Rambling Sermon

Homily on Passion Sunday

March 28, 2009 (St. Peter’s CSI Church Kuwait)

Text Is:42 1-9, Ps 89: 34-52,

1 Cor. 6:-10 and Mark 10:35-52



Thank you Father for your Word which we, your called, have heard. May these be engraved in our stony hearts, and, in your mercy open our eyes, ears and heart so that we can see how unworthy we are of the free fountain of grace by which you have snatched us away from the power of death and sin.



I want to thank the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me the strength to stand here this Passion Sunday and speak. I am grateful to our Achen for requesting me to do this.



The 4 readings today taken together give us a very rich set of thoughts that can give us much to meditate as we journey through the last two weeks of Lent.



As you all know this is the 5th Saturday or Sunday in Lent also called Passion Sunday and and next Sunday is Palm Sunday. In Germany even today the cross in many churches is covered with a black cloth so that the congregation will not see it. The cloth will be removed on Holy Friday or Good Friday when the cross will be put right in front of our eyes after 2 weeks of hiding it.



The word Cross and the word Passion are related. The connection is suffering. Passion comes from the word "Passus" in the Latin language which means "suffering". All of today’s readings can be seen as different sides of the theme of suffering.



We start with Psalm 89 in which the Psalmist Ethan the Ezrahite ((who by the way we see in 1 Kings 4:31 as one of 4 men who was known for wisdom of the tribe of Judah . Another Ethan the master of music who is a Levite and son of Kishi is seen in 1 Chronicles 6:44 (the ancestor of Asaph) and 15:17-19
His name means enduring) writes about the total sense of feeling alone that the nation of Israel feels. This was written just before they were taken to Assyria as slaves or just after their return from Persia. They were not a strong country at that time. Their leaders were few and they were weak. Their country was in a very bad state and they were suffering from depression. Where were the promises of God given to his servant David? Why were his people suffering? In all this he starts the psalm praising God for his wonderful deed and his raising up of Israel by anointing David as the firstborn and highest of Kings. He hints that Israel forsook the law he gave and now they were suffering his rejection. God not with them or could not be seen by his power among them. He cries to God . How long. we are but men (Psalm 89:46 how long O Lord will you hide yourself forever. .. Remember how short my time is. Who can live and never see death?... ) The Psalm ends with a great question mark People are insulting Israel and they have no answer. They are waiting ... The verse 52 Blessing the Lord was added later according to scholar.



Is there an answer-- Remember our Lord is a Lord who had said "YES" to us in spite of our obstinate and hard heart and lack of humility, patience and lack of courage.



The answer is in the 1st reading, Is 42:v1. "Here is my servant whom I uphold... I have put my spirit on him and he will bring forth justice. to the nations." Ethan gets his answer and any other of the Israelites who searched the prophets after reading this last psalm of book 3 for relief would have see this. But Gods answer is bigger than Ethan’s question. He will bring forth justice not only in Israel but in the whole world. God be praised. Is that not what we all are praying for? When we would like to help someone who is suffering injustice but we are afraid to because we have very little faith in the one who called us? The Lord's servant in Isaiah who will come to people like us without raising his voice in the street in gentleness like a shepherd will fees us foolish sheep by hold us close to his bosom. (Is. 40:11).



