TO PROCLAIM JESUS, CRUCIFIED AND RISEN, OUR JUDGE AND OUR HOPE

A Sermon based on the Statement of Faith of the United Church of Canada by Avena A. Ward

St. Pauls United Church of Christ

August 20, 2006

Texts: Romans 8:28, 31-37; John 3: 16-21

As I was meditating on the Statement of Faith for this weeks sermon I recalled a scene from the movie, Amistad, that occurs in a jail cell. Some of our Congregationalist forebears had presented Bibles to a group of Africans. These Africans were in jail having been charged with stealing a Portugese slave ship. The Africans who had been destined to be sold into slavery were unable to read the English text of the Bible. But one of them is inspired by the pictures. Some of the pictures show Jesus, being tortured and killed. Others show Jesus ascending into heaven, being welcomed by a benevolent Father figure. The captive Sengbe Pieh, speculates that this god of the white peoples Bible might be able to relate to his experience of captivity and imprisonment. This Jesus son of a powerful and loving father might be the kind of god who would come to the aid of the unjustly accused. And so … a bond of trust forms between Sengbe and certain Congregationalists missionaries, who then support the captives in mounting a defense in court.

This scene illustrates the essence of this weeks line in the Statement of Faith God calls us to be the church …to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. Its a simple phrase that neatly weaves together some familiar elements of our Christian faith. Theologians have written volumes about each of these elements. But our task today is to look at them as they are put together here, to examine consciously what we often repeat unconsciously.

Our task is to proclaim… To proclaim means to indicate conspicuously, to make plain. Were called to make known Jesus as the central figure in our Christian faith and identity. Not Jesus Christ. There are no modifiers that would identify Jesus as the fulfillment of the messianic hopes of the Jewish people. Nothing that identifies him as divine. It seems odd, but worth noting that the framers of this Statement of Faith put forth just plain Jesus. Not rabbi, or ethical teacher, or prophet, or healer, either. There is no reference to Jesus works: his wise teachings, his remarkable deeds of healing and forgiveness, his challenging of authority, his welcoming outcasts and sinners at his table. We move directly from naming just plain Jesus fully human to his death on the cross.

We are called to be the church … to tell the world about Jesus crucified. Wouldnt it be easier if we didnt have to begin with this stumbling block? Didnt have to explain why Jesus was rejected by those he came to save? Why he was betrayed by one of his own disciples? Why if you believe it why God let his own son be executed as a common criminal by the Roman Empire?

For me, and I suspect for some of you, the fact that Jesus died is less disturbing than the way he died. It is one of the least attractive and most embarrassing parts of Christianity. (Could that be why Good Friday is one of the least popular services of the Christian year? )

Could it be that Jesus … crucified … repels us because of the gory violence of it? As I wrestled with this question I couldnt escape the notion that Jesus, crucified, calls us to look at the violence that is part of our human condition. A part that we dont like to see, much less talk about. Jesus, on the cross, placed between two other condemned men calls our attention to the sad state of the least and the lost among us.

If we gaze at Jesus, crucified, long enough, we see past Jesus to the presence of violence in our world. It is inescapable. In the domestic sphere partners batter partners, and adults abuse children. In the social and economic spheres competition is glorified even if it means doing violence to others. In the political sphere, nations settle differences with guns and bombs. The images of the dead and injured in Israel and Lebanon are still very fresh. Whether we like it or not, violence seems to be a structural element of our political, social and domestic life.

Jesus death by crucifixion means to disturb that structure. In life, Jesus announced Gods forgiveness to sinners, blessings to the poor, and welcome to outcasts and strangers. Jesus called people to repentance and announced the possibility of a new way of life characterized by love of God and others. All very good and righteous principles to consider. But in death Jesus exposed the violence that we reach for when our programs for happiness are frustrated and threatened. As John implies in the reading for today, Jesus came into the world to shed light on the abject evil and injustice of settling our differences with violence. That leaves us in darkness and leads to death.

Liberation theology which is God talk done by the least powerful in society claims that Jesus died in the way he did in order to enter into solidarity with victims of violence. Jesus died as a common criminal in order to offer a new way of living in the midst of a world where neither power nor resources are equally distributed. The cross then becomes the symbol of a way for people to confront the violence of unjust structures with the nonviolent love of God. The crucifixion shows that, through Jesus, God offers an alternative to crosses and gallows and electric chairs and bombs.

Jesus crucified sheds light on the deadly cycle of violence that only begets violence. In the light of the cross, the hold of violence can be broken, making room for truth to be told, for compassion and reconciliation to begin. Looking at it this way, Jesus gruesome execution as a common criminal is not senseless. It is God working Gods purpose out for the least among us, as well as those with power. Because the powerful are condemned by the deadly cycle as surely as the powerless.

So … We are called to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. As a church we seem much more comfortable celebrating the resurrection than the crucifixion. We celebrate the risen Christ with gusto. With trumpets and flowers, new dresses and big, once-a-year special offerings. We come to church in unprecedented numbers on to the high point of the Christian year Easter.

Unlike the first disciples who hid in a locked room for fear, we arent afraid or embarrassed to proclaim Jesus, risen. We glory in the notion of God raising Jesus from the dead. Of Jesus walking among us, using us to be his emissaries in the world. But, the resurrection gets its liberating power from the horror of the crucifixion. We cant have the light without the darkness.

God calls us to be the church … to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. Just as we find Jesus crucified difficult to understand and embrace, so, too, wed like to forget about the idea of Jesus as judge. Perhaps thats because some of us grew up associating judgment with a harsh God, who casts sinners into a fiery hell. Last fall, when a group of Baptist students visited the church with the DePaul School of New Learning, they asked me what I preached about sin and Gods judgment I had to say, very little. I much prefer to proclaim Gods inclusive love and acceptance in the here and now, I told them. But judgment is paired with hope in our Statement of Faith. I suppose thats because its there in the scriptures, right next to the verses we love so much. The ones that tell of Gods love.

Johns gospel goes from God so loved the world … [to] and this is the judgment in just three verses. But the judgement John refers to here is not St. Peter at the pearly gates, reading from a record book of sins, and pointing the way up or down. It is the judgment of a search light illuminating the darkness. John says, This is the judgement: the people loved darkness … because their deeds were evil. For those who do evil hate the light and do not come to it so that their deeds will not be exposed.

Jesus crucified and risen is light in the darkness. Through Jesus, fully human, God issues an inclusive invitation for all the world to come to the light! The choice is ours. It is not God who turns us away. Its we who refuse the invitation to bring ourselves into the light.

And here is the grace judgment is paired with hope. Our hope is stated clearly in the first chapter of the gospel of John: The light has come into the world and the darkness did not overcome it. Jesus, crucified and risen, is confirmation that death will not have the last word, that violence will not win, that Gods light cannot and will not be extinguished by the worst that humans can do. Through Jesus, God holds out hope of new life. And that hope is never withdrawn. Proclaiming Jesus his life, his death and his resurrection we see the path we have to walk. And we gain access to the courage and strength it takes to seek justice and to resist evil. To love and serve others.

Returning to the story of the Amistad, … in the end, the African captives won their freedom in court with the help of Congregationalist Christians our forebears who proclaimed their faith in a God who took on flesh and lived among us as Jesus. Who submitted to the worst violence that humans could dish out. And, who conquered death so that all people might have hope and freedom.

Our Congregationalists forebears held fast to that which they saw as good. And they werent afraid to proclaim it. This is our inheritance. And this we can proclaim.

Amen.

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