Good Friday 2010 (Hebrews 10:16-25), offered at St Peter's Episcopal Church

Good Friday homily (Hebrews 10:16-25)

         On such a night, it is customary to retell the story of Calvary, the crucifixion of Jesus and the last moments of his earthly life before he gave up his spirit.  We have heard a retelling of the last few hours of Jesus’ life through the gospel of John.   No matter how many times I hear this story, I feel the loss, despite knowing how the story shall end two days hence.  We are here in the valley of the shadow of death this evening.  As the faithful, we must not skip blithely from last Sunday’s palm procession to the first acclamations of the Easter vigil.  Here, we enter into the painful pause of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. 

         On this night, we remember Christ the condemned.  After betrayal by one of his inner circle, he was given a “show trial” before imperial and religious leaders. His disciples scattered and hid in fear.  Christ went to his death, mocked, beaten, and forced to carry his own cross to the place of his execution. There, in the place called “Golgotha”, he breathed his last.

         In this tragic moment, Christians claim great hope is to be found.  In the brokenness of the crucified Christ, Christianity finds wholeness made possible.  In this one moment, the faith carried out by two millennia of believers is given over to proclaim God’s solidarity with the sufferings of the world.   In this death, the sins of humanity find the forgiveness and restoration we could never achieve ourselves.

         To tell this story, the early Christians proclaimed this “good news” through narratives called “the gospels” and through a variety of writings, mostly letters between wise leaders and the small congregations steadily populating the known world of the era.  Indeed, the New Testament writings can be read as a variety of efforts by early Christians to make sense of Christ’s crucifixion as well as the death and decay that reigned so freely on Saturday, and then the remarkable story of Easter morning. 

In the book of Hebrews, the writer draws upon the sacrificial imagery of the people bringing their sacrificial offerings before the priest to give account and atonement for their sins.  Remarkably, the writer claims Christ serves as priest and sin offering alike, bringing to an end the need for further sacrifice.

         The Hebrews reading for this evening sketches out the implications of Christ’s death upon the cross.  The writer calls upon the faithful to worship with true hearts, confessing with firm belief, and encouraging one another to live a life shaped by love and good deeds.  Christ’s death is just the beginning of a new way of life.  In our worship, we testify to a cross-shaped way of living in the world.  From death shall flower a faith proclaiming new life.

In these practices, Christians make known their conviction that death does not have the last word.  We are a people unafraid of illusions of authority cast by the powers that be.  Instead, we seek out a different path that embodies the truth and grace of Christ Jesus the crucified yet resurrected Lord. 

         The epistle writer encourages the reader to take up belief in Christ, a different faith than we hear about otherwise.  In the day of the earliest Christians, following Christ meant living against the grain of the ways of Rome and joining together with persons across social, economic, and gender lines in a way that the dominant culture found contrary, if not a bit unsettling. In our modern culture, following Christ as U.S. Christians is likewise a daunting task.  We are told to have faith in political figures, in the products of corporate America, or in the ideological movements of the day.  Instead, we are to be a people who welcome and include the marginalized and forgotten, serve our neighbors near and far, and live with values often contrary to the social and economic conventions of “mainstream” culture. The Church worships, confesses, and lives as a witness to Christ crucified, who is understood best, as Paul puts it, as the scandalous message of God to the world.

Earlier in the book of Hebrews, the epistle writer begins with what is thought to be a confession of early Christians.  At the outset of the epistle, the writer confesses an understanding of the Christian faith:

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.  He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being and he sustains all things by his powerful word.  When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Heb 1:1-4)

May we worship, confess, and live together in the light of this witness.  May we testify with our lives to Christ, our High Priest.  AMEN.