Today's Scripture Readings
Isaiah 50: 4-9a (NRSV)
Psalm 70 (BCP, p. 682)
Hebrews 12: 1-3 (NRSV)
John 13: 21-32 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
A few years ago, I found myself experiencing the betrayal of someone I trusted. A person who at one point appeared to be supportive of me in what I was doing. We would engage in conversations, and there was nothing I could have said that he didn't find some thing good. He was supportive. He complimented me. He encouraged me in what I was doing. All seemed to be going well until a group of individuals began spreading stories about me. Eventually, one of them got close enough to the individual I trusted, to persuade him to go against me on everything. Suddenly, there was nothing I could have said, done, tried to do that he would approve of. He committed himself to working against me. The individual I am speaking of is a former employer. More than that, he is a Priest.
Many months after I was terminated I would find myself praying the words of Psalm 41: 9. "Even my best friend, whom I trusted, who broke bread with me, has lifted up his heel and turned against me." I prayed these words many times. They helped me feel like God might be hearing my pain from within. There are many people who when they betrayed me drilled a hole in my heart. But, a Priest who has the affect on the soul and the job, can really drive a mean bit into me. However, God was closer to my pain than any thing that Priest could have done to me. That is why the Psalms are so important to my life.
As I read this Gospel story of Judas betraying Jesus, I can go back to that time in my life and say with confidence, that through Jesus, God walked with me through that dark time. Jesus showed me how to love someone that He knew was about to betray him. He did not make excuses for Judas, nor did he condone his actions. But, when the chips fell and later came the kiss of death in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus still loved Judas.
As the marriage cases go before the Supreme Court this week, one of the most difficult things I experience is how the rhetoric from the anti-equality side gets racked up a notch. All of the great LGBT news blogs serve up the horror of what the president of the National Organization for Marriage says about homosexuality. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council threatens a revolution if the Supreme Court votes in favor of marriage equality. The worst and the nastiest becomes unbearable. More conspiracy theories about homosexuality being the cause of diseases and natural disasters come out about this time, and they are each designed to take down our self esteem a bit.
Jesus Christ was not about setting down moral laws or even canons. The work and mission of Jesus was bringing the Good News of God's love for the marginalized and those experiencing injustice and oppression. Jesus healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and hope to many in despair. Yet, the more people loved Him, the more jealous the prestigious got. It was not enough to let Him say what needed to be said. They had to work with one of Jesus' own disciples to be able to bring Him down. Yet, it was not the Jewish religion, nor the Jews who killed Jesus. It was our envy of each other. Our selfishness and desire for power. It was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. The sin of betrayal in Judas, is quite possible for any one of us. None of us are immune.
We are all invited by Jesus today, to follow Him. We can respond to our opponents with the same hate they send our way. We can blame God and religion. We can even ditch all forms of organized religion. Jesus offers us another way. A way that is also the truth and the life. Jesus and his way of life, is what leads us to the heart of God. The heart of God that loves with compassion. The compassion to disapprove, but still leave us to our own choices. Yet, always ready and willing to forgive the repentant heart.
Holy Week helps us to meet ourselves and confront ourselves in and through Jesus Christ. It also helps us to experience God's forgiveness and hopefully learn to forgive others.
In our faith tradition, we have a cloud of witnesses who have shown us great examples of God's transforming grace. Even with all their human weaknesses. Can we all learn from their examples? Can we be good examples for others?
Amen.
Prayer
Isaiah 50: 4-9a (NRSV)
- The Lord GOD has given me
- the tongue of a teacher,
- that I may know how to sustain
- the weary with a word.
- Morning by morning he wakens--
- wakens my ear
- to listen as those who are taught.
- The Lord GOD has opened my ear,
- and I was not rebellious,
- I did not turn backward.
- I gave my back to those who struck me,
- and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
- I did not hide my face
- from insult and spitting.
- The Lord GOD helps me;
- therefore I have not been disgraced;
- therefore I have set my face like flint,
- and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
- he who vindicates me is near.
- Who will contend with me?
- Let us stand up together.
- Who are my adversaries?
- Let them confront me.
- It is the Lord GOD who helps me;
Psalm 70 (BCP, p. 682)
Hebrews 12: 1-3 (NRSV)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.
John 13: 21-32 (NRSV)
At supper with his friends, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples-- the one whom Jesus loved-- was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once."
Blog Reflection
A few years ago, I found myself experiencing the betrayal of someone I trusted. A person who at one point appeared to be supportive of me in what I was doing. We would engage in conversations, and there was nothing I could have said that he didn't find some thing good. He was supportive. He complimented me. He encouraged me in what I was doing. All seemed to be going well until a group of individuals began spreading stories about me. Eventually, one of them got close enough to the individual I trusted, to persuade him to go against me on everything. Suddenly, there was nothing I could have said, done, tried to do that he would approve of. He committed himself to working against me. The individual I am speaking of is a former employer. More than that, he is a Priest.
Many months after I was terminated I would find myself praying the words of Psalm 41: 9. "Even my best friend, whom I trusted, who broke bread with me, has lifted up his heel and turned against me." I prayed these words many times. They helped me feel like God might be hearing my pain from within. There are many people who when they betrayed me drilled a hole in my heart. But, a Priest who has the affect on the soul and the job, can really drive a mean bit into me. However, God was closer to my pain than any thing that Priest could have done to me. That is why the Psalms are so important to my life.
As I read this Gospel story of Judas betraying Jesus, I can go back to that time in my life and say with confidence, that through Jesus, God walked with me through that dark time. Jesus showed me how to love someone that He knew was about to betray him. He did not make excuses for Judas, nor did he condone his actions. But, when the chips fell and later came the kiss of death in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus still loved Judas.
As the marriage cases go before the Supreme Court this week, one of the most difficult things I experience is how the rhetoric from the anti-equality side gets racked up a notch. All of the great LGBT news blogs serve up the horror of what the president of the National Organization for Marriage says about homosexuality. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council threatens a revolution if the Supreme Court votes in favor of marriage equality. The worst and the nastiest becomes unbearable. More conspiracy theories about homosexuality being the cause of diseases and natural disasters come out about this time, and they are each designed to take down our self esteem a bit.
Jesus Christ was not about setting down moral laws or even canons. The work and mission of Jesus was bringing the Good News of God's love for the marginalized and those experiencing injustice and oppression. Jesus healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and hope to many in despair. Yet, the more people loved Him, the more jealous the prestigious got. It was not enough to let Him say what needed to be said. They had to work with one of Jesus' own disciples to be able to bring Him down. Yet, it was not the Jewish religion, nor the Jews who killed Jesus. It was our envy of each other. Our selfishness and desire for power. It was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. The sin of betrayal in Judas, is quite possible for any one of us. None of us are immune.
We are all invited by Jesus today, to follow Him. We can respond to our opponents with the same hate they send our way. We can blame God and religion. We can even ditch all forms of organized religion. Jesus offers us another way. A way that is also the truth and the life. Jesus and his way of life, is what leads us to the heart of God. The heart of God that loves with compassion. The compassion to disapprove, but still leave us to our own choices. Yet, always ready and willing to forgive the repentant heart.
Holy Week helps us to meet ourselves and confront ourselves in and through Jesus Christ. It also helps us to experience God's forgiveness and hopefully learn to forgive others.
In our faith tradition, we have a cloud of witnesses who have shown us great examples of God's transforming grace. Even with all their human weaknesses. Can we all learn from their examples? Can we be good examples for others?
Amen.
Prayer
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be
whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept
joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the
glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Prayer for Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p.220).
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