What have we done? - Good Friday 2015

Cringe worthy … that phrase for me describes the Passion of Christ and especially John’s version of it. Cringe worthy. Not only for the coldness and the brutality of it but also for how it portrays the Jews. The Jews shouting “Away with him! Crucify him!” is just … cringe worthy. Passages which are even more difficult for me to read this evening knowing that as the sun was setting, my Jewish friends are gathering at table to celebrate the first night of their most holy feast of Passover – the annual celebration of their liberation from the yoke of Pharaoh. Reading these passages here and being reminded of how over the centuries they have been used to rationalize anti-Semitism and blame the Jews as the killers of Christ. Cringe worthy indeed.

We cannot understand the anti-Jewish language in John outside of the context in which it was written. Scholars believe John to the be the last gospel written – likely somewhere around 100 to 125 C. E. At this point, there had been a complete break between the early Jewish followers of Jesus (those who followed The Way of the Nazarene as it was called) and the Jews who held traditional beliefs and did not accept Jesus as Messiah. Tensions rose as a result of the failed Jewish Revolt which resulted in the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 C. E. The early Jewish Christian community refused to join in the revolt resulting in the Jewish community feeling betrayed. Tensions continued to rise over the following years so that by the time John wrote his gospel, it was laden with anti-Jewish sentiment. Resentment and hurt spilled into the pages – resentment and hurt which would be later used to justify all manner of violence against the Jews.

While today we like to think we read these texts with the context in mind and that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past, don’t believe it. The case of Tom Schweich in Missouri says otherwise. For those of you not familiar with it, Tom Schweich was a gubernatorial candidate in Missouri, a devout Episcopalian and a devoted public servant. A few weeks ago, Tom Schweich died by suicide. He called his priest who happened to be the former senator from Missouri, Father (Senator) John Danforth. In that conversation, Tom discussed how a whisper campaign had been launched by his rival and the head of the state’s Republican party insinuating he was a Jew. The fact that in Missouri, in 2015 no less, the rumor that one was “a Jew” would derail someone’s political career proves we are not over our anti-Semitic tendencies … not over our capacity to scapegoat.

Scapegoating is what we do. The term scapegoat comes from an ancient Jewish ritual described in Leviticus 16 where the priest would symbolically lay the sins of the people on a goat and then the goat would be driven into the wilderness to die. While symbol and ritual are important, the problem of the scapegoat is that in laying the sins of the people on another, it removes the responsibility from the people to face their own brokenness and sin. By removing this responsibility, it becomes easy to project one’s darkness into something or someone else and perpetuate our violence.

Jesus was the scapegoat this day. He went up against a political and religious establishment’s rule which served to marginalize and oppress people – rules meant to keep some in and many out. He repeatedly pointed out the sin of the powers that be – and the powers that be struck back rather than face their own sin and culpability. Jesus bore the weight of projected sin, theirs and ours, to the cross.

We know about scapegoating. We do it ourselves and it has been done to us. It is far easier to blame and project our fear and suffering than to face it honestly and let it transform us. Tonight we gaze at a cross – the symbol of what happens when we engage in scapegoating.

This night, I leave you with a reflection from Brother Karekin Yarian who blogs under the name PunkMonk. He is a professed member of the Brotherhood of St. Gregory in the Episcopal Church. I share this with his blessing and permission and it is entitled “Reproaches for the Modern Age”:

My people, what have I done to you
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I sent you a Son to teach you how
to remake the world with Love,
but you married yourselves to power
and bartered that love for allegiance.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

Holy is God!
Holy and strong!
Holy immortal One, have mercy on us!

For two thousand years you’ve beaten
my chosen Israel, scattered her to the wind.
You chose gas chambers, and progroms,
and pit the world against my beloved.

Holy is God!
Holy and strong!
Holy immortal One, have mercy on us!

I proclaimed freedom to the Nations,
taught you justice by bread and not the sword;
but you made slavery an industry
and turned my children into chattel
and hanged them from trees
burning crosses in my Name.

Holy is God!
Holy and strong!
Holy immortal One, have mercy on us!

For your sake I sent prophets
and teachers to bring you back to Love.
But you turned that love against me
murdered those voices and proclaimed me dead.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I led you from slavery to freedom
and you use it to make captives
in prisons, on death rows, by laws
to hold the weakest in their place
rather than raise them up.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I opened the world before you,
but you have used her resources near to death.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I led you on your way by a humble servant,
but you turned him to a warrior King.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I strengthened you with bread and wine,
but you withheld the crumbs from the poorest.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I gave you living water from the well,
but you have sucked it dry from greed.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

For you I humbled kings and rulers.
but you raised up tyrants in their place to scold me.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I gave you a royal priesthood,
but they locked their tabernacles against my presence.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

I raised you to the height of hope for the world,
but you buried my cross beneath a mountain of gold
and used my Name to bless your hate.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me!

(C) 2015, Karekin M Yarian, BSG