God loves our whole, embodied selves

I also reference Revelation 21:1-6 and John 13:31-35.

 

A reading from Acts 11:1-18

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard

       that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem,

       the circumcised believers criticized him, ³saying,

              “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”

⁴Then Peter began to explain it to them,

       step by step, saying,

              ⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying,

                     and in a trance I saw a vision.

                     There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven,

                            being lowered by its four corners;

                            and it came close to me.

                                   ⁶As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals,

                                          beasts of prey,

                                          reptiles,

                                          and birds of the air.

                     ⁷I also heard a voice saying to me,

                            ‘Get up, Peter;

                                   kill and eat.’

                     ⁸But I replied,

                            ‘By no means, Lord;

                                   for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

                     ⁹But a second time the voice answered from heaven,

                            ‘What God has made clean,

                                   you must not call profane.’

                     ¹⁰This happened three times;

                            then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

              ¹¹At that very moment three men,

                     sent to me from Caesarea,

                            arrived at the house where we were.

                     ¹²The Spirit told me to go with them

                     and not to make a distinction between them and us.

              These six brothers also accompanied me,

                     and we entered the man’s house.

                     ¹³He told us how he had seen the angel

                            standing in his house and saying,

                                   ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon,

                                          who is called Peter;

                                          ¹⁴he will give you a message

                                                 by which you 

                                                        and your entire household 

                                                               will be saved.’

                     ¹⁵And as I began to speak,

                            the Holy Spirit fell upon them

                                   just as it had upon us at the beginning.

                                   ¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord,

                                   how Jesus had said,

                                          ‘John baptized with water,

                                                 but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

              ¹⁷If then God gave them the same gift

                     that God gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,                                                                 who was I that I could hinder God?”

¹⁸When the apostles and believers heard this,

       they were silenced.

              And they praised God, saying,

                     “Then God has given even to the Gentiles

                            the repentance that leads to life.”

Word of God, word of life.

-----

It is good to be back with you all.  The last two weeks of vacation and continuing education were good and yet it is good to be back here.  As my continuing ed while I was gone, I attended the yearly Proclaim Gathering.  Proclaim is a professional community that I am a part of for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Lutheran leaders in the church. 

This community not only proclaims the gospel to me, but also embodies the gospel with me.  As part of our opening Eucharist this year, we took our calling as members of Christ’s body to heart.  We read through the names of those gathered and as each person’s name was called, that person would stand or raise their hand and call out, “this is my body,” echoing Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. 

As people were named into the space, we tossed or passed balls of red yarn—I like to think of it as our Holy Spirit yarn—to each other, making a messy, interwoven mass of red as we sat together.  As LGBTQ people of faith, we claimed the very bodied space—our embodied place—in the body of Christ, a space that has, in recent history, been denied to us.

While there are many ways that we all embody our faith, physically living into and living out our member-ship in the body of Christ, for me as a queer pastor, Proclaim brings my whole self into ministry and faith.  I don’t need to parse out which parts of me belong—to church, to home, to friends.  My whole being belongs and is celebrated as part of the body of Christ.

In today’s reading from Acts, Peter and the apostles and believers in Judea are confronted with a challenge, a new embodiment of their community of faith.  Up until that point, Gentiles—those who were Greek and didn’t identify as Jewish—had to be circumcised and convert to Judaism before they were considered members of the community of faith.  Their own culture and their unique differences didn’t fit within the community’s understanding of themselves and so they were forced to assimilate, to adapt to the dominant culture of the group, leaving part of who they were at the door.

But that is not God’s will for any of us.  Just as it was for the Gentiles in Acts, our own Presbyterian-ness, our Lutheran-ness, our Christian-ness, is not rooted in our cultural heritages, in how much lefse we eat or when bagpipes are present, how we make tamales, organize our congregation, or even how many pies we bake.  What unites us, the thing that roots our faith, is God, made known through Jesus Christ.   And it is God who loves our whole beings, our whole selves, even when we struggle.

As with the early church in Acts, it takes time to figure out as a community what it means for different groups or types of people to truly be a part of us.  We have to wrestle with how our culture and our identities impact the group.  Does the language we speak force others to leave a part of who they are at the door?  Is our grief or loneliness, still present after so many years, out of place here?

We each have unique gifts, identities, and perspectives, some of which clearly fit, no questions asked, in this part of the body of Christ.  And I imagine many of us have passions or interests or parts of our identity that we haven’t shared with others.  We’re unsure if they make us unfit or too different for the community of faith.   

