"The Lamb Who Died"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is something to be said about the fact that the preparers of our lectionary, whoever they be, appointed this scene from the crucifixion of our Lord to be the Gospel lesson for the last Sunday in the Church year. In Year A, the year ends with a vision of the final judgment, where we see the sheep and the goats separated and sent into their respective homes for eternity. In Year B, we are left with the promise that the Word of the Lord remains forever, and with the charge from our Lord: “Stay awake.”

But this year, you have heard from the pen of St. Luke the first words of Jesus from the Cross. And how fitting it is that, at the end of time (so to speak), we hearken back to the beginning of the End.

John Calvin once called the shouts and jeers and mocking of the crowds, the insults of the Jews, and the scoffing of the impenitent thief a “premature triumph” on the part of the devil. The devil and his minions looked around and saw that they had Jesus under their thumb. He was beated, scourged, bloody, and broken. The Son of God was about to die. And would God save Him? “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”

Things Are Not Always As They Seem

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

If you have ever read or seen Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, you no doubt understand the saying, “things are not always as they seem”. Alice encounters one thing after another, in increasingly odd and peculiar situations. Cats come and go with a wink. Oysters and walruses are fond friends, for a time. Flamingoes are croquet mallets, and playing cards form a royal court. Flowers sing and caterpillars smoke hookahs. Nothing is as it ought to be.

How often do our lives feel like we have slipped down the rabbit hole! Those sworn to protect our Constitution are finding ways to end-run around it or nullify it. The rich are defrauding the poor by appearing as beggars. Marriage is divorced from God's plan, and so it seems to be whatever one wants it to be. Parents allow children to run their lives, and so ours has become a nation of overgrown children.