Sermon for March 28th

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

This is Passion Sunday, or Palm Sunday. It always seems to me that Passion Sunday would better belong around Valentine’s day to bring the crowds in. But do you know why we call this Passion Sunday? It’s not because I’m going to become extra intense or excited during the sermon, though that might happen, you’ll just have to wait and see, and it has nothing to do with romance as the word “passion” is commonly used nowadays.

The word passion literally means the same thing as suffering. To experience something operating on you from outside yourself—something out of your control. It has the same root in English as the word “passive”. Passion Sunday refers to how God acted toward his Son Jesus, and how he operates in our lives as well. Jesus suffered at the hands of his Father and, so, is humbled, beaten, spit on, mocked, crucified and buried. Then, on Easter day, Jesus suffers God his Father again and is raised from the dead. Jesus, the Son, is the not the actor in all of this, but the one acted upon.

Within the next week we will have heard about our Savior, Jesus, being beaten, spit on, mocked, crucified, killed and buried. We will then hear that this same Jesus was raised from the dead. This is called “the passion of our Lord”. Suffering is often looked at as something “bad” or even “evil”. To be passive is a kind of bad word in today’s language too often assuming some kind of lack of motivation or assertiveness. But the word passion means something more than this. This is the message of Passion Sunday: God is up to His elbows in all the events of life. Whether they look good or bad to us. Even in the death of His very own son Jesus Christ. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who suffered at the hands of God His Father just as you do today.

The story of Jesus’ suffering is meant not only to give us strength, but to give us faith and hope. Because this is the same experience that we will all have in our lives. There will be times when God acts in our lives and we consider it a horrible time of suffering, like when a loved one dies. There will be times when God acts in our lives and we consider it a joyous time of suffering, like when a loved one is healed. It’s good suffering, but I’m calling both these times suffering because they are both out of our control—they are in God’s hands—and we just deal with the consequences—good or bad.

The passion story of Jesus expresses the hope that everything in our lives is in fact in God’s hands whether we care to admit it or not. Whether we like it or not. And to be able to trust that God’s hands are in everything, both the good and bad, can give you a peace that passes all understanding. Jesus trusted that all things were in His Father’s hands, even though that meant he would suffer on the cross. He knew that suffering at God’s hands would always end up much better than trying to control his life by himself. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

What is your passion story? I am suffering at God’s hands this very day. I have recently suffered the birth of a gorgeous and healthy baby boy. I don’t believe I had a lot of control over this. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t try to control the result by feeding my wife healthy food and hiring midwives that were experienced in delivering babies. But what, if any, difference that made I will never know. Many others have done the same and suffered unhealthy babies and sick mothers. We suffer the blessings of God just as we suffer the pains. It’s very much out of our hands. We suffer it. It is our passion story.

Rose has gone through a passion story here this morning as well. According to the apostle Paul, when she was baptized in Christ Jesus this morning she was baptized into death. She was buried by her baptism, into death, so that just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father she too might walk in newness of life. Through no action of her own, Rose died this morning and through no action of her own, Rose was raised from the dead this morning to live with God forever. It’s His promise, His action, His wonderful work. Her passion story and her suffering. Like the rest of us, if little Rose can ever understand what it means for her to be the helpless beneficiary of God’s redeeming love then she’ll finally understand what it means to trust God through all those times in her life when she feels helpless. When she can’t control what’s happening, I pray that she’ll know that God is still working to love her.

Finally, our community of faith, here at Saint Peters, is going through a passion story as well. Easter Sunday will be my last Sunday here as your pastor and, a couple days later, my family will be moving across the country to a new call. Lots of things will be changing for your family and for mine. We will all suffer heartbreak and sadness for what has been lost as well as happiness and joy for what might be possible. Like many of you, sometimes I look over my two years here, and especially the last several months, and wonder what could have been done differently or said differently. What could we have controlled or changed that would have made a happier ending? The message of Passion Sunday is this: God is up to His elbows in all the events of life. Even this. Through it all. While it is tempting to second-guess his plans, we are called to be faithful to Him and trust him even now. That there will be resurrection after this death. That there is great hope in the midst of all these changes.

God has a plan in all of this. Just like he had a plan when Jesus was lying dead in a tomb. Like Jesus, in our passion stories we will all encounter death but, then again, just like Jesus, our stories will not end there. There will be joy after this sadness. There will be life after death. No matter how difficult the times, this is our passion story. God is holding each one of us in the palm of his hand. Amen.