let it be so

a sermon for good friday

Truthfully, it never ceases to amaze me that y’all show up…

I’m always surprised because, honestly, we live in a frenzied world. With all that is on everyone’s plates these days, I am surprised that on a Friday evening, you’d drop everything you already have going on to come here…

Surely there is no shortage of tasks clamoring for your attention: what with cleaning, bills, the Easter meal to prepare, and so on. Isn’t there already enough to do without coming to church on Friday Evening?

Sadly, though, it isn’t just how full our plates are, that makes your presence here a surprise…

The real reason I’m always surprised by your presence, honestly, is that we live in a skeptical world…

And who can blame the skeptics, after all?

What, with racially charged shootings in Kansas, the violent crimes that have happened here lately, the Ferry sinking in South Korea, the long winter, and that’s not to mention the personal calamities we each know all too well…

Isn’t there enough senseless misery in the world and each our lives to convince you to just give up on God and stay in? Maybe get some things done around the house, or just tune out; watch some violent made-for-TV special and eat bon-bons…

With everything that cries for our time and attention, and everything that cries against our hope and faith, it’s a miracle the church even exists…

Yes, in this busy, chaotic world we all already know too much about the cross as it is…

That’s how it was for poor Peter, you know…

In today’s Gospel, the author, St. John, does this interesting thing in telling the story of the cross; interspersed throughout Jesus’ trial, is Peter and his denial; or rather, his denials… 

It’s as if John is making the point that while Jesus was undergoing his trial, Peter was undergoing one too.

Although Peter’s trial was more of a trial by fire…

The thing, though, is that Peter -like the world, like each of us- knows more about the cross and death than anything else… 

Poor Peter knows the absurdity of the world all too well…

And so, as Jesus remains steadfast during his trial, Peter breaks during his.

Finally, everything he has to do piles too high; 

finally, the unmerited arrest of this man he had followed becomes too much for Peter to take. 

So when that woman in the courtyard asked him; “aren’t you also one of that man’s disciples,” poor Pete finally gives up the game; and denies it, “I am not,” he said…

Once Peter has given up and given in, the flood gates are opened, because Peter denies not once, not twice, but three times…

Notice, thought, what Peter’s denial, finally, really is…

The true tragedy isn’t the repetition of Peter’s denial, it’s the content of it…

See, Peter doesn’t deny knowing Jesus, 

he doesn’t even deny who Jesus is.

No, Peter’s denial is who he is…

“You are one of his disciples, aren’t you,” Peter is asked. 

And this man who had confessed Jesus as the messiah could take it no longer, and he denied who he was; “I am not,” he retorted.

That, finally, is the true horror of death and the cross; that the senselessness of our lives tempts us not just to give up faith, but to give up who we are, give up everything, just give up.

In the face of catastrophes and never-ending sorrow, we like Peter are all too tempted to not just give up on God, but give up our very selves.

That is why, I am convinced, we try to keep our schedules packed to the brim or sedate ourselves on the otherhand; 

the senselessness of this life pushes each of us, like poor Peter, to the walls. When we find ourselves with up against the wall, each of us, like poor Peter, has been all to ready to deny; deny God, deny ourselves: deny.

The randomness of death, the cross, crime, it tempts us all to give up, there is no God and I never believed either. I’m not a disciples, a Child of God, anything…

That was Peter’s temptation. When he found himself staring down the barrel of chaos, he couldn’t take it any longer and so he denied…

Here is the thing, though; as Peter breaks during his trial; Jesus remains steadfast…

Perhaps that why you’re here, after all.

Perhaps you’re here, because amidst the tragedies, amidst the packed calendar, you’ve found yourself in the same position old Peter found himself in; 

hard-pressed and all too ready to deny…

Perhaps that’s why you came here on a Friday evening to gather around a cross… 

Perhaps you came here, when a million other things we’re crying for your attention because you need to know that God won’t let you slip away from God’s attention… 

Perhaps you came here, when a million headlines we’re jumping of the newspaper, shouting ‘give up;’ because you long to hear that when Peter denied, Jesus wouldn’t…

Sisters and brothers, you know why you are here when you could be anywhere else…

And Jesus knows why he’s here, too.

God has determined that nothing will separate us from God, nothing can make God deny us. So God has determined to go to the cross, knowing that each us will find ourselves there, worrying we’re God-forsaken because we denied; we denied…

But Jesus, didn’t…

Our schedules, our ruthlessness, they have a way of forcing each of us to the cross;

and yes, tragically we’re likely to, like Peter deny.

The point of the cross, though, is that God won’t.

When faced with the worst we can do, Jesus remained steadfast. So poor creatures like ourselves, gather here on a Friday night because we need to come to the place where we can here the promise that even here - even here God’s won’t leave us.

Amen