The Sermon Text —LUKE 22:23—23:49

The answer was, "The Lutheran Youth Gathering in Texas when I was in high school." The question was, "Describe a time when God seemed very near to you." The person speaking was a part of a discussion group. She continued, "I can’t tell you what a powerful experience it was to be in that auditorium with 15,000 other Lutheran kids singing and clapping. When the leader prayed it was as if 15,000 of us held our breath. When we sang I had never heard anything so sweet. I thought God was inches away. I thought that heaven was about to touch earth."

Do you know what this young woman was talking about? Have you ever had an experience when it seemed as if heaven was about to touch earth? When God was as close as your breath? In that instance you knew God did not live in the clouds. You were certain that God is here…now.

When people describe their most powerful God-filled moments they seem to fall into two categories: A. Experiences when they were alone or

B. Experiences when they were in a large group. In the second category people tell of times at Bible Camp around an open fire, or a part of an Easter celebration. The experience is intense and deeply meaningful.

For some reason we don’t have hundreds of these experiences. Only a few. Perhaps it is like being at the top of a 11,000 foot mountain. It is a great experience, but we can’t live there. It is hard to breath. We can only do it for short periods of time.

The first Palm Sunday must have been something like that. Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a borrowed animal, a colt. The crowds tore the branches off the trees and packed the streets, shouting: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. What a rally! What an experience! In a few days the same crowds were shouting ""Crucify him!", but for this brief period in time they had it right. He was the king. He was the Lord. It was important to greet him as a king. When they did it must have seemed, for that brief moment, as if heaven touched earth.

Actually, heaven and earth come together – overlap if you will – during this entire week. It is the final week in the earthly life of Jesus. Each event is powerful in and of itself. It is so powerful that we believe it made the world a different place. Each event is so powerful that we celebrate them separately: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and then the capstone: Easter. When this week is over Christians say: God has visited his people. God’s future has arrived. God’s tomorrow has appeared. Heaven has touched the earth.

On Thursday Jesus gathered his friends together to eat the Passover meal. It was a meal to commemorate the freeing of God’s people when they were slaves in Egypt. Before they were done, Jesus had put his own stamp on that ancient ceremony. When he took the bread from the table, he blessed and broke it and said to those present: This is my body, given for you. Do this to remember me. Later, he took the wine and announced, This is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sin. When the meal was over the men looked at one another and thought, "Something unbelievable has happened. It is as if heaven and earth have come together."

This was also the night when he gave a new commandment, "To love one another," and then washed the feet of the disciples to demonstrate what he was teaching. He then told them to "go into the world as servants." From that day on Christians have experienced the intimate presence of God when they have received the bread and the wine in his name, and when they have cared for others in the name of Jesus. How many people have returned from the kneeling at the table thinking, "God is as close as my skin?" When I eat the bread; when I drink the wine I know that God is not only near me, but in me. How great is that?

The same thing is true when we do something for someone else. We all know that there is a real mystery about this kind of serving. We do something for someone else and yet we know that WE are the ones who receive the greatest benefit. It happens when we teach: the teacher does most of the learning. It happens when we help someone who is ill: the person that does the errand, provides the service, receives the greatest benefit. Jesus tells his followers: Whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you do for me. No wonder the results of our service are mystical in nature. By feeding, clothing, visiting, we have connected with God. In our serving we experience a deeper connection with God. The gap between heaven and earth has been narrowed.

Though Thursday is powerful, it doesn’t compare to Friday. Friday is the day Jesus died on the cross. Friday is a horrible day that Christians have named Good Friday, because the results are good. It is good for all who believe and trust in him. It is good for all who receive his gift of love and forgiveness.

We believe that if you look hard at Jesus, especially as he goes to his death, you will discover more about God than you could ever have guessed from studying the seemingly infinite heavens or the moral law. You will discover that God does not work by power and muscle. God works by love and suffering. God works by mercy and charity.

No matter how often we hear the story of Good Friday it catches us off guard. Perhaps this is true because this is not the way we would have designed things if we were in charge. Most of us would never choose to die a humiliating death in order to tell the people of the world that we love and forgive them. I think I would use a cosmic loud speaking system – Now hear this! This is God and I want you all to know that I love you. Of course, I’d add: I’d like you all to be in church on Easter. Or something like that. An alternative would be simply to email the message: Just in case you forgot, I really do love you. God.

Hanging naked on a cross on a hill in the hot sun strikes me as totally over-the-top.. How extreme! I would want a way to say I love you that didn’t involve personal sacrifice, figuring there has to be a better way. But of course there isn’t. God’s way has worked. My way takes little or no effort on my part. Whatever differences there are between me and God, and they are significant, this is the difference to end all differences: God so loved this world that he gave his only son. It is in the self-giving that we gasp. It is in the sacrifice that we see heaven and earth coming together.

The story of salvation is the story of rescue and rebirth. Jesus wants not just to influence us, but to give us a second chance; not just to inform us, but to heal us; not just to give us something to think about, but to feed us, and to feed us with himself. As we look at the cross we see heaven and earth coming together.

The fourth of these great events is Easter. Easter, of course, is God’s yes to Jesus. Easter is God’s yes to the world. Easter announces that the God who raised Jesus from the dead can do the same for us. Death is no longer the final barrier. The earth has been reclaimed by God, the creator of all. It is a reminder that God’s fingerprints are all over his world.

The Bible is a story— a grand epic narrative that runs from the Garden of Eden to Revelation— where the choirs sing totally in tune in amazing harmony out of gratitude to the Lamb who was slain and has begun to reign. It is a love story in which we are invited to participate.

However you chose to celebrate Holy Week please do so expecting something great to happen. Know that you can make a portion of it happen. This takes place when you move beyond watching or observing to participating. You can have your feet washed on Maundy Thursday as you watch with Christ for just one hour. You can look at the amazing cross that fills the Bethel sanctuary and imagine God’s death. You can sing hymns as if life depends upon it.

You can pray each day…as you read the Holy Week story….reading and praying go hand in hand…and when you do ask God to fill your heart with love…enough love that you will move outside your comfort zone and do something special for someone else.

In the liturgy of Holy Communion the pastor sings: Lift up your hearts. And we sing…we lift them to the Lord. That is a great place to start…with uplifted hearts…for when our hearts are lifted up the chances are infinitely better that we will experience heaven overlapping with earth. Amen.

© 2007