loving God and loving my neighbour? Am I so in love with power that I can’t let it go and live my life on the basis of love instead? Am I so in love with my own moral autonomy that I refuse to turn away from my sins and follow the one who claims to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life? ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord’? It seems so. When I think about the cross, I realise that I have a lot to repent of.

Secondly, the cross challenges us to imitate Jesus. When Jesus first foretold his death, he said to his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:34-35). The people who first read these words from Mark’s gospel were probably Roman Christians who were being persecuted by the Emperor Nero. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for them to renounce their faith and save their lives, but Mark recorded Jesus’ words as a challenge to them. The cross is the price we pay for faithfulness to God in a world that prefers darkness to light. Our Lord carried it faithfully, and now we are called to follow in his footsteps. For us, that means not being ashamed to be known as his followers. It means not being afraid to live in the way he taught us, even if it isn’t always popular with the people around us.

 

Finally – the Cross sets us free.

 

You may have come here feeling guilty – go home knowing you are free.

You may have come here feeling apart from God – go home knowing you are his children.

 

“I cannot do it for myself”. Like Nicodemus, I realize that all my religious actions are getting me nowhere. I can’t connect with God the way I want to. I can’t get free of my bad habits. I can’t be the parent I want to be, and so on.

Step two comes when I say, “Jesus can do it”. In him and in the gift of his Spirit, all that I need is available to me. Again, in A.A. language we ‘come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity’ - in our case, the power of Jesus and his Spirit.

Step three comes when I say, “I will come to Jesus and ask for it” - like the thief on the Cross, who turned and said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’.

 

"Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.

And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need for God's grace."

Good Friday Sermon notes (sort of)

But I think the whole thing will be changed, at any rate, this is what I was starting on...



Good Friday Thoughts on the Cross.

 

Today is called “Good Friday”, but there is nothing particularly Good about a day of the week.  In fact there is nothing good in all of creation on this day.  Except one man - Jesus.  Nothing else and no one else in all the world is “good” today.  We have all turned our backs on Jesus, and in doing so, we have turned our backs on God. 

 There is no communion today.  Not because Jesus refuses fellowship with us, but because we refuse fellowship with him.  Remember on Maundy Thursday, at the last supper, Judas left the table and went out into the night to betray Jesus.  Today we have all joined Judas.  We have all left the table, we have all betrayed Jesus.  The only song we rightly sing today is “We have decided to follow Judas.”

Jesus fulfills prophecy today:  psalm 22:  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus dies alone.  He has been abandoned by his friends, his disciples his family – and now it seems, he has even been abandoned by his God.  

What does it mean to be abandoned by God?  For all our troubles in this life, we do not know what that really means.  We know only the opposite.  We only know what it is like for us to abandon God.  Even in our darkest hours, we don’t know what being abandoned by God really means.  We think we have been abandoned by God, but we haven’t been.  Only Jesus really knows what that is like. 

What is the cross of Christ?  It is God the Father saying to Jesus – I reject you, I curse you, I punish you, I pour out on you all the wrath of God that has been stored up against sin from the beginning of the world unto its end.  I treat you as that which I utterly hate  - I treat you as sin.   I treat you as if you had committed every sin ever thought of, every sin ever committed – from the slightest lie,  to the worst rape, murder and torture.  God the Father says to Jesus – “I abandon you”. I turn my face from you, I don’t know you.

Do you want to know what God thinks of sin?  Look at the cross.  Sin has only one goal – death.  Do you want to see what sin looks like from God’s point of view?  Look at the cross.  Sin looks ugly.  When sin is stripped of all its outward clothes of glamour, and cleverness and fun,  this is what it looks like. 

Why is the cross?  Who is responsible?  Let’s bring them to justice.  Here we are.  We are responsible.  Every single sin we have committed, and every single sin we will commit, is a hammer blow into the hands and feet of Jesus.  Each one of us here today can say  “I have been responsible for the death of an innocent person.”  We are no different from the drunk driver who carelessly smashes into a family van.  How do those people live with themselves?  How do we?  Do we know what we have done?  We have been drunk with sin.  We never thought it would lead to this.  We have killed an innocent man. 

