Year B Holy Saturday 2018 Importance of Second Acts

Year B Holy Saturday, 31 March 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“The Importance of 2nd Acts” 

 

Collect: O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

 

1 Peter 4:1-8 Since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.  The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.  John 19:38-42 Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. 

  

There are ways one tells a story. For it to be a good story, a memorable story, certain things are necessary. Just like there are ways to tell a joke, there are ways to tell a story. People have studied, analyzed, and experimented, and it is as driven into our nature as breathing.  

 

You have to have a character, preferably likable, who is forced out of what is normal. Lots of things could do this, but something has to upset the applecart. No one starts a story with, “And they lived happily ever after.” There has to be something, conflict, adolescence, something that is a catalyst for the main character. 

 

And once they decide whether they will go into the change, or not, the main character faces trials that keeps them from their goal. One of these trials is greater than the others. It is incomprehensible and overwhelming, and after facing these trials there must seem to be no hope. All is lost, but… 

 

And that is the 2nd Act of every story. The 1st Act is the premise/conflict that drives the hero from the normal. The 2nd Act is dealing with the conflict until the insurmountable comes. 

 

And that is where we are with Holy Saturday. We do not know what to do. All hope is lost. We see no way out. The disciples locked themselves in a room, apparently hiding. Clueless and overwhelmed with grief. They cannot imagine that what Jesus said, repeatedly said, could possibly be true. “The Son of Man must suffer, die, and on the third day, rise again.” Over and over, he taught this. 

 

Did they think it was metaphor? How often do we? 

 

When Jesus says, “Love your enemy. Do good to those who hate you.”, what do we think? Too often, oh, that is just rhetorical to make a point. No. No, it wasn’t. “Go and sin no more.” Not metaphor. “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Literal.  

 

So was, “On the third day, he will rise again.” 

 

We have a hard time with Holy Saturday because we do not want to dwell in the 2nd Act. We do not want to sit in this discomfort of the hopeless situation. We know the rest of the story, so we want to skip to that. The joy and triumph, calling out the A-word [Alleluia] (which we will not say till we get to the 3rd Act tonight). 

 It is important to face the darkness, to open our eyes and see no glimmer so we can truly relish the joy and the light. I so appreciate that we have a space for Holy Saturday. It makes all the rest of it all the more real. We know a good story, one worth hearing and repeating when we hear it. And we keep telling this one because in our hopelessness of Saturday, we know, Sunday is coming. Amen. 

Year B Maundy Thursday 2018 Behold Become

Year B Maundy Thursday, 29 March 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“Behold. Become.”  

Collect: Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.  

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."  After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.  "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." 

“...mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos ut et vos diligatis invicem…” (Latin for John 14:34) What day is this? Thursday, the Maundy one. Our name for this day comes from the illiterate nature, to Latin anyway, of our English forebears.  The Maundy one, from Mandatum Novum, “a NEW COMMANDMENT I give unto you, that you should love one another.” A Mandate New I Give To You. The mass began differently this night. So simple, so peculiar what we do here this night.   

Eminent professor of world mythology Joseph Campbell broke it down in a bite-sized chunk so we could understand.  

“A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the deep wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow. Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life. I think ritual is terribly important.”  

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth 

Too often I have to come back and erase the understanding that myths are lies. Far from that, they are the deep stories of tribe and culture, and in this instance, it is that which ties us to Christ, and the great cloud of witnesses that have come before us. (I spoke on this at Wednesday morning yesterday in the sermon Consider Him.) 

And that is where we are tonight, remembering that night where we were given the most simple of commands, Love One Another, and Do This To Remember Me. The mystical understanding is beyond me, but I agree with Queen Elizabeth, the first one, about the Eucharist:  

‘Twas God the Word that spake it, He took the Bread and brake it: And what that Word did make it, That I believe and take it. 

Need it be more than that? If you believe the elements become Christ, welcome. If you believe Christ is in it, welcome. If you believe it a symbol, welcome. As Anglicans we celebrate the Real Presence of Christ in our Eucharist, what that means, we will leave it up to you. That is the genius of our “Middle Way.” We have a very broad rail at which we all may kneel. 

For me, though, it is more than bread and more than wine, it would have to be. And like the old joke says, when we have wafers instead of bread for the Eucharist it is easier to believe that it is Jesus than to believe that it is bread.   

However you come, I trust that when you do, you draw closer to Christ, and closer to one another. It was in serving the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper as I called it then, that I converted myself to Anglicanism, thanks be to God. It became more and more important to me to see Christ in each and every person who came to receive, and to be Christ as best I could to the same. (Wouldn’t it be a better world if we all did what we did in that light?) In my last Baptist pastorate, we took Communion every week, a rarity in the Baptist Church. We also followed the Lectionary, no surprise I landed where I did. 

