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Sermon March 17, 2019
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Second Sunday in Lent, Year C
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Lent/CLent2_RCL.html
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ Luke 13:31
Please be seated.
This past week, I was thinking about the “Stations of the Cross.” I think it was seeing these beautiful stations that we have here at Nativity that were painted by Dick Price in ?? When was that, Dick?
There are 14 stations marking Christ’s journey from condemnation to being laid in the tomb. This is also known as the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem or the way of tears. Having these stations in a church is a way we can take the pilgrimage of contemplation on Christ’s last days, even when we cannot get to Jerusalem and actually walk those steps.
I have a number of books that help you pray with the stations of the cross. There is the one in the Book of Occasional Services through The Episcopal Church, which is composed of scripture readings and prayers at each station. I have another one that is often used in Jerusalem and which my group used when I was there: A Walk in Jerusalem: Stations of the Cross by John Peterson. It tells a little bit about the actual place in Jerusalem where each station is remembered, followed by prayers.
Then I have a third one, Way of the Cross: Gateway to Resurrection by Sister Joan Chittister. Sister Joan was born in Dubois and lives in Erie. She has written numerous books, including some on the rule of Benedictine.
This is what Sister Joan says about Station I: Jesus is condemned to die.
The first station of the cross requires us to examine our entire philosophy of life. Jesus is condemned to die because he defied the standards of both the state and the religious establishment in which he lived. To both, he brought a truth they did not want to hear. He set out to witness to the love and justice of the God of all creation: Jews and non-Jews, women as well as men, underlings as well as the professional types of his time. He cured on the sabbath, mixed with foreigners, taught theology to women, played with children, questioned every law, chose people over ritual every time, never made authority a god. He threatened the establishment with his incessant attempts to build a better world, and they destroyed him for it.
The question with which the first station confronts us is a stark one: What is it in life for which we are willing to be condemned? The goal in life is not to avoid condemnation. No one does. Life’s great challenge is simply to decide who will condemn us and why. If we were better people, perhaps, we would be condemned more often. Most of all, when we are condemned for the right reasons, the first station reminds us, we know we will not be there alone. Jesus will be standing beside us, hands tied, head up and unyielding.
In our Gospel today, Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod is trying to kill him. I think most of us in a similar situation would flee and try to get away, right? But Jesus does not flinch.
First of all, Jesus has been threatened with death since his birth. Remember the story in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2, where Herod killed all of the children living near Bethlehem that were under two years of age, because of the visit of the Wise Men?
In the Gospels of Mark (chapter 8), Luke (chapter 9) and Matthew (Chapter 16) Jesus teaches his disciples that he will be condemned to death. Jesus is at Caesarea Philippi in the north of modern-day Israel. He asks his disciples who they think he is. Simon Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus then names Simon Peter, Peter, and says the church will be built upon this rock of Peter.
Immediately afterwards, Jesus teaches that he must go to Jerusalem, undergo great suffering from the religious authorities and be killed and on the third day be raised. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus for saying this.
Remember Jesus’ response? “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling-bloc to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Matthew 16:21-23)
Jesus keeps telling his disciples again and again that he will be killed. It is not a threat, it will happen. Jesus does not try to dodge the facts.
Because, what God, through God’s son is teaching us, is so important. It is the source of our very lives. Without this teaching we truly die. Jesus knows the truth His teaching is threatening to the authorities of his time. He knows people will plot and scheme to silence him. They not only will kill him, but kill him in the most humiliating and painful way possible.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sends his disciples out to the surrounding towns to teach and to heal people. In his instructions to them, Jesus says in verse 28, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
In Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus tells us, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
Jesus is not afraid to be condemned to death. He does not fear condemnation. That is how deep God’s love is for us – willingness to be condemned to death for teaching the truth of life.
So, as we live into this holy Lent, we are confronted with the question as Sister Joan says, “What is it in life for which we are willing to be condemned? “…Life’s great challenge is simply to decide who will condemn us and why.”
Who will condemn us and why??? Are we willing to risk condemnation for how we show the love of God for all people and for all of creation?
Sister Joan writes this prayer at the end of the first station:
Jesus, when I am being condemned for doing good where wrong has been, strengthen me.
Amen
