Good Friday and The Easter Paradox

 Friends,  

This Saturday (5:00PM) and Sunday (9:00 and 10:30AM), it is guaranteed that you will hear the best sermon ever (by someone not named Jesus.) It feels immodest to put it out there like that, but it’s true. 

 

Ah, Good Friday. What an odd adjective for such a tragic day. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “The earliest known use of ‘guode Friday’ is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290. There are various explanations why “good” is used for such an awful event, none of which is entirely convincing. It is certainly a matter of perspective. On that fateful day itself, it is hard to imagine anything good about it. But, from the hindsight of the resurrection, what that death accomplished ended up being salvation itself. Keep that in mind: Something tragic in itself can, in fact, be something salvific by God’s grace. I’m going to coin a term for it here: “The Easter Paradox.” 

 

“The Easter Paradox” may be the best way we have for looking at Judas and his betrayal. The motivation of Judas’ act is described in different ways among the gospels. One minute he looks like a cad from the start, dipping his hand into the treasury instead of keeping it as he should. Jesus even tells him that it would have been better if he had never been born – think about how awful that idea is. On the other hand, there is a kind of destiny to what Judas is doing, with his betrayal as one of those “it is necessary” kinds of events. One might even think that Judas was zealously trying to kick this Reign of God movement into high gear, after such a glorious entry into Jerusalem. And, by no means was he the only disciple who thought Jesus should become the king by some way other than death. They all thought that. In “The Easter Paradox,” what Judas deigned to do – out of zeal or perfidy – was what needed to happen. 

 

“The Easter Paradox” is evident in Jesus’ prayer in the garden also. Jesus prays repeatedly that, if it were possible, he be spared of what lay ahead. But, in the end, he relented his will to God’s will saying – as we are supposed to pray – “your will be done.” Karl Barth notes that in this prayer, what Jesus’ enemies want is the same as what God wants. In “The Easter Paradox,” God can use even the evil intentions of Jesus’ enemies to bring about something good. 

 

Additionally, “The Easter Paradox” is evident in the words of the High Priest Caiaphas, who accidentally prophesied when he said, “It is better for one man to die than for the whole nation to suffer.” What Caiaphas was reckoning is the kind of scapegoating mechanism that leaders have followed for centuries. The best way to keep the peace is to find a common scapegoat that we can all despise and get rid of together. It was why Native American, then African Americans, then Japanese Americans, then Muslim Americans were so easily dehumanized and mistreated legally. It’s still being done when preachers rail on and on about the destructive power of transgender children, or politicians stir up their base by blaming all our societal ills on immigrants. When Caiaphas invoked the age-old scapegoating song, that too became something that God was able to make into an Easter miracle. 

 

When all these folks were participating in the death of Jesus, they were culpable of doing evil. “The Easter Paradox” does not deny that. What “The Easter Paradox” does, however, is to ensure that denying, betraying, scapegoating, torturing, and so on do not have the last word. In a world like ours, it’s the only hope we have. 

 

That’s why you need to be in worship celebrating “The Easter Paradox” this weekend.

 

Mark of St. Mark

Our Journey with Holy Week

 Dear Friends, 

 

Four years ago, my Friday “Extra” going into Holy Week was all about how we were going to be able to observe Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday, and Maundy Thursday virtually. We invited people to come by the church and pick up palms, so they could wave them while watching worship from home. We invited people to come by the campus throughout the week, faces fully girded with masks and socially distant from others, to walk through the prayer stations that we set up in the Fellowship Hall. Oh, just reading that email makes me feel a variety of feelings – from admiring how quickly we were able to pivot from in person gatherings to virtual ways of being community, to feeling sick to my stomach over how weird and exhausting that whole process was. 

 

Three years ago, we were just starting to gather for in person worship again. We decided to start a couple of weeks before Easter, so we could figure out our process before the typical larger-than-usual Easter gatherings. That ended up being a wise move on our part because it was yet another learning curve that we figured out in conversation with other churches and with the confidence that we were all simply doing our best. So, in that year’s Friday missive I was walking us through the registration process, our masking policy, and our mantra of “respect the noodle!” as we tried to be distant and together at the same time. 

 

How lovely it is that this year we are not on those same tenterhooks. We are cautious and respectful of one another, yet we gather with very few of the precautions that were once our best attempt to love one another well. In that vein, I invite you to join us for our celebration of Palm and Passion stories this Saturday and Sunday. I invite you to join us for our Maundy Thursday service, at 6:30pm on March 28. We will remember the night Jesus shared his bread and wine with those who would betray, deny, and abandon him. And, of course, the weekend of March 30-31, join us for our Easter celebrations at 5:00pm on Saturday, then 9:00 or 10:30am on Sunday. I’ll speak more about those services in next week’s message. 

 

For now, let’s reflect on where the pandemic experience has left us. I am utterly grateful that there is not a raging pandemic ongoing that is keeping us in a mode of hyper-vigilance. Our hearts now are turned toward some of the effects of the pandemic – long COVID, people who lost loved ones and were unable to grieve or observe that loss in the ways that we ordinarily do, and the odd effects of that experience on our country politically. It seems that everyone was radicalized in some ways during the pandemic. Normal healthy questions about science and health were exaggerated into absolute dogmas and charges of conspiracy at every level. Typical political tensions were amplified into physical confrontations or family and friends who could no longer speak. I think we were as unprepared for the onslaught of social challenges as we were for the scientific and medical challenges of pandemic. And it has left many bruises on our national psyche. 

