Loading...A Sermon on Good Friday
March 25, 2016
You probably are aware of this,
but the date of Easter changes from year to year.
You probably are aware of this,
but the date of Easter changes from year to year.
There is even a section in the Prayer Book, starting on Page 880,
that tells how to determine the date of Easter each year.
The basic rule in western Christianity,
in which we in the Anglican milieu share,
is that Easter comes on the first Sunday
after the first full moon of spring.
If you’ve looked at the skies over Texas in recent nights,
you’ve seen the moon in all its fullness.
If today were not Good Friday,
if the first full moon of spring were still a week or two in the future, then today, the 25th of March, nine months from Christmas Day,
would be the Feast of the Annunciation,
when we remember that
“in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God
to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,”
to a young woman named Mary, to whom Gabriel said,
“Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you. . .
you have found favor with God.
And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you will name him Jesus.”[1]
“You will name him Jesus.”
You will birth him in a stable,
and be visited by shepherds who will tell you
amazing things about your son that they say an angel told them,
and you will treasure these words in your heart.
When you bring your son to be dedicated at the temple,
an old man named Simeon will tell you
that your son has a great, but difficult destiny,
one that will pierce your own soul like a sword.
Simeon was right.
For today, Mary stands at the foot of a Roman cross,
looking up at her son as he fulfills his great, but difficult destiny.
That difficult destiny is also
the single most significant purpose ever lived.
What Mary’s son did, through the horrible injustice inflicted upon him, is to cover over the sin of the world, our sin,
and to pronounce the ultimate forgiveness of God.
Jesus dies on the cross.
With him dies the horror of death and the power of sin.
That is why the angel Gabriel was sent to Mary.
This is why Mary birthed Jesus.
This is why the shepherds were told
amazing things about him by angels,
things they shared with Mary, who treasured those words in her heart. This is why aged Simeon spoke to Mary of her child’s great destiny
and the sorrow it would bring to her.
It was all part of God’s loving plan to redeem the world, to spare us,
to invite us to approach the throne of grace with boldness,
there to find mercy and grace in our time of need.[2]
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Amen.
Matthew Rowe+
[1]The story of the Annunciation is found in Luke 1:26-38
[2] Hebrews 4:16
