Wednesday, April 13, 2022
/Holy Wednesday
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 70; Hebrews 12:1-3; John 13:21-32
The Rev. Jeff Bohanski
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
This evening I invite you to ponder two questions. Question one: What makes you able to say and own these in the words we say in the Nicene Creed, “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?” Question two: “What makes you able to authentically say these words “…he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.”
For me, I can say and own these words, “I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth because of Donald Duck. Yep, Donald Duck. When I was a kid in middle school, I saw an old 1959 short movie produced by Walt Disney called Donald in Mathmagic Land. (You can find this movie today on YouTube.) The story is about Donald Duck who is on a hunting expedition where he finds himself in a strange land where all the trees are made up of square roots. When he asks, “What kind of crazy place is this?” the narrator informs him that he is in a land of great adventure, he is about to take a journey into the fantastic world of mathematics. In the movie Donald learns how math is found in music, art, architecture, nature, games, science, and the entire universe. The movie ends with a quote from Galileo. “Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe.” As a middle schooler, this movie helped me to begin a lifelong journey with God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven earth because I knew then, like Donald, that if our universe is ordered by math, it must have been created by a great intelligence.
What makes me able believe and to authentically say these words “…he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.” is because of the words in the Gospel we heard a few moments ago, “Jesus was troubled in spirit.” These words tell me that Jesus was human. He was troubled. That means God really became one of us. These words make this mere human feel understood by God because they show me God in Jesus knows my pain. God gets me. These words give me hope.
The other day my class and I were headed out for Recess. Recess for my class comes at a time in the latter part of the afternoon when the children and I need a break from each other. The children have been in class for hours. I have been working with them for hours. That day as we were heading out, we met a class was coming in. The teacher informed us that it was raining. My children and I together let out a collective groan. When the children heard me groan, they looked at me with great astonishment. I simply said, “Yep, I understand your pain. I want to be outside too.
These words, “Jesus was troubled in spirit.” give me hope because I know the one who was troubled in spirit will one day also say to me, “Yep, I understand your pain.”
My friends, today is Wednesday of Holy Week. It feels as if we are at the very top of a rollercoaster looking over the precipice. We’ve been on this ride since Christmas. At Christmas we celebrated the birth of Jesus with poinsettias. The red of the flowers reminded us we were at the beginning of a ride that would only lead us to Holy Week. We passed through the season of Epiphany where we saw glimpses of Jesus’ divinity. Then Lent began with ashes and the reminder that we are but dust and to dust we shall one day return. In Lent were invited to ask ourselves how we manage to forget that even though we are but dust, we are never be left alone.
Tomorrow starts the Tridium, the three days where we pass through the anguish of Gethsemane, the pain of good Friday, the emptiness of Holy Saturday as we journey toward the joy of Easter. I invite you to journey through these days remembering that Jesus was also human. Though he was also fully divine, he was also fully human like you and me. He was troubled, as you and I are. He felt sadness, betrayal, and loneliness as you and I do.
My prayer for all of us these three days is that we embrace this human and divine Jesus who once walked, and still walks with us the path of human life. Life, death, and resurrection. I pray we all hold onto the hope that one day we will be met with the words, “Yep, I feel your pain.” Have a good three days. Have a good Tridium.