I remember the first church we visited in the Episcopal Church on our way out from Baptist life. No one had given us any instruction. No one had prepared us. As a family we went forward to receive. Now my very young daughters knew what Communion was. They had received and intincted (dipped) into the cup many times before. They were familiar with all of that. However, to their dad’s chagrin, they were used to Welch’s not Tawny Port, a distinctly different taste. My youngest, after carefully dipping her bread, took one taste, and spit it right out. A retired priest was celebrating, and I think my angels were with me because my reflexes have never been so fast as I snatched it mid-air before it hit the ground. And even in that most embarrassing of moments, Christ was present. Christ always is. 

Bidden or unbidden, Christ is present. And as we are intentional, the reality of his presence echoes in all we do, especially here. 

The Apostle Paul in I Corinthians stated, “Now you are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it.” (12:27)  

And in the same way in tonight’s reading he said,  

“I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” 

Both are true. The Bread is Christ’s Body. We are Christ’s Body, as well.   

One of the most powerful statements on Christ’s table comes from St. Augustine. And this may help explain it a bit better. In his sermon, On the Eucharist (Sermon 57), he shares: “You are the body of Christ. In you and through you the work of the Incarnation must go forward. You are to be taken; you are to be blessed, broken, and given; that you may be the means of grace and the vehicles of the Eternal love. Behold what you are. Become what you receive.”

We have the words, “You are what you eat.” And coming to Christ’s table, it could not be more true. Like grains that have been harvested, plucked, ground, mixed, and baked, you are the Bread. Like the juice of so many grapes, you have been plucked, stomped, fermented, and aged to perfection in the Master’s vineyard. We are what we eat. We are what we drink.  

“Behold what you are. Become what you receive.” That is the Real Presence. We find ourselves in this, as we find Christ. Psychologist Carl Jung said “Who looks outward dreams, who looks inward awakens.” Look inside tonight as we look to Christ, as we Re-Member with him. Look inside and see who it is who is looking back. 

Behold what you are. Become what you receive. 

The other day, I followed some clickbait on the internet, about the last words of a celebrity I adore. I took the time to finally get to those final words, and they meant nothing to me and changed me in no way. And yet, here we are. Pondering some of Christ’s final words to those who knew him best. Think on when Christ did this. On the night when he was betrayed, he took the time to connect us with him for eternity, and with one another temporally, and I believe, forever as well. Thanks be to God. In full light of that, 

BEHOLD. 

BECOME.

Amen. 

Year B Holy Week Wednesday 2018 Consider Him

Year B Holy Week WEDNESDAY, 28 March 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“Consider Him” 

Collect: Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  

Hebrews 12:1-3 Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.  John 13:21-32 At supper with his friends, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples-- the one whom Jesus loved-- was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.  When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once."  

And so it begins. We have reached the point where there is no turning back. “Do quickly what you are going to do.” And Judas did. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him.  

If you are familiar with the Seder meal, the ritual remembrance of the Passover, I like to think that Judas was sent out after Jesus dipped the bread into the bitter herbs, the Maror, often horseradish eaten as a reminder of the bitterness of slavery. I cannot think but that the dip was as bitter a pill as one could take. But maybe, even then,  Christ offered Grace and dipped the bread into the Charoset, the sweet apple, wine, and nut concoction. We cannot know. 

And in that meal which the the ancestor of our Eucharist, we see that this tradition which came from the night before Redemption of Israel from Egypt echoes the Redemption for us in Good Friday. These rituals, the Seder and the Eucharist, tie to to the past and all that have come before. 

We gather to remember. Re-Member, to re-connect with one another and with Christ. And we are not alone. “[W]e are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” From the earliest of days, Christ’s followers have gathered at his table, at his request, to remember him and re-member with him. This is one of the great parts of our tradition.  

Being raised in a non-liturgical tradition, I was astounded by the wealth and depth of so much I had missed by dis-connecting with what had come before. Many of you recollect the story I told at Ash Wednesday saying as much, that overwhelming feeling of being part of a universal church, a universal cloud coalescing on this singular of individuals, Jesus of Nazareth.  

In our Anglican faith, as Richard Hooker intoned, the three legs of the Anglican stool are Scripture, Reason, and Tradition. A great British preacher spoke on this, and why it is so important to stay connected with what has come before. “Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” G. K. Chesterton. Going on he says, “...Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom [butler]; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father.” 

What we do here today, and tomorrow, and Saturday, and Sunday, connects us with Christ, and brings us into Communion with all that have come before, and all who are doing it in all the world this Holy Week as we follow the one who is “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”  

 And let the final words in Hebrews stay with us, as we come to his table and we continue into the Triduum: Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. Consider Him.