Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons

Good Friday Meditation

Rev. Dean Snyder

We are here to remember an execution … to watch in our mind’s eye an execution.

I have images in my mind of modern-day executions that I have garnered rightly or wrongly from TV newscasts and movies and novels.

The modern-day execution in my mind takes place in a prison somewhere in Texas. There are various groups of people present. There are the warden and prison guards and the prison chaplain all crisply, almost robotically, doing their jobs, following their checklists. The professionals doing their job.

Then there is a group of people invited to sit in a dark room inside the prison where they can watch the execution through a window. These may be relatives of the person who will die, it may be relatives of the victim, it may be others invited by the person being executed to be there.

In my mind’s eye there are two separate groups of people outside the prison. One group is there to protest the execution. This group includes some nuns. They are holding signs saying “Abolish the Death Penalty.” They are singing hymns and crying.

The other group outside the prison are those who have come to celebrate the execution. They are holding signs that say things like “Watch Him or Her Die,” cheering and chanting and waiting for the big moment to come.

Then there is another group. This is those of us watching from home on cable news, eating our supers, drinking a beer. Watching updates throughout the evening on cable news until we finally see the lights of the prison dim and we crumble our last beer can of the night and head up to bed.

Jesus’ execution was not much different.

There were the Roman soldiers and officials more or less doing their jobs professionally. There were those like Mary, Jesus’ mother, and his youngest disciple John standing near the cross where they can watch. There were a group of women weeping. There were those shouting “Crucify him, crucify him.”

And then because the Roman authorities made crucifixion days a holiday and encouraged ordinary people to attend so that they could see what happens to people who challenge their authority, there were crowds of people sitting a distance away with their families eating their lunches as they watched those being executed being hung on crosses.

Were you there when they crucified when they crucified my Lord? Or maybe the question is where were you, where was I in that crowd when they crucified my Lord?

 We are going to hear a reading of the story of the crucifixion today based on the account in the Gospel of John. John is the most popular crucifixion account to be read or sung on Good Friday. The passion of John.

One of the questions the Gospel of John wants to ask is who is really to blame for Jesus’ death? In Matthew, Mark, and Luke it is pretty clear that Jesus was executed as a rebel and revolutionary by the
Roman authorities in collusion with the high priests of the Temple who were upset about Jesus’ populist teachings and his latest act of turning over the tables of the money changers in the Temple. Church and state cooperated to crucify him

By the time the Gospel of John is written 70 years after the fact one of John’s themes in his Gospel is “He came to his own and his own received him not.” (John 1:11) John’s version of Jesus’ execution suggests that the Romans executed Jesus begrudgingly and the only reason they did it was because the Jews pressured them. So the Jews were really mostly to blame.

Reading this out of context, as we always seem to do with the Bible, has helped fuel 2,000 years of discrimination and persecution of Jewish people who have been forced to live in ghettos, who have been outlawed, and who have been murdered in the millions upon millions.

But even post0holocaust, we still ask the question “Who is to blame?”

There is a church in California whose podcast I listen to regularly. Some time again they did a service on the question “Are all religions alike?” So they invited an interfaith panel to come to the service and the pastor interviewed them as the sermon. There was a Muslim, a Buddhist, an agnostic humanist, an evangelical Christian and a Jew.

The last question the pastor asked them was whether there were any closing remarks they wanted to make. The Jewish panel member said a couple of things and then ended by saying: “Remember it wasn’t the Jews who killed Jesus, it was the Romans.”

Apparently the evangelical Christian may have been Italian because he immediately began saying: “Wait a minute. Wait a minute here.”

So go back a minute to the images in my mind’s eye of a modern day execution. Say the person in Texas is executed and it is discovered later that he was really innocent, as has actually happened.

Who is blame for his unjust execution and death?

Is it the prison warden and guards and chaplain following their checklists, doing their jobs? Is it the relatives watching in the special dark room inside the prison? Is it the weeping nuns? Is it those celebrating his or her execution on the prison lawn? Is it you and me at home watching cable news over our supper?

Where was I, where were you when they crucified our Lord?

So far this year 2014 there have been 17 persons executed in the United States.  Askari Muhammad, 62, was executed January 7 in Florida. And then 15 others. And then Jose Villegas, 39, was executed in Texas two days ago. This past Wednesday. I had to Google that because executions aren’t even news anymore. While they were professionally, almost robotically, being put to death, we weren’t there at all.

Life Essentials: Move

Rev. Dean Snyder

Isaiah 40:28-31 & Acts 17:24-28

 

All this Lent we have been talking about daily aspects of life that are sacramental …. They are expressions and vehicles of grace. They are physical activities like breathing, eating sleeping, but they are also spiritual. God ministers to us in the midst of them. And our spiritual lives can be enriched if we offer ourselves to God through them.

This morning we want to begin by talking about another life essential –moving, exercising—and then work our way to Jesus and Palm Sunday.

