Episodes
Friday Mar 25, 2016
What It Takes
Friday Mar 25, 2016
Friday Mar 25, 2016
Ahomily preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC March 25, 2016,Good Friday, at the 12 noon service.
Text: John 18-19
Overthese past weeks, we’ve been exploring “Renovation Realities” and I’ve heardfrom many folks about the struggles and tensions that arise in the midst of arenovation project. Relationships getstrained, resources grow thin, nerves become raw. What does it take to see a renovation throughwhen these and so many other things challenge to keep the project from beingcompleted?
Thework of Jesus is renovation kind of work. At the beginning of our Lenten journey I said, “Jesus’s forty days ofstruggle turned into three years of renovation work full of ups and downs,stops and starts, beautiful discoveries, and hateful backlash. But Jesus trusted in God and in the hope ofnew life. That—and the constant presenceof the Holy Spirit—provided guidance and strength for the long haul. Jesus’ whole life was about renovatus, about making things new,about restoring and mending and healing and liberating. Jesus never spewed hate speech out offrustration and he didn’t abandon the project even when it was clear that itwas going to kill him.”[i] Jesus shows us what it takes to finish a newcreation. It takes love, love that hangsin through the struggle and is willing to lay it all on the line in order to bringabout the intended vision; love that is willing to keep on loving even whenthose you love best turn away and abandon you; love that forgives in spite ofeverything; love that can hold fast to the hope of newness even as all turns toash in your mouth.
Andtoday we are gathered around the cross, the place where Jesus showed thelengths to which he would go to show the depths of his love. The image of the cross means many things to many people;it is a symbol of extraordinary power and resonance; a sign of the greatnarrative of God’s salvation. But itisn’t uncommon for the work of salvation wrought upon the cross to getinterpreted and turned into something that is mostly about individual ticketsto heaven. The cross certainly impactseach and every individual—that is true enough. But it’s about much more than that.
Thecross shows us what we are capable of as human beings—both the best and theworst. Jesus, the man, shows us ourcapacity to love fully, sacrificially, to stand in solidarity with the poor andthose downtrodden by human systems. Jesusshows us our human capacity to do what it takes to live in peace and to embodyjustice. Today we see our human capacity,modeled in its fullness by Jesus, to do the hardest thing—not for our own sake,but for the sake of the greater good.
Butthe cross also stands in our midst as a symbol revealing our worst humanpotential. To lie and deny, to betrayanother’s trust and love, to sacrifice someone else to save our own hide, toremain silent in the face of injustice. The cross shows us our capacity to treat other human beings as objects,stripping them of their dignity and voice. The cross shows us our own potential for cruelty—cruelty of the worstkind: to mock, humiliate, torture, taunt, and kill.
Itis appropriate for us to feel gratitude and grief for what Jesus has done forus. Jesus has shown that God is with usin our deepest suffering. Jesus hasshown us the fullness of God’s love—“even while we were yet sinners.” Jesus has shown us that no sin of ours—eventhe worst we can do—is beyond redemption, no sin too powerful to be forgiven inGod’s great love. But if we stop atgratitude and grief for what Jesus has done for us we are missing the partwhere we acknowledge our own responsibility and response.
Rightnow in our city and nation and in places around the world the very worst humancapacity is on display: cruelty that isnot only tolerated but celebrated, injustice that is not only harbored butlegislated, racism that is not only denied but defended. Refugees fleeing in terror are turned away bythe thousands. Bombings, mass shootings,and domestic abuse are simply part of the daily headlines. On this day, we miss the point if we look atthe cross and don’t see who is hanging there. Today we are dared by Jesus to look upon the victim who is slain.// Jesus isn’t alone on the cross. Christ is on the cross with the suicidal youthwho thinks that, because he is gay, it is better to die than to live, withLGBTQ people who are scorned and judged and beaten up and killed. Jesus is on the cross with the thousands ofunhoused persons all over the world. Jesus is on the cross with the mentally ill who have been abandoned tothe streets or to prison. Jesus is onthe cross with those enslaved in the sex trade and other forms of humantrafficking. Jesus is on the cross with black sisters andbrothers who just as he was—are arrested on trumped up charges, brutally beatenby authorities, humiliated, spat upon, and sentenced to death.
Today it is appropriate to express our gratitude and ourgrief for Jesus’s death. But God help usif we stop there. Look upon the victimwho is slain. Look upon the victims whostill are. Pray that Christ will removethe veil from your own eyes so that you might see your complicity withcrucifixion, your complicity with putting or keeping people on the cross. Let what you see strengthen your resolve todo what it takes to tear down crosses and the systems that mass-producethem. Let what you see inspire you todeeper listening, humility, and compassion. Let what you see as you look upon the cross move you to stay near Jesusso that the love born in his flesh might renovate your own. The saving love of God is what it takes foreach one of us to more closely mirror the fullness of love that is our truecapacity and calling. And that wondrouslove flows freely today…in water and blood.
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