+Luke 22:39-23-56
Historians and church scholars agree that the sacred play-acting that we have just participated in is as old as the organized Church is itself. Already by the year 381, the sacred Procession and Blessing of Palms, the Foot-washing that will take place on Thursday, and the meditation on the Cross on Good Friday, already by 381 these holy recreations were a part of the Divine mystery of Holy Week. We know all of this from the journal of Egeria, a wealthy pilgrim from what is now Spain. She wanted to tread those precious steps and see that wretched hill of death and destruction, Golgotha: the Skull. There is something deep seated in the far wells and crevices, deep within the bones and marrow of our faith that compels us to walk with Christ in these last days and hours of his Earthly life. Egeria of Spain, like so many millions of Christians around the world this very day and the millions from throughout the ages, wanted and want to know and experience the words of the Spiritual, “Were you there when they Crucified my Lord.”
Just as last week has been a much-needed source of rest, relaxation, and re-creation during your Spring Break, so also is this Sunday and all the proceeding days of this most holy of weeks intended to be re-creation in the Spiritual Sense, a restoration of our faith in God and Christ Jesus. Our Holy Week is an intentional and deliberate process whereby we remember why it is that we call ourselves Christians and why it is that we give thanks in our Eucharistic meal each Sunday morning for the Gift of Jesus the Messiah.
One theological word that is heard and ‘bandied-about’ around this time of year is the Atonement. It is a theological construct that explains Jesus’ purpose in life was to be an expiation for our sins, a reparation for our wrongs, a quid-pro-quo exchange between an Angry God and a sinning people. Churches are named after it, hymns and poems composed in honor of it, and Churches are formed and split because of it. However, look closely at that word: Atonement. Let me spell it out for you: A-t-o-n-e-m-e-n-t. Look closely and you will see the true nature of that precious word, though centuries and dialects have corrupted the original thought and intention of it. Literally it means what it looks like. At-onement. It is the beginning of a process of reconciliation of God’s people with God through the Love, Mercy and actions of Jesus our Brother. Through the divine power of humility, through the power of Divine Love over and against religious rigidity, political intolerance, and social injustice; through that heavenly power of humility, Christ begs and beckons us to be at-one with God and with one another. Be reconciled with one another as Christ has reconciled us with God. Be at-one with each other….
Jesus calls us to ‘Go to dark Gethsemane,’ he invites us to ‘Survey the Wondrous Cross,’ he allows us to see the ‘Sacred Now Wounded’. And when we are asked, ‘Were you there?’ may Jesus, our friend and brother, reigning in power from an instrument of terror give us the grace, mercy to stand by him and say Yes, we were there.
Let us pray.
May Christ’s Atonement become our reconciling At-onement with God, with our Neighbor and with our broken World. Give us strength, Lord Jesus King of Kings, for our journeys even unto your Tomb. All this we ask for the sake of your Kingdom of Mercy, Humility and Peace.
AMEN.
