Tested and Proclaimed

Even though he had given up the practice of the Jewish faith as a teenager, at this point he took it upon himself to do what sons in mourning are supposed to do.

For one year, he would say the Kaddish three times in the synagogue wherever he happened to be each and every day.

“During the morning service, during the afternoon service, during the evening service, it was my duty to say it,” he wrote.

The Kaddish, the prayer that Wieseltier said 3x/day/yr is not about pain, grief, or loss. It is about praise.

It is not about us and our wounds.

It is a prayer about God and his greatness.

Here is the text as I located it on the Internet:

May his great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world that He created as He willed. Amen.

May He give reign to his kingship in your lifetimes and in your days, and in the lifetimes of the entire family of Israel, swiftly and soon. Amen.

/:May his great Name be blessed forever and ever.:/

Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, mighty, upraised, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One.

Blessed is He beyond any blessing and song, praise, and consolation that are uttered in the world. Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

He who makes peace in his heights, may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

3x/daily he said those ancient words in Hebrew, and gradually what be began as a duty, became for him a delight.

He discovered quite to his surprise that he was being changed by the rhythm of prayer.

He writes, “It was not long before I understood that I would not succeed in insulating the rest of my existence from the impact of this obscure and arduous practice.

The symbols were seeping into everything.

A season of sorrow became a season of soul-renovation.”

3x/day for that year, he prayed the Kaddish, the prayer that pointed not to his pain and loss, but to the praise of God;

and bit by bit, as the prayers continued, he came to understand the praise of God as the lens through which he could deal with his sorrow and indeed any other trouble of daily life.

Bit by bit, his faith was re-established.

I'm saddened when folks get stuck in the one stage of grief we name “anger with God.”

I'm thinking of those folks who vehemently announce to me:

“I'm never coming back to church because in my mind all that I see is the casket sitting there.”

What we need to do in the time of grief, or any other kind of loss or trouble is not to stay away from the gathered church,

but rather to come together even more regularly and faithfully,

and to keep on singing the praises of God,

and allow God's Holy Spirit to build us up,

so that we can accomplish what needs to be done....just as Mr. Wieseltier discovered.

Only coming on Christmas Eve and Easter morning may stir up a little bit of nostalgia,

but the changes that need to happen in us will only be built up a bit at a time, as we sing and pray “Blessed be God.”

How was it that Jesus was able to withstand the devil's wiles?

We could dismiss the question very quickly by observing that since he is God, Satan is no problem.

This is true enough, but faint comfort for us who are not God.

Luke seems to want us to be thinking of something more than that.

Luke is the one gospel that gives us the little story about Jesus being among the teachers in the Temple at age 12.

Luke also is the one who tells us that it was “his custom to go to the synagogue each Sabbath” from youth to adult.

He heard the lessons in regular cycle week after week, just as we do.

He learned the Torah, he prayed the prayers:

May His great Name be blessed,

May his great Name be blessed forever and ever.

Luke makes a point of saying 2x that “Jesus grew in wisdom.”

It should not come as a surprise then , that when Jesus was tested by Satan, when he was pushed against the wall and had his calling challenged,

that he did not respond with clever repartee, but with Deuteronomy.

He quoted what he had learned bit by human bit, recited at synagogue in teaching, worship, and prayer.

It is written: One does not live by bread alone...

It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

It is written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

The words that served him well in the wilderness were already engraved upon his heart in worship and study.

/:It is written:/ 3x

/:May his great name be blessed:/ 3x

A few years back I was sitting one night with Ralph and Elda Zeigler in Hershey Medical Center as they passed the long hours before surgery.

Ralph was telling some of his classic stories, and Elda rolled her eyes, patiently as she always does.

But when we got to the heart of things, I didn't have something new and clever to say in response to their fears and worries,

I had the words that we learn well and use week after week:

The body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you.

It is written....for you.

It is written...given and shed for you.

And then they were ready for the nurse and surgeon, ready for the next chapter of life.

Every time we begin prayer, we start the same way: The Lord be with you...and also with you, everyone replies.

It is not a throw-away line; we learned the words early on, and as the years go by we begin to grasp more of what they mean... that we do wish the presence of the Lord Jesus to accompany, enliven, and transform those whom we address.

It is a profound, life-changing desire.

When we come to the Easter season, each week we build upon the same bit of dialogue:

Christ is risen, I exclaim.

He is risen indeed, you reply.

Everyone, from youngest to most senior, can learn it and take part in this little dialogue.

Everyone can be changed by its exercise, because it is pointing at the very center of what makes us the church.

These days, everything seems to be up for grabs; nothing is fixed.

Truth is whatever one thinks or feels at any given moment; what is truth for me may or may not be truth for you... and it doesn't matter either way.

We're here today because we think that this idea is simply false.

There is truth.

There are objective standards of life and faith.

We have a specific story to tell:

Christ is risen...He is risen indeed.

The Scriptures bear witness to Him.

From beginning to end, the scriptures are preparing our hearts and minds to hear his story and realize that it is the key part of our own story.

The scriptures drive us to confess together with the first generation of the church: Jesus is Lord.

Again and again we must say it:

Jesus is Lord, and no other.

I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other, is the first command.

No political leader,

no matter of comfort or convenience,

no self-centered wish shall get in its way.

These are the key words that shall be repeated over and over until the power behind them finally reshapes our lives.

Lots of people are willing to talk about “God” in generalities that can be twisted this way and that.

When pressed “About which God are you speaking?” they fumble and stumble.

We don't stumble, and can answer firmly:

God is the One who raised Jesus from the dead,

and that short answer carries with it the entire story of God's continuing action with his people.

It is not some romantic report of the awareness of mother nature;

it is not a set of pious or moral maxims; it is not a sentimental trip down memory lane into ancient history.

It is the unique story of what God has done to inaugurate his kingdom in Jesus of Nazareth and through the activity of the Holy Spirit, in the church and in the world.

Our task is to hear it, learn it, reflect on it, say it again, and pass it on.

And as we are engaged in this process, and on his own time-schedule, Jesus will work his transformation within us.

When the year of mourning was completed, Mr. Wieseltier followed the custom and gathered with relatives at his father's grave.

They chanted several Psalms, including Ps. 23 I shall not be in want.

and then he recited once more the Kaddish.

In his personal wilderness, he called once more on the words that had been given to him:

May his great Name be blessed.

He wrote later,

I stood in the ashes of my sorrow and spoke the sentences of praise.

Was that my voice?

It was no longer woe.

“Magnified,” I said.

“Sanctified,” I said.

I looked around me and saw magnificence.

We all know that there is lots wrong with us and around us.

How can we survive our 40-span wildernesses?

By listening again and again.

By learning with heart and mind, again and again.

By sharing what we have come to know.

By speaking and singing in joyous times and sad times, again and again.

/:It is written:/

I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other,

Jesus is Lord.

This is my body, given for you.

Christ is risen...he is risen indeed.

It is written, it is truth, it is life.

May his great Name be blessed, now and forever. 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.