 

So, this weekend, we will see the whole gamut of communal experience in our biblical stories, from the defiant celebration of Jesus as a new king in broad daylight, to the shameful seizing of Jesus under the shadow of night. And we will look specifically at how “the crowd” is changed through this traumatic event. It is haunting. Yet it opens up some space for us to consider how even the most well-intended or zealously religious among us can be thrown into chaos when the center of our expectations breaks down. If I may, this weekend gives us a chance to celebrate the parade and grieve the charade.

 

Mark of St. Mark

 

 

This and That

 Friends,  

I am happy to announce some upcoming Staff changes that will begin at St. Mark on April 1^st. Judith Hug, our Business Manager, has been wearing two hats for quite some time, handling both the business management duties and overseeing the facility maintenance, upkeep, and replacement projects. And, as the campus has aged a bit, the facility duties have grown a lot. In addition, Judith is ready to begin the slow tread toward retirement, but neither she nor we are ready for her to take the plunge. So, starting April 1, Judith will become our Business Manager exclusively, at 75% time. This is a very happy outcome for all of us. Also starting April 1, Kathy Roberts, our Event Coordinator, will take on the additional role as our Facilities Manager. Kathy’s long experience in property management, as well as her service here as our Event Coordinator, makes this a very good hire for us. Please join me in offering thanks and congratulations to both Judith and Kathy as they embark on their newly revised roles in April. (And for anyone who is wondering, the job changes are lateral and will not add more costs to our budget. Another win!) 

 

Last weekend was full of joy. We welcomed three new members into our church family, two of whom were received by profession of faith with baptism. Also last weekend,14 of our youth and 8 adults attended a “Confirmation Retreat,” during which the youth studied and considered what it means to confirm the vows that we made on their behalf in their baptism. Eleven of them are submitting their Statements of Faith to the Session this weekend, as an indication of their desire to join the church. All in all, an extraordinary weekend. 

 

And we continue to have good things ahead. This weekend we will introduce some new musical instrumentation during our Saturday service, the handbell ensemble will play during our Sunday service, and our youth will provide a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser following Sunday worship. It is such a joy to see so much active and talented participation in our worship and community leadership. 

 

Throughout this week, we’ve been inviting you to hold this question: What challenge before me scares me the most? We might call that challenge our “cross to bear,” which raises a second question: “How would my life change if I saw that cross as an opportunity to serve God and extend God’s live to others?” Many people treat Christianity almost as an escape from life’s painful journeys and hard places. Our hope is that our Christianity provides the strength and courage to face those journeys with hope. 

 

As we continue our Lenten journey, let’s encounter those challenges together. 

 

Mark of St. Mark 

 

 

Immigration and Learning

 Friends, 

 

You know it is electoral season when the word “immigration” is consistently followed by “crisis” and presumptive presidential candidates have competing photo opportunities on the border between the US and Mexico. 

 

Immigration is no small issue, whether it is electoral season or not, because immigrants have always been a part of the story of the US. However, it is and always has been a complex issue. In no particular order, let me name some aspects of that complexity. 

- The causes of immigration are often violent or heart-rendering. 

- Immigrants typically contribute to the US economy, as well as the economy of their home country through sending “remittances” to their families. 

- The Scriptures consistently call for the “alien” among us to be treated with dignity and justice, since the people of Israel had been immigrants once. 

- Immigration stories are often stories of injustice, mistreatment, and exploitation, whether by “coyotes” who transport them illegally across borders, or by employers who know that without proper papers an immigrant worker has little legal recourse against abuse. 

- Immigration can overwhelm some populations, especially border cities or border states. 

- The process for housing, settling, supporting, and tracking immigration is both labor- and money-intensive. 

 

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but merely an attempt to appreciate how complex the immigration is. And it is complex long before it reaches the border itself. I’ve seen small communities in El Salvador gather around a family trying to dissuade their son from emigrating to the US because of gang violence. And I’ve seen those same communities gather around in support for a family when one of their members decided that emigrating was their only choice. At no point in the migrant journey is there simplicity.

 

That’s why I am wary of partisan political pronouncements about immigration. Campaign rhetoric always errs on the side of exaggeration, if not outright fabrication. Mario Cuomo once said that politicians campaign with poetry and govern with prose. That may be as generous of a description as one can muster. 

 

Many of us only have a small perspective of the realities of immigration and what is happening on our southern border. That’s why I encourage you to consider joining the CIEL US/Mexico Border trip that is coming up May 21-24. CIEL (Center for Experiential International Learning) is a tremendous organization that sponsors international trips with particular attention to helping us understand some of the complexities from many perspectives. I went with CIEL to North Ireland during my sabbatical and it was an amazing, educational event. Many of you are familiar with CIEL’s Executive Director, Daniel Wehrenfennig, from his work with The Olive Tree Initiative in the past. CIEL is also the organization that was going to organize our trip to Israel and Palestine, until the situation there became so catastrophic. 

 

If you are interested in joining the US/Mexico border trip, you can find more information here. While you are on the website, you may want to check out the page dedicated to honoring the work of Larry and Dulcie Kugelman in supporting CIEL here. Scroll through the photos and you will smile. 

 

I have just signed up for this trip and hope some of you will do so as well. I think it will give us some insight into the very complex matter that looms so large, in the electoral season and beyond.

 

Mark of St. Mark