Feb 18 2008
Sermon for Second Sunday in Lent — February 17, 2008
Cornel Barnett
Luke:51; 11:14-26
“He set his face to go to Jerusalem 2″
Like last week, the title of my sermon, “He set his face to go to Jerusalem,” is taken from the scriptural passage, this time read by Joshua. It is spoken during Jesus’ descent from the mountain of transfiguration.
We heard about Jesus’ brief sojourn on the mountain during Joshua’s fine sermon of the event a couple of weeks ago. On the mountain Jesus was seen as his true self, a bright and shining manifestation of the divine. This is the theological “high point” of the Gospel.
He now comes off the mountain and sets his face towards Jerusalem. In other words, he is looking to his death on the cross and his knowing sense of the resurrection that would ensue from this death.
Last week we had proof in the text that suffering and death was on his mind. He says to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands’.”
Today, on the Second Sunday in Lent, we are once again on the road with Jesus as he journeys to Jerusalem. We walk the walk with him. Some of us have made Lenten commitments by the way of praying, fasting, and works of compassion in order to identify with this walk and to focus on the cross. Our disciplines and sacrifices remind us of the major sacrifice Jesus made of behalf of humanity. He gave his life for the salvation of individuals and the world.
As mentioned last week, his love was so great in a loveless world that those in it couldn’t stand it so they bumped him off in short order. When injustice, greed, hate, inhumanity, exploitation, and discrimination are challenged, the perpetrators of these evils often get rid of communicators of love, justice, and compassion. That was Jesus’ fate.
On the road to Calvary we can be assured that Jesus was thinking of all these things. How could he avoid the pain, suffering, and evils of the world around him? They were constantly in his face.
In the stories today Jesus is dealing with demons and exorcising them from human beings. These stories are difficult to understand in our world although there was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle last week with the headline: “Exorcism making comeback in Europe,” with the sub-title: “As more people are plagued by evil, priests say, the need grows to battle demons.” This is a touchy subject recalling witch hunts and the weird film, “The Exorcist.” There is also a recent story of a 23-year-old woman who died of starvation when two priests tried to exorcise demons from her in Germany.
And yet, there is resurgence in the field. This resurgence has been encouraged by the Vatican, which in 1999 formally revised and upheld the rite for the first time in almost 400 years. Modern exorcists say they are careful not to treat people suffering from mental illness, and that they regularly consult with psychologists and physicians. At the same time, they say, conventional medical therapy often neglects spiritual ailments.
These priests are being very literal when it comes reading texts like the one read by Joshua today. One can interpret the text in this way – and I am open to the phenomena – and the texts can be seen in other ways. I shall take another way today.
In his walk to Jerusalem Jesus encounters all kinds of evil spirits, especially those possessing human beings. One can see this as a more general expression of evil in the world of which he was concerned. His mission, as thus the mission of the church, is about ridding the world of evil, of restoring and healing. We do this in the many ways we can. If we see injustice we right it. If we encounter greed at the expense of others we correct it the best we can, and so on. These things were on Jesus’ mind when he walked to Jerusalem and finally to his death for challenging these evils.
All this brings us to the USA today. This sermon and last week’s sermon are inspired by important cultural events currently happening in our society. Last week’s event was the celebration of the Chinese New Year – the new lunar year. The Lenten theme revolved around the history of Chinese immigrants in the USA. This month is Black History Month and I decided to reflect on the historical struggles of the African American as a way of connecting with Lent.
African Americans, like Chinese Americans, in the US have walked the walk that Jesus walked on this his road to Calvary. As Jesus contemplated the evil forces in the world and those against him (which we see time and again in the gospels), so our African American and Chinese American communities contemplate their histories and those forces that railed against them. Some areas of contemplation for African Americans are:
First, the history of the African American struggle begins with the Middle Passage. Most of us have read the horrendous accounts of Africans captured in Africa, chained and shackled, packed on ships, and brought to the Americas and the US, and sold as slaves. It is said that one in three blacks transported overseas died (of suffocation below deck, some killing others to breathe, and some jumping overboard), but the huge profits (often double the investment on one trip) made it worthwhile for the slave trader, and so blacks were packed into the holds like fish. These are the kinds of things on Jesus’ mind when he walked on the road to Calvary.
Second, the stories of slavery in the US. I read a number of accounts this week by slaves who wrote their stories after they escaped from slavery in the South of the nation. Major themes were rapes, lashings, family separations, humiliations, brutalizing labor, starvation, and the like. William Wells Brown writes in Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave (1847): “During the time that Mr. Cook was overseer, I was a house servant – a situation preferable to that of a field hand, as I was better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing of the bell, but about half an hour after. I have often laid and heard the crack of the whip, and the screams of the slave.”
“My mother was a field hand, and one morning was ten or fifteen minutes behind the others in getting into the field. As soon as she reached the spot where they were at work, the overseer commenced whipping her. She cried, ‘Oh! pray - Oh! pray - Oh! pray!’ - these are generally the words of slaves, when imploring mercy at the hands of their oppressors. I heard her voice, and knew it, and jumped out of my bunk, and went to the door. Though the field was some distance from the house, I could hear every crack of the whip, and every groan and cry of my poor mother. I remained at the door, not daring to venture any further. The cold chills ran over me, and I wept aloud. After giving her ten lashes, the sound of the whip ceased, and I returned to my bed, and found no consolation but in my tears. Experience has taught me that nothing can be more heart-rending than for one to see a dear and beloved mother or sister tortured, and to hear their cries, and not be able to render them assistance. But such is the position which an American slave occupies.”
African American stories go on through the Emancipation Proclamation, Jim Crow laws, lynching, and the Civil Rights Movement. The statement of faith we say today after the hymn following this sermon is drawn from The Confession of 1967, one of the statements of faith, along with the Apostles’ Creed, in our denomination’s Book of Confessions. It was drafted during the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties.
The theme of the confession is “reconciliation” which the church desires of all people. The Prayer of Confession in our worship order today is drawn from this statement. Reconciliation implies unity and this is one of the intentions of the first story of demon possession the biblical text today. Jesus says, “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house.” Reconciliation and unity creates the verdant valleys and hills of a healthy nation.
The second biblical account of an unclean spirit going out of a human being and finding nowhere to lodge and so returns to its original abode with more unclean spirits is a warning of the return of discriminatory, oppressive practices of the past. Jesus knew that we had to remain strong in faith and purpose otherwise we would be susceptible to the further lashings and onslaught of the evil one. This applies to individuals and societies.
In going to the cross, Jesus identifies with all these sufferings and temptations. In the resurrection we see God’s triumph over death and evil. The road to Easter follows through the cross of Good Friday. This is the road we all travel and it’s the road our African American sisters and brothers traveled to affirm their rightful place in this world and in the USA. It’s the road we all travel to be whole in Christ.
And that’s where we are today as we continue the Lenten journey in Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, San Francisco. We conclude Part 2 of the Lenten series of Jesus setting his face to go to Jerusalem.
A companion in the journey, Nelson Mandela, of South Africa, said: “There is no easy road to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.” Let us continue with resolve as we, with Jesus, Mandela, and our African American sisters and brothers, set our faces to go to Jerusalem in this Lenten season. Amen.