Isaiah says: “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

The Book of Acts says that nobody is far from God, for in God all of us “live, move and have our being.”

We have a psychiatrist who is a member of Foundry who tells me that, after many years of treating persons suffering from depression, his number one prescription for depression is 30 minutes of some activity that will cause them to sweat at least 3 or 4 days a week.

It might be his prescription for each and every one of us.

Our body’s automatic response to exercise is to release a kind of biochemical into our systems called endorphins. Endorphins elevate our mood. They trigger positive feelings. They cause a natural high.

Endorphins are also natural analgesics and sedatives. They diminish our perception of pain and relax us.

Our bodies actually minister to us and heal us through exercise, through movement. Our Creator ministers to us and heals us through movement. God ministers to us and heals us through movement.

As opposed to most of humanity who have ever lived and most of humanity who are alive today, we of the economically privileged world find ourselves in the strange position of having to schedule exercise into our lives.

For much of the rest of the world it just happens in the course of daily living.

During Jane and my trips to Zimbabwe, Africa, I used to sometimes try to run early in the morning. The streets would already be full of people walking at a brisk pace that was sometimes faster than my running. Sometimes people would gather around me to run with me and they would talk and laugh while I was huffing and puffing.

For most of history and in many places still today moving, exercise, was a normal and necessary part of life.

Part of the reason that people we think of as economically disadvantaged in other parts of the world seem happier than we are is because their bodies are consistently producing endorphins because they are consistently moving.

One scholar studied the Gospels and kept track of all of the walking journeys that Jesus and his disciples took. Then he calculated the distance of each trip reported in the Gospels and added up the miles. He calculated that, during the approximately three years of their ministry together, Jesus and the disciples walked 21,500 miles, roughly the distance of the equator.  During his ministry Jesus walked the equivalent of a journey around the world.

We are creatures who are meant to move our bodies. Moving our bodies is a way that God releases grace into our lives.

Most mornings when I head to the gym I don’t feel like it, but I know I will feel better the rest of the day if I do. Most days when I head out to walk the three miles from home to church I don’t feel like it. I feel like driving instead. But I know if I walk my head will be clearer and my soul will be calmer and ready for whatever the day may bring.

I want to encourage us to understand the exercise we do as a godly thing that allows God to release grace into our lives. When we exercise we can offer it to God … it can be a prayer, inviting the grace of God into our lives.

Moving is a powerful biblical metaphor for the life of faith. God is always calling people to move their bodies in the Bible.

The biblical story begins with God calling Abraham and Sarah to move to a new place. When they moved Abraham and Sarah did not pack up their belongings into boxes and hire a moving truck. They carried what they took with them and walked day after day until they reached the place God had chosen for them to go.

Then God called the Israelites to move out of slavery to the Promised Land. They walked for 40 years in the wilderness.

Jesus’ entire ministry –the 21,500 miles he walked—was moving in one direction … toward Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus never stopped moving.

There is a story in the Gospel of Mark. (Mark 1:35-39) The first place that Jesus ministered in was the city of Capernaum. He was very successful there. He preached in the synagogue. He healed and cast demons out of people’s lives. Every morning there was a crowd of people waiting for him to minister to them.

One morning the disciples couldn’t find Jesus. A crowd was on the porch of Peter’s mother-in-law’s house waiting for Jesus and he was nowhere to be found. Jesus had left in the middle of the night to find a quiet place to pray. When Peter and the others finally located Jesus, they said to him: “Everybody is searching for you.” They were scolding him: What are you doing Jesus? There are all these people wanting you to minister to them.  Why aren’t you doing your job?

Jesus said to his disciples: “Let’s go on to the neighboring towns so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.”  Let’s keep moving. That’s my job.

Jesus always kept moving. Even when his ministry was the most successful, he refused to get stuck in Capernaum. He always kept moving. He was always headed toward Jerusalem and the cross.

Jesus was always moving towards today Palm Sunday.  And then he kept moving towards Friday.

And then he even kept moving after Friday. And he is moving still today.

I am very aware these days that I am celebrating my last Palm Sunday and my last Maundy Thursday and my last Good Friday and my last Easter as Foundry’s pastor … your pastor.

During my years here you are a congregation that has never gotten stuck. You have never stopped moving. You have always done the hard things. You’ve always gotten up in the morning and gone to the gym even when you haven’t felt like it.

I just want to say this morning, keep moving.

Ginger Gaines-Cirelli will become your new senior pastor in July. She is going to ask you to organize gatherings in neighborhoods throughout the region where she can come and listen to you … to as many of you as will come and share.

And out of that time of listening and praying together, God will open your eyes to the path ahead. As you celebrate 200 years of Foundry’s history beginning this coming August, God will open your eyes to history yet to be made. Celebrating an anniversary isn’t about patting ourselves on the back. It is about studying our past in order to catch a glimpse of our future. 

My prayer for Foundry is that you will keep moving. Do not get stuck. Always get up in the morning and –even when you don’t feel like it—go to the gym. Keep moving.

