SERMON, GOOD FRIDAY C

Our Lenten journey is ended. At the breakfast in our parish hall, and in my first sermon of Lent, I talked about the purpose of Lent.

Lent is the period of preparing for Easter. It’s the journey through the wilderness of selfishness as we strive to draw nearer to God. The BCP gives us guidelines for this through self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial and study. But too often, I said, we give things up with no thought to why we do it other than it’s what we’re supposed to do.

Lent isn’t about giving things up and being miserable, or taking things on and being overwhelmed. It’s about regaining a right balance in our life. If we give up sweets, replace them with baby carrots. If we want to take on reading the bible, give up TV for an hour. And it isn’t about giving up something for a season. Lent is about using the time to create new habits for a permanent change.

Did we do that? Did we take the time to examine our lives? Have we looked at what was harming us and what could help us, and have we used this Lenten journey to make the changes that help us regain balance in our life?

Right now, though, we are out of balance. We may be out of balance because we didn’t hold to our Lenten discipline or because we didn’t use the time to change our habits. But right now we are spiritually out of balance. Some of us participated in the Maundy Thursday liturgy where we gathered for supper, washed feet, and celebrated the final Eucharist before Easter. After which, the altar was stripped and the sanctuary laid bare. For Episcopalians, the Eucharist is at the very core of our worship, and we are out of balance because that will not be a part of our worship these next two days.

We are out of balance because we have just walked the Way of the Cross, the symbolic path of Jesus on his way to be crucified. We walked in relatively good health and we wondered how he managed that walk, beaten and battered as he was. As we think about that journey, we wonder what we could have done differently.

And we are out of balance because we hear the stories of Judas’ betray, Peter’s denial, and the other disciples’ desertion, and we think, “How could they?” How could they? How could you?

How could I?

When asked who we wanted released, we all shouted for Barabbas. And when presented to us, two times we yelled, “Crucify him!” We are out of balance because after all the study, worship and confessions of faith, you are no different than those who betrayed, denied, deserted and executed Jesus. You are no different.

I am no different.

We are out of balance because Jesus, the constant in our lives, is no longer present. The altar is stripped. The sanctuary is bare. Having willingly pushed Jesus out of our lives, we are as empty as these. Everyone in this church had a hand in forcing Jesus out of our lives. Nobody here is innocent.

I hope you participated in a holy Lent. I hope you were able to take some time for self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial and study. If not, if Lent became just another countdown to a big event, then I hope you will take these next two days – this time of emptiness and imbalance – and meditate on life without Jesus, your complicity in his death, and what your new, resurrected life might look like.

Over these next two days, I hope we all find a sense of balance and reconciliation so that we may truly make a right beginning on the day of resurrection.