Wounded Savior, Wounded People

“When are you going to take over? When do we get to be lieutenants in your great battle?” Those are the kinds of things they were thinking and sometimes saying.

Those may be the expected things, the anticipated things, but they are not the things of the journey to Jerusalem.

The profound lesson from Palm Sunday each year reminds us that Jesus is not out to grab things for himself, but instead to give himself away completely.

It is a common idea that Lent is about turning away from things, about giving up some thing or activity.

We joke about giving up rutabagas and turnips,

about making amends for some infraction by washing one's mouth out with chocolate.

It is become a game to make the rules as easy and painless as possible, so that one can give the appearance of righteousness without much of a struggle at all.

But when the prophet Joel is calling for fasts and other activities, it is not just as a turning away from some ephemeral things, but far more, a turning toward the Lord, with worship as the first and central activity of that turning.

And that is what the Lord truly wants. That is what the Lord is enticing, entreating, pleading with us to see and understand and follow.

Turn this way, he says, for I have already turned to you, in spite of you. You are dust redeemed, bought back, struggled and paid for by what I have done for you, on your behalf, with you in mind.

Who? Me?

Yes, for you and me!

An activity during Lent, or at any time for that matter, that is less than a turning back to the Lord Jesus is only a religious game and worth less than nothing.

We can trust that Jesus is not playing games with us; nor should we think that we can fool him effectively.

We should have learned that back in Genesis 3: “Where are you, Adam?”

Or in Genesis 4: “Am I my brother's keeper?”

Or in Genesis 6: “I will blot them out from the face of the earth.”

Or in Genesis 11: “Come, let us build a tower with its top in the heavens.”

Or Genesis 50: “You meant it for evil, but God used it for good.”

Or Job 38: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

Or Psalm 14: “Fools say in their heart 'There is no God.'”

Or Micah 6: “Can I tolerate wicked scales and a bag of dishonest weights? Your inhabitants speak lies, with tongues of deceit in their mouths.”

Or Malachi 4: “See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up,” says the Lord of hosts.

Or Mark 13: “Look, teacher, what large stones and large buildings!”

“Not one stone will be left upon another.” says the Lord.

Or Mark 14: Said Peter,“Even though all will become deserters, I will not.” “This very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times,” replied the Lord.

Again and again scripture calls us to a realistic appraisal of our true standing before God; calling on us to lay aside false pretensions, Dust you are...

and to begin again in worship and faithfulness....dust redeemed by the cross of Christ.

It never was easy; it never is easy today, either.

It was costly to Jesus, taking on every pain and humiliation, all the way to death, to show us the depth of God's determination to get through to us.

It is costly for us as well; as we lay aside those opportunities to grab only for ourselves, and seek out the ways of acting as Jesus would have us serve.

Some will take on the discipline of worship together each Wednesday as well as on Sunday.

Some will set aside money to use for a special project such as Family Promise, or supporting Bette McCrandall our missionary in Liberia, or dozens of possibilities.

Some will take the special needs list from the newsletter and make contact with one or all of those persons.

Some may reach out to an estranged neighbor or relative, to heal what is broken or offer what never existed.

These and many more such things are suggestions of what we might take on this year in Lent.

Some may be easy, at least initially; others may be painfully difficult.

But they have all become possible because of the Lord Jesus who has gone through every sort of trouble.

It is not accidental that our church has the cross so visible and prominent. It is ugly, and deadly; a reminder of both the worst of what we can do to one another and to Jesus, and also a reminder of Jesus' profound turning toward us in love, to undergo that humiliation and death in our place and show us the way through death to life abundant.

The suffering of Jesus is fulfilled; how shall we now live because it is complete? Dust you are, dust redeemed by the cross of Christ. Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.