Wait for the
Lord whose day is near. Wait for the
lord. Be strong. Take heart.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be
acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
All
through lent we’ve been waiting for the Lord.
What are we waiting for and how long do we have to wait?
Today
we are going to take our own journey through the Passion. We come with questions. We will leave with questions. I pray that we will learn something along the
way.
Today
we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus, the King of the Jews, the Messiah, the
Chosen one or the Anointed enters into Jerusalem at the time of the
Passover. At the same time, directly
across the city, Pilate and his entourage would have been entering the
city. The Romans kept a strong military
presence in Jerusalem when the Jews celebrated their release from bondage, when
they remembered throwing off the chains of their oppressors and fled to freedom. The Romans did not like this holiday. Jesus walks into this and stirs it all up.
(Wait for the
Lord, whose day is here. Wait for the
Lord, be strong, take heart.)
Whom
shall we release … Jesus Bar Adam or Jesus Bar Abas: Jesus Son of Man or Jesus
son of the father? Even in mom ents of truth, the answers are never perfectly
clear. How can we know which to
chose? How do we recognize the
Messiah? Where do we look for the Messiah?
Today
we celebrate the Passion of
Christ. We celebrate his walk to Golgotha: the place of the skull. On the way, he meets Simon of Cyrene. Simon would probably have been a Jew who made
his pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover.
Cyrene was in North Africa and was home to many displaced Jews. Simon was compelled to carry the cross for
Jesus and was healed by it. The same
words which are translated as “they laid the cross on him” are used at other
times to speak of laying healing hands on someone. Simon came to Golgotha and found salvation in
a man on his way to die.
(Wait for the
Lord, whose day is here. Wait for the
Lord, be strong, take heart.)
Even
as he died on the cross, Jesus faced the tempter. Jesus faces the same fears, the same pains,
the same trials as us. When tempted to
save himself from death, Jesus instead turns and pardons the sins of one who
repents. When choosing between earthly
life and eternal life, he chooses eternal life.
At the mom ent of death this
may be an easy choice for us, or at least easier, but sitting here in this
place, firmly earthbound, this choice is close to impossible. How do we find the strength to choose eternal
life when earthly life is so tempting?
When
Jesus dies on the cross, two very important things happen. “The sun’s light failed.” The light of the world left the world. “The curtain of the temple was torn in
two.” The curtain which divided the main
area of the temple from the sanctuary was destroyed. The laity were no longer barred from direct
contact with God. They no longer had to
pass their prayers and sacrifices to God through the priests. These two are the same event. The light had not left the world but it had
changed.
(Wait for the
Lord, whose day is here. Wait for the
Lord, be strong, take heart.)
What
are we waiting for? The Kingdom of
God. How long do we have to wait? We can get glimpses every day. When we forgive or are forgiven we see, just
for a mom ent, the Kingdom of
God. When we see Christ in ourselves or
in others, we see the Kingdom of God. In
a little while we will celebrate the Eucharist, our own remembrance of the
Passover, when Jesus died to heal us all, to free us all from eternal death, we
glimpse the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom
of God is here already but there is much work to be done for it to be here
fully. In the Kingdom of God, the choice
is clear. In the Kingdom of God, we are
tempted by salvation. In the Kingdom of
God, the only choice is eternal life.
(Wait for the
Lord, whose day is here. Wait for the
Lord, be strong, take heart.)
Today
is the day of the Lord. His day is
near. Be strong. Take heart.
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