St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church
3800 East Third Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47401
(812) 332-5252
Sermon for Palm/Passion Sunday (March 16, 2008)
Liturgical Color: Scarlet
Reverend Dr. Lyle E. McKee
Walking Wounded
Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
A pastor-developer wanted to start a new church. Not just any church—a church for people who don't go to church.
He decided to advertise. A "New York Times" article describes his efforts:
"A production studio best known for irreverent cartoons for "Saturday Night Live" might seem an unlikely choice for church advertising. But the campaign for a fledgling Episcopal church in suburban Maryland is unconventional by design.
"The Rev. Gene Bolin said he wanted to reach non-churchgoing Generation Xers and baby boomers in Walkersville, an affluent town within commuting range of both Baltimore and Washington.
"'Our goal was to start a church that was aimed at people who don't go to church at all,' Bolin said, 'happy little cynics who basically stick up their noses to any sort of faith expression.' Eschewing traditional Episcopal terminology, which he says many people do not understand, Bolin calls himself pastor of the Episcopal New Church Center.
"One print ad in the campaign shows a painting of Christ on the cross with these words appearing to have been scratched on the canvas: 'Of course people with pierced body parts are welcome in our church'" (Carol Marie Cropper, "Advertising: Irreverent Campaign to Help Fledgling Church Expand," 5/18/98).
That seems rather irreverent and a bit extreme to me. But despite our dropped jaws, the point may be well taken. The church is open to every person because our Lord gave his life for every person. Paul wrote:
"And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross."
The prophet Zechariah gets more specific about the agonies of our Lord by referring to his being pierced:
Zech. 12:10 - "And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn."
Body-piercing. First it was the fate of our Lord to be pierced for us. Now it is a contemporary fad. Holes in hands and feet then; holes in tongues and eyebrows now. Of course, it is absurd to draw parallels. It is silly even to mention these piercings in the same breath. I do so to depict the great distance that separates the teachings of the Church and the behaviors of our culture. And of course those whose bodies are pierced are most welcome to worship the one who was pierced, humbled, and who died for us.
Indeed, they represent a superficial reality that symbolizes a deep spiritual truth-human beings are the "walking wounded." The piercing and tattooing that is being done across America seems an attempt to be different or to find experiences on the edge of everyday life, things that are both stimulating and scandalous. It is considered sexy and scary, enjoyable and exotic, painful and pretty. Many of those who engage in this practice apparently seek to live life fully, but they may also be clueless about how to achieve that end.
The one avenue for full living lies in following the one who was pierced for us.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
Life in its fullness is not about what we do on the surface of our bodies, but about what we are in the center of our being. Followers of the pierced one are called to be humble and self-giving, reflecting the life of Christ. Life that is enjoyable and exotic, painful and becoming, comes from following the Savior, who became as a slave for us.
The divine self-emptying depicted in the words of Paul's hymn, enabled Jesus to become one with all the humans of the earth, and it provides for us a model of how we are to relate to the style-searching, stimulation-seeking, walking wounded among us.
This approach of humility is more than a coincidence. It is close to the very heart of God. The extreme humiliation Christ undergoes when he empties himself of divinity, and takes on the form of a slave, does not cancel out his divine nature. Quite to the contrary: It reveals the true essence of divinity, and demonstrates that love is at the very heart of who God is and what God does. When we hear Paul's words fro Philippians, we are reminded that Christ's death and resurrection bring salvation precisely because they involve both humiliation and exaltation. The one who is enslaved is the one who is made our master.
The implications are clear. We are called to humility because our Lord has humbled himself; we are to pierce our ears with the rings of slavery, because Jesus the Christ has allowed his own body to be pierced so that we would be freed from slavery to sin and death; we are to regard others as better than ourselves, and to look not to our own interests, but to the interest of others (vv.3-4); we are to serve others in order to witness to the love that we know in the Christ who serves us.
A nurse once told Old Testament professor Carol Bechtel about an experience working in a Catholic hospital. Opinion was divided, it seems, about the presence of the crucifix in the hospital's labor and delivery rooms. Some women insisted on the crucifix's removal; others could not take their eyes off it. But their difference of opinion was not along religious lines. Many in the first group explained their aversion on the grounds that they wanted nothing more to do with men—human or divine. The second group saw the crucifix as a significant source of comfort.
Though she had no crucifix on which to focus during the births of her two children, Bechtel writes, "My mind's eye was fixed firmly on a suffering Savior. Truth to tell, it was the fact of that suffering that enabled me to have any patience with God whatsoever. Who, after all, would want a God who could sit stoically by with no firsthand knowledge of human suffering?" (Bechtel, "A Labor of Love," Presbyterians Today, 4/98).
Jesus knew suffering at its depths.
"At its core...the scandal of the cross in a world of violence is not the danger associated with self-giving. Jesus' greatest agony was not that he suffered. Suffering can be endured, even embraced, if it brings desired fruit, as the experience of giving birth illustrates. What turned the pain of suffering into agony was the abandonment; Jesus was abandoned by the people who trusted in him and by the God in whom he trusted. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). My God, my God, why did my radical obedience to your way lead to the pain and disgrace of the cross? The ultimate scandal of the cross is the all too frequent failure of self-giving to bear positive fruit: You give yourself for the other-and violence does not stop but destroys you; you sacrifice your life—and stabilize the power of the perpetrator. Though self-giving often issues in the joy of reciprocity, it must reckon with the pain of failure and violence. When violence strikes, the very act of self-giving becomes a cry before the dark face of God. This dark face confronting the act of self-giving is a scandal." (p. 26, Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf)
The message for the walking wounded today is: "You are most welcome in the church. God knows intimately your pain and your piercings of heart and soul. In Christ, God knows the fullness of our suffering as in the coming resurrection God knows the fullness of our joy.
- But you don't have to pierce yourself to achieve fullness of life, because abundant life was gained for you by Jesus through his mortal wounds.
- You don't have to punish yourself with guilt, because Jesus bore your guilt.
- You don't have to struggle to be perfect before offering your life to God, because Jesus has already made the perfect offering.
- You don't have to make fashion statements, just faith statements.
- You don't have to pay penalties, because Jesus paid them for you.
We all like stimulation and a taste of scandal, but sensations that are both stimulating and scandalous can be found through Christian mission, through a lifestyle that includes experiences on the very edge of everyday life; building houses for the poor, taking stands for moral issues and studying scripture in community. (Homiletics, adapted)
In the end, the wounds that matter are those in the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. By them we are healed. Through them our walking woundedness can itself become a source of healing for ourselves and for all of creation. Like Jesus, we walk, wounded and healed, in humility, love, and service. Amen.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto eternal life. Amen.
