An Excerpt from A Sermon Given by The Most Reverend John T. Cahoon, Jr. on Pasion Sunday, 1988 at St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland
In today's Gospel Jesus claims that he is God, not so much subtly or in an indirect fashion as baldly and absolutely in-your-face. Many New Testament scholars deny that he ever said any such thing. They say what we hear in St. John's gospel is part of the deceptive process by which a peace-loving gentle wandering first-century rabbi was made into a deity by his superstitious and paranoid followers.
But the Jesus of the Scriptures is the Jesus whom the church worships. We don't have available to us some other more rational less supernatural Jesus. Again, we are denied a safe middle-ground position. Liar, madman, or God are the only three choices he gives us.
The action in today's lesson is the end of an especially nasty exchange between Jesus and some of his Jewish opponents. The gentle accommodating Jesus that many people hope to find in the New Testament is notably absent from this story.
Jesus is argumentative and confrontational, and he baits his opponents into greater and greater levels of antagonism. They call him a devil and cast doubts upon the legitimacy of his birth. He tells these people -- who have made religion their profession -- that they don't have a clue to who God really is, and that every time they claim to know anything about God they are trapping themselves in a stickier web of lies.
They ask him in turn, "You say if people pay attention to you, they will never die. Who do you think you are? All of the greatest heroes of our religion are dead -- the prophets and Abraham -- do you think you are greater than they were?"
Jesus -- knowing full well that Abraham lived about two thousand years before the first century -- replies, provocatively, "Abraham was the happiest man in the world the day he met me." The crowd takes the bait and says, "You aren't even fifty -- how can you dare to say you met Abraham?"
Jesus closes the argument off by saying, "I am telling you the truth-before Abraham was, I am." He escapes the crowd which is ready to beat his brains out with rocks. Later on, after he says, "I and the Father are one," the crowd takes up stones a second time. Jesus is rather condescending to them again.
He says, "I have done quite a few good works among you -- for which of those good works do you want to kill me?" The crowd responds, "We don't want to kill you for your good works, we want to give you the proper punishment for your blasphemy. You, who are only a man, have tried to make yourself into God." Thou, being a man, makest thyself God."
The proper punishment for blasphemy under Hebrew law was stoning -- blasphemy was a capital crime. There is no doubt at all that Jesus was formally guilty of that crime. He uttered God's name -- I am, Yahweh; he applied the name to himself; and he said that he and the Father were one -- the same.
The passion of Jesus -- his suffering and death -- was not a mistake. On Good Friday, the Jews in the crowd who hate Jesus will tell Pontius Pilate, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." The crowd may have thought he was both a liar and a madman, but they had no doubt about what he was claiming, and they didn't try to pass his claims off without responding to them.
The claims he made before the crowds in Jerusalem in the first century are the same claims he makes before us now. "Before Abraham was, I am." "if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death." And so he asks us exactly what he asked his disciples, "What do you think about me?" "Whom say ye that I am?"
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
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SERVICES & EVENTS
This evening and every Friday evening at 7:00PM until Good Friday -- Stations of the Cross and Lenten Supper. – If you can provide a soup and bread supper on one of these Friday evenings, please so indicate on the sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in the undercroft
This Saturday, March 16, MEN'S GROUP, 8:30 AM, breakfast by Chef Extraordinaire Claude Crump, Grits by Fr. Roddy, Bible study by Fr. Bragg. Great food, Bible study and fellowship
Sunday Services, 7:45 AM, 9:00 AM, & 11:15 AM (for online participation for the services go to: https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland/ )
Sunday School, 10:30 AM
Wednesday, 12 noon, Holy Communion and anointing for healing
Wednesday, 7:30 PM, Bible study with Father Bragg, church undercroft, "The Gospel of Saint Mark in the World of Saint Mark"
Monday March 25, 7:30 PM, Vestry meeting, members of the parish are always welcome
SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, April 13, 11:00 AM, Ordination of Fr. Deacon Chris Fish to the priesthood, followed by reception in undercroft
Sunday, April 14, Visitation of the Diocesan Bishop, The Right Reverend Donald Lerow: Please let the Rector know if you wish to be received or confirmed so proper arrangements can be made.
Updated List of Needs for MaRIH Center (crisis pregnancy center)
MaRIH Center with its all volunteer staff provides help to mothers-to-be and mothers in need. If you can provide some of the items that are needed, please do so. (You can leave the donations where the food for the food bank is collected on the pew in the undercorft.)
Especially Needed
In Bold and * are a critical need.
Diapers (sizes newborn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5*, & 6*)
Lovies
Baby wipes*
Diaper rash ointment
Spring/Summer Clothing: 0-3 month*, 3-6 month*, 2T
Baby shampoo
Baby blankets*
Bibs
Formula: Simulac Advance Formula*
Formula: other but not recalled
Wash clothes
Hooded towels
Grocery gift cards*
Food Donations
Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Christ House is very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar). Current needs include the following:
• canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
• peanut butter
• jelly
• tuna
• canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
• individual fruit cups (low sugar)
• canned fruit (low sugar)
• cereal (low sugar)
• pasta (regular and gluten-free)
• instant potatoes
• Macaroni & cheese kits
• Coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Christ House is very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar). Current needs include the following:
• canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
• peanut butter
• jelly
• tuna
• canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
• individual fruit cups (low sugar)
• canned fruit (low sugar)
• cereal (low sugar)
• pasta (regular and gluten-free)
• instant potatoes
• Macaroni & cheese kits
• Coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
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