ThisWeeksSermon, Palm Sunday, March 16, 2008

“Sunday, Bloody Sunday”
The Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday, March 16, 2008

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Jesus was similarly portrayed as the once-and-for-all Lamb of God.
It’s called “substitutionary atonement”, and it made logical sense to “Yom Kippur Jews” who were trying to figure out what Jesus’ life and death had Meant.
It made sense to them, but I have to tell you…
it doesn’t make that much sense to me.
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May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.

I was in Florida the other day.
Went down on Thursday.
Had dinner with Pam and Tom, friends who are also business clients.
The next morning Tom took off on his bicycle for a two-hour ride.
Pam took their two dogs for a long walk around the lake.
They left me sitting at their dining room table, computer at my fingertips, a sermon rattling around in my head and in my heart.
The view from that dining room table was spectacular.
The lake so close it appeared that the house itself was floating on it.
Sunlight sparkling across the ripply water.
Palm branches waving in the breeze, palm branches reminding me of this morning’s liturgy…
of Jesus’ grand entrance into Jerusalem, the beginning of a roller-coaster ride that moves us so quickly to the top of the ride…
and then plunges us at breakneck speed to the inquisition…
the betrayal, the gruesome, bloody execution, and the last breath of Jesus.
“Sunday, Bloody Sunday” is the title I’ve given this sermon, borrowing from the 1970s movie with that same title.
The narrative is gruesome.

THE CHURCH’S SCHIZOPHRENIA ON PALM SUNDAY
Churches suffer from a bit of schizophrenia about Palm Sunday.
Should the focus be on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the “Hosannas!” of the shouting crowd?
Or should the emphasis be placed on the cross, and the “Crucify him! Crucify him!” chants of the people?
Is this a service of exultation and euphoria?
Or should it be a service of passion?
THE SOURCE OF THE STORY
The details we have about that first “holy week” originated in the Jewish synagogue following Jesus horrific death.
The details we have about the passion were provided by those Jews who were the first to be aware that something truly extraordinary had occurred.
They were the ones who were wanting to explain what it was, exactly, that had happened…
but more important…
what it all meant.
Who was this man was who had made such a remarkable impression on them.
They delved into THEIR scriptures, our “Old Testament”, to look for clues.
And what we have in this morning’s readings is the result of that work, and that theological thinking, that they did during that first half-century before any words were put on paper.
We probably don’t know a lot about what actually happened…
the details, that is.
But what we DO know is that Mark provided the earliest narrative.
Today’s readings, from Matthew, build on Marks’ rendition, with some modifications and notable embellishments.
The name “Barabbas” becomes “Jesus Barabbas”, making it better correspond to the expression, “Jesus the Anointed.”
Matthew also added the part about Pilate’s wife learning in a dream that Jesus was innocent.
He added the part about Pilate washing his hands as a way of declaring his own innocence in the death of Jesus.
He suggested that Jesus could be thought of as a kind of king, even though Jesus never had any aspirations in that direction.
Matthew’s description of the mockery is believed to be the product of the imagination of those first followers of Jesus.
The crucifixion description came from Mark, developed along lines suggested by Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53…
in the Jewish Bible.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” from Psalm 22.
And the words written 700 years earlier from Isaiah…
words predicting a messiah who would be a suffering servant.
THE UNDERLYING EVENT DID HAPPEN
The underlying event did happen.
Scholars will agree that “Pilate sentenced Jesus to die on the cross on the charge of being ‘the king of the Jews.’”
They will agree that “Jesus was flogged and then turned over to be crucified.”
After crucifying him, an inscription that identified his crime may have been put over his head.
Many women were probably observing from a distance, those who had followed Jesus from Galilee to assist him, among whom were Mary of Magdala, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
The historical accuracy of the actual dramatizations…
however…
is open to question.
ATONEMENT
The whole idea that blood had to be shed in order for sin to be forgiven came right out of that post-Jesus synagogue, the feast of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.
In the Yom Kippur liturgy, an innocent lamb is slain and the people are symbolically cleansed by the “saving blood” of this sacrificed Lamb of God.
Jesus was similarly portrayed as the once-and-for-all Lamb of God.
It’s called “substitutionary atonement”, and it made logical sense to “Yom Kippur Jews” who were trying to figure out what Jesus’ life and death had Meant.
It made sense to them, but I have to tell you…
it doesn’t make that much sense to me.
The theology of the Atonement brings to question our whole understanding of God, and even the morality of God.
Atonement theology assumes that God is an external Being, one who invades the world to heal the fallen creation.
It also assumes that this God enters this fallen world in the person of a son, an only son who at age 32 would pay the price for human evil by execution on a cross.
All theories of atonement are rooted in a sense of human alienation, and a sense of human powerlessness.
As we tell the story of Jesus’ dying for our sins in our doctrine, in our hymns, and in our liturgy, we unthinkingly turn God into an ogre, a deity who practices child sacrifice, and a guilt-producing figure who tells us that our sinfulness is the cause of the death of Jesus.
God did it to him instead of to us, even though we’re the ones who deserved it.
Somehow that is supposed to make it both antiseptic and worthwhile.
It doesn’t, for me.
Consciousness about the inconsistency of this atonement theology…
about a God we call “Love” yet one who requires human sacrifice…
is surfacing all over in churches these days.
It’s a good sign, I think.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
The question to ask about all this is not “Is it accurate history?”
“Is it good theology?”
Instead, ask, “What does it Mean?”
And better yet, “What can it Mean for me?”
ATONEMENT THEOLOGY IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schoiri, has this to say about atonement theology.
In The Episcopal Church, she says…
there are two strands of faith.
One strand is concerned with atonement, The theology that Jesus died, that Jesus was sacrificed in a brutal execution, for our sins, and that our most important task is to repent.
The second strand of faith in The Episcopal Church, a “more gracious strand of faith,” according to our Presiding Bishop, is to talk of life, to claim the joy and blessings for good that it offers.
The second strand calls us to look forward.
WHAT IT MEANS TO ME
Joy Cowley, an author of fiction who lives in New Zealand, helped me articulate what this morning’s story of the entrance into Jerusalem means to me, what the stories of the brutal execution of the innocent Jesus mean to me, what that heroic life lived for others, not for self, means to me.
My soul sings in gratitude.
I dance in the Mystery of God.
The light of the Holy One is within me, and I am blessed, truly blessed.
This goes deeper than human thinking, deeper than history or doctrine or any kind of theology.
I am filled with awe at a Love whose only condition is to be received.
The gift is not for the proud, for they have no room for it.
The strong and self-sufficient ones don't have this awareness either.
But those who know their own emptiness can rejoice in Love's fullness.
It's the Love that we are made for.
It’s the reason for our being.
It fills our inmost heart space and brings to birth in us, the Holy One.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks