John 12:20-33
St. James’, Lafayette Square, Baltimore
Carrie Stepp Graves
March 17, 2024
In the name of our loving, liberating, and life-giving God, Amen.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:11 May I act with pure intention and walk in the way of love.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, right? Is anyone wearing green? We are grateful for what this 5th-century saint, born in Roman Britain, did to evangelize and take Jesus to Ireland. As Christians, we appreciate our saints anywhere in the world, where someone does much to teach people to walk the Way of Love and to know that they have Jesus to guide them. Patrick did that for Ireland, a country that is a part of my personal DNA as a white woman from the American South.
St. Patrick’s Day has become one the most commonly celebrated holidays in the entire world. Again, as Christians, we are alright with people wearing shamrocks whether or not they realize the meaning of the three leaves of the shamrock representing the Trinity, a critical part of our theology.
But that’s all I’m going to say today about that part of our Church history and theology. Today, March 17, I want to talk about American history, our recent shared history, something that most of us were alive to bear witness to. That is the presentation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to a joint session of congress by President Johnson on March 17, 1965. February is Black History Month but oh, did so much happen in March of 1965. The marches in Selma for voting rights, Bloody Sunday, and the presentation of this legislation and demand by President Johnson that every American citizen have the right to vote.
Our scriptures today struck me in a new way as I prepared to come be with you today. Each one of them, the old testament (Jeremiah), Hebrews and our Gospel mark a turning point, and one that I think is critical in our journey as FOLLOWERS, of Jesus. We are followers, right? Like the disciples? Jesus is our souls’ companion, our guide, our advocate and our teacher. And… we are called to be and do the same for each other.
In our readings today we’ve reached a turning point. All of them are hinting that the time has come for us to accept the divine within ourselves and to act from that, like Jesus did. It is time, Jesus says in the gospel, for the message to be REVEALED… Jesus has been protecting, to an extent, the scope of his message until this point. The point when, as we head into Holy Week next week, he will make the ultimate sacrifice – this human life, to show US that there is no finality in death, only FREEDOM. To reject the life we have through any sort of status quo from our society, culture, families or community and to walk the way of love. Walk it, the way the people did in Selma. If we cling to the life of this world, this society, this American culture that we live in, we will lose our life, we DIE to our personas and roles and any false aspects of ourselves. Only in rejecting these things do we act in love and find eternal life. That is some heavy stuff, friends. Right? This is so not easy to do.
Last year I went on a pilgrimage to the island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland. In the sixth century, St. Columba risked his life in a tiny coracle boat – it’s kind of like a big wooden salad bowl – not exactly a reassuring vehicle to take across stormy seas into a bay that captures crosswinds that could blow you to kingdom come…. St. Columba risked his life, to take the good news of Jesus Christ to that island and to found a monastic community there, a place to hold up the world in prayer.
While I was on Iona, my pilgrimage leader took us to the crossroads of the island, the only one there is. The island is only three miles long and one mile wide. He had the forty or so of us circle us around the CROSS-roads and he told us that in this week we are fast approaching, Jesus was at a crossroads. Jesus did not have to go to Jerusalem, he could have fled back to Galilee, where it was safe. He DID NOT HAVE TO GO TO HIS DEATH. What?! I thought Jesus was the chosen one, he was special, he did not have a choice! Right? Jesus did what Jesus did because that’s what Jesus does! And yet… this is what we are called to do.
At the crossroads, the point of decision… Jesus DID have a choice. WE have a choice. After that moment, this concept became like a mantra in my head, “Jerusalem, not Galilee, Jerusalem, not Galilee, Jerusalem, not Galilee…” And it has stayed with me, even culminating a couple of weeks ago in my signing up for a meditative hike unwittingly in Jerusalem, Maryland.