Maybe we keep things on the surface during fellowship so we don’t have to risk the pain and hurt of opening up and being vulnerable only to have our community abandon or denounce us.  Maybe we just ask and share about the weather and the busy-ness of life instead of asking and sharing what we’re most passionate about.  Maybe we’re afraid of the vulnerability in naming our continuing grief over a loved one’s death, or loneliness without them here.

The community of believers in Judea start out unsure of these uncircumcised believers that Peter baptized—unsure if they really belong, since they are so different.  Even Peter was unsure at the beginning!  He thought he knew the rules.  He thought he knew which food and which people were in and which were out—until God came and shook things up.

Peter says, “the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.” And as the Holy Spirit fell, it turned Peter’s understanding upside down.  His faith remained.  He still trusted in the loving God made known to him in Jesus, but now his understanding of God’s expansive, radical love had to change, because “If then God gave [the Gentiles] the same gift that God gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”

Ultimately Peter realized that he couldn’t hinder God, but he could embrace God’s expansive love, and share his experience of transformation with others.

When we come together to worship or serve or learn, we too get to ask “who am I that I could hinder God?”  and we are given the opportunity to embrace God’s expansive love, beginning even with ourselves.  Being with other LGBTQ Lutheran church leaders helps me live into God’s expansive love.  And being able to share stories from that time with you all also helps me live into it.

What helps you embrace God’s expansive love for you? and for others? and for all of creation?  What do you risk in bringing your whole self into this part of the body of Christ?  Do you know—do you trust—God’s expansive, radical love for you?  Do you know that the Holy Spirit falls upon you just as it did upon Peter and the other apostles at the beginning?  I do.  I know it because I see it in each of you.

God is always coming to us in love for our whole flawed and perfectly loved selves. 

Our whole bodies and our whole lived experiences are the body of Christ, together with the great cloud of witnesses, spanning all of time and space.  The things that make us different and the things that can make us question whether we or another person can really bring our whole selves into the body of Christ                        are also the things that make us more truly the body of Christ together.  Our grief and our loneliness, our differences, are all signs of God’s love for us and God’s love at work through us.

God’s home is among mortals.  Jesus declares, “This is my body.”  God comes to you just as you are.  And just as you are, you are a part of the body of Christ.   

Because love wins.   

Because grace triumphs.   

Because Christ is risen!   

Christ is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

Jesus meets us where we're at: Easter 2c

The other reading I reference is Revelation 1:4-8.

The holy gospel according to John (20:19-31)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day,

      the first day of the week,

      and the doors of the house

            where the disciples had met

                  were locked for fear of the Judeans,

      Jesus came and stood among them and said,

            “Peace be with you.”

                  ²⁰After he said this,

                        he showed them his hands and his side.

                              Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

      ²¹Jesus said to them again,

            “Peace be with you.

                  As the Father has sent me,

                        so I send you.”

            ²²When he had said this,

                  he breathed on them and said to them,

                        “Receive the Holy Spirit.

                              ²³If you forgive the sins of any,

                                    they are forgiven them;

                              if you retain the sins of any,

                                    they are retained.”

            ²⁴But Thomas

                  (who was called the Twin),

                  one of the twelve,

                        was not with them when Jesus came.

                              ²⁵So the other disciples told him,

                                    “We have seen the Lord.”

                              But he said to them,

                                    “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,

                                    and put my finger in the mark of the nails

                                    and my hand in his side,

                                          I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later Jesus’ disciples were again in the house,

      and Thomas was with them.

      Although the doors were shut,

            Jesus came and stood among them and said,

                  “Peace be with you.”

            ²⁷Then he said to Thomas,

                  “Put your finger here and see my hands.

                        Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

                              Do not doubt but believe.”

            ²⁸Thomas said to Jesus,

                  “My Lord and my God!”

            ²⁹Jesus said to him,

                  “Have you believed because you have seen me?

                        Blessed are those who have not seen

                              and yet have come to believe.”

                  ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,

                        which are not written in this book.

                        ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe

                              that Jesus is the Messiah,

                                    the Son of God,

                              and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The gospel of the Lord.

-----

Thomas is one of my favorite disciples.  One of the things I love about Thomas comes from a paper I wrote in seminary.  I was writing a paper using disability theology, which is theology specifically from the perspective of folks who our dominant culture considers disabled.  I went in looking at Jesus as disabled, with his wounds from the cross as part of the whole resurrected Christ and what I found was that Thomas is blind!  I think that Thomas was blind and that this is a bigger deal for us today than it seemed to be for Thomas and the other disciples back then.

