A Deep River of Faith
The Rev. Eyleen Farmer
April 1, 2007
Palm Sunday
This sermon is also available in audio
As Halley’s Comet approached the earth in the spring of 1910,
many people were afraid. Comets have done that for thousands of years—aroused
feelings of foreboding that something terrible is about to happen.
But the “comet crazies” were even worse than usual that
year as the media spun sensational tales of mass cyanide poisoning.
Capitalizing on this fear, hucksters sold “comet pills,”
which were supposed to make one immune to the ill effects of passing
through the comet’s tail.
Howard Thurman was just a little boy in 1910, living in a sawmill town in Florida. He knew about the comet, but because his mother made him go to bed when the sun set, he had not seen it. He knew about comet pills because his father reported that the sawmill own had actually bought some. Yes, Howard had heard the talk and he had felt the fear.
One night his mother woke him up and asked him if he would like to see the comet. In a book written years later Thurman remembers the experience.
I got up, dressed quickly, and went out with her into the backyard. There I saw in the heavens the awesome tail of the comet and stood transfixed. With deep anxiety I asked, without taking my eyes off it, “What will happen to us when that thing falls out of the sky?” There was a long silence during which I felt the gentle pressure of her fingers on my shoulders; then I looked into her face and saw what I had seen on another occasion, when without knocking I had rushed into her room and found her in prayer. At last she said, “Nothing will happen to us, Howard. God will take care of us.” In that moment something was touched and kindled in me, a quiet re-assurance that has never quite deserted me. As I look back on it, what I sensed then was the fact that what stirred in me was one with what created and controlled the comet. It was this inarticulate awareness that silenced my fear and stilled my panic.
—For the Inward Journey: The Writings of Howard Thurman,
p. 272.
Educator, philosopher, poet, theologian, mystic and civil rights leader, Thurman was a lover of God who pondered the gospels searching for a way to address the sufferings of his people. And he came to the conclusion that the goal of Jesus’ life was to help the so-called disinherited peoples of the world change from within so they would be empowered to overcome oppression. The key to that change? A love rooted in what Thurman called a “deep river of faith. . . .It may twist and turn, fall back on itself and start again, stumble over an infinite series of hindering rocks, but at last the river must answer the call to the sea.” Find out about the Howard Thurman House
In the spring of 1930, Mohandas Gandhi set out on a march to the sea. He began with 78 followers; but by the end of the 241 mile walk, the crowds trailing behind him created a procession more than two miles long. In some villages fresh flowers and green leaves were strewn on the path ahead of him. After 24 days of walking, Gandhi arrived at the sea. It was the 6th of April. He said a prayer, and then, in violation of the British law prohibiting the manufacture of salt, he picked up a small lump of salty mud and proceeded to boil it in seawater. He was risking arrest, and in fact, sixty thousand people who imitated him were subsequently imprisoned for their acts of civil disobedience. It would take another 17 years for the British to withdraw from India, but Gandhi’s non-violent demonstration marked a turning point in India’s struggle for freedom.
In the spring of 1965, Martin Luther King began a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. Those who marched with him were required to sign a ten-point pledge of non-violence the first item of which was, “As you prepare to march, meditate on the life and teachings of Jesus.” He knew there would be billy-clubs, police dogs, fire hoses, and tear gas. It would take three attempts to get all the way to Montgomery, and seventeen people were hospitalized on what came to be known as Bloody Sunday. But King never wavered in his faith. Five months later the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law.
Today is Palm Sunday. In a political demonstration planned to provoke the very confrontation that ensued, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem. (The Last Week, Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan, p.4) He knew what was going to happen. We have just heard the story of Jesus’ arrest, humiliation, and death. Still he rode on, right into Jerusalem. And the world was changed forever.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote these words from a jail cell in Rome to the Christians in Philippi who were being persecuted by protectors of the Roman Empire. I don’t know if Gandhi ever read Paul’s letter, but I do know that Gandhi was able to achieve independence for India because the mind of Christ Jesus was in him. And the mind of Christ Jesus was in the mind of Martin Luther King as he marched onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. And in the mind of Howard Thurman’s mother as she rested her hands on the shoulders of her young son, reassuring him of God’s ultimate care and protection. And I believe in my bones that the same mind that was in Christ Jesus is available to all of us who dare to ask him for it.
In a few minutes, on this spring day in 2007, we will process out of the church, and to the beating of a drum, with palm branches in hand, we will march to city hall. There we will say prayers, in the company of other Christians, for our beautiful, broken city.
Most of us will not lead world changing movements or perform great
deeds of courage or write profound books. But this I can promise.
Walk out the doors of Calvary Church today asking that the mind of
Christ Jesus be in you; let the words of the passion stir your heart
as you listen to the drum beat, and you will be given your own task.
“Comet pills,” of whatever sort, have no power to protect
fear-filled hearts. Neither do locks, alarms, gates, or guns. Nor
do smart bombs, armies, police nor anything else we can think of.
But if the mind of Christ Jesus is in us, we need not be afraid. “Do
not be silent;” wrote Howard Thurman, “there is no limit
to the power that may be released through you.” O God, as we
march today, as we remember Dr. King on the anniversary of his death
this week, as we say our prayers and do our work, help us to believe
the words we say. Help us to live them.
And let the same mind be in us that was in your son, Jesus. Amen.
Copyright ©2007 Calvary Episcopal Church
Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.’ Then Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He answered, ‘You say so.’ Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no basis for an accusation against this man.’ But they were insistent and said, ‘He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to this place.’
When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate. That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; before this they had been enemies.
Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, and said to them, ‘You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him.’
Then they all shouted out together, ‘Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!’ (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!’ A third time he said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’ But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.
As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.” Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’
Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’ And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. NRSV (New Revised Standard Version)