Category: Good Friday

Justice crucified

CMM, Cape Town / / Good Friday, Reflection

Friends,

Our reflections throughout Holy Week have been premised on the belief that if Jesus were the preacher this week, he would not focus on what happened to him 2000 years ago. Rather, Jesus would focus on how he continues to be crucified today in the bodies of those who he names as his incarnation, “the least of these”. The bodies of the vulnerable poor. Therefore, our focus throughout the week was on the systems of religion, economics and politics that continue to collude in ways that exclude and exploit. Ways that blame the victims of society’s injustice for society’s problems which ultimately scapegoats and crucifies.

Jesus doesn’t call us to be his historians. He calls us to be his disciples. Discipleship happens in the now. History is important in how it can help us to see and understand the present, but it comes with the temptation to live in the past which means that we could end up worshipping yesterday’s Messiah and this can blind us from seeing that we are crucifying today’s Messiah. Together with this is the temptation to believe that just because we know the story of old means that we now know better. But as we have seen this week in our reflections, we do not know better now. The exact same abuses of religious, economic and political power exist today as they did 2000 years ago. Justice continues to be betrayed and the results are as deadly.

The other premise for our reflections this past week was that Jesus was crucified by “1000 cuts”. Each cut a tiny compromise of the truth, neither deadly nor very noticeable in themselves but cumulatively they constructed a cross. The cross was made from a million splinters of self-interest legally laminated together by fear, greed and prejudice. As it was then, so it is today. Yes, the cross was legal, of this the State’s lawyers were sure. We should know better than most that legal does not mean just.

William Sloane Coffin once said: “On Good Friday we crucified Jesus, the best among us, because we had crucified the best within us, and did not want to be reminded of it…”

Now there were many reasons why Jesus was crucified – not least because he threatened the status quo of the Empire elites, but I invite us to reflect on this insight from Sloane Coffin today.

Isn’t it true that when we are reminded of something within us that we have ourselves forsaken or betrayed, we are prone to respond with defensive denial and sometimes even vicious anger? When we betray something we hold dear within us there is a strong temptation to begin to see the world, others and ourselves in a way that justifies our self-betrayal as it becomes too painful for us to face and acknowledge. One way to stop the pain is to get rid of that which is reminding us of our self-betrayal. To shatter the mirror that reflects the reminder.

Jesus reminded the religious class what true religion is meant to be about – justice rather than ritual, and mercy rather than sacrifice – loving God by loving our neighbour. This way had long been forsaken, but not quite forgotten – so to eradicate evidence of their self-betrayal they called for his blood. Likewise, Jesus reminded those in power that they were to use their power to pastor the nation with care. The leaders had not forgotten they were called to be shepherds, but they had long since given up caring for anyone other than themselves. They took offense at Jesus and seized the opportunity to have Jesus permanently removed. Jesus reminded the ordinary people that they were born free and equal to all and therefore to pick up their mats and emancipate themselves from internalised slavery. The people wanted him to do to their enemies as their enemies had done to them. When Jesus refused, they cried “crucify” and voted for Barabbas instead.

May we see and acknowledge what we have betrayed in ourselves. And may we behold our self-betrayal with compassion rather than condemnation, with the hope that when it is revealed to us by others, we will not call for their condemnation. Perhaps this may avert another crucifixion.

With grace,
Alan

 

Crucifying Friday

CMM, Cape Town / / Good Friday, Reflection


Friends,

On this Crucifying Friday we gather to remember Jesus’ Crucifixion that took place long ago and as we do, we gather to name and engage the crucifixions of our time. Christ is crucified again and again … and again! Remember when the Spirit of Jesus confronted the persecuting Saul on that Damascus road? Jesus did not say, “Why are you persecuting them?” He said, “Why are you persecuting me?” In other words Jesus takes what we do to each other personally. This is especially true when the most vulnerable are the victims. As Jesus said, “What you do to the least of these you do to me.”

Therefore Jesus’ Crucifixion 2 000 years ago is more than a historical event. It is an archetypal lens. It is the Crucifixion archetype that is true the world over. According to the Crucifixion archetype whenever expedient politicians (backed by an unquestioning military), oligarch influencers and a self-serving religious establishment get together, society is soon to be littered with crucifixions of the poor and vulnerable who are scapegoated for the sins of this unholy trinity.

The Crucifixion archetype further reveals that people (especially religious people) have a tendency to crucify today’s messiahs while worshipping the messiahs of yesteryear. It is a perverse form of salvation (liberation) nostalgia that is a stumbling block to salvation (liberation) in the present. In other words we act like Herod today while praising Jesus of long ago. We act like Pharaoh today while praising Moses of even longer ago. We act like the KKK today while praising MLK jr. We act like the Apartheid regime today while we sing praises about the liberation struggle. We steal from the pensions of the poor while we call for radical economic transformation. Beneath the rhetoric of our worship we hide our acts of betrayal. And even this can be hidden from ourselves, such are the depths of our self-deception.

