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The Annunciation
We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts, that we who have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Annunciation
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A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
✛
I, too, have to walk the same path.
Yesterday, young people and families, teachers and school communities joined people of all political persuasions and all ages in the March for our Lives, here in New York – one of over 800 marches around the world aimed to raise awareness of the awfulness of gun crime. The Bishops of the Episcopal Church issued a statement which included these words: “We pledge ourselves to bring the values of the gospel to bear on a society that increasingly glorifies violence and trivializes the sacredness of every human life.”
Today we have begun Holy Week. And Holy Week is about exactly that – the sacredness of every human life – for at its heart is the belief that, in spite of violence, sin, abuse, rejection, and terror, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)
That verse has given inspiration to countless followers of Jesus Christ and is the reason why Christians celebrate this most holy week of the year. We walk the same path of Jesus and we walk that same path hand in hand with our brothers and sisters.
Last week, in my sermon, reflecting on the character of Christian discipleship and its shape, I mentioned the life of Archbishop Oscar Romero. What many people do not realize is that when he became Archbishop of San Salvador, many were utterly dismayed; he was a conservative whom the pope thought would quieten the growing liberation theology movement. Romero surprised everybody and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously the year after his death. What was it that changed Romero? Three weeks after becoming Archbishop, Rutilio Grande, a Jesuit priest and personal friend, who had been living in poverty with the homeless, was brutally murdered. His death had a profound impact on Romero, who later stated: “When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, ‘If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path.'” (‘Truth and Memory – The Church and Human Rights in El Salvador & Guatemala’ Ed. Michael Hayes & David Tombs. p.48)
I, too, have to walk the same path. A chilling prophecy.
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
As the Christian community we will walk again the same path of Jesus our master this Holy Week. We will walk again the way of his cross in order to experience the joy of his Resurrection. At the Easter Vigil we will renew our baptismal covenant which has less to do with membership of a church but everything to do with recognizing that our lives are sacred and redeemed through the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. When a person is baptized they quite literarily ‘put on Christ’ – baptism is being clothed with Christ and becoming a new creation. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul says, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:18)
Yesterday, as people marched near our church, in the church we celebrated the anniversary of the martyrdom of Oscar Romero on that day in 1980. Not long before his death, he said this: “I have often been threatened with death. I must tell you, as a Christian, I do not believe in a death without resurrection. If am killed, I shall arise again in the Salvadoran people…You may say, if they succeed in killing me, that I pardon and bless those who do it. Would, indeed, that they might be convinced that they will waste their time. A bishop will die, but God´s church, which is the people, will never perish.” (from ‘Companions of Jesus. The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador’, by Jon Sobrino, Ignacio Ellacuría and Others: Orbis Books, 1990)
‘God’s church, which is the people, will never perish.’
Why is that the case? Not because it is a powerful organization; not even because it is the Jesus movement – but because it is the body of Christ and the body of Christ, resurrected and glorified, still bears the marks of the nails.
Romero was not from a wealthy family and he was only able to go to school for a few years before his father arranged for him to have an apprenticeship so that he would, at least, have a skill. And to whom was Oscar Romero apprenticed? A carpenter. At 13 years of age, he went to the Junior Seminary, with a strong sense of vocation. He quite literarily, followed the footsteps of our Lord – from the carpenter’s shop to a violent death.
Are we ready to walk the same way that Jesus walked before?
And if we find that thought frightening, are we ready to at least remember the way that Jesus walked before? Are we ready to give up a little bit of comfort this week? And be here, in this church, every day this week at 5:30pm for just a little while and make this a truly holy week? To bind our story with his story?
The poem, ‘Gethsemane’ by Mary Oliver
The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.
Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.
The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.
Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did, maybe
the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn’t move,
maybe, the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement, lay still and waited, wild awake.
Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.