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?      What does it really feel like to be abandoned by God?  God is the source of all life and goodness.  Outside of God there is only death and darkness.  Death and darkness deeper than our worst nightmares.  We all know darkness;  but think of this:   We only scratch the surface of suffering, and despair, and darkness, and death.  Jesus knows its depth.  Jesus went beyond the mere physical suffering of the body, the humiliation and rejection of everyone around him.  Jesus went to that place where God himself says “I hate you”.  Complete and utter separation from God.  An emptiness deeper and colder than anything we can imagine.  A place so far from God that perhaps in those words Jesus himself – God’s only Son – doubted whether or not this was really the end.  As far as Jesus was concerned at this point, it was the end.  Perhaps in those words Jesus himself doubted whether his heavenly Father would save him.

God demands justice.  God is far more just than we are.  God demands that those who break his laws must face the consequences.   God may with all justice look at each one of us and say:   “You have broken my laws, you must face the consequences”.   What are the consequences of sin – those trivial little things  (after all, I am basically a good person, aren’t I)   - -?? --  what are the consequences?  The consequences of sin are the cross.  Sin is a capital offence.  That is where we should be.  God is perfectly within his rights to say to each one of us – hold out your hands – it is time for the consequences.  Do you think you can get away scott – free forever?  Do you think I don’t see?   Or do you think that you are God?  Do you think you can act as if I have no say?  Do you think that I won’t reckon up the accounts of judgment when I want to?  Do you think you will never have to face me, in all my glory and splendor and holiness?  The great men and women of bible fell on their faces in fear when I approached them.  Are you better than them?  Do you think you will be able to stand when I summon you to my judgment seat? You don’t know me if that is what you think.

What will you have to say for myself?  What excuse will you bring?  There is no excuse good enough.  Can you say “I didn’t know”?  I’ve been telling you all throughout history what I require – you know the commandments, you know the difference between right and wrong.  And the penalty for sin is death

What will you say for yourself?  Will you say “I couldn’t help myself”?  Didn’t I give you free will?  You have the freedom to do and choose whatever you want.  You know when you’ve made choices for good – and you know that you have made choices for evil.  And the penalty for sin is death.

What will you say?  Will you say “I’ll take the punishment”?  You won’t survive it.  Do you know what the full weight of the wrath of God would do to you?  The 10 plagues of Egypt on the hardened heart of Pharoah were just a warm up for judgment.  The flood that covered the earth in Noah’s day will seem like a puddle.   All the grief and sorrow and pain you’ve ever known in all your days will be nothing compared to the full force of my wrath vented on your sinfulness. 

 

What will you say?

Before you have a chance to say anything, Jesus will speak.  And he will simply say, on your behalf “The Cross”.  He will stand between you and the judgment of God, and the Lamb who was slain will say:  “The Cross”.

 

The Cross.

 

Beyond our understanding; God himself took the punishment.   Jesus says – give me the punishment that they deserve, and give them the reward that I deserve.  Jesus took the blow of God’s wrath, so that we would not have to. God took the penalty himself.  He himself suffered in our place.  Would you take the punishment of the drunk driver who killed your wife or husband?  Would you offer to take the punishment of the murderer and rapist who stole your child?  Of course the punishment would be terrible – it looks like the Cross.

Jesus said,  “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

 Jesus was forsaken, so that you wouldn’t be. All the punishment for sin was laid on the back of Jesus.  When God sits in judgment of the world, Jesus will stand between you and all of God’s righteous wrath, and Jesus will say  - “the Cross”.  Jesus will say – I paid the penalty for sin.  I suffered that wrath.  Let this sinner go free.  For my sake, Father, for the sake of my Cross, let this sinner go.  I took the death – give this sinner life;  I took your wrath; - give this sinner your love.  I took the sin – give this sinner righteousness.  I descended to hell – give this sinner a place in heaven. 

And we, who chose to leave the table of fellowship with Jesus, will be invited to the great feast of heaven.  The wedding banquet of the Lamb.

