Sermons

"Model for the Fearful"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church by The Reverend Mark E. Long on April 5, 2009

Lections:  Is. 52.1-10

                 Acts 17.22-28

                 Mk. 5.35-43

"Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest."  Do the words of Mark which lend a sense of the electricity in the air the day Jesus rides into Jerusalem strike you as familiar?  They should; these words, or something very similar, from the gospels Mark to John are immortalized in not only their written word but also the enacted "word" or liturgy of Christian churches for centuries thereafter.  We know it today as the Benedictus.  Words of recognition and gratitude that, appropriately, we lift up together on the occasions we remember in whose name we take our own.

But when we gather together around a table of remembrance not only are we called to proclaim who sent him (the Sanctus) and who was sent (the Benedictus) but also to take into us, tangibly as we take bread and drink the wine, the way of his life.

We are called to the table to do more than remember, we are called to go and do likewise.  Communion is not to be a "kumbaya" moment as much as we try to turn it into one; it is not a time to feel all warm and fuzzy, or alternatively, unworthy and dependent.  It is a time to "feel" the charge to live in the "Way," as it was called in the Acts before anybody was calling anybody else Christian, of our true nature and to go tell others the Good News it is their Way as well.

Our charge is to go live in a Way so that the man who rides innocently into palm branches held by fearful people to his death does not do so in vain.  "This is my body," he said, "this is my blood."  I give it all that you might awaken; you might know what I know.

As he rides into the cheering throng, what is going on in his mind?  I doubt he really believes the demonstration on his behalf.  I doubt he really buys into the idea that these shiny faces are a permanent reflection of their feelings for him.  I imagine he knows that "faces" of fear lie just below their surface faces and hold the greatest sway over their lives.

These who vigorously shout and lay palms in his path are beset by "faces" of fear he lives to expose - which count among others, the folly of attachment to impermanent things, the fear of impotence to change their circumstances and even themselves, and the pride and prejudice which takes root in those who live with such fear.  These are the kinds of fears that keep them, and for generations of others, from seeing what we celebrate in our moments around the table and living the Way such moments demand.

The Unity Movement refers to Jesus as the "Way-shower;" I can think of no more apt title for what he did.  Jesus came to show others the Way out our of bondage to fear and into a Way of salvation - out of the variety of oppressive worldly hands into the freedom and security of one who needs to no longer search and grope about for freedom.

As Isaiah has been interpreted by early Christian defenders, the freedom fighter is here to show the Way.  "Who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion (Jerusalem), [do not be deceived by appearances] "your God reigns."

Jesus is no fool.  As he rides into the "faces" of burdened, fearful people he knows what the Way will get him.  He is probably not surprised when the once shiny faces begin to spit on him, curse him, and the Way he brings.  They want a more tangible release from what ails them.  They want a real freedom fighter to inspire and rally them against their Roman occupiers, not a holy storyteller who seems more intent on spiritual emancipation than the real kind.

They don't realize that the release from the fears of the Way Jesus brings frees them from all oppressors.  It begins on the inside.  It begins in knowing who you are, in whom you live and move and have your being.  This is the wisdom that frees us from what the world tells us is important or might bind us to it - accumulation, attachment - begin to count for little.

They don't realize that it is hard to occupy, oppress, and dominate those who know what Jesus knows.  It is what Krishna tells Arjuna on the battlefield in the Bghavad Gita - what Gandhi illustrates in modern history as the Way to India's emancipation from England.

Those who will be free of fear of what lies outside them must first be free of the inner demons that prevent them from being who they are and experiencing the abundant life they were born to have.  Jesus knows this, but as he surely knows as well, the adoring, palm waving people in his path don't and it will cost him his life to open the Way to them.  That a man lays down his life so that others might know, it is the ultimate price to be paid for obedience to the Way.  "O father, not my will but yours."

The church in all its diversity says a lot of things about the man, but for me, nothing captures Jesus' essence more than these words which are but another way of saying words he is reported to have said often:  "Do not fear, only believe."  At this table, in this week, we remember - the story that comes down to us about what he did, how it happened, and for whom.  Don't let his death be in vain; learn and live the simple lesson of his life.

This is how I see it with a rough week of remembering ahead.           Amen.