the fifth sunday of easter …

reflecting on the journey
For us, it’s been, is, and will always be Christ-and-Christ-crucified!

All I can say is, “Who woulda thought!” A few weeks ago, goodFriday morning, I was taking a few minutes perusing my Facebook page. A diversion, distraction, from getting ready for worship, that night. Usually, I just scroll down the page until something catches my attention. Until something piques my interest. Needless to say, that morning, there was a lot of churchy-looking stuff. After all, it was goodFriday. So, nothing jumped out at me. Not until I came across a post from a longtime friend of the family. I stopped mid-scroll. It was a picture of a cross. Silhouetted against the sky. Amazing clouds. Sun burst. It was all very dramatic. There were some words at the top. “Good Friday” along the bottom. But my attention was focused on the picture.

You see, that cross looked a whole lot like the one in front of “my” first church in Carlsbad. Who woulda thought! Thirty some years ago, we started hanging a streamer around it! Black for goodFriday and holySaturday; white for the season of easter. To attract people’s attention! To draw it to that cross! And the wind, this time of year, helped! It was simple. It was straightforward. How it got from Carlsbad to Facebook, only god knows! Who woulda thought!

It was only later that I took the time to read the message. “May the Good Friday of our current times glorify even more the Easter joy that is yet to come.” Huh … “May the Good Friday of our current times glorify even more the Easter joy that is yet to come.” “We must live through Good Fridays, in order to fully embrace the renewal Easter brings.” Again, huh … Apparently, goodFriday isn’t a day. An event. But it’s nothing more than a metaphor. A figure of speech. GoodFriday is the gloom, the despair, the agony, any of us – all of us – have to endure. Something we all must live through. Before we find the pot of gold. Before we arrive at the emerald city. And Jesus … Jesus has nothing to do with it. Who woulda thought?!?

Truth is, goodFriday is more than that! Much more than that! GoodFriday is the substance and sum of believing! GoodFriday is the heart and soul of god! Everything we say, everything we do, in this place is rooted in it. Based on it. In holyBaptism, we’re marked not with butterflies and rainbows – but with the cross of Christ! In holyCommunion, we’re given the bodyBroken and the bloodshed! The whole purpose of this time together is to proclaim the gospel! Beginning to end! Start to finish! “In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die!” For us! For all! This year, more so than usual, it’s been goodFriday, the cross, that’s been the crux of my preaching …

“The church is called to carry crosses!”

“Christ suffered for us, so that we, too, might suffer for others!”

“It’s not easter that inspires us to love; it’s goodFriday!”

Those are the themes of my last three sermons. And this morning? That refrain continues … “The only reason there’s an easter is because there’s a goodFriday!”

But there’s a problem. A problem with goodFriday. A problem with the cross. It’s not about marshmallow peeps and chocolate bunnies. Or jellybeans and coloredEggs. GoodFriday confuses us. The cross scares us. The shadows. The seriousness. It’s so much easier to shout hosanna and sing alleluia! To wave palm branches and smell the lilies! And so, goodFriday becomes a pothole and the cross becomes nothing more than a speed bump on the road from PalmSunday to Easter morning. Something to go around! Something to get over! On the way to our everAfter.

“May the Good Friday of our current times
glorify even more the Easter joy that is yet to come.”

“We must live through Good Fridays,
in order to fully embrace the renewal Easter brings.”

But for us, goodFriday’s not an inconvenience! And the cross isn’t a distraction. GoodFriday, the cross, is why we’re here! It’s who we are! It’s what we become! GoodFriday is more – much more than a figure of speech. GoodFriday is a beginning! God’s beginning! For us, this is when god’s breath sweeps over the waters! This is when god says, “Let there be!” And there is! And easter? Easter is when god steps back, when god takes it all in, when god says, “It is good! It is very good!” Without the cross, there’s nothing to believe in! Without the cross, there’s nothing to hope for! Because without the cross, there is no love! Because If goodFriday, if the cross, is about anything, it’s about love! Being loved! Loving!

No one has greater love than this …
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth …
Just as I have, you, also, should …
Just as I did, you will …

That’s why the cross is black and the heart is red. It’s goodFriday that saves! It’s the cross that gives us life! It’s Christ-and-Christ-crucified that keeps us that way! That’s why the cross is black and the heart red! It’s the cross that saves us! It’s the cross that gives us life! It’s the cross that keeps us that way! Who woulda thought! Who woulda thought!

So, “May the Good Friday of our current times
glorify even more the Easter joy that is yet to come.”

“We must live through Good Fridays,
in order to fully embrace the renewal Easter brings.”

At least, that’s what the post tells us. It sounds good. It looks better. But that’s not our goodFriday. Ours is all about Jesus! Ours is all about love! Jesus’ love! For me! For us! For everyone and for everything! It’s not a metaphor! It’s not a philosophy! It’s not, even, a lifestyle! It’s an hour and it’s a day! It’s a man and it’s a god! Suffering! Dying! Descending! And then, rising to do it all over, again! That’s the cross wee wear around our necks! The cross we might hang on our walls! The cross – at the beginning and in the end – we trace over our hearts! God so loved the world … that this – THIS – is what god gave! This – THIS – is what god gives! Jesus! GoodFriday! The cross! It’s ours! Every drop … Every ounce … Every breath of it … Who could have imagined? Who woulda thought?


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