Building beloved community and saving the world is up to ALL OF US! Every single one of us! It may not actually require the sacrifice of your human life through murder (that concept used to share me) But it will mean sacrificing our human lives or whatever parts of them cling to the safety of the status quo, not matter how broken it is. It means choosing honesty, choosing love, choosing to present our authentic selves, no matter how broken they are, to the world, not the perfect-ish people we might think others want us to be. We are to present who God wants us to be, who Jesus has taught us to be.
So, Jesus said, “Whoever serves me MUST follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”
It hit me like ton of bricks in preparing for today, my friends: “Whoever serves me” (serves love, serves highest good and building beloved community, serves God’s commandments) whoever serves me has NO CHOICE but to follow me into death and eternal life. I have never heard this scripture that way before. PAUSE
IF we CHOOSE to serve God, and we choose to see it through, we have NO CHOICE but to die. Once we say we’re going to reject our false or inauthentic selves, the false and greedy ways of our culture, the selves who work to appear to be what society, family or community want us to be, we have no choice. We will DIE to that life and we will GAIN or keep the life of love in the beloved community.
So how do we do this? We listen – for God’s call to each of our unique lives. We listen – to the stories of our neighbors and we act. We come together to make decisions that build a community, God’s KINGdom, where all are treated fairly and equally and have what they need. And, we hold public officials ,of whatever political flavor, accountable to the same. We pray and we act.
This is what the KING of the Jews did. The KING that no one could understand as a true king because he was the OPPOSITE of what human brains then (and now) could understand as king. A non-violent, loving, healing presence who was a force of nature. He was mocked and tortured for being called a KING. I picture a sad and cheap sign, written by Pilate as the final act of loving the life of the Roman Empire, the wrong life, mocking Jesus as the King of the Jews.
Dr. Martin Luther KING, Jr., too, was the OPPOSITE of what a white, patriarchal society would call a king, too, wasn’t he? He acted in non-violence, with dignity and grace and love. He marched the way of love, proclaiming the beloved community. He advocated, guided and taught – and he made the ultimate sacrifice for it – this human life. He died for all of us, for this country, society and culture, that we might truly build a nation more reflective of the KINGdom of God.
In referencing the Southern Christian Leadership Council, Dr. King, with other ministers, wrote in January 1957, “This conference is called because we have no moral choice, before God, but to delve deeper into the struggle—and to do so with greater reliance on non-violence and with greater unity, coordination, sharing and Christian understanding.”
Jesus and Dr. King are kings to me. They are heroes. But I know that doesn’t mean that they did all the work. I must learn from them and do my best to follow them.
So, I have a tendency to preach long so I’m gonna do my best here not to keep you too long. Bishop Curry always jokingly notes he’s about to finish his sermon, whether he is or isn’t… So let me try… I’m not “promising” like BIshop Curry does, but I’m gonna try…
So, do you want to know who one of my biggest modern-day heroes is? Michael Bruce Curry. I love him. He is love incarnate to me. I actually have a reputation in The Episcopal Church for being that fan girl…, so much so that people have tried to keep me away from him at times… It’s a rather fun joke that I proudly claim. And… I know that Bishop Curry is calling me to do what he does. To walk the way of love, to build beloved community. Let’s take a moment to pray, as Canon Spellers did in this very pulpit in January, for the health and wellness of our beloved leader, called to guide and teach us. In silence…..
To stand here preaching in a pulpit where he preached for 12 years is a highlight of my life. I am so grateful to you, Father Meadows, and you, the people of St. James’. You are an amazing community of faithful people and I am so honored to be here with you today. Words can not express… Just love…
So let’s keep asking ourselves and asking God each day what we are called to do. How we are to reject the life of this world, in whatever tiny or big ways, how we are to die, in whatever tiny or big ways, to further the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. If we can do this, then we can teach our children to do the same. Children who are born with the clear eyes of love but who too soon are corrupted by the violence and restrictions of the life of this world. Let’s do our work on ourselves so that we may raise our children in a new world, a new nation, a community of love. Amen.