You see, Thomas, who is called the twin—perhaps because he is usually accompanied by someone to help him navigate busy, bustling streets—is the disciple who is: a-braver than all the rest, b-more foolhardy than all the rest, or c-unlucky enough to draw the short stick when the disciples ran out of their supply of food.  Whatever the case, on that first day of the week Thomas was the one disciple not inside the doors, which were “locked for fear of the Judeans.”

In this resurrection account in John, Peter and the Beloved Disciple have already returned from scoping out the tomb that morning when Mary announced the body was missing, and now they believe… without understanding.  Mary has returned again since then to announce that she has “seen the Lord.”  And yet the disciples remain locked up and fearful. 

Except Thomas who, even if he is afraid, goes out into the world anyway.  And while Thomas is out, Jesus comes into the disciples’ locked room, sneaking through the cracks and crevices of their fear-filled, locked up “no” to breathe on them “Peace be with you.” 

The disciples have locked the doors, shut themselves in against a scary and dangerous world out there.  Yet, through the cracks in the walls, under the door, even the cracks in the disciples’ clear “no,” Jesus meets them where they’re at.  Even in their fear and lack of understanding Jesus shows them the wounds that make Jesus whole.  And then the disciples recognize their Lord.

When Thomas returns, it is finally the disciples’ turn to proclaim the resurrection.  “We have seen the Lord” they teasingly announce to the one whose eyes do not see, the one who was not there, the one who faced his own fear outside their safely locked room.  Thomas responds with their language.  Stating his own, similar need, Thomas says “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  Thomas also needs to “see”—which is for him, to touch and feel, in order to believe.

So the next week, with the doors still closed, Jesus comes again.  This time Thomas is with the other disciples and it would be easy to believe that Jesus comes just for Thomas.  It would be easy to believe, that is,          if the disciples weren’t still in the same room with the doors shut up against the fearful outside world. Because the truth is: the disciples probably still need this just as much or more than Thomas.  And they need Thomas with them to venture out into the world.

And so Jesus comes again breathing his “Peace be with you” to them.  Jesus comes to Thomas and gives him the woundedness still present in the resurrected Christ, saying “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” Because for Thomas who is blind, to touch is to see.  To touch is to know, that this is “the Alpha and the Omega”—this is the everything—from Alpha to Omega, from before the beginning of all time to past the end of it.  Jesus is “the Almighty.”

And from those moments of clarity—of deep, soul-shattering clarity—comes the ultimate confession as Thomas replies “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus comes to the disciples again and again.  Jesus meets Thomas and all the others where they are, meeting them in the struggle for faith, in the struggle with grief.

The resurrection comes with new life and hope, certainly, and it also comes in the midst of grief—over a leader lost and of a leader who is not who they thought—one who leads differently.  They grieve the unmet expectations, of a mighty and powerful overthrow, expectations the disciples hadn’t realized existed until those expectations died on the cross.

The resurrection comes with new life and Jesus breaks in through the cracks and crevices of our fear and our “no”s to breathe Jesus’ “Peace be with you.”  The one who covers all time: present, past, and future comes with the slow quiet breath of “Peace be with you.” 

Jesus meets Mary at the tomb, calling her “Mary!” and naming her into the resurrection. 

                                   

Jesus meets the disbelieving disciples, locked in their fear, breathing “Peace be with you” and forgiveness of sins. 

And Jesus meets them again when nothing seems to have changed except that Thomas is with them this time.  And Jesus again breathes “Peace be with you” and reaches out to Thomas, joining Thomas in physical sight, so that Thomas, feeling Jesus’ broken body—the physical reality of the crucifixion as a part of this whole Resurrected one, Thomas can then make the great confession “My Lord and my God!”

And Jesus comes again and again to us today.  Jesus’ broken body feeds us, Jesus’ blood of the new covenant, the cup of salvation, fills us with joy.  Today Jesus comes to us and we taste and feel the goodness of our Lord and our God.  Again and again Jesus meets us where we are at, in our hunger and thirst, in our doubts and disbeliefs.  Jesus joins us.

Because Christ is risen!  Christ is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

God's not normal: Resurrection of Our Lord

The first reading is Acts 10:34-43.

The second reading is 1 Corinthians 15:19-26.

The holy gospel according to Luke (24:1-12)

¹On the first day of the week,

       at early dawn,

              [the women] came to the tomb,

                     taking the spices that they had prepared.

       ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

              ³but when they went in,

                     they did not find the body.

