WHO IS OUR GOD?
And, who are we.
The readings from Holy Week sums up the heart of our faith and reveals God to us. In your private devotions this week, please re-read the last chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that retell the events from the Triumphal Entry of Christ in to Jerusalem for the last time, and all the events to his resurrection and ascension into heaven. You might also read Isaiah 52 and 53 and Psalm 22.
We see the mighty acts of our God working in a very human history. Ours is not a God that rules from afar. The events of Holy Week reveal a God who is intimately concerned and involved with human affairs. On the other hand, He is not a God to be feared as primitive man feared God and thought that nature was filled with evil spirits.
The Ancient Confessions of Faith of the Church and the Fathers of the English Catholic Church reformation all affirm that God the Father is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. They describe the Son as taking on human flesh, born of Mary and truly suffered, was dead and buried, to reconcile the Father to us, die for our sins.(1) They could as well have said, He died and rose again to reconcile us to the father, for as St. Paul said, we are justified by his death and saved by his life. (2)
He lives to make intercession before God for us. As the writer of Hebrews says, after His resurrection He ascended to the Holy Place in Heaven to the Father, and there as Great High Priest offers all of humanity back to God in union with our offerings here at this Eucharist.(3)
When God entered this world as a baby, when He took on flesh he was saying in a graphic way that all humanity is holy. Human life is sacred.
Just as an ordinary tent those Bedouin Hebrews erected in the wilderness became Holy because God was present, so when God took on human flesh he is saying humanity is capable of holiness when I am there.(4) From the beginning God made man in his own image, and the incarnation affirms that ancient truth.(5) By living as a truly human person, God could show us by the words and deeds of Jesus how we should live out our lives as children of God, guided by the Son of God our elder brother and enlightened by the indwelling Holy Spirit.(6)
When the Mighty Creator God brings the Son out of the grave on the third day, and He ascends to the Father/Creator, that act says that the category of humanity has taken on the sacred and will live with God forever. We ascended to our Heavenly Father along with Jesus Christ.(7)
In late medieval English, the word Goodbye was invented. Originally, it may have sounded something like this: GAUDE BE WITH YE. Later, as it was used, it was slurred to God Be wy’ye. That was changed to God by ’E and then it became good-bye. Similarly, God’s Friday became Good Friday.
Holy Week reveals clearly who God is and who we are.
In the God’s Friday Scene all human frailties and failures are made clear.
1.
We know who we are under those dark Good Friday skies. On God’s Friday there is the followers of a holy man who within a week turn fickle and doubtful and become a blood thirsty mob when they see this Man is not the longed for political liberator.(8)
There were priests and people in high religious office who plot to put to death a person more righteous than they.(9) There is the venal Roman public official who finds no fault in a righteous man but agrees to his death in order to keep peace in a troubled, subjugated province. (10)
There is a person who in the hour of his death curses his fate, and
curses that individual on the center cross, as well as the crowd and all humanity.(11)
There were the friends and followers of the person on the center cross who flee in confusion and fear and sorrow because their leader is arrested, tried, and dying and they don’t know what to do. (12)
There summed up, in one scene is that eternal question the race of man has offered back to God since the days of Job, since the Snake entered Eden.(13)
What is going on here? Why can’t we get along better? Why this evil? Why this suffering? Why must a mother lose a son in such an awful way? Why does a righteous mother suffer? Why persecute a great teacher, a good man who cared for sick people and children and the outcasts; why did they do this to Him?
Why do the righteous suffer? Why do any of us suffer? Why in the world can things go so wrong even in the Church and in the government the place where we should be at our best? Why evil in the Court and the Temple?
It’s all there. The nation that left Egypt, ends at the Cross. This nation called by God from the time of Abraham to be the Light of the Gentiles, ends by putting out the Light of the World on God’s Friday.(14) So the worst of us is revealed there. Something in our race can’t stand a good thing existing without marring it, breaking it. As the Gospel says we chose darkness rather than light because our deeds are evil.(15) Here we are at our worst. That is what God’s Friday reveals.
But then, there is the Day of Resurrection that follows shortly. A preacher or priest is wrong if he draws out the agonies of the Cross, and the evil of men, without at the same time talking of the Resurrection. It is God’s Friday because it is God who is at work showing us that scene in bold relief. Here is summed up the story of the race. God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting up our transgressions. against us but forgiving.(16)
We hear God in Christ saying "Forgive them Father, they don’t know."(17)
2.
