Loading...Sermon March 20, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday Year C
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Luke 23:46
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. Psalm 31:5
Please be seated.
This is one of those tough Sundays to preach. We start with these beautiful palms waving and shouting with the crowed, excited because this wonderful and amazing Jesus is entering our holy city.
And within days, everything turns around. It goes from bad to worse. A good friend and follower betrays Jesus. Another good friend denies even knowing Jesus. Jesus is handed over to the religious authorities, who have plotted to kill him.
They send him to Pilate, who finds Jesus innocent of any wrongdoing, but allows the crowd to decide his fate. And the crowd wants Jesus crucified! Crucified! The absolute most painful and humiliating death of all. And there Jesus is at the end, buried in a tomb. His ministry ended. His followers confused and not knowing what to do.
There is so much that draws us in. So many places that we can identify ourselves, whether it be with Judas or Peter or the religious authorities or the crowds or the centurion or the women and followers watching Jesus die on the cross.
God comes to earth. God, loving God’s creation so much, coming as human flesh to show us how to live… to show us what is truly important…to show us what love and justice truly mean…what true freedom is. And what do we do? We ultimately reject this great act of love and make sure God witnesses with God’s very being and in human flesh, the most cruel and hateful perversion of our human justice system.
Ultimately, we ask, like our choir sang today, what would we have done?
A number of my colleagues don’t even preach on this Sunday. They allow a time of brief meditation. I was tempted….
Yet, as I was reading various pieces of information in preparation, I latched on Jesus’ words at his death, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” I learned this was from Psalm 31 verse 5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” This was a Hebrew children’s prayer. “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
Then I remembered the popular Carrie Underwood song from a few years ago, Jesus Take the Wheel.
She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati
On a snow white Christmas Eve
Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat
Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline
It'd been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention
She was going way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was so scared
She threw her hands up in the air
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel
It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder
And the car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock
And for the first time in a long time
She bowed her head to pray
She said I'm sorry for the way
I've been living my life
I know I've got to change
So from now on tonight
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
Oh, Jesus take the wheel
Oh, I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
From this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel
Oh, take it, take it from me.
Oh, wow, ohhhhh.
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
Oh, Jesus take the wheel.
Now, I’m not advocating putting your hands in the air while you’re driving and praying for Jesus to take control of the car. But the song has some very important words to us today in relation to what we’ve just heard about Jesus’ life. And they’re pretty hard words to hear, especially with where our story ends today.
You see, Jesus truly did commit his spirit to the care of God. It’s hard today to see that that was a really good thing, because look where it got him…Jesus dying a horrible death and sealed in a tomb. Doesn’t see too appealing on the surface.
And yet, the truth of today is also that when we are in control, we are part of the mob that condemns an innocent man. When we are in control, we betray our friend. When we are in control, we stand by while awful things are happening to those we love.
We can’t do this life on our own. We need to let go. We need to let God be in charge of our lives. We need to study and learn all of our lives about how God is instructing us to live this life. We need to learn about the depths of love for all of humanity.
So just like the woman in the song, we fail time and again. We need to ask for forgiveness, because we know not what we do. We need to ask and we will receive one more chance and one more chance and one more chance.
We can do no less, because look what the ultimate in love went through to make the point that love and justice always are the better way.
Jesus, take the wheel…take it from our hands… cause we can’t do this on our own…give us one more chance and save us from this road we’re on. Jesus take the wheel.
Amen