       ⁴While they were perplexed about this,

              suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

              ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground,

                     but the men said to them,

                            “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

                                   He is not here,

                                          but has risen.

                                   ⁶Remember how he told you,

                                          while he was still in Galilee,

                                                 ⁷that the Son of Humanity must be handed over 

                                                       to sinners,

                                                 and be crucified,

                                                 and on the third day rise again.”

                     ⁸Then the women remembered his words,

                            ⁹and returning from the tomb,

                                   they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

              ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,

              Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them

                     who told this to the apostles.

                            ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale,

                                   and they did not believe them.

                                          ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb;

                                                 stooping and looking in,

                                                       he saw the linen cloths by themselves;

                                                 then he went home,

                                                       amazed at what had happened.

The gospel of the Lord.

-----

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” the angels ask the women, those first witnesses of the resurrection.  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

The women are still stuck in Good Friday and the Holy Saturday of grief and waiting and what happens now?  They, like many of us, look among the dead.

This week and this year have been Good Friday times.  In the last two weeks alone, terrorist attacks have struck in:

Ankara, Turkey;

Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast; 

Maiduguri, Nigeria;

Peshawar, Pakistan;

Istanbul, Turkey;

Bamako, Mali;

and Brussels, Belgium.[1] 

People in this country have been killed, abused, struck with illnesses, and natural disasters.  Many of our loved ones have died over the last several months.  Stress, anxiety, abuse, depression, and discrimination make life hard for many of us.

Death, hatred, and fear seem to be taking over.  We look around and much of the time we are looking “among the dead.”  We don’t really know what to do, when we sit and grieve and wonder what has gone wrong?  Why is the world so messed up? 

And yet even in a world so full of pain and hurt—so full of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, we hear Mary and the women as they proclaim: Christ is risen!  (Christ is risen, indeed!)  Alleluia!  In our amazement with Peter, we join the proclamation of Mary, Peter, Paul, the women, and the angels that Christ is risen!  (Christ is risen, indeed!)  Alleluia!  All Christ’s enemies are underfoot and “²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Christ crucified is the reality we live in and yet the Resurrection pulls us in.  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Today we come among the dead.  But are we looking for the living?  Are we actually looking for Christ in all of this Good Friday/Holy Saturday mess?  Are we looking for the living among the dead or are we just looking for the dead among the dead? At least we come looking…and no matter what we’re searching for, we find: the living. 

Maybe we come on Easter because it’s just what we always do on Sunday morning.  Maybe we come for our family.  Maybe we come because our doubts and our questions can keep us away every other week of the year, but we’re just not ready to give up on it all yet.  Maybe we’re afraid of death and looking for a way out.  Maybe we come for the mystery of it.  Maybe we come looking for the living—the new life to be found.  Maybe we come for this different community.  Whatever the reason, the Holy Spirit gathers us together.

We join Mary and the other women following Jesus from dinner to the garden to the cross and the tomb.  And this morning, we show up.  We show up because we need the reminder.  The tomb is empty.  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

At first the women are perplexed by the empty tomb.  They don’t know what to make of it.  They don’t know what to believe, they are filled with questions and doubts.

And so the angels come with their own question and reminders.  The angels recount Jesus’ words, foretelling his death and resurrection.

That is what Easter is for.  It is for remembering.  For remembering “how [Jesus] told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Humanity must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”  And then the women remembered.  And we remember.  We gave thanks for our baptisms today in particular, because they join us together with Christ in his death in order to also join Christ in the resurrection.  Baptism re-members us into the body of Christ and reminds us of the resurrection.

We tell the story of our faith.  We remember and remind each other of the wonder and awe. 

The women have a special place in the resurrection.  Early on that Easter morning in Jerusalem, “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them” come with spices—here in Rushford they come with egg bakes, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and coffee.  Mary and the other women show up faithfully.  The spices scenting the air, with no plan for the stone, hoping against hope that something will work out.  They come to look “among the dead” and they are surprised into the resurrection.  The angels of God re-member them into their place as followers of Christ and apostles to the apostles. 

And the story begins to spread.  The angels remind the women and the women become the bearers of this story.  They go to remind the apostles, who … don’t believe the women.  But the women share the news anyway and while they share, and the men don’t believe, Peter at least goes to investigate and he comes away amazed. 

Peter can no longer deny the truth of the women’s story.  Peter is transformed by the resurrection, and joins the women as a storyteller, as we heard in today’s reading from Acts. 

Resurrection is powerful because it sparks something in us. 

