Easter Cantata Messages

Easter Cantata Messages


How It All Began

Come on a journey with me.  First to Bethlehem.  It is still a small town.  Still there's a Main Street.  On each side of the street are souvenir shops.  On the shelves of these shops, olive wood carved nativity sets, and crosses, and icons, and communion cups--also olive wood, turned on lathes to look like miniature chalices.  So much stuff for sale.

Ahead, the largest building in Bethlehem is actually three:  the church of St. Catherine; the Greek Convent; and, the Church of St. George.

The grotto where it was believed Jesus was born is encased in marble.  A 14 point silver star marks the exact spot where it is believed Mary birthed Jesus.  15 lamps, eternally burning, hover above and around the silver star.

Just across from the star is the manger scene.  A simple wood slated hay manger with a plastic Jesus laying in it.


It didn't always look that way.  Hay strewn about.  Instead of tourists mulling and pushing and shoving to get a photograph with their iPhone, there were live stock looking without seeing, straight ahead, chewing the cud.

Instead of people from different countries, buying trinkets, there were people from different parts of Israel, and different social classes registering their identities so Herod could make sure he was receiving all the tax to which he felt he was entitled.

Instead of a plastic doll, there was a real, live, kicking, crying, needy baby.  The baby laid upon a young woman's chest--a girl, really.  Does she know she's nursing God?


As He Grew

There is no "shadow of the temple" any more.  That's because there is no more temple.  All that's left is one wall:  known as the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall.  The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans, and the western wall was left by the Roman armies as a sign that attests to their ultimate and destructive power.

The Wailing Wall is the most sacred place for Jews in Israel.  It is a place of prayer.  People come from all over the world, and either speak their prayers to God, or write them on little pieces of paper and cram them into the little cracks and crevices in the wall's mortar.

Imagine Jesus moving in and out of that great temple throughout his ministry.  In that temple Jesus made connection with God from early infancy on through to the last days of his life.  He also tried to help others make connection with God--and was killed for it.

At one point Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19).  As John the gospel writer correctly surmised, the "temple" Jesus talked about was his body.

But Jesus correctly prophesied the temple's destruction.  The real temple, the real place to worship wasn't going to be a building or even what was left of a building.  The most authentic place to worship would be a person--the person of the Risen Christ.


The Lord's Supper

There is an old joke about the painting of the Last Supper.  All of those paintings show Jesus and the disciples on the one side of the table, sitting upright, Jesus in the very middle.

The joke is that Jesus said to the disciples, "OK, everyone who wants to get in the picture come to this side of the table."

More accurately, the disciples would have been all around the table, reclining at an angle out from the table.  The table could have been low to the floor with the disciples and Jesus reclining on cushions.  Jesus wouldn't have been in the middle of the table, like the painting shows, but at its head.

It would have been a relaxed atmosphere--just celebrating the Passover meal as they had so many times before.

It would have been relaxed, that is, until Jesus said, "One who has dipped in this cup will betray me."  We all blame Judas as the betrayer.  But Peter betrayed Jesus also.  So did all the rest.  After Jesus was arrested all the disciples took off and hid, leaving Jesus alone.  Only some women stuck it out.

All the disciples at the Last Supper asked Jesus, "Is it I?"  Jesus' reply?  "You will all fall away because of me this night" (Matthew 26:31).

What a lonely meal for Jesus, looking around the table, seeing their relaxed faces, hearing their laughter, knowing that in a few hours, they "will all fall away."

Song:  "Do You Believe In Me?"

Communion
I've patterned this Holy Week around three questions.  At Maundy Thursday Communion, I had those in attendance ask the same question the disciples did around the table that night:  "Is it I, Lord?"  Am I a betrayer?

Earlier this morning at the sunrise service I asked the question to those who attended, "Did Jesus really come back to life?".  And if he did, what difference does it make?

And here at the table, during our Easter worship is the question I just sung:  "Do you believe in me?"  That is, do you believe in Jesus?  Do you really?

There's been a lot made lately of the coca cola commercial, "Are you a fan?"  A number of my Christian friends have been putting up posts on Facebook that say, "Don't be a fan; be a follower," in terms of your relationship with Jesus.  Jesus doesn't need any fans.  Jesus needs followers, people who are true believers in Jesus and who Jesus was, and what Jesus was about.

