April 9, 2023
An Easter Story – George Yandell
In memory of Debbie Micklus
Billy and his mother moved into a sixth-floor apartment. It was one of those massive gray New York City buildings. It dwarfed all other apartment buildings Billy had seen before. When moving in, Billy’s mom’s friends helped carry their odds and ends up the six flights of stairs—Billy stood at the top of the stairs and watched—his mattress, his toy chest, now filled with comic books.
Behind him Bill heard a door open; turning, he saw an old gray-haired man look gloomily out at him and the moving procession. He croaked to Billy, “You my new neighbor?” “Yup,” said Billy. Then Billy asked, “What’s wrong with you?” The wizened old man stared, then barked out, “I’m old and alone and I drink too much. What’s wrong with you?’ the old man asked.
“I’m young and moving and I’ve got cystic fibrosis. I’m eleven. My name’s Billy,” he responded, offering his small hand to the old man. The old man replied, “My name’s Bill, same as yours. How long you had cystic fibrosis,” his voice softening.
Billy replied, “All my life. How long you been drinking too much?”
Old Bill laughed and said, “Seems like a long time.”
Then Billy’s mother staggered up the stairs. Billy introduced her to Old Bill. “Mom, I want you to meet my new friend. His name’s Bill too. He’s old and he drinks too much.”
Billy’s mother blanched,
April 7, 2023
Good Friday – George Yandell
I want to talk of grief. The words grief and grieve from the Latin gravare = to burden, from gravis = heavy. As they pass through Old French, grief and grieve pick up the sense of ‘to harm’. Our word grieve means ‘to cause to be sorrowful; distress’. Grief means ‘deep mental anguish, as that arising from bereavement’.
Our understanding of grief and grieving has undergone remarkable changes in my lifetime. In the early 1970’s Elizabeth Kubler-Ross identified 5 distinct stages of grief. We now have come to understand that grieving is not predictable, but is personal – everyone grieves differently. Approaching death is not a cookie-cutter experience. As we hear Jesus with his friends throughout the gospels, he frequently speaks to them of his coming death and theirs as well. These are instances of preparatory grieving – of anticipatory grief.
Listen to these moments when Jesus speaks of his impending death:
In the very center of Mark’s gospel Jesus says to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” Jesus immediately began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after 3 days rise again.” Listen to how Peter responds – “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him,” to deny that Jesus could die that way. Peter was attempting to bargain Jesus out of his destiny.
April 6, 2023
Maundy Thursday – Katharine Armentrout
The Commandment to Love Like Jesus
This is the most powerful and solemn of all nights. It is the night before the crucifixion of Jesus, that darkest of days. And yet this is the night that Jesus, knowing he will be executed, focused not on himself and his coming death, but focused instead on his disciples whom he loved and, by extension, he focused on us.
It is the night that he gave us the new commandment – the mandatum – the commandment that we are to love one another as He has loved us. We are, as Bishop Curry says, to love like Jesus. An almost impossible command to honor, but one that will define his disciples and should define us as his followers.
And it is also the night that Jesus gave us the gift of the Eucharist, the gift of the living bread, the bread for our journey as his disciples, the bread of his presence that will help to sustain us as we try to live out the new commandment.
It is a night when we talk and study about these events and when we celebrate the Eucharist, as he commanded, “in remembrance of him”. We will try to do this not with just a passive reading of the scriptures and rote action at the altar; we will try not to treat these events as just a memory, but through our prayers and our practice tonight,
April 2, 2023
Palm Sunday A – George Yandell
Every year the assigned readings for Palm Sunday split the day between the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem then move to the passion gospel and Jesus’s crucifixion. I’ve had problems with that program for a long time. So today we’re going to focus on Jesus entering Jerusalem and leave the crucifixion to Good Friday.
Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in 30 CE. It was the beginning of Passover week, the most sacred week of the Jewish year. One was a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession demonstrating the Roman Empire’s occupation and domination of Jerusalem and Israel. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives cheered by his followers. Jesus was from the peasant village of Nazareth, his message was about the kingdom of God, and his followers came from the peasant class. My friend and colleague Bowlyne Fisher would have called them ‘the great unwashed.’ Jesus and his companions had journeyed from Galilee, 100 miles going south to Jerusalem. [The above adapted from The Last Week: A Day-by Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem, Borg and Crossan, Harper San Francisco, 2006, p. 2]
Matthew’s story of Jesus and his kingdom of God movement has been aiming for Jerusalem. It has now arrived.
On the opposite side of the city, coming from the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea and Samaria, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God;