The promise is that, if you keep moving,  the Lord will renew your strength, you will mount up with wings like eagles, you will run and not be weary, you will walk and not faint .  

Life Essentials: Eat

Rev. Dean Snyder

Isaiah 25:6-9; Luke 7:31-39

 

 

Life Essentials: Weep

Rev. Dean Snyder

Psalm 55:5-8; John 11:32-36

 

Scientists tell us there are three kinds of tears. There are the tears that are always in our eyes unless we have a medical condition … basal tears that keep our eyes moist and allow our eyelids to work.

The second kind of tears are reflexive tears … tears that are a reflexive response to some external stimulation. These are the tears we get while peeling onions or walking in a heavy wind.

The third kind of tears are emotional tears that come when we are feeling intense emotions whether sad or joyful or in between or mixed up together.

Scientists have discovered that the chemical composition of emotional tears is actually different from basal and reflexive tears. Emotional tears include chemicals that the others don’t … some that are stress reducers, others that are natural sedatives and pain reducers.

Scientists are not fully sure but it may even be that different emotions bring tears with different chemical make-ups.  

We are talking during Lent this year about ordinary everyday aspects of life that are sacramental … they are signs of grace and vehicles of God’s grace coming into our lives.

As we prepare for Holy Week and Good Friday we want to say a word about tears as a sign and means of grace.

I know that crying is a very personal thing. Not all of us cry. I’ve known persons, usually men, who told me they just do not cry and that’s okay. I’ve known people for whom persistent, unrelieved crying was a sign that medical treatment was required.

There are no hard and fast rules. All I want to suggest this morning is that our tears can be an expression and means of God’s grace.

Jesus wept. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus wept. John 11:35 “Jesus began to weep.”

I have never quite understood the reason for Jesus’ tears.

Jesus had three very close friends in whose home he often stayed: two sisters, Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus.

News comes to Jesus while he is out teaching and preaching that Lazarus is fatally ill. The disciples say Jesus has to go to Lazarus immediately. Jesus continues teaching a few more days. By the time Jesus gets there Lazarus has died.

Lazarus’ sister Mary guilt-trips Jesus. She says to Jesus: “If you had been here he would not have died.”  She weeps.

Jesus weeps and then Jesus raises Lazarus form the dead.

So why did Jesus weep? If he knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead and there would be a happy ending, why did Jesus weep?

Scholars speculate. Some believe that Lazarus’ death and Jesus’ tears are the kernel of the story to which the resurrection of Lazarus was later added … that in Jesus’ tears at the grave of a friend we see the human Jesus before the church’s Christology was written into the story.

Other scholars suggest that Jesus’ tears were tears of frustration and disappointment that even his dear friend Mary did not understand who he was and that he was stronger than death. Jesus wept because of our disbelief in him.

Still other scholars believe that Jesus wept because he was anticipating his own death on the cross.

The truth is that no one really knows.

For years and years I struggled with this because I want every story in the Bible to make sense.

This week as I struggled with this text again, it occurred to me that maybe it is not supposed to make sense … because tears are not about making sense.

Tears are about when we do not have adequate words or adequate understanding. Tears are about when we are not competent to manage, when we do not know what to do, when we are not in control.

Tears are our body’s response to something inside if us … grief, joy, fear, anger, love … that we cannot think our way through. We can only let our body respond with the medicine of tears.

Tears are a means of grace because they heal. They are a sign of the spiritual healing that happens inside us all of the time, every day.

God is always medicating our souls. “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” the prophet Jeremiah asks. (Jer. 8:22) The Spiritual answers: There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.

God is always healing us beyond our understanding.

I’ve been thinking about a couple of people this week. One is a friend who I was in a small group with for a number of years. After the meetings he would sometimes talk to me about his daughter who was struggling with addiction. He talked about his frustration of nothing seeming to help. About all the therapies and rehabs and programs they had tried and nothing seemed to help. Craig’s 219-year-old daughter died of an overdose this week.

There are no words, no ways to understand, and no way to be competent, nothing to do but to surrender to the tears and allow the grace of God to put medicine on our soul.

The other people I’ve been thinking about are a couple who were planning their wedding. They had been together for a number of years from the time before it was possible for them to be legally married.

They sent out their invitations not knowing what the response of their families would be. These are two exceedingly competent, in charge, in control persons who do not cry.

But, they said, as they got RSVPs back from family member after family member who were coming their wedding, they could not hold back their tears. I believe it was medicine for all of the years of being gay in an homophobic culture.  

Psalm 56 includes a prayer. The Psalmist prays:  “You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?” Psalm 56:8)

When we cry, God collects our tears.

Which is the Psalmist’s way of saying our tears are holy. They bring us into the presence of God and the Spirit of God enters into us through them.

Life Essentials: Wash

Rev. Dawn M. Hand

 

Psalm 51:6-10; John 13:5-9