Reverend Ref +

HOLY SATURDAY SERMON

This is always a stressful week. Some of it is a good stress and some of it is a bad stress. I enjoy the stress of preparing for the services of the Triduum. I don’t, necessarily, enjoy the stress of living through the Passion, betraying Jesus, stripping the altar and seeing the church as just another empty building. For me, today is a time to step back and take a breath. To collect my thoughts. To think about where I’ve been and where I’m going. To take time and deal with the death of Jesus.

Most of us here have experienced the pain of death. We all experience death differently. Some of us have had a very close experience; the death of a parent, child, spouse or intimate friend. For others, that experience is simply an acquaintance or distant cousin where showing up at the funeral is the socially proper thing to do. And for at least one of us, it’s part of the job.

Yesterday we experienced the death of Jesus. Today, we are coming to terms with that. Today, we recognize that the man we call teacher and friend and Lord is dead. Today there isn’t that overlay of divinity. I think sometimes we forget that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, so caught up in his divinity are we. Today we remember that he was fully man, and that man is dead.

In some cultures, death is soothed with food and conversation. Especially if it is the death of a spouse or child. There seems to be a steady stream of visitors and casseroles and salads. And then that steady stream begins to dwindle to a trickle until it eventually stops as life in the outside world begins to return to normal. I tell people that this is the time that is most difficult; it’s not right after the death, but it’s when people stop visiting because life goes on, life gets back to normal.

But what is “normal” for the survivors? Normalcy has to be redefined and recreated. Eventually a sense of normalcy will return, but it will never be the same. If we sit and listen, we can hear the sounds of normal in the outside world. In here, however, we sit quiet and alone. The man who should be the biggest part of our lives is dead. The man who taught us about compassion and hospitality and faith and love is dead; and we are left behind to redefine normal.

So we sit alone, maybe a little afraid, and wonder, “Where do we go from here?” If we leave here and return to the world of normal, then Jesus has failed. He failed because normal is more important to us than change. He failed because our desire to maintain the status quo will have overcome our attempts to help manifest the kingdom of God. Our prayer, “Your kingdom come . . .” is meaningless.

But . . . if we take this time to redefine normal then God wins. Jesus showed us another way; a way based on love. He showed us how to care for the stranger; how to welcome the sinner; how to feed the hungry; how to respect the alien, disenfranchised, downtrodden – the “other.” He showed us another idea of normal.

Jesus is dead and buried. We are alone. Take some time today and remember the man we called teacher, friend and Lord; and then go out into the world and redefine normal in his memory.