 

And then the only thing that we will be able to say is

“the Cross”.

 

 

Discoveries of true genius are often accidental

The Jeep Patriot has a built in removable flashlight in the rear cargo light.

You can access it by banging your head on the cargo light fixture.

Or by just using the little button marked "push".

I've used both methods today.

Turning Palms into Crosses: sermon notes for Palm Sunday

How is it that we turn palms into crosses?  Every year we try our best to take these long strips of palm branch and by some feat of engineering, we turn them into crosses.  We sometimes don’t fully understand what exactly we are doing.  We take these things which are supposed to be instruments of joyfulness and praise for Jesus, and we turn them into crosses, forgetting that this represents the very thing on which Jesus was crucified.  We usually never consider that strange custom that has evolved in the church over the years.  The very same things that are supposed to praise God, are turned against Jesus.  How does this palm branch turn into a cross? 

It is easy to forget, as we wave a little cross, that it is an instrument of death.  We see that palm branch, we turn it into an empty cross, and we conveniently pass over the suffering and death in between.  The cross was not always empty. 

This is the beginning of Holy Week. Today we started with shouts of Hosanna.  Next Sunday is Easter - the day of resurrection and shouts of Alleluia.  But we are not there yet.  Between the shouts of Hosanna and the shouts of Alleluia there is another shout:  “Crucify him, Crucify him.”  "’Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’ But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.”

We have had two sets of readings this morning, each set painting a picture before us.  We started off the morning with a parade and shouts of joy.  The first picture is the “Palm Sunday” picture.  It is all about the crowds welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna.  The second picture we have today is the “Good Friday” picture.  It is about the same crowds shouting “Crucify Him” and about how Jesus endures the suffering of the Cross.

What do we learn when we see these two pictures side by side?  We learn about love.  In the first picture we learn about how the crowds, and we, love Jesus.  Let’s call that “Palm Sunday” love.  In the second picture we learn about how Jesus loves the crowds – and us.  Let’s call that “Good Friday” love.  These two kinds of love – Palm Sunday love and Good Friday love, show us the difference between how we love, and how God loves. 

(Palm Sunday Love)

First there is the love which the crowds show to Jesus on Palm Sunday.  It is exciting, it is loud and it is a big show.  They welcome Him into Jerusalem with palm branches and songs and shouts of joy:  “Hosanna to the Son of David”.  They are welcoming Jesus as their King into the throne of David.  But within a few days that same crowd turns on Jesus.  When Pilate asks them what they want to do with this Jesus, this King of the Jews, they reply – “Crucify Him”.  What is wrong with this picture?

It is not lack of enthusiasm.  They were enthusiastic when they shouted “Hosanna to the son of David”.   Yet they were just as enthusiastic when they shouted “Crucify Him”.  If we think love is about putting on a big show, or just being enthusiastic, we need to think again.   The crowd was pretty enthusiastic when things were going well for Jesus.  Palm Sunday love is like that.  It loves when there is a good time to be had, and it stops loving when there are bad times to be had.  This way of loving changes with the weather, or with the circumstances. Status, appearance, health, reputation – all these things matter to Palm Sunday love.  Loving a person – any person, including Jesus, means you love them regardless of their circumstances.   You can love the person, or you can love the things around the person.   The crowds didn’t love the person of Jesus.  They loved the show, the power, the miracles, the idea that this man would be their king. 

It is a test of our love for any person – including God – whether we love them just for who they are, or we love them because of the stuff around them.  Not many people were left loving Jesus when he was being crucified, when everything glamorous and exciting was gone from him.  Jesus died alone.

Is love about being “happy”, whatever we think that word means?  The Palm Sunday crowd is very happy to have Jesus around.  But they are also just as happy to have Him crucified.  This is the more difficult part of the problem.  Love is not about the crowds being happy.  And love is not about me being happy.  Too often we think that it is.  We think that love is supposed to be there for my sole benefit – that love is there to make me happy.  Palm Sunday love is self-serving.  It says “I don’t care what happens to you, as long as I am happy – that is what matters.”  It says “I will love you as long as I get something out of it.”  My happiness is the supreme goal of life.  And this kind of love says – “I will love you for as long as it is convenient for me, for as long as I am getting something out of it, as long as you make me happy – I will love you.”

