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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
7 March 2004“Jerusalem on My Mind”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
Before the current turmoil in the Middle East, travel agents used to offer us clergy free trips to Israel.
The point of these giveaways was to encourage pastors to go to the Holy Land and have a good time -- so that we might later organize groups of our parishioners to visit Israel -- thus adding to the travel agents' business.
I myself never took one of these "familiarization" tours. For some reason, I've never felt a strong desire to go in person to see the places mentioned in the Bible.
I haven't felt a particular wish to "walk where Jesus walked." My vision of Christ seems not to depend on seeing the actual place where Jesus lived.
Even so, I have to admit that as far as the Bible is concerned, the Holy Land is definitely holy! Today's Old Testament Lesson, for example, tells of the covenant the Lord made with Abram (later known as Abraham) that Abram's descendants would be granted the land "from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates" -- land that would later be named after Abraham's grandson, Israel.
And, of course, this ancient covenant has secular, political implications even today. For example: if Abraham's descendants hadn't multiplied and come to dwell in the Promised Land-and then repeatedly return after several periods of exile-there might not be political instability in the Middle East, and we in America might be safer. Even today, God's promises to Israel aren't merely of historic interest.
And for Jesus, too, the promises God made to Israel were more than a matter of history. The Hebrew leaders in his day resented his challenge to their authority. They were threatened by him just as they were by earlier prophets who had held the nation of Israel to a high moral standard befitting its special covenant with God.
No wonder, then, that Jesus came to feel like one more rejected prophet-one more visionary who could see clearly how far Israel was from perfection. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," Jesus said, "the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!"
Jerusalem should have been the shining capital of a land of promise. Instead it became a place of death.
For as Jesus predicts, the people will one day say, "Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord." And that pronouncement will be uttered on Palm Sunday: only a few days before Jesus would, in this same city, be crucified.
Yet, we might still argue that all that was long ago and far away. To most of us, the Holy Land and its problems still seem to be an alien world.
To us who are neither Israelis nor Palestinians, the political conflict there seems intractable -- and in its viciousness, all the more "foreign" to us.
Perhaps, though, this text should make us think again. After all, the Holy Land is there, part of the planet earth. Its existence forces us to ponder spiritual truths we might otherwise want to ignore.
One truth is an insight that many Christian visitors to the Holy Land seem to get from their trips: the Holy Land is a real place. It has hills and valleys, cities and deserts. Israel contains many of the towns Jesus lived in or visited; pilgrims today can travel roads Christ himself traveled.
At the very least, then, the Holy Land should remind us that Jesus was a real person. As we read the Biblical stories, and as we watch Mel Gibson's excruciating film -- we remember that Christ was a person of flesh and blood. Jesus lived a human life; he knew the problems human beings face.
Another way in which the prophet's fate in Jerusalem is relevant to us is this: Christ struggled to do God's will in this world. He tried to do the best he could with the best intentions.
And even though his pronouncements about divine love and human hypocrisy were utterly accurate, Christ was rejected. As far as anyone could see, he failed.
Thus, when Jesus cried, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," he was recognizing that he would share the fate of so many prophets who tell unpalatable truths. The Holy City would kill him.
And though we aren't threatened with death for our beliefs, aren't we, too, sometimes disappointed by the hand we have been dealt by life?
Don't we, too, feel the weight of misunderstanding -- the burden of failure? While we're not prophets in the visionary Biblical sense, still we try to do the right thing. And, time and time again, our efforts come to nothing.
You might have thought you had a loyal friend -- only to have your friend drift away without explaining why.
You might have put absolutely all you had into a relationship -- only to have your companion reject you for what seemed like petty reasons.
All the rejections of life. Lost friends. Jilting lovers-think of the phrase, "she dumped me!" Isn't that a vivid image? Being thrown into the dump!
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it." "Jerusalem" is a metaphor for the misunderstanding and failure that comes to us when we're trying so hard to do something right. We feel we should be applauded; instead, we're condemned.
Rejection comes even when we are trying to do selfless "good works." In this regard, we may think of the ironic saying, "No good deed goes unpunished."
Anyone who has tried to love her neighbors in New York City knows how true that can be. Instead of feeling rewarded for our good deeds, often we get punished for them.
We may think, too, of Christ's famous admonition about turning the other cheek. If someone hits you on the cheek, Jesus taught you were supposed to turn around so the person could hit you on the other cheek.
And that arresting admonition is followed by another: Jesus said "if someone takes away your coat, give him your shirt also." Christ challenges us-he challenges us to come back and once again risk rejection.
The Passion of Jesus took place in another time and in another place. Yet, maybe, just maybe, Christ's rejection in Jerusalem helps us to see the divine promise in our own failures. Maybe, "like a mother who gathers her hens" under her to protect them, God is with us when we fail.
Perhaps the Passion of Christ can bring comfort to our suffering. Maybe, just maybe, it's more than an old story ...
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.