I
invite you to consider a question that I hope you consider every time you come
to worship – it’s a question that I ask myself constantly when writing a sermon
or reading scripture: are you looking for good advice or good news? Are you looking for tips on how to live a
better life or are you looking for a message that will heal and save your soul?
If
you are looking for advice, be warned, you are likely to miss the good news of
the gospel. If you are looking for
advice, you probably won’t like today’s sermon.
If you are looking for advice, then Jesus’ trial and execution will fall
on deaf ears.
I know this because I,
too, know what it is like to believe that good advice will save my life. I, too, know what it is like to look for ways
to be a better person instead of looking for the way that God makes us better,
by no merit of our own, through the sacrificial love of Christ.
Don’t
get me wrong. The Bible, Jesus is full
of wisdom and good advice. But good
advice is no substitute for the good news revealed to us in Jesus Christ. As St. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Jews
demand signs, Greeks desire wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.” The truth that Jesus brings into this world
cannot be fully grasped through signs and wisdom or advice. Rather, the truth of the gospel changes our
heart through Christ crucified.
Former
Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, once said, “We contribute nothing to
our salvation except the sin from which we need to be redeemed.” In other words, the only thing we can offer
to our salvation story is our sin. And
never is this truth more apparent than in today’s Passion Narrative. It is human sin that condemns Jesus to death,
and ultimately human sin is what creates the instrument of our salvation – the
cross.
In
today’s Passion Narrative, we see how sin infects the heart of the religious
authorities, the political machine, the crowd, and even Jesus’ closest
followers. And the cross is the place
where the shame, the sadness, the emptiness, the disgrace, the pain, the separation of human
sin is revealed. The cross is the place
where our human sin is exposed as much worse than we could have ever
imagined. The cross is the place where
we see how sin ultimately destroys the image of God in each other.
If
there is any advice that is warranted today, it would go, “Don’t underestimate
the destructive forces of your sin.
Don’t underestimate the power fear has over your life. Don’t underestimate how far humanity will go
just to hold on to the illusion of power and control. Don’t believe for a second that you or your
church or even your country is somehow innocent from the crimes that nail Jesus
to the cross, from the crimes that destroy the image of God in each other.”
As
the collect for last week reads, “only God can bring into order the unruly
wills and affections of sinners.” And
how does God bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners? Only through Christ crucified. Christ crucified is how God turns our heads
and our hearts to see that the only way out of this endless abyss of sin and
death is the way of the immeasurable love of God revealed in Christ crucified.
While
the cross reveals that human sin causes more harm that we could have ever
imagined, the cross is also the place where we see that God’s love for us is
bigger than we can even begin to comprehend.
The cross is not a place where we come to receive advice. Rather, the cross is the place we come to be
convicted and nourished by the message of the gospel – you are weak but he is
strong.
As
Bishop Sloan reminded us last week, Lent is not a season when we count how many
sins we have committed as if it is some sort of race. Rather, Lent is a time spent reflecting on
our sin, owning our sin as destructive, and ultimately offering our sin to God
through confession. In this offering of
our sin as confession, we are letting God deal with our sin instead of
ourselves.
This
is important because we as human beings tend to deal with sin, well,
sinfully. We minimize sin as not that
bad. We sweep it under the rug for
someone else to clean up later. We kick
the can down the road to deal with at a later date. We justify sin by assigning it to someone
else – particularly the weak and most vulnerable. We make comparisons like – well at least I
don’t sin like they do.
But
God in Christ deals with our sin in a way that we cannot. Jesus takes on the full force and weight of
our sin on the cross. The cross bears
all of our sin and reveals it as totally destructive. The cross makes it impossible for us, impossible
for the world to hide from our transgressions.
But the good news tells us that the cross is where the impossible is
made possible. The cross is the place where
the power of love overcomes the most destructive forces of sin and death.
Palm
Sunday reminds us of a day we call good (Good Friday). The day of Christ’s crucifixion is good not
because of good advice but because of good news. This good news starts by telling us that we
are not as innocent as we like to think and ends by telling us that God’s mercy and goodness exceeds
human understanding. God’s mercy and goodness
makes us good.
Good
advice, as helpful as it may be at times, will not save your life. Rather, the good news of the Christ crucified
is meant to tell you that God has already saved your life with a love that is
more powerful than the devastating forces of human sin.
The good news of Christ
crucified is news that is meant to create in you a longing to trust and believe
in the truth that love wins. The Good
news of Christ crucified is news that will make you die to a life of your own
choosing so that you might rise to a life of God’s choosing. The good news of Christ crucified is news
that is meant to help you see that the way of the cross is the only way that
will save you in a world that will otherwise leave you for dead. Amen.
Beloved, may your Holy
Week be marked by a willingness to hear and know the good news of Christ
crucified, news that has the power to heal and save your life. Amen.
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