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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2:A couple of months ago, my husband and I were on a streak of bad luck when it comes to appliances. Our washing machine broke, and after failed attempts to fix it, we had to replace it. But shortly after, our dishwasher stopped draining, and we found ourselves in that homeowner's disaster zone. Feeling discouraged, we considered our options and decided to take repairs into our own hands, and by our own hands, I mean his. My partner, Jonathan, read manuals, he watched YouTube repair videos, he ordered parts, he checked the pipes one day, he even sent me to the Southeast to pick up a new motor.
Speaker 2:In the weekend before we were set to leave for two weeks on vacation, Jonathan pulled out that dishwasher, set out his tools, and he got to work. That good man spent three days taking things apart and putting them back together. He even spent a couple hours on FaceTime with his father who had been in the commercial kitchen sales business, but still the fix eluded him. So Jonathan and I did what we always do. We talked through the problem.
Speaker 2:The conversation went like this. Jonathan, I don't get it. I know everything there is to know about this machine now. I've checked every possibility, and still it won't drain. Bobby, honey, what if the solution is simple?
Speaker 2:Could it be so obvious that you missed it? That poor guy getting that advice from his beloved who had no grease on her hands. So I left for an hour or so, and when I got home, Jonathan announced I fixed it, and the problem was and he pushed a piece of something the size of a dime toward me and said, this piece of fancy cheese rind, your fancy cheese, stuck in the drainpipe. And I picked it up, and I looked a little closer and replied that, my love is a piece of orange rind from your lunch. And honestly, none of that mattered.
Speaker 2:We were just so glad that it was fixed, but for the record, it was the orange. And the moral of the story is that when you face something broken, see it through. On Good Friday, God's Friday, we focus on this passion narrative. And the passion is the part of Jesus' story that includes his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. It's meant to tell us something about how to fix what is broken in us and in the world.
Speaker 2:Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week are occupied by a heavy story. The Greek word for passion is pathos, meaning suffering. And maybe you come to Good Friday ready to feel those heavy feelings of sadness and grief, but maybe you're just here because you thought you should be. It's all welcome. In John 18, Jesus and the disciples are in a garden when Judas rolls up with soldiers and leaders from the religious establishment.
Speaker 2:I've often pictured something like 30 dudes showing up to do this dirty work, but we're meant to picture something more like 600, one tenth of a legion of the ancient Roman army. And the writer adds to the contrast of hundreds of fighting men arresting one peaceful man by accentuating the night with lanterns and torches, dark deeds on a dark night. And Jesus, knowing what's happening, leaves the garden to meet the mob and asks, who is it that you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, I am he, Jesus said. And Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them.
Speaker 2:When Jesus said, I am he, they drew back and fell on the ground. Then they do this song and dance again. Who do you want? Jesus asks. Jesus of Nazareth, they reply.
Speaker 2:I told you, I am he. And Simon Peter, so swept up in the drama that he draws his sword and strikes the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear, and the children in the room say, oh, so gross. And the text reads, the servant's name was Melchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup the father has given me?
Speaker 2:Meaning, there is nothing to defend here. It is as it should be. And at the start of chapter 18, Jesus is in this garden, and I'm fond of this detail. It suggests that Jesus reverses Eden's curse. Remember, Adam and Eve were punished and sent out of the garden with burdens.
Speaker 2:And Jesus willingly walks out of the garden to face punishment with blessing. When they hear Jesus say his name and that name sounds like Yahweh's I am, they fall back in awe. And then Peter being Peter hot one minute, cold the next, grabs the weapon he's having a hard time letting go of and slices a stranger's ear right off? Now, this man, missing an ear, he is not a friend, He is a foe. But his humanity is preserved both by Jesus and the writer of John.
Speaker 2:This man got hurt, And he had a name, and it's worth remembering. Malchus. At every stage, Jesus stands at the center of the passion narrative. And while God is with him and he is with God, bad things still happen. At the center of a mob, a disaster, a broken heart, the passion reassures us that we can find Jesus in all of it.
Speaker 2:It is a strange comfort, but it's a comfort nonetheless. God gets close to pain on any side of a divide. Maybe we miss presence because we spend so much of our energy fleeing what is broken instead of facing it. Because here's the thing. You may not like it, but wrongdoers are worthy of love, and loved ones are frightfully imperfect.
Speaker 2:And the next part of the story bears this out. Jesus has been bound, arrested, and brought before the authorities. The drama goes back and forth between Peter, who three times denies he knows Jesus, and Pilate, who keeps saying to the mob, I don't think this guy deserves the death you think he deserves. And, hey, I know that there is not a lot of funny moments on Good Friday, but there is a bold thread of comedic irony. And like the best comedy, it's there to reveal what's true.
Speaker 2:In the middle of John 18, religious and political leaders pinball power back and forth. They are tripping over each other to trap a harmless hero as if he's a criminal. Then there's Peter who falls all over himself to deny that he even knows Jesus, let alone that he would follow Jesus to the grave like he had professed only hours earlier. And there's this irony of ritual. When Jesus is dragged from the high priest to the governor, some of the people who want him killed won't enter Pilate's palace because they don't want to be unclean, as if aligning themselves with brutal power isn't already a betrayal of their faith.
