Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church
The 5th Wednesday in Lent, –
4/4/01
by Gregory S. Kaurin
Associate Pastor for Spiritual Care and
Development
Texts: Luke 23:44-46 (also: Ezekiel
10:15-19, 11:22-24, 43:1-5; 2 Chronicles 3:1,8,&14; Mark 1:10-11; Hebrews
6:19-20, 10:19-20; and Isaiah 25:7-8)
The Sermon:
The Sounds of Lent: The Tearing of the
Curtain
God on the Loose!
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[Service begins with white paper wrapped around the altar and cross, somewhat concealing them.]
The “Sound of Lent” that we focus on tonight is the tearing of the Temple curtain. To get an idea of what a powerful statement, of what a devastating sound that would be, we need to understand how important that curtain was.
In our Call to Worship this evening, we read how Solomon made this beautiful crimson curtain to separate the Holy Place of God’s Temple from the even more secretive Holy of Holies. Only on special occasions did priests enter the Holy Place. And the only time a human being entered the Holy of Holies was once a year on the Day of Atonement. The high priest would enter alone with the “censor of incense,” place it on a bare stone altar, say a prayer for the people and then leave. The curtain to the Holy of Holies was an incredible holy and powerful symbol! To have it split from top to bottom was an unspeakable sign!
One of the most devastating moments in the Old Testament was when Ezekiel watched the presence of the Lord leave the Holy of Holies. How many of you know the gospel hymn, “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel”? Let’s sing the first couple lines together: “Ezekiel saw the wheel, way up in the middle of the sky.”
Ezekiel’s vision of God’s presence on this wheeled throne was amazing: with fire, burning coals and cherubim, eyes all around, gems and a huge radiant figure. In the tenth and eleventh chapters, Ezekiel watched as this wheeled chariot or throne rose from the Holy of Holies and began to drift away from the Temple. It paused over the east gate of the Temple, as if the Lord were looking back one last time. There, the voice of God lamented over Israel and the city. Then, it continued eastward to the hills and paused briefly one last time before it disappeared over the horizon. Jerusalem and Israel plummeted into a time of darkness and destruction. The special presence and protection of the Lord had left them.
The most joyful scene of Ezekiel is near the end, when the same vision of the wheeled throne returns from the east with all its glory and without pause retakes his Holy Temple with promises and power.
Jewish people knew perfectly well that God was everywhere, but they felt that his presence was especially and most powerfully within his Holy of Holies. “God is in the midst of Jerusalem, or Zion,” they’d say. It was a sign that God was with them, among them.
So, you have to see how incredible this sentence “The curtain was torn” would be–so very powerful. The Greek word used was: schizo. Say it once: “schizo.” What does that sound like? Right, we get “schizophrenia,” and the word “schism” from it. The only other important time that “schizo” was used was at Jesus’ baptism. When he came up out of the water, it says that the heavens were torn apart, schism-ed, to reveal power and voice of God saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; in you I take delight!” It is a powerful word, a powerful sound.
There are times when words are weak and sound is full of meaning. Let me show you. Close your eyes and listen to this. [Tear a piece of paper in front of the microphone: “r-r-r-i-i-i-p-p-p!”]
Here is little Benjamin. He has worked so hard on his crayon picture, lovingly and tenderly. He is so proud of it! But before he can show his mom, big sister grabs it from him. [Grab bulletin from someone in front row.] And in front of his eyes, —[Tear the bulletin in pieces, …then hand back to the person]
What’s that feel like? How does little Benjamin feel? The sound of ripping is a powerful sound. That’s the fear, the power and the pain that this tearing curtain could imply.
For us, though, it is God declaring powerfully “No longer!” It’s his response to Jesus’ cry, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” At that moment he was entirely empty of the power of God. He was alone. As if the presence of God had left, over the hill, seemingly hidden, or veiled.
As Jesus dies, the Temple curtain is torn. —It may be a reminder of his leaving in the Old Testament. But I believe it was a sign of fulfillment. I believe it describes God on the loose. I believe it describes our direct access to God, anywhere, everywhere.
However, it is also a reminder and challenge. And the challenge is this: some of the lovely things in worship that we cherish, those things that speak the presence of God to us, like many of our most favorite hymns, our altars and images, at the very same time that they reveal God to those of us in the fold, these same things can hide God from other people who won’t or don’t understand the meanings behind them. For many people, it is as if the things we cherish are wearing veils.
We’d like to tell them—“You must learn our way, you must kneel before our altar, see it through our eyes, and hear it with our ears in order to truly feel and be in God’s presence.”
But, since God is on the loose, he is not bound to our altar, to our favorite hymns, or our favorite worship style. Now that this holy space of ours is open to all, we must, must, must keep tearing the veils around it.
Toss open the doors. We know the promise. We are saved! But, God is saying, “Now show and tell them!” [Leave lectern, go to door, prop it open and from outside say,] Toss open the doors! God is on the loose and he’s out here. We need to learn how to point him out to others out here. Talk to them and invite them [Return to worship space] in here to learn more about him.
But that means that we need to be ready to welcome them here. We need to learn how to speak and sing and teach about the things of worship in ways that clearly and simply express their meanings and reveal God to those who don’t speak our language, symbols or song.
I am not saying – “Throw it all out!” Those of you who know me, know better: how much I love and cherish our liturgy, tradition and the deep meanings they hold. We can, and need to hold onto these, but be open to revealing the same message in ways less familiar to our tradition. We ourselves need to be sure we aren’t just worshipping our religion, but worshipping God!
We need to become better at
talking to non-believers—because, we in the mainline churches, have depended on
a simple re-shuffling of the Christian cards.
We’ve been great at gathering believing Christians that move from one
community to another. But, really,
that’s not helping the whole Church in its mission to spread the gospel. That’s just moving Christians from one
worship building to another. The
commission is to be preaching to and baptizing those who have not yet heard!
To begin learning what we may need to do to unveil our message, I give you this challenge. When you come to worship this Sunday, and the Sundays to come, I want you to come with new ears and eyes. Imagine that you don’t understand, what you are seeing or hearing. Come to worship “stupid.” Imagine that you have no background in Christianity, that you prefer country, rock’n’roll music, and try to discover those things that would be veiled, that would be confusing, those things we say and do that would keep you from experiencing God, probably for the first time.
Tell us about it. Help us all learn what veils we need to tear open so that others can discover Jesus Christ. How can we express things so that they can finally understand what we mean about Jesus Christ breathing his last, so that they can have life? How can we tear open the curtains?
[Two volunteers rip off the white paper in order to reveal the altar and cross.]
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