Sermon - April 1, 2010

Year C - The Year of Luke - Maundy Thursday

I have always loved the season of Lent. In fact, my first real childhood memory is of my Father and I walking to church one cold evening to what I now realize was probably a Lenten service. As a boy, I loved the color of Lent with the purple draping the altar and the lights lowered slightly during evening Lenten services. As I grew a little older, I loved how Lent marked a gradual transition from winter to spring.

However, it was not until I was in college, that I began to see the breadth of the mystery of Lent. The season taught me that Christianity is not about being a humorless, wooden, and joyless person. Christianity is about realizing the richness of living as a human being. It is about knowing that I cannot even pretend to be sinless. It is about admitting that I in fact do fall short. I do make mistakes. I do make poor judgments. I am a sinner and there is no escaping it.

However, as Christianity tells me that this is true for me and for every human; it also tells me that I am no longer bound by those limits. Christ not only accepts me; he takes those flaws, failings, and shortcomings and transforms them into something good, precious, and with dignity.

Christ tells me that I am no longer defined by the darkness in my life, but by the light of his forgiveness and transformation. Lent tells me that we are all sinners and fall short, but our faith is about grandeur and grace because Christ makes us so much more than just the sum of our sins.

We are free to be fully human - flaws and all, needs and all, wants and all, questions and all, uncertainties and all. This is because we stand before Christ in our humility and vulnerability as human beings. Even more so, we are free to be who we are in our dignity, love, compassion, and decency; for we become more than what we are in the goodness that we possess through Christ.

Consequently, I have always loved Lent. I love the beauty of the season and its message. I love the mystery of its journey. I love what Lent says to the world and me.

Since Lent is about upholding human dignity, the world will attack it. One Wednesday this Lent, I went on line just before leaving for Lenten services. I wanted to catch up on some news. I read a story about the University of Texas at San Antonio where an atheist club, in observance of Lent, was advertising a special offer to the student body. If students would come to them and turn in their Bibles, they would give them a free book of pornography to replace it.

Now, as you ponder that tasteless, boorish, and immature offer, I am going to make an aside comment.

No one can come to me with some stories about how bad Christianity is and expect me to be shocked. When you have two-thousand years of history, there will be times when the Church and Christians do not do what our faith calls us to be. In fact, not only do we get that as a truth, we have been the ones proclaiming such a truth for two-thousand years. We are the first to admit that all people and all institutions including the Church or state will sin and fall short. This is, in fact, a confession of our faith. However, as flawed and imperfect the Church and Christians can be, think of what the world would be like without Christianity.

The Roman Empire would be the model of our world. In other words, it would be a world that would be cruel, violent, and dictatorial.

In our day and as a people shaped by Christianity, we have debate that is contentious, hostile, and bitter. However, underpinning these debates is an argument over the public good. If we were built on the foundation of the Roman Empire, we would have debate, but it would not be about the public good. It would be about which side can gain control over the other in order to better exploit, mollify, and use the public.

Going back to the atheists at the university in Texas, what I found interesting is that the atheists viewed themselves as courageous for what they were doing. It is easy to be courageous when you pick an opponent that will not attack you. If you pick an adversary who will simply view you, as childish and tasteless, but do nothing much beyond that, it is easy to be brave. It is easy to do something that offends the sensibilities of Christianity for as much as some want to shout that Christianity is intolerant, the truth is that over the centuries things such as human rights, democracy and free speech have evolved because they have their origins in Christianity.

Now, think about this for a moment, What if they had gone to a college in Teheran and made such an offer for copies of the Koran? What if they had gone to a university in China and made such an offer for copies of Mao’s Little Red Book? Think if they had gone to Venezuela and did the same thing only with copies of speeches by Hugo Chavez? Doing such a thing in those contexts would actually take courage because the response would be swift and would be completely unlike the response of the Christian community in San Antonio, which is to say the Christians left the atheists alone to practice their immature and tasteless version of free speech.

Now, why do I bring this up on this night of all nights? After all, we are here to observe the Last Supper and Jesus' arrest and betrayal. I bring it up because tonight and the next three days are the center of the Christian faith. If a person wants to know what Christianity is about, one simply needs to look to what happened on these days. This is the reason why from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, we delve so deeply into the story of Christ's betrayal, passion, and death.

In these days, Christ experienced the fullness of what we are. He knew what it was to be betrayed. He knew what it was to have his friends abandon him. He knew what it was to suffer the depths of physical and emotional pain. He knew what it was to be mocked and humiliated. He knew this because all of us know, in some measure, what it is to be betrayed, abandoned, humiliated and suffer both physically and emotionally. Furthermore, Christ knew what it was to suffer death, as all of us will someday know, too.

On this night, Christ built the foundation upon which our lives are grounded. He made the foundation that will be assaulted by the world. He made the way that will be trashed and attacked by the power of sin. However, in doing so, he also made for each of us a way of freedom.

We are free to live. We are free to be. We are free to be fully human. Let the world say of our faith what it will. We stand on firm ground. The very world in which we live has forever been shaped by the power, love, and grace of Christ.

Long ago, when as a child, my Father walked me to that Lenten service, I had no idea that he was taking me to something that would not only embrace my humanity; it would also give me the joy and freedom to live it. I am able to do so because of that night of his betrayal when he offered his body and blood to his disciples. On that night, he began to walk to the path that would give all of us life even as the world tries to mock it and belittle it. It is a life not only for the future, but also for the present as it continues to shape and direct us by the power of Christ. Amen.