Does that mean there will be no suffering once he comes. No not at all. Jesus came and the gospel lesson in Mark 10. takes us once again back to something we would like to escape. Suffering... Jesus at the end of 3 years of ministry on his final journey to the wonderful and yet sad city his sweetheart and darling Jerusalem-- killer of the prophets ready to suffer with a heavy heart that he must leave his flock. Jesus warns his disciples 3 time in chapter 8:31 (great suffering and be rejected by the high priest and scribes) then 9:31 (betrayed to human hands (Oh woe are we and our brother Judas Iscariot) and killed and after 3 days) and finally on the road to Jerusalem in verse 34 of ch.9 (handed to the gentiles, mock him, spit and flog and kill and after 3 days will..). And then the first part of the first reading talks about his disciple who he loved most John and James the Boanerges - sons of thunder - powerful men who Jesus gave power to heal and to drive out demons and to show the power of the new age of God to his people. They were so wrapped up in their own dreams and not the dreams of their Rabbi.. and the visions of Isaiah 42:1-9 of a quiet and humble yet confident servant. They were the servants or the called of the Servant of God of Isaiah and their dreams were about sitting at the right and left hand in power in this world. Can we point the finger at them. are we not happy when we sit next to those in power and they speak nicely to us and others can see us like that. We can point the finger at them but 3 fingers pointed at us because we love this world and want to do goo - help and share what we have with others but we cannot do this with our mind or our will alone. all the great men of God know this and know this a great temptation - To sit at the table of our Lord and share his power – control how other people access God. This is already given us but the table we share God invites all the poor and the blind and the hated and the outsider.



This brings us to the last part of the gospel and the familiar story of Blind Bartimaeus and his suffering. He has been rejected and has to beg because no one wants to be near a man born blind. The belief is that he was suffering because of one of his relative who died without repenting of their sin. He has to bear the sin of his relative as a punishment he was born blind. But is this the God who we see in Isaiah 42. No he is not hard he is soft he holds us close to give warmth. His hands are there and he wants us his church his Ecclesia his called people to love those who are despised. He knows it is difficult and hard but his spirit is with us and moves us. For with God all things are possible. He says YES.. Bartimaeus did not read the scripture he was blind- but the spirit of God and the news of his son and the stories he heard from the people who gave him a few coins this entered into his heart and then the miracle of faith like a seed came out watered by these things. He saw himself as not a blind beggar not as one who need to be pitied but as one who God considers a sheep who was lost. He knew his own self. Do we know who we are. Are we not blind. Do we not pretend to not see suffering - I know I do. You can give money to one begging on the street but after 3 pr 4 times it is hard and My mind tells me they are cheats.. The servant according to Isaiah will not rest ... will not be tired. till he brings justice. This is His aim. And we his called cannot do it if we think we already know everything about God and the right way to this. We are first to see if we can achieve this Justice among ourselves.



This brings us to the final chapter the 2nd reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians ch. 6. 1-10. Here Paul was talking about the need for wisdom among believers. Corinth was the 3rd richest city in the Roman empire of Paul’s time. The Corinthians on average had everything - wisdom, comfort, wealth power. The problem with having everything is that we think we are complete. Prayer is difficult for those who are satisfied with who they are. Paul wrote this letter to them because the church was having problems - serious problems which could only be solved by the people themselves. They went to the civil law courts and they used their own wisdom. this is not possible in the church. The wisdom of the church according to Paul in 1 Cor 2: is not words but "Christ crucified". The willingness to suffer for other - who we don't like who probably don't like us. Whose life and habits we don't agree even though we are one church. This cannot be solved by intelligence or reason which can be used only for ordinary things of the world and only partly for the things of God. We have faith first and then we try to understand. We can never understand first and then find our own way to faith without the guidance of the Holy spirit sent from the Father and the Son. And how did the Father introduce the spirit to the Church. In the death and the resurrection of his only son - in weakness. He did not introduce him in Power that the world understands - the power of police, army of angels or wonderful speeches like in our elections.



This is the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the spirit which allows us to lose our best things, lands, food, shelter, money to someone who unjustly file a case against us. Can this be. Should be allow this - is this not injustice. NO ! NO ! not for Paul. -- He tells us it is shameful to give a case against a believer. Settle it because God has poured his spirit and through the spirit the wisdom of god on us.. How we ask. We are impatient We cannot wait for God to settle we see only the short term. We want justice now - profit now - tomorrow we are not sure we may not be there so today is the day we have to fight for what we think is right. As an example of this so called world wisdom see the financial crisis of today. The most brilliant mathematicians of the world and the most intelligent MBA students work for the huge investment banks and brokerage house in Europe and the US and in our country. Yet the financial genius of the world led the world into a situation where now we have more suffering due to the loss of jobs to thousands and probably millions. Please don't think I am saying we are better than them. Provided we realize this and come together in the Spirit.



