The Words From The Cross, March 20, 2008

Luke 23: 26-49
Mark 15: 33-39
Throughout Lent, we have tried to answer questions and explain to a wide variety of people inside and outside the Church, what we believe, and stand for, as believers, as Christians, as the Skaneateles Presbyterian Church, as The Church. This has been a CROSSROADS recognizing human diversity.
Some wanted to know about Mission in Africa, why the Church would be involved in this endeavor. Is Mission about Race, or Politics, or Peace? How can you only be involved in treating disease, without recognizing the conditions and circumstance that make people sick and die?
Others wanted to know about local missions, the Food Pantry and Presbyterian Manor, the Collective. Some have come to name Cancers, fears of mortality and loss of loved ones.
Some wanting to have children, and wanting their children to have a Chrisian Education.
Some wanting to be married and questioning the meaning of being married in the Church.
Some questioning whether the Church should be more involved in Social Justice, others asking if we should not lead these issues, and still others asking why we would be involved at all.
We have had Gospel hymns that need no accompaniment and Lenten texts that are Minor and Modal.
We have gone to worship at the Jewish Synagogue and for an Ecumenical Soup at the High School.
We have walked a LABYRINTH and STATIONS OF the CROSS, both in the drawings of our children and as a Christian Witness throughout the community.
Some looking for very traditional expressions of faith as the church, others seeking the most different.

Tonight, this night, we are at the center of Christian Faith, the crux of the matter, we have heard what are among the most passionate and painful, sincere and mystic words of our faith.
At the Center of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Scriptures is the Sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham who believed in the the PROMISE of God and followed the Promise, finally having the promise fulfilled, being asked “NOW, as an act of faith would you sacrifice what you have, your own child?”
This is the issue here as well, for God and Jesus.

What is ODD and at the same moment EXQUISITE is the juxtaposition of the words of Jesus in Luke and those in Mark and Matthew. Our faith is in Almighty God, who created the Universe and everything therein, who also loves the world so much as to listen to our prayers and concerns, knowing each one of us; even, especially entering in not only to save us, but to be one with us. From the Early Church down to present day, and especially at the Reformation from which the Presbyterian Church emerged, believers have questioned the MYSTERY of how Jesus could be both FULLY GOD and FULLY HUMAN?

According to Luke, after he knealt down and washed the dirty feet of his disciples, and being betrayed with a kiss by one whom he loved and trusted as family, after being abandoned by ALL his followers and they denied even knowing him, after being arrested, shuffled back and forth through the system, after being whipped with a cat-o-nine tails imbedded with pieces of glass and bone, after carrying the cross through the streets while people spat upon him and ridiculed him, being led to a place that in Aramaic is called Golgotha, in Latin Calvary, which in English literally means the Place of the Skull, after being stripped and having nails hammered through his hands piercing his wrists, his body being raised like a rack of meat to suffocate under its own weight, LUKE who has the greatest emphasis on the poor and the masses describes Jesus as GOD in OUR MIDST who took a phrase from the book of Psalms “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Scholars throughout history have speculated whether Jesus was speaking of the Roman Guards, or the crowds, or the Sanhedrin, or who? Trying to identify one historic group makes this a uman record and ignores the DIVINITY of Christ. Luke's point is UNIVERSAL SALVATION, that all who hear and embrace this story would understand his forgiveness. All of us. We recal Abraham Lincoln's description: “WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE, AND CHARITY TO ALL.” This is a statement of Forgiveness for all human sin. NOT only for the Presbyterians, or the Catholics, or the Gentiles, or the Jews, not only for Men, but for women, for Children, For gay and straight, and all of us, if we recognize that TO BE FORGIVEN FROM THE CROSS, IS TO BE NAMED AS HAVING CRUCIFIED HIM. The beloved Hymn, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” is also admission that to have stood at the foot of the cross was to have participated in the act. FORGIVENESS can only come through REDEMPTION.

Last night having dinner with a couple I had never before met, they asked about the context of the War that had divided Sudan. In the knowledge of that the man inquired, so the PEACE ACCORDS begun in 2005 are based on the PROMISE and HOPE that in 2011 there will be a Referendum Vote, and the South anticipates that Sudan will be two separate nations. Why would the North, who invaded the south and oppressed the people there, why whould they vote in favor of this? The question of every human conflict... At what point do we recognize there are other concerns than winning and losing? When does our narcissistic desire to be right, to be justified, admit the humanity of others? If FORGIVENESS requires REDEMPTION, What does it take for REDEMPTION?

Mark and Matthew tell the story and the words of Jesus differently.
Instead of Jesus speaking DIVINELY of FORGIVENESS, we have this very human cry:
“My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”
Again, the phrase is called up directly out of the Psalms. But names the MOST BASIC of Human feelings, ABANDONMENT and LOSS, ISOLATION and the WEIGHT OF THE WORLD.
Matthew and Mark describe all the same abandonments and betrayals, scorging, and deriding, but hung on the cross to die, Jesus identifies with the MOST HUMAN of FEELINGS, with the most intimate of relaionships: FEAR.

Despite the Church's attempts to Integrate the Gospels, to have both Angels and a Star, Shepherds and Kings at the Stable in Bethlehem, throughout the history of the Church, for more than 2000 years, we have not integrated these, but recognized they are the center of the Cross, where our faith in the DIVINE intersects HUMANITY.

The Gospel of John is different than any of these. From the Cross he sees the Beloved Disciple and His own Mother, and personally, with Caring and Love, names BROTHER here is your Mother, MOTHER here is your Son. Then he breathed his last and died. John names our need to claim one another and love one another, whether united by blood at birth, or his blood, such that we all SISTERS and BROTHERS.

ABANDONMENT, LOSS, ISOLATION and FEAR, REDEMPTION and ATONEMENT, all of these will come but only by the POWER OF GOD, who after Jesus lifeless body was laid in the tomb three days, raised him from death to life.