I Only Want to Say…

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I only want to say…

That we Christians, we must grapple with a problem that other religions can more or less ignore.

In both of the other Abrahamic traditions — by which, of course, I mean Judaism and Islam — God is God, and humans are humans.

This theological state of affairs makes things quite clear.  If you talk about God, you talk about God.  If you talk about humans, you talk about humans.  

But we Christians, never content to just let things be, have tinkered with these distinctions.  We follow Christ — who we say is both human and divine.

Both human and Divine?  How does that work?

If we only knew!

Every clergyperson, scholar, monk and pious pewsitter has been trying to figure that one out for millenia…  

Thousands of pages of ink has been spilled — and quite a bit of blood too — but has anyone adequately or definitively answered this question?  Some have said that Christ was all God, and just pretended to be human.  Others said the opposite.  Some have speculated about the exact percentage of each…  but…

None of this has done much good.  Just how, exactly, an individual can exist in a manner that is both human and divine remains something of a mystery.

And, I only want to say that…I prefer it that way.

In terms of how you and I actually live as Christians, I don’t think there is much to be gained by splitting hairs about questions like this that we can never resolve one way or the other. 

Some might consider this a defeatist attitude.  Certainly we can learn something from historical speculation.  Perhaps a newly unearthed manuscript will give us fresh insight.  Perhaps a Divine revelation can offer us the truth of that matter.  

Perhaps.  But…

I only want to say that accepting the mystery is not a cop out.  On the contrary, I am convinced that religion is about living within mystery.  A problem like this does not call upon us to engage in elaborate historical, theological or mystical contortionism to solve.  The confusion itself has deep meaning.  The mystery itself is rich terrain to explore. 

 

Today is Palm Sunday.  

Liturgically, Palm Sunday is a bit of an odd day.  

Why?  

Because our liturgy, on this day, recognizes both human and the divine sides of Christ’s story.  

If we look at the human side of the story, we see Jesus’ “triumphant return” to Jerusalem.  

The humans in this story — including the human part of Jesus — enjoy this joyous moment when Jesus enters Jerusalem and is recognized as “The one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

From the human perspective, this is a moment to pay homage.  To wave palms.  To feel the jubilation.

But even as we acknowledge this joy — even as we join in the waving of palms, giving Jesus the honor he deserves — we know that there is another side of this story.  

Jesus — the divine part of Jesus — knows it too.   

Returning to Jerusalem is hardly triumphant.  To call it triumphant is ironic, to say the least.

Another story is being enacted here, as we wave the palms.  A divine story, that is hard.  Jesus has come back to Jerusalem to face betrayal, arrest, denial and crucifixion.  

He knows this.

This story too — this painful story —  is acknowledged, when we wave the palms.

And so, I only want to say that our act — this liturgy of the palms — elegantly reflects the confusion of the divine and the human, that is embodied by our savior, Jesus.

We celebrate and honor Jesus, while we also weep, inside, for the pain, suffering and death that, we know, he will soon endure.   

 

In the second gospel lesson, Jesus takes three of his disciples and goes to the Garden of Gethsemane.  

This story shows us Jesus at his most human, his most divine.

The divine part of him knows what is about to happen.

He knows that he is about to be arrested… that the sequence of events that have been destined for him, are about to gather unstoppable momentum and hurtle to their violent conclusion.

He knows.

And the human part of him is filled with pain.

He understands, as only one of us can, the beauty and the suffering that merge in the veil of tears that we call human life.

And in this one dire moment, he prays…  

 

I only want to say

If there is a way

Take this cup away from me

For I don’t want to taste its poison

Feel it burn me, I have changed

I’m not as sure as when we started

Then I was inspired

Now I’m sad and tired

Listen, surely, I’ve exceeded expectations?

Tried for three years, seems like thirty

Could you ask as much from any other man?

But if I die

See the saga through and do the things you ask of me

Let them hate me, hit me, hurt me, nail me to their tree

I’d want to know, I’d want to know my God

I’d want to know, I’d want to know my God

I’d want to see, I’d want to see my God

I’d want to see, I’d want to see my God

Why I should die?

Would I be more noticed than I ever was before?

Would the things I’ve said and done matter anymore?

I’d have to know, I’d have to know my Lord

I’d have to know, I’d have to know my Lord

I’d have to see, I’d have to see my Lord

I’d have to see, I’d have to see my Lord

If I die, what will be my reward?

If I die, what will be my reward?

I’d have to know, I’d have to know my Lord

I’d have to know, I’d have to know my Lord

Why, why should I die?

Why should I die?

Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain?

Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain

Show me there’s a reason for your wanting me to die

You’re far too keen on ‘where’ and ‘how’ but not so hot on ‘why’

Alright, I’ll die!

Just watch me die!

See how, see how I die!

Oh, just watch me die

Then, I was inspired

Now, I’m sad and tired

After all I’ve tried for three years

Seems like ninety

Why, then, am I scared to finish

What I started?

What you started!

I didn’t start it!

God, thy will is hard

But you hold every card

I will drink your cup of poison

Nail me to your cross and break me

Bleed me, beat me, kill me, take me now

Before I change my mind! 

A religion that brings before us, both the human and the divine in one person, brings before us all the mystery of eternity and all the beauty and pain of living in time.

This is a full gift.

Can we know God, without knowing, most fully our own pain?

This is the question of Gethsemane

That was answered on the cross,

And with the stone that was pushed aside.  Amen.