We are not as clever as we think Lord. Baritimaeus your servant who though blind could see with his heart and followed you on receiving his sight knew the answer.. Let the Holy Spirit work and open our blind hearts. So that when the Lord comes when the time is right we know He will come already has given us freely his grace but he will come closer when we don’t know. Like a thief in the nigth He will ask as he asked Bartimaeus. What do you want me to do for you.. As it is we are like John and James your servants, believers in power. Give us the ability to answer humbly knowing that we need take courage in our weakness and our total lack of wisdom. That is the time.. we have to know the answer but not with our own wisdom which is always calculating. We have to ask humbly which is only possible if we let the spirit point to our basic emptiness of Good. Lord and teacher -- Rabboni let me see ... To ask this in faith is to get it. But teach us enable us to do it every day and in every situation as far as God’s spirit gives us the ability. It requires us like Bartimaeus to put off our cloaks and our money and security like he did and follow Him who bled and suffered and gave himself to us in pain and emptying of His glory ... to suffering. Yet as your servant Paul said suffering is nothing.. to the joy that he has and will reveal to us with the renewing of our bodies in the new heavens and the new earth that he promised us in the Age to come.



Now unto the Father who is our final House and the Son who the door of our Father’s house and the Holy Spirit who gives us the Key to open that door which by our strength cannot open, but in His mercy he invites us and all people freely, be all glory and honor forever and ever. Amen

Faith the fruit of suffering

Many times we have to suffer very acutely until we finally quit being like a crustacean that sits in its hard shell and is always alone with its own self, caring for nothing going on around it.

Eduard Schweizer in God’s Inescapable Nearness

(from Jason Goroncy's excellent blog

Crazy how this is only true when it has actually happened to you (in this case me).

Yay!!

Simone Weil on Evil

"To say that the world is not worth anything, that this life is of no value, and to give evil as the proof is absurd, for if these things are worthless then what does evil take from us"

Gravity and Grace, pg. xx, Simone Weil

The word from the Void

It took me a while to understand that in this blog post the quotation was being spoken not by God but by the adversary.

Use G-d as a means to achieve social justice. No way no how. He is not a means to an end, even what seems to be good one. At least that is what I think C.S. Lewis' quotation is about. What say you ?

Special Request - For a good mechanic

A blogger whom I have a lot to be thankful for has asked to create a link to a mechanic in his town, San Antonio, in whom he trusts and believes and who he wants to help by making his ranking higher in Google.

So here is the link to Kastis Automotive repair in San Antonio.

Since cars are very close to being one of the inanimate members of our family now a days, a good mechanic is like a good doctor. Hard to find. In Kuwait with cheap petrol the only way to find a specialist mechanic is word of mouth since very few mechanics have websites.

O my G-d. I have been touched

I saw this photo today on a post by Andy Rowell about Bishop Lesslie Newbigen the first bishop of the Church of South India's Diocese of Madurai Ramnad. Now you see him sitting in a grey suit right in the center of the 1st row of the photo.

On his left is the great Orthodox priest theologian Florovsky and on his left is the delightful Karl Barth Sahib.


This Holy week in Kuwait our church was blessed to have our old parish priest now in the avatar of Retired Bishop the Very Rev. Michael John (first Bishop of the East Kerala Diocese) giving riveting messages in his very special style.

What is the connection?

Well I talked to and touched the Bishop on the shoulder while talking besides shaking hands with him. The Bishop told me that he talked to Bishop Newbigin in his "Aramana" (Malayalam word), palace while he was a young man. He called him a "genius". There must have been a shaking of hands.

And through the photo and the excellent article by Andy at the link above I know that Bishop Newbigin and Karl Barth and Rev. Georges Florovsky worked together for on the "Committee of Twenty-Five" theologians in preparation for the 1954 World Council of Churches conference. Lots of hand shaking.

So there you have it, I'm bursting with strange wonder how I can be linked to Barth and Florovsky. Wow!