Voice of Thunder
Jeremiah 31:  31-34
John 12: 20-33
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
 
(Once again, the sermon as preached varied from this prepared text. The sermon as preached can be heard on podcast epworthberkeley.org)

On Friday the Oakland Arena was filled with 20,000 people for a memorial for four slain police officers.  Many tears were shed, tears of sorrow and loss for families, friends, community.  Many words were spoken in honor of lives given in service to others.  Many tributes were read, memories shared, many official and authentic speeches.

But the power was in the gathering itself.  The power was in who was there, who was not there. The power was in ritual without words –processions, formations, salutes, pictures, bagpipes, folding flags, the silence, the space between words that allowed the unspoken to be heard, - - the questions, the challenges, the relationships, the complex violence of a broken soul and a broken system that brought us to the Arena.

Rituals are “outward and visible signs” of truths that run deeper than words.   

I was at the memorial with Jerry West to support as family and friend Sandra and Nate and so many others.  I felt kin to all family of OPD with a mixture of grief and gratitude.  The challenge of Gospel, to ALL of us, is to bring God’s love, to get up and bring that love, to wake up and dis-cover that love in the scariest streets of our communities, so that God’s peace and justice will dwell in the hearts of young people who feel thrown  away, and in hearts and minds of public servants.

Our Gospel reading says that some Greeks came to Philip and said, “We wish to see Jesus.”   By the time the message got to Jesus, he didn’t say “bring them on over.”  He said, “the hour has come” ... He said, “unless a seed of grain falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Jesus spoke of his own death.

As we approach Easter ... we also approach Good Friday ... we approach the story not just of resurrection but of crucifixion ... not just of new life but of suffering and death ... not just of glory but of brokenness and unspeakable pain.  

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled.”   He confessed the struggle in his soul ... whether he would pray to be delivered ... and then, as he prayed, he chose the cross.  He chose to continue his life of love, even in the face of empire, even to his death, and there he revealed that the true power and glory of God is love.

After his prayer a voice came from heaven ... some people heard thunder ... others heard an angel’s voice.  The voice affirmed again that love is God’s glory..

Some of us are convinced by the presence of evil in the world, by our suffering or the suffering of others, that God is silent.

Some of us are convinced by unanswered questions or unanswered prayers that God does not speak to us.  Our souls are troubled.

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled.”  He walked with us even through these lonely valleys.  He had entered the city of Jerusalem and he knew that his life and ministry of love challenged the system of domination and violence.  He knew that powerful people were plotting his arrest.  He was at a cross roads on the road to the cross.

Jesus chose to pick up the burden ... to carry the cross ... of all who bear unbearable pain, all who lose themselves in loss, all whose hearts are so flooded with fear and despair that life becomes a living death.

In John 10: 18 Jesus says, “I freely lay down my life.  And so I am free to take it up again.  No one takes it from me.  I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again...”

There was a church that began worship every Sunday with the preacher shouting out this question:  “Who do you say God is?”  The first time he asked, the choir would sing, “King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Father everlasting!” The second time he would ask again, “Who do you say God is?” And a soloist would sing, “Sweet Mary’s little babe, born to suffer, born to die.”  Again, “Who do you say God is?” Back and forth between the two....the congregation joining in...singing the paradox of the cross ... “King of Kings ... born to die ... Ruler of all creation... crucified...

There is a divide in Christianity today – those who see God as judging father... and those who see God as nurturing parent.  The Gospel tells us that, in Jesus, the nature and nurture and judgment and glory and power of God all are revealed in a suffering servant ... a crucified God.  Judgment is not pronounced in anger from afar, judgment is not enforced with vengeance ... but is lifted up where love is crucified. Nurture is found, not in mere sentimentality or blind support, but is lifted up in willing, self-giving love, crucified in the public square of empire.  

The way to see Jesus is to look toward the cross.   

In his book The Soul of Christianity, Huston Smith writes, “The overt symbolism of a cross is so obvious – its vertical arm uniting heaven and earth, and its horizontal arm symbolizing throwing one’s arms out to others ... ,“
 “God is love ... God ... voluntarily endured the most agonizing death known in his day in order to  ... let people know that they are not alone.  To ...”let people know that they are loved.”

Anne Lamott says it this way, “to any and every conceivable complaint we speak, Jesus says, ‘Yeah, right. Me, too.’”

We never know what circumstance may come in our own lives in which more may be required of us than we thought we could possibly do.  But whether it comes to us in the voice of thunder or in an angel’s whisper, we may find ourselves inspired and strengthened by God who turned death’s cross into the sign and symbol of the victory of love.  

There is a temptation in the spiritual life to use prayer as a substitute for action.  
Not if we follow Jesus.

There is a temptation in the spiritual life to live on the clear surface waters of certitude, full of pride and self-righteousness.
Not if we follow Jesus.

There is a temptation in the Christian life to celebrate Easter without confronting the cross.
Not if we follow Jesus.  

We are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus in our living and dying.
Nothing less.
Death comes before resurrection.
Troubled souls dive deep into the very heart of God.
Prayer breaks open our daily lives to choose the self-giving love of Jesus.
Amen.