Monday, April 14, 2025

The Power of Witness



I have a beef to pick with The Episcopal Church. 

I really do not like the way we diminish the Palm Sunday service...and the Liturgy of the Palms when Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly... by insisting that we also have the reading of the Passion Gospel narrative. 

We celebrate Jesus and sing Hosanna outside the church....keeping up the joy all the way inside...and then about 15 minutes later...we are arresting and killing him. 

I was told the reason the church does it that way is because they don't believe that people will come back on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, or Holy Saturday for the Easter Vigil. 

Well, by killing Jesus on Palm Sunday, they pretty much have guaranteed that people won't come back!

And I don't think that's true. Not at St. Barnabas. If people don't come back on Thursday, it's because they're terrified of the footwashing ritual. 

Anyway...if ever I get to draft a resolution for General Convention to change the liturgy we've been practicing now for nearly half a century...I'll let you know. 

In the meantime...some conversations and observations I've been having about our current state of the union helped me have an "A-ha" moment in reading through the very long Luke version of the crucifixion. 

I had been prepared to talk about the line where we hear that Pilate and Herod became friends after having been enemies because they both saw a problem with Jesus. Of course Luke, like the other evangelists, romanticizes Pilate and makes him sound more benevolent than he actually was according to the historians. 

But instead....I found myself drawn to talking about the witnesses....and especially noting that a Roman Centurion also exclaimed, "Certainly this man was God's son." To me...that sounds like some of the people who are waking up to the reality that the man they thought was going to protect their interests and only punish "the libs" is doing things that cause them harm, too. It's a much bigger deal than we might realize that a Roman Army official is having this moment. And this is the confirmation that Jesus' death on the cross was doing the work it needed to do. Allel---oops! It's not Easter. Yet. 

See what you think. 

Text: Luke 22:14-23:56

+++

I want us all to take a moment.

Take a collective breath in and breathe it out.

I think that’s an essential exercise for any day.

And I think it will be important one as we take in the experiences of Holy Week.

Because…we are just like the women…the disciples…Joseph of Arimathea and the Centurion.

We are witnesses to things that are brutal.

Things that are unjust.

And things that can leave us feeling powerless to do anything.

I think we’ve all been like Peter at some point in time.

Or even Thomas.

We don’t hear about Thomas in this Gospel…but just like Peter… Thomas thought that he’d be courageous and stalwart…he’d be right there with Jesus…confronting the Jerusalem status quo…only to end up standing as far away as possible at the time of the crucifixion.

As brave as they wanted to be…what Jesus was doing was too scary, too challenging.  He took on a power structure that was into dominance and control.

And those powers were going to keep control at any cost.

The Roman Empire had endured many Jewish revolutionaries…many of whom claimed to be the Messiah.

The Jewish religious powers had suffered greatly under Rome and wanted to keep what little control they had and didn’t need some upstart telling them they were missing the mark.

That old saying of “the more things change…the more they stay the same” seems to apply.

Different times… different characters…but the human condition continues to suffer because greed and the desire for supremacy on the part of the powerful is still at work in the world.

But then… so is the quiet influence of being a witness and the way witnessing the wrongs can lead to actively seeking to make things right.  

I hadn’t really thought much about the Centurion in this scene…but he represents the Empire…the government that  executed Jesus.

He’s a military man…a commander of a unit of the Roman Army…one of Caesar’s henchmen.

And yet…as he witnesses Jesus take his last breath at the hands of his own kind…he says out loud:

“Certainly this man was innocent.”

A Roman Army official is having second thoughts about the rightness of this action.

The reconciling work of Jesus has begun from the cross.

This was Jesus’s mission….one which was to draw the world…the whole world…Jews and Gentiles…back to God…back to that radical idea of “Love”.

His efforts bear fruit…as one by one…those who open their eyes and stand witness and start to say, “Yes.”

“Yes” I believe that Love is stronger than Hate.

“Yes” I believe that every person should be treated with dignity and respect.

“Yes” I will do my part to rescue this world from the nightmare of these systems which seek to demean and destroy people.

“Yes” I will work toward living into God’s dream that is liberating and life-giving and do my part to make that the reality.

It is through the witnesses of Jesus’ crucifixion that the Centurion begins to break with idea that Caesar is God…and recognizes God in Jesus.

His devout followers…even as they stood far away…nonetheless bore witness to his death. 

And they will begin to have their own awakening…and finally understand in body…mind…and soul all those parables…all those healing miracles.

Sometimes it takes us witnessing something that disturbs us so much that we’re finally moved to stand up for others.

Sometimes the unfairness has to happen to us or our loved ones before it becomes so real that we cannot ignore it.

Jesus confronted the hypocrisy and the corruption that was rampant in the Roman Empire at that time.

His death shined an even brighter light on all that was wrong with the system.

And his resurrection was that proof…that important confirmation… that Love does not stop.

Those witnesses made sure of that.

Their witness to his death…and later his resurrection…gave them the courage to live into Love…and carry on with Jesus’ mission.

Now we…who stand before the cross…and are bearing witness to what’s happening around us…we’re being challenged to do the same.

We are being called to pay attention…and bring that same confidence in Love to address what is happening in the communities around us:

Migrant farm workers are too scared to go to work.

Their children are afraid to go to school.

The farmers who normally employ migrants are having to cut back on their planting and production because they don’t have enough laborers…and they don’t want to put their workers at risk.

(This is what is happening in Gadsden County, Florida).

Fear and uncertainty and distrust are growing.

If ever there was a time for the followers of Jesus to be brave in our witness…to show up…stand up…and speak out on behalf of those who are nervous and afraid…now is the time.

It will be costly…but it’s not a wasted effort.

I encourage you to take the inserts home.

Please don’t just leave them behind.

Read through them slowly and carefully.

Take part in our services on Thursday and Friday…and take all that we’ve experienced this morning in smaller bites.

Spend time this week contemplating the way of Jesus…his prayerful and thoughtful and counter-cultural response to violence and fear.

Jesus is still calling to us…through our roles as witnesses…to come together…be a little more merciful…a little more courageous and take action to spread love into the world.

In the name of our one Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 


No comments: