Genesis 22:1-14; Hebrews 9:11-15; St John 8:(42-45)46-59
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” You know that’s true. Some of you kids, now that you won’t be, actually want to go back to school. Some of your adults, who are usually just fine on your own, could use a little social interaction now. And just look around you. You notice, you palpably feel the absence of your brothers and sisters in Christ during this difficult time. They feel it too. They miss you. They miss Church, the Holy People of God gathered around His Holy Things. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
The Church knows this is true, too. And so, during Lent, the Church takes things away. Makes them absent for a little while. And that can be quit jarring. School. Work. Less cars on the interstate. Empty shelves at the grocery store. The absence of your brothers and sisters in Christ. These can be quite jarring.
It was jarring today as we veiled the crucifixes before the Collect. The Church takes away a full view of Jesus and His Cross. We veil the crucifixes, just as a widow might put on a funeral veil. And that’s because in today’s Gospel, Jesus, the Church’s Husband, the Heavenly Bridegroom, is being verbally attacked and threatened with death by His enemies. Soon He will be dead.
But today too we takes away the Gloria Patri. For the next two weeks we won’t say or sing, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.” That’s jarring too. That Divine Name revealed by the crucified and risen Jesus Himself. That Name that was placed upon you in Baptism. That Name that saves you. Today, that Name is also taken off our lips.
But that’s not all. Already stripped from the liturgy has been the Gloria in Excelsis, the song the angels sang at Christ’s birth. And before that, the Alleluias were taken away. Some of you during Lent have even taken money out of your wallet and given it away, to teach you that you can be rich, even without money. Some of your removed things from your regular diet, as you teach yourself that we do not live by bread alone. What a strange thing to take away in a culture that can never have enough. But the Church is not called to fit in.
But perhaps most jarring is the Gospel reading itself. Where Jesus take Himself away. His enemies are on the warpath. He’s speaking the truth to those who don’t want to hear the truth. And that will mean blood. They are calling Jesus demon possessed and insulting Him. Jesus declares that He is the God who always was. The same I AM who called to Moses from the Burning Bush. The I AM who ordered Abraham to slay his son then intervened to stop him and provided a ram as a substitute. He is the I AM who existed from before the foundation of the world. But they are dishonoring Him. And they pick up stones to kill Him. So He takes Himself away. He slips out. He hides Himself.
This is quite jarring because its not what we’re used to. The direction of Jesus in the Gospel is almost always the opposite. He doesn’t usually go away from man, but comes to him. Jesus comes toward man. He came to reveal God’s love to man. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to do His Father’s will. He came into the world to save sinners. He came in His birth. He came to John the Baptizer at the Jordan. He came to do battle with Satan in the wilderness. He went out of His way to come to the Canaanite Woman to help her and heal her daughter. He came to teach, to heal, to cast out demons. He’ll come to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He’ll come to celebrate the final Passover. He will come to the Garden to be arrest, to Pilate’s hall to be condemned, to the Golgotha to be crucified.
But today, He does the opposite. Today Jesus takes Himself away. Today Jesus hides. Jarring.
In the Scriptures its usually guilty and fearful man who does the hiding. It’s fearful Adam who hid himself from the presence of God, tried to hide his shame with fig leaves, and then tried to hide his guilt and sin behind lame excuses. It’s disobedient Jonah who hid himself in a boat trying to flee the presence of God. The psalmist fearfully asks, Where shall I go from Your Spirit, O Lord? Or where shall I flee from Your presence (Ps 139:7)?
We try to do that too. In fear and guilt and shame, we try to cover up our messes, hide from our mistakes, hide behind excuses and lies to get away with our sins. Like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel we have not kept Jesus’ Word, not abided in it for living and for life. We’ve honored God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him. We’ve done things that Jesus’ hates, but insist that deep down, we’re still a “good person.” We should taste death, eternal death. It would be perfectly just for Jesus to come at us with stones.
But then we are gathered to the Divine Service this morning and we hear something that is even more jarring. Something which has not been taken away, not only on Judica Sunday, but never. We hear the Gospel. We hear God’s Word of forgiveness. The very heart and center of the Christian Church who doesn’t fit into this world. We hear about Jesus and what He did when He came into the world.
He kept the Father’s Word because we haven’t. He honored God both with His lips and with His heart. His didn’t deserve to taste death, but He did, for everyone, so that you might not die eternally. He honored God with every fiber of His being so that you might get credit for it.
So while many good things are being taken away today, the Best Thing, the Holy Thing, is not. That best thing is a Person. It is Jesus, the I AM in the flesh, who does not go away this morning in disappointment, or come at you with stones, but He comes to your ears with His Word of forgiveness. He comes to your lips with Bread that is His Body and a life that cannot die.
For Jesus did not hide from His enemies in order to stay away from them forever. He hid as One who knew exactly what He was doing. He hid for awhile because it was not yet His hour. Or, as Abraham would have put it, He hid because His day had not yet come. Abraham looked down the generation and rejoiced to see that Day - the Day of Jesus life, His death, His resurrection and its benefits won for sinners.
Abraham saw that day and was glad. And he saw it in part, on that mountain, Mt Moriah, where the Lord God bid him go and slaughter his son, his only son, whom he loved. You might think that drama doesn’t get any better than a man being asked to sacrifice his son, see him lifting the knife, and then, at the last minute, being told to stop and instead pull out a substitute which God provided in a nearby thicket. What a day that was. To Abraham it was like a day of resurrection. He got his son back, safe and sound.
But it did get better for Abraham and for us. Centuries later God would instruct Abraham’s descendant, King David, to purchase a threshing floor on that same mountain as the place where his son would build Him a Temple, that great place of sacrifice. Where priests would enter the Holy Place with the blood of goats and bulls on behalf of the people.
And then, even better, a thousand years later God the Father would march His own Son, whom He loved, up that same mountain, lay Him down on the Cross, and lift the knife. And this time there would be no angel to tell Him to stop. There would be no substitute ram in the thicket. It would be the obedient Son of God no longer hiding, but in plain view, being judged, condemned and crucified for what we have been and done. The Day that He would taste eternal death for everyone. The Day that Jesus Christ, our High Priest of the good things that have come, enters once for all into the holy places through His own flesh, offering Himself without blemish to God.
And then, what drama, He rose from the dead to bring you forgiveness and life, to purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
He is not hiding His mercy this morning. He comes to His broken and guilty children with fatherly mercy. Just like He found Adam hiding and came to him in mercy. He has found you and clothes you with the Garment of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Just like He found Jonah in hiding and came to him in mercy. So has He found you and brought you to the Ship of His Church, safe through the storms and peril by being swallowed up in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Jarring.
Absence may make the heart grow fonder. But hearing again and again of the presence of God’s holy flesh on the Cross as our Substitute makes the heart grow with joy and thanksgiving.
He has sent out the Light and Truth of His Word and Spirit and they lead you and bring you to His holy hill, to His dwelling. Then you will go to the Altar of God, to God your exceeding joy. For here, the presence of God’s holy flesh now placed on your tongues makes the heart grow bigger, stronger in faith, more forgiving, more kind, more merciful, and more desirous to come to your neighbor, to reach out in love for those are absent from you this day. To love as you have been loved with a love unknown.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” You know that’s true. Some of you kids, now that you won’t be, actually want to go back to school. Some of your adults, who are usually just fine on your own, could use a little social interaction now. And just look around you. You notice, you palpably feel the absence of your brothers and sisters in Christ during this difficult time. They feel it too. They miss you. They miss Church, the Holy People of God gathered around His Holy Things. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
The Church knows this is true, too. And so, during Lent, the Church takes things away. Makes them absent for a little while. And that can be quit jarring. School. Work. Less cars on the interstate. Empty shelves at the grocery store. The absence of your brothers and sisters in Christ. These can be quite jarring.
It was jarring today as we veiled the crucifixes before the Collect. The Church takes away a full view of Jesus and His Cross. We veil the crucifixes, just as a widow might put on a funeral veil. And that’s because in today’s Gospel, Jesus, the Church’s Husband, the Heavenly Bridegroom, is being verbally attacked and threatened with death by His enemies. Soon He will be dead.
But today too we takes away the Gloria Patri. For the next two weeks we won’t say or sing, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.” That’s jarring too. That Divine Name revealed by the crucified and risen Jesus Himself. That Name that was placed upon you in Baptism. That Name that saves you. Today, that Name is also taken off our lips.
But that’s not all. Already stripped from the liturgy has been the Gloria in Excelsis, the song the angels sang at Christ’s birth. And before that, the Alleluias were taken away. Some of you during Lent have even taken money out of your wallet and given it away, to teach you that you can be rich, even without money. Some of your removed things from your regular diet, as you teach yourself that we do not live by bread alone. What a strange thing to take away in a culture that can never have enough. But the Church is not called to fit in.
But perhaps most jarring is the Gospel reading itself. Where Jesus take Himself away. His enemies are on the warpath. He’s speaking the truth to those who don’t want to hear the truth. And that will mean blood. They are calling Jesus demon possessed and insulting Him. Jesus declares that He is the God who always was. The same I AM who called to Moses from the Burning Bush. The I AM who ordered Abraham to slay his son then intervened to stop him and provided a ram as a substitute. He is the I AM who existed from before the foundation of the world. But they are dishonoring Him. And they pick up stones to kill Him. So He takes Himself away. He slips out. He hides Himself.
This is quite jarring because its not what we’re used to. The direction of Jesus in the Gospel is almost always the opposite. He doesn’t usually go away from man, but comes to him. Jesus comes toward man. He came to reveal God’s love to man. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to do His Father’s will. He came into the world to save sinners. He came in His birth. He came to John the Baptizer at the Jordan. He came to do battle with Satan in the wilderness. He went out of His way to come to the Canaanite Woman to help her and heal her daughter. He came to teach, to heal, to cast out demons. He’ll come to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He’ll come to celebrate the final Passover. He will come to the Garden to be arrest, to Pilate’s hall to be condemned, to the Golgotha to be crucified.
But today, He does the opposite. Today Jesus takes Himself away. Today Jesus hides. Jarring.
In the Scriptures its usually guilty and fearful man who does the hiding. It’s fearful Adam who hid himself from the presence of God, tried to hide his shame with fig leaves, and then tried to hide his guilt and sin behind lame excuses. It’s disobedient Jonah who hid himself in a boat trying to flee the presence of God. The psalmist fearfully asks, Where shall I go from Your Spirit, O Lord? Or where shall I flee from Your presence (Ps 139:7)?
We try to do that too. In fear and guilt and shame, we try to cover up our messes, hide from our mistakes, hide behind excuses and lies to get away with our sins. Like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel we have not kept Jesus’ Word, not abided in it for living and for life. We’ve honored God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him. We’ve done things that Jesus’ hates, but insist that deep down, we’re still a “good person.” We should taste death, eternal death. It would be perfectly just for Jesus to come at us with stones.
But then we are gathered to the Divine Service this morning and we hear something that is even more jarring. Something which has not been taken away, not only on Judica Sunday, but never. We hear the Gospel. We hear God’s Word of forgiveness. The very heart and center of the Christian Church who doesn’t fit into this world. We hear about Jesus and what He did when He came into the world.
He kept the Father’s Word because we haven’t. He honored God both with His lips and with His heart. His didn’t deserve to taste death, but He did, for everyone, so that you might not die eternally. He honored God with every fiber of His being so that you might get credit for it.
So while many good things are being taken away today, the Best Thing, the Holy Thing, is not. That best thing is a Person. It is Jesus, the I AM in the flesh, who does not go away this morning in disappointment, or come at you with stones, but He comes to your ears with His Word of forgiveness. He comes to your lips with Bread that is His Body and a life that cannot die.
For Jesus did not hide from His enemies in order to stay away from them forever. He hid as One who knew exactly what He was doing. He hid for awhile because it was not yet His hour. Or, as Abraham would have put it, He hid because His day had not yet come. Abraham looked down the generation and rejoiced to see that Day - the Day of Jesus life, His death, His resurrection and its benefits won for sinners.
Abraham saw that day and was glad. And he saw it in part, on that mountain, Mt Moriah, where the Lord God bid him go and slaughter his son, his only son, whom he loved. You might think that drama doesn’t get any better than a man being asked to sacrifice his son, see him lifting the knife, and then, at the last minute, being told to stop and instead pull out a substitute which God provided in a nearby thicket. What a day that was. To Abraham it was like a day of resurrection. He got his son back, safe and sound.
But it did get better for Abraham and for us. Centuries later God would instruct Abraham’s descendant, King David, to purchase a threshing floor on that same mountain as the place where his son would build Him a Temple, that great place of sacrifice. Where priests would enter the Holy Place with the blood of goats and bulls on behalf of the people.
And then, even better, a thousand years later God the Father would march His own Son, whom He loved, up that same mountain, lay Him down on the Cross, and lift the knife. And this time there would be no angel to tell Him to stop. There would be no substitute ram in the thicket. It would be the obedient Son of God no longer hiding, but in plain view, being judged, condemned and crucified for what we have been and done. The Day that He would taste eternal death for everyone. The Day that Jesus Christ, our High Priest of the good things that have come, enters once for all into the holy places through His own flesh, offering Himself without blemish to God.
And then, what drama, He rose from the dead to bring you forgiveness and life, to purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
He is not hiding His mercy this morning. He comes to His broken and guilty children with fatherly mercy. Just like He found Adam hiding and came to him in mercy. He has found you and clothes you with the Garment of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Just like He found Jonah in hiding and came to him in mercy. So has He found you and brought you to the Ship of His Church, safe through the storms and peril by being swallowed up in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Jarring.
Absence may make the heart grow fonder. But hearing again and again of the presence of God’s holy flesh on the Cross as our Substitute makes the heart grow with joy and thanksgiving.
He has sent out the Light and Truth of His Word and Spirit and they lead you and bring you to His holy hill, to His dwelling. Then you will go to the Altar of God, to God your exceeding joy. For here, the presence of God’s holy flesh now placed on your tongues makes the heart grow bigger, stronger in faith, more forgiving, more kind, more merciful, and more desirous to come to your neighbor, to reach out in love for those are absent from you this day. To love as you have been loved with a love unknown.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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