Part of the formational process at the Seminary involves Liturgical Formation, including preaching. Today, Good Friday, I preached at the Morning Prayer service. Below is a basic text of my first seminary preaching text, based on the text of Isaiah 52:13-15 and the spirit of the day...
In so many ways we seek to tie these three days together. What can be a thread for us as come to prayer this morning from last night’s liturgy and prepare for the Easter Vigil. I would like to propose that the “VULNERABILITY” might be a thread for each one of us here today to consider. The vulnerability evidenced in last night’s Liturgy – the one who washes feet as well as the vulnerability it takes to have one’s feet washed – to serve and be served. The vulnerability and emptiness required to accept and embrace God’s saving love for us throughout history and in Jesus we will celebrate tomorrow. And today, the vulnerability required to accept the cross, the model the suffering servant offers – that we might accept and even embrace our vulnerabilities and emptiness.
In my previous ministry as a high school campus minister and social worker, one of my responsibilities involved helping to coordinate a comprehensive support group program to address student needs and concerns. So groups were offered in everything from Eating Disorders to Divorce/Separation, Bereavement and many more. To “advertise” or inform the student body about it we’d visit every class in the building, explain each group, and invite kids to sign up. Hundreds did. Were some of the antics those of high school teenagers? Surely. Yet a tremendous majority were the writings of young people looking for help and unsure where to turn. Aware of their vulnerability, uncertain they could fully enter into them.
Our work after the sign up involved interviewing each student to determine their interest nad issue and then provide them a pass for the first meeting. The numbers surely dropped from sign up to the time of the first meeting. See, even at that age many could sign up but few could show up. Many could check off a box, but few could fully embrace their vulnerabilities in the hope that something greater might come about. Those who showed up, whether they realized it or not, entered into the cross. We, too, must do the same.
The challenge of these three days for all Christians, and perhaps in particular way for we who live in this house is to go beyond the signing up and in the deepest way possible, to show up.
It’s easy to say we signed up and each one of us here has. We have the uniform, the status, the place to live, the vocation, the community, the prayer, the process. All good things that, hopefully, in some way speak to a deeper reality.
We need to ask ourselves though – and I start with myself – have we worked to show up? Have we fully or are we willing to bring our real selves to the cross? Our pains and struggles? Our doubts and fears? Our history and past? Our fears and anxieties? Our insecurities and frailities? Or have we only made the simple gesture of signing up and remain hidden by the sign up form. Will we hide in the statuses? The externals? It’s easier there. Then, have we truly embraced the cross, have we truly embraced the Lord? For if we are unwilling to do the soul work required to show up, perhaps we need to ask ourselves what have we signed up for in the first place?
As our celebration of the Triduum continues, let us pray for and with one another that we might truly embrace our vulnerabilities this day and always, that we might show up at the Cross today. Like the suffering servant, may we startle and amaze those whom we serve both here and in the future. For if we do, the vulnerabilities, that emptiness, the pain in our lives will not only be healed but transformed in the new life that Christ brings. Our God will show up. Let’s pray that we can do the same.
In so many ways we seek to tie these three days together. What can be a thread for us as come to prayer this morning from last night’s liturgy and prepare for the Easter Vigil. I would like to propose that the “VULNERABILITY” might be a thread for each one of us here today to consider. The vulnerability evidenced in last night’s Liturgy – the one who washes feet as well as the vulnerability it takes to have one’s feet washed – to serve and be served. The vulnerability and emptiness required to accept and embrace God’s saving love for us throughout history and in Jesus we will celebrate tomorrow. And today, the vulnerability required to accept the cross, the model the suffering servant offers – that we might accept and even embrace our vulnerabilities and emptiness.
In my previous ministry as a high school campus minister and social worker, one of my responsibilities involved helping to coordinate a comprehensive support group program to address student needs and concerns. So groups were offered in everything from Eating Disorders to Divorce/Separation, Bereavement and many more. To “advertise” or inform the student body about it we’d visit every class in the building, explain each group, and invite kids to sign up. Hundreds did. Were some of the antics those of high school teenagers? Surely. Yet a tremendous majority were the writings of young people looking for help and unsure where to turn. Aware of their vulnerability, uncertain they could fully enter into them.
Our work after the sign up involved interviewing each student to determine their interest nad issue and then provide them a pass for the first meeting. The numbers surely dropped from sign up to the time of the first meeting. See, even at that age many could sign up but few could show up. Many could check off a box, but few could fully embrace their vulnerabilities in the hope that something greater might come about. Those who showed up, whether they realized it or not, entered into the cross. We, too, must do the same.
The challenge of these three days for all Christians, and perhaps in particular way for we who live in this house is to go beyond the signing up and in the deepest way possible, to show up.
It’s easy to say we signed up and each one of us here has. We have the uniform, the status, the place to live, the vocation, the community, the prayer, the process. All good things that, hopefully, in some way speak to a deeper reality.
We need to ask ourselves though – and I start with myself – have we worked to show up? Have we fully or are we willing to bring our real selves to the cross? Our pains and struggles? Our doubts and fears? Our history and past? Our fears and anxieties? Our insecurities and frailities? Or have we only made the simple gesture of signing up and remain hidden by the sign up form. Will we hide in the statuses? The externals? It’s easier there. Then, have we truly embraced the cross, have we truly embraced the Lord? For if we are unwilling to do the soul work required to show up, perhaps we need to ask ourselves what have we signed up for in the first place?
As our celebration of the Triduum continues, let us pray for and with one another that we might truly embrace our vulnerabilities this day and always, that we might show up at the Cross today. Like the suffering servant, may we startle and amaze those whom we serve both here and in the future. For if we do, the vulnerabilities, that emptiness, the pain in our lives will not only be healed but transformed in the new life that Christ brings. Our God will show up. Let’s pray that we can do the same.
I really liked that, great writing! You're going to make a wonderful Priest!
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