It is a test of our love for God and for each other.  Do we still love when we are not “getting something out of it?”  Do I love only when it makes me happy?  Am I more concerned about my own happiness than the happiness of the person I am supposed to be loving?  Love is not self-centered or self-serving.


(Good Friday Love)

Now let us think about the Good Friday picture.  What do we think we are seeing when we get a picture of the crucifixion of Jesus?  Do we think we are seeing a man suffering?  Yes, but more than that.  Do we think we are seeing the fulfillment of prophecy?  Yes, and more than that?  We are seeing a picture of love.  On Palm Sunday we see a picture of our love for God, on Good Friday we see a picture of God’s love for us.

How is Jesus’ love for us, different from our love for Him?

Six centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote some words describing the Messiah that God was going to send.  Here are the words Isaiah wrote about the Messiah who would come, and what that Messiah would be like:

I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.  The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint.

“I have set my face like flint”.   

What does that tell us about Jesus’ character? About his love?  It tells us about his determination.  He has a strength of willpower that says – I will do what I need to do.  Jesus shows us that the foundation of love is commitment.  He set his face like flint – against everything that will come his way.  
We get enthusiastic – but Jesus gets determined.  Good Friday love means commitment.  It means commitment regardless of the  circumstances.  Jesus is committed to us when the circumstances change.  He loves us when we are shouting “Hosanna” and he loves us when we are shouting “Away with this man.”  Jesus loves us when that love is not returned.  He loves us regardless of how we treat him.  He simply loves us.  He is not merely enthusiastic about loving us when things are great; he is committed to loving us when things are darkest, for us and for him.  He loves us when we shout “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”   That is not only the darkest moment for Jesus.  It is also the darkest moment for us – when we cry out in rebellion against God.

How does Jesus react to our treatment of him?  How did he react then?  “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”   How does God react to our treatment of Him?  He puts up with it; he endures it – remember Jesus prayed while he was being led away for crucifixion – “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing”.  What happens when love faces a challenge?  That is when love is tested.  That is when we see what love is really made of  - is it Palm Sunday love, or is it Good Friday love?   That is when Jesus is tested.  Jesus prays forgiveness. 

(Self sacrifice, rather than self service)

Whose happiness is Jesus concerned about as he is being crucified?  His own, or someone else’s?   Jesus is willing to endure suffering, and insults, and even death, for the sake of someone else’s happiness – yours and mine.  He did not turn back from suffering because he loved us.  Good Friday love is willing to endure the wrongs of others, to put its own happiness second place, for the sake of someone else.  We have nothing that we can give to God.  God is not in this for what “He can get out of it”.  He is “in it” because He loves us. 

Jesus’ attitude and his actions are not changed by other people’s reactions to him.  Our love is often changed by other people’s attitudes and reactions.  It is part of the “what do I get out of it” syndrome.  Jesus’ love for us does not depend on how well we treat him.  Look at what happens to him.  And look how he reacts.

How do we get this new kind of love?  At best, most of us are caught between the two kinds of love – we perhaps admire the Good Friday love, but more often than not we practice the Palm Sunday love.  Good Friday love is great to see – in other people.   How do we grow in our love and move from one to the other?   Not by struggling to be better, or by making new resolutions to be a better person, or through he myriads of self help books that line the shelves of secular and sacred book shops.  It is a gift, as everything from God is.  It is the highest and best gift of all the gifts of the Spirit – and it is the only gift which will last. For that gift, let us pray.

Harry Robinson, rest in peace & rise in glory

The Rev. Dr. Harry S.D. Robinson, the foremost Canadian Anglican Evangelical parish priest of his generation, died of a sudden heart attack yesterday near his home on Mayne Island, British Columbia.  He was 84.

via Tony Burton's blog.