Matt. 26: 57-68                              Holy Faith                GR/E/DC                  March 11/07  

1.      As we continue our Lenten walk with Christ, we hear from Caiaphas, the High Priest.  (Put on cloak.)  I am the High Priest.  I should be able to make up my mind about someone and stick with it!  This time was way harder.  He was a troublemaker, all right.  I saw his charisma, the miracles, the crowd-pleasing.  Some of my friends thought there was more to him.  Sometimes it seemed like that.  Some said he was the Messiah.  Heaven knows we need a Messiah.  But some of us have a hard time to believe that promise.  We’re a little more modern than that!  And God’s Anointed One surely would not come as a poor, ignorant man from the hills to this time and place! 

2.      I tried to give him a chance.   I even dared wonder if he might be the one.  I certainly don’t want to kill the messiah!  I don’t want to kill anyone.  But we’re between a rock and a hard place.  We’re trying to be faithful in a country where being a faithful Jew not only doesn’t get you far, it costs - our income, our social standing and even our safety.  So to be faithful to God, we have to not cause Rome trouble.  Mostly Rome doesn’t care as long as we keep paying taxes.  That’s what we couldn’t get that country bumpkin to understand.  We warned and warned him.  Asked him to stop undermining the religious leaders, be careful what he said, so he didn’t give Rome cause to stomp on us.  But would he listen?  He kept threatening our already iffy relationship with Rome. 

3.      So, in the end, we had to shut him down, or Rome would shut down the synagogues and the temple.   What could we do? There are thousands of years of devotion, tradition, faithfulness to the Holy One of Israel, Blessed Be, that we’re responsible to preserve.  In that case, what’s one life?  (pause, horrified) What am I saying?  When we saw him that night, I almost hoped he was the Messiah.  Hoped he would say it.  He didn’t say much, but it made no sense to me when he did speak.  Of course, I knew my career was at stake.  I just wish I could be sure.[i]  (Remove cloak) 

4.      Caiaphas, the high priest reminds us how troubl­ing faith can be.  Troubling, because we must choose what about our faith is holy.  So holy, so important to us that we will be true to it till death?  In the end Caiaphas put his trust in the power of the day – Rome.  Not in God.  Before long, he was removed from his position of power.  The temple he tried to protect was destroyed.  Why do we continue to put our faith in things that will not last?  In anything less than God? 

5.      What is holy for you?  Is it tradition?  Caiaphas was part of thousands of years of tradition that kept calling his people back to trust in God alone.  As we read the Hebrew Scriptures, we see references to the people of Israel becoming defeated or enslaved or being destroyed because they put their trust in horses.  Now it wasn’t that God sees anything wrong with horses, but they were part of the modern technology of the armies, the people were putting their trust in, rather than in God.  Rather than in the values of God of peace and justice.  They were continually charged to care for the widows, the orphans, the poor, and the strangers in their gates.  And told that the reason they failed to live well was their failure to live as God called them. 

6.      If that was the tradition Caiaphas was worried about, he and Jesus would have been on the same page.  Tradition is very important, but not unexamined tradition.  Examined to see if we’re faithful to the full truth of God.  And if we’ve strayed away from the bedrock of our faith, our traditions need to be changed.  Jesus was trying to reform the tradition he loved.  A tradition that put God, and God’s ways first. Jesus never said, but we’ve always done it that way.  He and others had come to see that sacrifice of animals was not what God wanted.  He turned over the tables in the temple because the poor were prevented from worshipping God, because of the cost.  The religious people of the day were missing the point that what God wanted was a humble and a contrite heart, and love and sharing of the necessities of life for all people.

7.      Would our buildings be a high priority?  The temple was more important to Caiaphas than Jesus.  What about our buildings?  Is there anyone not welcome or who would feel uncomfortable in them?  If they were costing too much could we find other buildings or other people to share with so our faith could continue to be celebrated, even if our buildings could not continue?  Would we let our building become more important than our continued relationship to and following Christ?  There is a short-sighted congregation I know, willing to let the church die out in their community, as long as the building is there for them to be buried from!  Instead of finding ways to build a faith community that will last for theirs and others’ grandchildren. 

8.      What is holy to you?  Is living Christ’s love one of the holy parts of faith that you couldn’t live without?  A friend told a heart-wrenching story of a niece who is in a very difficult relationship with a boyfriend who does not work and wastes the money she earns.  They presently don’t have a home to take their new baby to.  This new baby was born prematurely and is at risk because his mom was working 3 jobs to try to provide for them, and not taking care of herself.  My friend has tried to support her, as they’ve had a very close relationship over the years.  But it’s breaking her heart to see her in these circumstances.  She tried to advise her to lose the boyfriend.  To take care of herself.  To find a home for her and the baby.  But she’s not listening.  My friend said to her, “Well, there’s nothing I can do then.  Call me if you need me.”  As the days went by, she could see that it was pride not love that was keeping her away.  She didn’t have to agree with her niece to support her.  Being there was way more important than if her niece listened. 

9.      What is holy for you?  Grace, forgiveness, acceptance, seeing the best in others?  Beau Losof is criticized for his work with prisoners.  “How could you spend time with child molesters?” he’s often asked.  “Do what you must to protect others,” he answers, “but never shut anyone out of your heart.  Everything in me, the very goodness of God is in everyone else.”  When he goes to talk in prisons, he begins with “Life is deep and you’re not living like that.  Let’s talk about it.”  He says this is where he has some of the most profound conversations he’s known. 

10.  Some believe faith requires constant growth.  When I was a young woman in the church, we were privileged to have Reverse Missionaries come to teach us. From Japan, from Central America, from Africa.  Countries, we might assume we’d send missionaries to.  And how we learned, grew and changed!  Anglican Bishop Mark MacDiarmid has been Bishop of Alaska and is now of Indigenous People in Canada.  He learned from the elders about their relationship to Christ.  They found Jesus life-giving, and their faith-filled lives filled with enthusiasm and excitement.  He found this very different than his training in seminary.  And very Biblical.  He sees part of his work now to be a reverse missionary spreading that word to the Canadian south. 

11.  Something I could not give up in order to grow and find that excitement and enthusiasm is time with God.  To be still and know that God is.  That God is good.  That God wants to be in relationship with us.  In that time of connection, we find the joy Mark speaks of.  Joy is not fragile like happiness.  Happiness depends on what we have and do.  Joy does not. The Hindu Holy Book, The Bhavadgita, says what joy to know you don’t need to worry about happiness any more! 

12.  What about your faith could you not give up?  The building, tradition?  Which traditions?  Acceptance, forgiveness, grace, love, truth?  The depth, the age-long vision of justice?  The growing, the time spent in relationship to God?  The joy born out of Holy love?    Faith of our parents, holy faith, we will be true to you till death.