It is startling—shocking even—that a person could die—and not just die, but be killed—in such a terrible, public, political way,                         and then, just a few days later, rise from the dead?!?!  Think about it.            That’s just not normal!  If we heard about something like that happening today, would we believe?

That is the shock of the Resurrection.  That is how God works.  God works slowly and quietly turning winter into spring and God works with a big bang.  Because God is not normal.  God doesn’t make sense.  And yet, God is.

The other day a friend was telling a story of a card game with God.  You’re playing poker with God and as the game goes along, you might just have the best hand you’ve ever had—four of a kind!  It couldn’t get better, and so when God goes all in, you call it.  You’ve got this.  And then, the big reveal, …and God has 5 aces!

God’s not normal.  God’s so not normal…  that God cheats.

That is Easter, folks.  Easter is God’s ultimate cheat.  Death and the powers of evil—hatred and fear—think they’ve won.  God has come to humanity in love and humanity has responded with crucifixion.  Death, evil, hatred, and fear think they’ve put this dissident who’s “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil,” this one who’s stirring things up, preaching God’s love and grace for even the outcasts and the sinners.  “That one” they finally think they have put to death.  They sure showed him!  “hanging him on a tree.”  Death has finally claimed God and Nietzsche is right.  “God is dead.”

A friend of mine shared a video on Facebook yesterday of a group of people in North Carolina.  North Carolina has been in the news this week for passing a bill that will roll back existing protections and rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer folks.  The video was of the response of LGBTQ activists in North Carolina.  The government in North Carolina thinks they’ve won.  They think they have the power and the powerless are put in their place.

Little do they realize, the party’s just begun!  The spices are ready, the Sabbath is over, the women head to the tomb in despair … and Jesus, the dissident, the danger, the dead one “is not here, but has risen.”  And the tables are turned!  In North Carolina, the video was of activists dancing.  They had a dance-in to protest the legislation.  That is resurrection in the flesh. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Christ is risen!  (Christ is risen, indeed!) Alleluia!  Christ triumphs over the fear and hatred that sent him to the cross!  Christ triumphs over evil and all enemies.  Christ triumphs over death.  God cheats and God wins. 

And in doing so, Christ frees us.  Christ breaks our bonds of fear and hatred and even death because Christ has conquered them. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Paul proclaims that “²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death” and here today on Easter morning, the last enemy is conquered and we dance and celebrate the cheat and the victory of Christ’s resurrection.

Because Christ is risen!  (Christ is risen, indeed!) Alleluia!!

---

[1] On March 13^th in Ankara, Turkey a terrorist attack killed 37 people and wounded many more.  That same day in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast terrorist linked to Al Qaeda attacked people at the beach, with 22 killed and many more wounded.  On March 16^th in Maiduguri, Nigeria two suicide bombers, likely linked to Boko Haram, attacked a mosque and killed 24 worshipers.  That same day in Peshawar, Pakistan, a terrorist attack, likely linked to Taliban militants, killed at least 15 and wounded many more.  On March 20^th in Istanbul, Turkey, a suicide bomber linked to ISIS killed 5 people and wounded many more.  On March 21^st in Bamako, Mali, 3 terrorist attacked a hotel serving as headquarters to a European Union mission.  On March 22^nd in Brussels, Belgium, a terrorist attack killed 34 people and wounded many more. 

Whose voice will prevail? - Palm/Passion Sunday

The Palm Processional Reading (Luke 19:28-40).

After Jesus had said this,

       he went on ahead,

              going up to Jerusalem.

When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany,

       at the place called the Mount of Olives,

              he sent two of the disciples, saying,

                     “Go into the village ahead of you,

                            and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt

                                   that has never been ridden.

                            Untie it and bring it here.

                                   If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’

                                          just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

              So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.

                     As they were untying the colt,

                            its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

                            They said, “The Lord needs it.”

                            Then they brought it to Jesus;

                                   and after throwing their cloaks on the colt,

                                          they set Jesus on it.

                            As he rode along,

                                   people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

                            As he was now approaching the path 

                                   down from the Mount of Olives,

                                   the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God

                                          joyfully with a loud voice

                                                 for all the deeds of power that they had seen,

                                                 saying, “Blessed is the king

                                                       who comes in the name of the Lord!

                                                       Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

                            Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,

                                   “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”

                            He answered,

                                   “I tell you, if these were silenced,

                                          the stones would shout out.”

The first reading was Isaiah 50:4-9.

The gospel was Luke 22:14-23:56.