If Jesus’ Crucifixion recorded in the gospels does not illuminate the crucifixions recorded in today’s newspapers then we are denying the Crucifixion of old by the way we remember it.

This is true all over the world. This year we think especially of the civilian executions and bombed out communities of Ukraine. We think too of the economic war against the unemployed poor of our own land (See Sunday post from two weeks ago).

Today we gather beneath the wondrous Cross of the wounded one…

I invite you to carve out time today to name and hold vigil with the wounded of the world. Those who literally carry the sins (deathly actions) of the world in their living…

With grace, Alan

—

The Last Shall Be First

Along the way the pilgrims heard
        that a group of people
had set out for Jerusalem
        without a map.
Since each of us owned
        our own map
and read it daily
        and even then
had difficulty knowing
        which way to turn,
we were amazed
that they would set out
        on their own …
amazed and alarmed.

Many a day we had
        prayed and consulted
over choices
        in the road.
This news presented
        a greater dilemma:
Which of us would go
        in the rescue party?
Whoever went would
        most certainly
not get to Jerusalem
        on time.

Distraught,
        we prayed.
Then it was we realised
        that the ones who went
in search of the lost
        would be the first
to arrive in Jerusalem.

Certain in-charge church people
        expound upon the finer points of doctrine
while the disenfranchised await the verdict.

Meanwhile the holy fools rush in
       and touch the outcasts,
creating Good News once again.

Certain in-charge church people
       expound upon the finer points of doctrine
while the disenfranchised await the verdict.

Meanwhile the holy fools rush in
      and touch the outcasts,
creating Good News once again.

– Ann Weems

 

The Execution of Jesus

CMM, Cape Town / / Good Friday, Prayer, Sermon

Good Friday Sermon
2021 04 02 Alan Storey

The Execution of Jesus

[Hebrews 10:16-24; Mark 12:1-12; Mark 15:6-15]

Prayer: Can we wait and watch with Jesus?

 

Easter: Good Friday Reflection

CMM, Cape Town / / Easter, Good Friday

The Little Calvary: Praying on a Covid-19 Good Friday

A reflection on prayer by Rev. Dr. Peter Storey.

 

Good Friday Meditation

You are invited to spend some time on Good Friday
with this meditation by Joan Proudfoot.

 

Service & Sermon Resources

Sermons by Rev. Roger Scholtz of Kloof Methodist Church can be downloaded from Kloof Methodist Church Sermondrop and can also be found on i-Tunes.

Rev. Roger Scholtz: A Calvary Called Covid-19. [John 19:16-30]

A service by Presiding Bishop Purity Malinga & General Secretary, Rev. Michel Hansrod will be broadcasted on DSTV Channel 344 on Good Friday at 12:30.

 

 

The Cross of Christ

CMM, Cape Town / / Good Friday

Grace to you

Today we survey the Cross of Christ. To survey its wonder, as the hymn writer implores, we must first survey its terror. Yes, before the Cross is wondrous it is torturous and to deny the terror is to dilute the wonder.

The cross was more than a Roman tool of torture. It was a sign of intimidation – put up for all to see as a reminder to all who dared to think of rebelling against the authority of Rome, to think again.

Rome – like almost every oppressive nation – thought that they were the very incarnation of God on earth – and treated any threat to their power as not only treason but an affront to the Divine or at least what they believed to be “their God-given right”. Throughout the ages oppressive regimes have used religion to endorse their oppression while convincing their followers that evil is holiness and holiness is evil. We’ve seen this in our past where those in power convinced their followers that racism was a virtue and not a sin. When good and evil are literally swopped around terror-ble things are done by people who believe they are not only doing good but that they are actually pleasing God.

As T.S. Eliot reminds us: “Most of the evil in the world is done by people with good intensions.” This is certainly what the Calvary Cross exposes, for it was religious people who called for Jesus’ crucifixion. Ironically religious people turned out to be the greatest threat to Jesus. They believed nailing Jesus was holy and pleasing to God. In “defending” God they were in fact denying God. The Calvary Cross teaches us that throughout history the so-called “defenders” of God almost always do so by destroying human beings.

One would hope that the followers of Jesus would never do this, but alas history is littered with examples to the contrary. The reason one would expect Jesus-followers not to fall for this is, because at the heart of Christ-like faith, is the belief that God has taken on human form – flesh of our flesh – and therefore to diminish or destroy human life is at one and the same time diminishing and denying God. As the author to Colossians writes: “Christ is all and in all.” [Colossians 3:11]. Or remember the heavenly words of question to Saul on the road to Damascus: “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” See, God takes human persecution personally!

In short – the torturous Cross of Calvary teaches us that when we kill human beings we kill God. This begs our wonder…

Grace,
Alan