We hear Him forgive the penitent thief saying "This day I will be with you in paradise."(18) We hear his concern for Mary and his friend as he commends them to one another.(19)
He is saying, I love you anyway. You are hateful, scheming, forgetful, ungrateful, conniving, petty, malicious, fearful, cowardly, yet I love you anyway. I know you can be better. By hugging that Son to His breast, by snatching that One from the earth the Creator says I love you. By entering this world where we are, God the Father is saying very graphically, I am one with you. You may come to my Home.(20)
This is a very different God than the God of the Pagan Greek philosophers or of primitive religions who feared demons and devils at every turn.(21)
The people who are still suffering in the Holy Land this day, brought to the world hundred’s of years before Jesus’ birth the idea of the suffering Servant.(22) On God’s Friday we read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52 and 53 that tell of a nation who were God’s suffering servants for 100’s of years prior to Christ’s birth. They were constantly being over run and opposed by neighboring peoples and enslaved, but God placed the concept of righteousness and redeeming love in their minds.(23) On God’s Friday He has painted a picture that has been impressed boldly in our hearts and minds. Everywhere you look you see the cross reminding you not only of our weakness and frailty, but more importantly that God loved enough to get involved.(24)
So we see clearly two parts of our Triune God. We see the Creator who loves enough to join us as the Son. We see a Son who in turn brings all humanity back to the Father through His Suffering, Death, Resurrection and Ascension back to the Father.(25)
When He was with us, Jesus said to His disciples., I am going away, but I will send you another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.(26) He will tell you everything. As we leave the Cross on God’s Friday, we are like the Disciples. We look at the cross and are confused by the mystery of evil. How could it be? Even the Resurrection of Jesus didn’t tell the whole story. The Resurrection was a Good Sign in that it led us to believe that life does not end at the point of the most exquisite suffering It was a Good Sign in that it says that God stay with us through the Valley of Dark Shadows, and even Death and brings us out the other side of that Valley to the sunshine of a new life.(27)
But, if that were the whole story, we would still be in the same position of those Disciples at the end of that first Holy Week. We would be scattered, disappointed, confused at the meaning of the events.(28) So God the Father’s love and concern is shown by having the Son enter our common life, suffer, and then buried and brought back alive. What does it mean? What is the Truth here? What does it mean to us now? None of us are in a great hurry to get to the other side. Heaven can wait. What is the answer to suffering in my present state?
Jesus had said, I will go away , but I’m coming back. When I get back, I ’m going to send you another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. He will remind you of everything that I’ve e told you.(29) This Spirit will give you understanding. Lo - I am with you always; even to the end of the Age.(30) Stay in Jerusalem until the Spirit comes. Then go to all the World and tell them the meaning of the Cross you saw on God’s Friday.(31)
When they gathered together in that upper room, and the Holy Spirit came and the teaching began.(32) Then the meaning of His death became clear. If you look carefully at those words of Peter in the Pentecost day sermon in Acts, if you look at the sermon of Stephen, and the writing of Paul and Peter in the New Testament, and at those sermons called "Gospels," you will see how the Church was able to re-interpret the meaning of the entire history of our race.(33)
Abraham who left Babylon to go to what we now call the Holy Land was not just another Bedouin wandering across the Mideast in search of food to support himself and his family, he becomes the Father of the Faithful. Because he trusted in God, he becomes known as the friend of God. This trustful relationship is counted as righteousness. (34)
The sly Jacob becomes more than a petty chieftain with a large family. He becomes’ the Patriarch who is considered the founder of a Holy Nation. The one called "wrestler with God" is named Israel, which means "successful," "happy", or "blessed of God." He becomes the father of the 12 sons who establish the 12 tribes of Israel. (35)
The part of the Bible we call old Covenant or Old Testament recounts the life of these 12 tribes as they are sometimes following God’s call, but more often than not behaving errantly and going into captivity and through profound suffering to come to understand that their security and destiny as a nation can only be achieved after they honor God, trust Him, and call on Him for salvation.
During their periods of suffering under foreign tyrants the
prophets reveal the inspired teachings that tell the nation how to survive their difficulties and honor God in spite of their evil surroundings.(36)
During these times of exile from their holy land of promise, they discover that God is a Spirit larger than the land, He is High and Mighty Ruler of the Universe. They come to understand His purposes in this world are larger than the redemption of one nation, but include the whole world.(37)
Is it not remarkable that in spite of horrendous opposition, persecution, subjugation, and being driven off of their land, this people survive to this day? In spite of oppressive governments, and being despised by a major portion of humanity, this People of God are still here? Sometimes, this Chosen people does not like their role in this world. As Tevye says in Fiddler on the Roof, “God we know that we are your chosen people, but couldn’t you choose someone else once in a while?”
Through years of correction this people learn wisdom, not only from their own prophets, but also from the peoples of the lands in which they lived.
So, when Jesus ascends to the Father the Sprit is sent to inspire and enlighten the Church. The Spirit brings all the things that Jesus did back to the memory of the disciples.(38) The Spirit also reveals the connection between the Old Chosen People Israel and the New Israel being created in the Church which is Jesus Christ’s body today and a witness to the continuing incarnation of God in this world.(39)
The two on the way to Emmaus who encounter the risen Lord have the Old Covenant Scriptures related and reinterpreted to them.(40) The Gospels, especially Matthew and John relate much of the Old Covenant teaching of God’s Servant Israel reinterpreted for this new Christian nation that was rising, this New Israel that included men of all nations who would become God’s new Christ, his new servant working for the redemption and recreation of this earth.(41) (Luke 23:13)
The light that shines through the open door to the empty tomb reveals to us many things: We see clearly that God loves and claims back The light that shines through the door of the open tomb shows this battered Son. There is life beyond any present death. Earth is not a death trap.