-----

Today we began early with marching and palm branches.  We join the multitude of Jesus’ disciples throughout time and space in the absurd procession.  It is what we might today call street theatre.

To prepare for the Passover, Jesus and Pilate are both coming to Jerusalem.  Pilate will process in, probably at about the same time, from the other end of the city.  Pilate will come with infantry—legions of soldiers, mounted on the finest and strongest horses.  Pilate comes to enforce the Pax Romana—Roman peace that is less peace and more military suppression of any dissent.  So Pilate comes, mighty and powerful, from the West.

And from the East Jesus moseys along on a young colt, an animal lacking any military prowess whatsoever, and the multitude of disciples lay their cloaks at the feet of the colt, and sing praises.  While this is all in mockery of Pilate’s military parade, the shouts echo back even to Jesus’ birth, and we are reminded that Jesus has come to bring a deeper peace than any war or military might could temporarily secure.  Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born for peace to rule on earth, as the angels sang; and in heaven as those gathered now cry out.  God’s glory will reign in peace.

…And yet, do the disciples really get what kind of peace Jesus will bring?  They praise Jesus “for all the deeds of power that they had seen.”  Praise for our Prince of Peace is right, but they don’t quite get the “why” of it.

As the journey continues, we discover with the disciples, that Jesus is not the king we thought he’d be—maybe not even the one we want him to be.

Though Jesus can “sustain the weary with a word” as Isaiah points out, Jesus has not come “for all the deeds of power that [the disciples] had seen,” and Jesus has not come for a military overthrow of the oppressive Roman Empire.  Jesus has come: to be with humanity, especially the oppressed, marginalized, and downtrodden of humanity.

God chooses the limits caused by true humanness.  God in Jesus chooses all of humanity and as Jesus shares in the Last Supper, his body and blood nourish us for the journey we take this week—the journey to the cross.

And before we know it, we are in the Mount of Olives and find ourselves ready to strike with a sword in order to defend our God and our faith, not even giving Jesus time to say no so that all he can do is limit the violence done in his name, stopping the escalation and healing the physical pain the violence inflicted.   

Then, in a stupor, we follow our arrested savior.  Maybe hoping he will be the Messiah come to overthrow the Roman occupation after all, or maybe we’re just too numb to think, and there is Peter around the fire.  And we are with him, denying Jesus—perhaps through words or, more likely, through our silence or inaction in the face of evil—hatred and fear.

But it doesn’t matter because as Jesus is tortured and passed from the high priest to Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate, a few in the crowd, the leaders we consider most powerful,                                                begin to stir up the crowd.  They spew hatred at Jesus for the threat they fear, for the difference in him.  They provoke the crowd into a frenzied fervor.  It builds with the hateful, vehement rhetoric—the fear of Jesus’ teachings, the spite for his welcome for “sinners,” maybe even for the darkness of his skin and the texture of his hair—his Arab, Jewish features that are not quite Roman enough.

As the hatred and fear-based rhetoric builds, Pilate comes out and declares Jesus: not guilty.                          But it’s too late.  The crowd has lost all its compassion, all its love.  It is riled up to the point of operating as a mob as we shout “crucify, crucify him!”

Jesus may be the king we need, but he is definitely not the one the crowd wants.  They would rather have Barabbas, the terrorist, a murderer leading a violent rebellion, than the King of Compassion, the Prince of Peace.  And so as they cry for crucifixion, “their voices prevail(ed).”  Everyone turns towards the cross.

As the remaining journey to the cross proceeds, as we witness Jesus’ crucifixion, his body hanged on a tree by an angry mob.  As the final barrier between God and humanity is torn in two with the veil of the temple and Jesus joins humanity even in death, we are left with our ears still ringing, “crucify, crucify him!”  We are left wondering how “their voices prevailed.”  How did hatred, fear, and violence prevail over the Prince of Peace?  Did my voice join in?  Was I shouting in hatred?  In fear?  In pain?

Did I lose sight or sound of Jesus’ love and the compassion that fills me with hope?  Did I harden my own heart against the love from God to others?

But we know: the end is not yet here.  There is still time.  Jesus is still being crucified.  Every time we choose hatred, fear, or violence over love and compassion, Jesus is crucified again and again.  The story is still unfolding and we all get to choose this time.  We don’t have to join the angry mob. 

So, whose voice will prevail?  Whose voice do you follow?  The Prince of Peace, full of love and compassion? Or the voice of hatred and fear that calls for crucifixion—exclusion, violence, and death?  Whose voice will prevail today?