All three of the questions lead to this one.  As you take the bread and the cup, dedicate yourself anew to Jesus Christ, not as a fan, but as a follower--a true believer.

(Words of the Institution: the joyful feast in the kingdom of God)

Gethsemane

I was told, before I left on my trip to Israel, that there would be sacred moments:  experiences I would not be able to anticipate, brushes with the Holy and holiness.  The Garden of Gethsemane was one of those for me.

We arrived at dusk and were given some time to walk among the ancient olive trees.  Some of those trees were alive when Jesus walked through it, knelt in anguished prayer, sweat dripping from his brow like blood.  Somewhere in there, three of the disciples slept instead of staying with Jesus in wakeful prayer.

I prayed in anguish as well.  Nothing like Jesus.  But part of my life was ending.  And I didn't know how to pray about that, other than groan and wish that there was somebody with me who knew what to say to God.

I thought it odd that there were so many pray-ers at the Wailing Wall, but hardly any here, in the Garden.  Only our little tour group and a handful of others.

This is the place where Jesus really wrestled with God and with himself.  Here is where questions turned into resolve.  Here is where the horns that could have sounded the retreat for Jesus, were not blown.  But instead Jesus moved forward from here--ever forward to what was to come.

Golgotha

One of the traditional sites of the Crucifixion is now a huge cathedral.  It's called The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  In one part of the cathedral is a huge, ornate altar.  Candles all above the altar, constantly lit.  Beneath the altar is a hole in the floor.  The hole is bored into the rock below it (you can see the rock underneath on each side of the altar).

You can reach under the altar and put your hand in the hole.  I've done it.  It's the hole into which the cross of Christ was set.  I had an eerie feeling putting my hand in that hole.  There was a long line of people waiting to do the same.  Millions have probably done the same, and will do so on into the future.  I couldn't linger too long.

I remember standing up, looking up, looking around at all the elaborate finery of the place.  All of it kind of cheapened the experience for me.

Because it wasn't like this at all, that day--the day of Jesus' Crucifixion.  There would have been blood--lots of blood not just from being spiked to the cross through the wrist and ankles.  But also from the brutal whipping Jesus received prior to the crucifixion that still would have been oozing blood.

There would have been no gilded candle holders back then.  Just used crosses already caked with blood, and sweat and dirt from the previous wearers.  The back drop was no ornate triptych, but a cloudy sky, getting darker and darker.

No matter how much you may try, you can't pretty up a crucifixion.  You can't hang a bunch of golden candle orbs around.  You can't surround it with icons and tapestry.  It's an execution.  Someone is dying a horrible, excruciating, humiliating death.  That someone is Jesus.  And the reason is you and I.


Written In Red

I say it again:  The reason is you and I.  One of my favorite quotes about what Jesus was about, and what his death was about, goes like this:  "It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the Cross, but his love for you and me."

To what lengths would you go to tell someone how much you love them?  How could you show the depth of your love?

There's no greater love than this, Jesus said, than someone lay down their lives for another.

A bomb has been thrown into the world.  That bomb is evil.  Evil that disrupts and destroys everything and everyone.  In an act of self-sacrifice and love, Jesus jumped on that bomb, and took the explosion on himself, saving us from its deadly consequences.

Self-sacrificial love, written in red, the ultimate expression of love--the love that held him to the cross.






The End of the Journey Is the Beginning

We started out on a journey.  We have traveled from Jesus' birth to death.  We have asked important questions along the way.  Life defining kinds of questions.  Questions you would ask yourself if you were really concerned about your relationship with The Lord.  If you were trying to figure out what life is all about.  If you want to live by faith.

LIFE.  Full life.  Life like a cup overflowing.  Life like the laughter of those set free.  Life like those who have made God their goal, as well as the way to get to that goal.  Both the way and the destination.

LIFE.  Life like a Resurrection.  Life like coming back from the dead.  Life like God smiling because of you.  Life like you smiling because God is smiling because of you.  There is no greater joy than that--than living that kind of life.

LIFE.  And it's all yours, given you by Christ through his Resurrection.  What God has done through Jesus Christ is all about Life, and being fully alive.

LIFE.  All you have to do is believe.  Throw yourself at the resurrected Christ, fall into his arms, and LIVE!