Palm Sunday

March 16, 2008

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

The Rev. Hannah Anderson

"The Cross-Examined Life "

From the time we received ashes on our foreheads six weeks ago on a Wednesday, we have been traveling with our Lord, Jesus.  During that stretch of time, his identity has been revealed to those around him.  He has called together a band of followers whose lives have been turned upside down.  Jesus has stretched out his hands to heal, spoken powerful words of the fulfillment of Scripture, gathered together groups of people to teach and called those who are marginalized the most blessed by God.  As the God-given power and authority within Jesus have been released, those in worldly power have become increasingly threatened.  Love, mercy, justice, truth-telling can do this. 

Some people would say that Jesus had it coming to Him, as if any person who provokes another and receives physical retribution somehow deserves it. Others would say that God intended this to happen to our Lord, as if the result of this journey was inevitable and in God’s hands.  Personally, I don’t know if I want to believe in a God who caused the death of a Son.  If God is capable of causing or willing that, does God also will the death of my family members, my friends, my parishioners? 

Instead, I consider this journey toward the Cross a choice that Jesus made based on his deepest principle of divine love for all of us.  It was not God who killed him; it was human beings who railed against the brightness of his love and light for all of humanity.  It was the smallness of heart, it was jealousy and envy, it was men in power who could not tolerate the Son of God living among them who tried to snuff out his life.  Rather than conjure up divine intervention to be freed from this suffering, our God incarnate—Jesus-- made a decision to align Himself with the human experiences of anguish and death.  He made the most difficult choice-- to continue to be with us even on the Cross, this Man of God, showing us how to forgive and love even until he breathed his last.  That is the God I choose to believe in:  a God of compassion—One who embodies the ability to suffer with others because of profound love.

Jesus’ journey to the Cross and the humiliation and anguish on the Cross could have been the ending point for human cruelty.  But it wasn’t.  People continue to live unaware, unexamined lives that cause great pain, hatred and even death against one another.

In the middle of this, God weeps.  We still have not learned.  There will be no conjuring up of divine intervention for us as we live in the mess we have created for ourselves.  Instead, we, as Christians, face the same choice that our Lord did:  Do we continue to walk the way of Love, knowing that we, too, will suffer for the sake of this Love?  Will we join Jesus in the walk, in the letting go, in the dying to self and rising to something new and unknown?  Will we choose to live in awareness and Cross-examination?

Our national and global news is filled with tragic stories of powerful leaders living  unexamined lives—and the consequences of their actions upon other people.  As Christians, we are to choose differently.  We can allow ourselves to be Cross-examined—to be held to the core values and principles shown to us by a Lord of Love.

I share with you a brief story about someone who did just this.  In her book, The Soul of Money, Lynn Twist writes about one of her experiences during her twenty years as Executive Director of The Hunger Project, a non-profit founded to end world hunger.  She was continually on the go to help raise funds for the organization.  One day she had two fundraising meetings scheduled:  One with a C.E.O. of a major food company in Chicago; the other with an African-American Church in Harlem.  First, she flew to Chicago.  The food company had just gone through a bad stretch of publicity due to unethical decisions.  They wanted to restore their image and decided that the easiest way to do it was to give a sizeable donation to The Hunger Project.  Lynn met with this man in his office. 

As she spoke about the courage of hungry people and the partnership that was needed to help them move toward healthy lives, Lynn realized that the man sitting across from her was not at all interested.  The meeting was cut short when he handed her a pre-printed check for $50,000 for The Hunger Project.  It was, in his mind, a simple transaction:  Give the money to allay the company’s guilt and wrong-doing:  a done deal. 

She put the check in her briefcase, found her way out of the building and caught a taxi to the airport to fly into New York for the next meeting, all the while feeling sick to her stomach.  Even though it was the largest amount of money she had received from a single contributor, she felt no joy in the gift:  she felt only the company’s guilt and shame.

At the church in Harlem, Lynn gathered with about seventy-five people for the fund-raising event.  It was pouring rain and there were buckets strategically placed around the room to catch the drips from a leaking roof.  Again, she spoke to the people about The Hunger Project’s commitment to feed the hungry.  The room fell silent.  Then a woman in her early seventies with gray hair stood tall in the back of the room. 

“Girl,” she said, “my name is Gertrude and I like what you’ve said and I like you.  Now, I ain’t got no check book and I ain’t got no credit cards.  To me, money is a lot like water.  For some folks it rushes through their life like a raging river.  Money comes through my life like a little trickle.  But I want to pass it on in a way that does the most good for the most folks.  I see that as my right and as my responsibility.  It’s also my joy.  I have fifty dollars in my purse that I earned from doing a white woman’s wash and I want to give it to you” (p.99).

She walked up the aisle and handed Lynn her fifty dollars along with a big hug.  Other people followed suit and at the end of the night $500 had been raised.  Lynn found herself sobbing with gratitude.  There was a sense of integrity and heart in the $500 from that church because it came from people who allowed themselves to be Cross-examined by our Lord, who made a willing sacrifice for the sake of others.

Lynn went home after that event and made a difficult decision, allowing herself to be Cross-examined by the Lord of Love.  She sent the $50,000 check back to the C.E.O., suggesting to him in a letter that he choose an organization to which he really felt committed.  With that, she felt at peace (pp.98-100).

Six years later, Lynn Twist received a letter from the C.E.O. upon his retirement from that company.  As he had reflected upon his career, he realized that he had one piece of unfinished business.  The moment he received Lynn’s letter and the returned check for $50,000 had become a seminal moment for him ‘when all the rules of corporate America—that you do anything and everything to increase profits—all those rules had been broken by someone outside his world returning the company’s money.  He realized upon his retirement that he was finally ready to make a difference in ending world hunger.  From his own pocket, and as an affirmation of his commitment, he made a personal contribution to The Hunger Project many times in excess of the original $50,000 (p.118).

This is an example of what Cross-examination by God looks like.  Our deepest beliefs and commitments have the power, literally, to save and restore lives rather than to kill. 

This week, Holy Week, is an invitation to allow ourselves to be Cross-examined by the Lord of Love. It is a time for us to pay attention to unfinished business. It is a journey of deep integrity, calling forth all the goodness that we proclaim for humanity.  We accept the invitation to travel with Jesus not out of guilt or shame or fear but out of perfect freedom.  As Jesus did, so do we.  AMEN.