Speaker 2:So, of course, it comes as a surprise to no one that in the scene before the cross, you can't take a step without tripping on something that's broken. There's brokenness of systems marked by corruption and control, not willing to welcome what's life giving when it's knocking on their door. And there's the brokenness of loyalty. How brutal to have a friend you love, a coworker you trust drop away right when you need them the most. And there's the brokenness of ceremony.
Speaker 2:What did any of these rituals, pilgrimages, and prayers do if not, in the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer, magnify life? Jesus' death coincides with the Passover, a ritual that shaped him. One that's meaning was less about an offering for sin and more a sign of deliverance from death. Out of Egypt, Yahweh had led them. Let that be remembered.
Speaker 2:Let that be the center of the ceremony. And so we see in this broken scene of powerful people who don't live up to their potential, a friend too scared to be brave, and a ceremony missing the point that Jesus offers a surprising solution. As much as we need a quick savior and a mighty deliverer, what Jesus does here is slower. It's stranger. It's more steadfast.
Speaker 2:What Jesus does here is witness. I see you, power, losing your way. And I see you fear, forgetting the quiet force of love. Then I see you, empty ritual meant for so much more. If we are to be like Jesus, and I think that's exactly the point, we need to witness what is broken.
Speaker 2:Face brokenness full on. Square our shoulders, not to fight, but to actually bear the burden of what hurts us. Do you have pain? Name it. Do you see the pain of another?
Speaker 2:Don't turn away. Do you feel angst about a collective system that is out of whack? Engage it. And engage it is what Jesus does next. Face to face with the Roman governor, Pilate, Jesus points out that the distance between how Pilate uses power and how the religious authorities use power is not that far.
Speaker 2:And so the dialogue of the scene makes a few things clear. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders, but now my kingdom is from another place. You are a king then? Said Pilate.
Speaker 2:Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into this world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. Jesus says, my kingdom, it's a threat to you, Pilate, but not like you think. I don't want Herod's throne, and I don't want Herod's title.
Speaker 2:Anything that is true, love, justice, friendship, healing, stories, having a laugh, service, transformation, second chances, third chances, dignity, equality, grace, that's what my kingdom is made of. It's people, not palaces. It's sacrifice, not might. It's divine, not made to intimidate. So with all of that, how do we commit to Good Friday's solution of all that's broken?
Speaker 2:I think, for just one moment, we step into this story. We line up along a back wall. We serve Pilate his goblet of wine. We peek through the crack in the door like a scared disciple, and we let the teachings of Jesus hit us square in the chest, gently and with love, of course. The top of our lessons, the passion narrative shows us that Jesus doesn't wave a magic wand to take away what is hard about living, what is cruciform, cross shaped about life.
Speaker 2:He stands right in the middle of conflict. He looks straight into the eyes of deception, and he takes on death so horrific, we can hardly watch. Jesus faces the truth of what it means to be human, what it means to impact one another with all that is good and all that is roughed up within us. And in some mystical realm of spirit and truth, Jesus never stops showing up in broken times and places. Today, on Good Friday, God's Friday, we dare to face endings, violence, and death.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow is a holy and terrifying vigil where we wait outside the tomb. And Sunday, well, Sunday will be here to remind us that what is beautiful and true is not forgotten. And it's okay if the story is disorienting. Pilate throws the question at Jesus in John eighteen thirty eight, what even is truth? And then Pilate offers the mob a final opportunity to reverse the charges, and they say, no.
Speaker 2:We want Jesus killed and the prisoner Barabbas freed. So John tells us that Jesus is flogged and crowned with thorns and given a purple robe to poke fun. Some theologians call the passion narrative a dialectic of disaster. Meaning, we hear the debate the divine has with every part of creation that disappoints. Again and again, God says, I will not give up on you.
Speaker 2:So, yes, Good Friday is hard, but maybe the solution to our brokenness is simple. See your story through. Do not write the end before it's over. And after you've done it once, do it over and over again. See your story through from the little stuff like a stupid broken dishwasher to the big heavy stuff like a diagnosis, your fresh grief, a problem relationship, needed boundaries, a mental health struggle, disaster in the city, the climate crisis.
Speaker 2:See it through because the divine permeates the cosmos both when it shines bright with glory and when glory is beat up and left to die. See the story through. Now, I know that you were going to go out and enjoy your long weekend, And so you should. Play, laugh, eat a disgusting amount of Cadbury Creme Eggs and yellow marshmallow peeps if you dare. But before you do all that, let me encourage you, just here in this space together, to be quiet, to pause and honor any part of what has felt broken in your life and in the life of the world.
Speaker 2:So we'll take a quiet moment to carry any of that brokenness we notice in our imaginations to the cross. It's this symbol of God's participation in the suffering of the world. And as you reflect, let this intention grow inside of you. Like Jesus, I will see this story through. So take a moment, breathe in and out to stay present, and then I'll return to pray.
Speaker 2:Let us pray. On Good Friday, maybe the best prayer is silence. Not rushing into a painful scene with words, getting quiet and imagining what divine loneliness feels like. Jesus, you did not run when you faced suffering. Inspire us to face the truth of what it means to be human too.
Speaker 2:On Good Friday, we contemplate the mystery of what it means to address what is broken. So may we find awe and may awe find us the truth of what is really real. May it knock us right over. May we bear witness to what is hard. May we fully show up in our stories of healing both in our lives and the lives around us, and may we see them through.
Speaker 2:So with your church today, we pray and we wait. Amen.