We see that suffering of the righteous has an ultimate meaning for it is converting. That centurion , that hardened Roman soldier who stood by the Cross, he had witnessed many a crucifixion, but was he not a broken man as he said, "Truly this was the Son of God." After Jesus death could he ever again see a crucifixion the same way? Were not all those crucified God’s sons? This cross broke the heart of an empire and changed Western Civilization forever.(42)
St. Paul teaches us that God has appointed Christ as the sacrifice for sin, the sacrifice that ends the alienation of God from the Human race.(43) And that in this act, as we attach ourselves to Jesus Christ in the body of the church that he is creating a new humanity. If any man is in Christ, says Paul there is a new creation.(44)
We learn many things from the Spirit at work in the Church and in all humanity. It was not so long ago that this nation learned through the suffering of many of our brothers and sisters that racial discrimination and hatred was a shameful thing and we corrected it and established righteousness in our land in this regard. The rights of women and of children have been established in our law. I believe as a result of the work of God through the enlightenment the Holy Spirit provides , a greater measure of righteousness has been brought to our land in this time and place.
We do become better people after conversion, we do grow away from our self-centeredness all the things that make us unlovely to others, unlovable and evil. Each person here, as I have come to know you, bears the image of Christ and as you grow in his love you will find the snares of past days are no longer temptations to you.
As John the Revelator writes, Jesus calls us to His new Kingdom, the City of God, the New Jerusalem saying "Behold, I make all things new."(45)
John in Revelation paints the picture for us of Jesus our Lord knocking at the hearts door, asking for entrance. He tells us that if we invite Him in He will come in and dine with us.(46)
That is what we mean as we break bread together each Sunday morning at the Eucharist. We thank God that He answers prayers, that the Holy Spirit is here to enlighten our minds. We praise God that Jesus is present in this fellowship as we join as one Christ and praise and thank God for his love and care of us. That is why we are a Trinitarian Church. We worship the God whom we have seen act in history and known personally, the God of our Fathers who created and guided our nation, the God we know as Jesus Christ whom we see in the humanity of his body gathered around us, and the God of the Holy Spirit who comes enlightening our minds and exciting us to love one another.
The light through the door of the empty tomb made it possible to see the meaning of the life of the nation Israel. They become the moral teachers of our civilization as the 10 commandments and the moral teachings of the Old Covenant become the righteous standards of the world.
The suffering was not pointless. The captivities the subjugation and the wisdom these people received enlighten us all.
Henrik Ibsen wrote a classic novel about a wastrel, Peer Gynt.
As Peer Gynt returns to his home and to the wife he had abandoned through all his adult years, Ase greets him kindly. As he confesses his faithlessness she does not upbraid him, but says, "You have always been in my heart. You have made all my life a beautiful song." The return of her husband leads Ase to interpret her lonely years as lovely ones.
Even so, in the light of the Resurrection the first Church, those first Jewish Christians, reinterpret their history. No longer is it Kar Fridatag the Friday of mourning. No longer are they the Suffering Servants, the despised. The light of Easter Morning and the illumination of the Holy Spirit tell them that they are a new people recreated in God’s image. They reinterpret the old Scriptures as referring to the Christ. (Luke 23:13-33)
They know they have always been in God’s heart because He has joined them on this blessed earth. This earth that they thought had been blasted and cursed, and was apparently cursed again by the blood of Jesus it soaked upon on Mournful Friday, had become in the light of the resurrection, a blessed earth that gave up the first fruits the harvest of a resurrected life.(47)
3.
This was then a very Good Friday, God’s Friday, the Friday that liberated men from this horrible vision of ourselves and revealed that God triumphs, and that in raising up the Son of God he raises us up with him as a new humanity, recreated in God’s image and cable of true nobility.(48)
After we go through our own last mournful Friday and friends on earth bid us Godbye, Goodbye, I believe we will be joined with all the faithful departed, all those who lived in love and died in faith before us. There are some people on the other side that I remember vividly. I want to thank them for their kindnesses and good examples and wisdom, and the generosity with which they shared their experiences. They live still and do change and encourage us by what they were and still are.
We live in joyful hope of the resurrection and of the life of the world to come. And not only that life after this one, but even in the midst of the death and terror and evil that is being experienced around the world, this Church, this place, this holy people are evidence that the resurrection is real, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst, that love is stronger than death.
Rejoice Brothers, Christ is risen indeed and we celebrate His real presence in our midst today. He is here as He promised. Jesus Christ is risen today.(49)
Amen.
