Reflection 2nd April 2023

Passion: Never on Sunday?

Reverend Dr Nikolai Blaskow

Our purpose this morning is to understand the passion of Jesus. Because his kind of passion too invited criticism and a terrible misunderstanding but which unlike the film Never On A Sunday led not to the healing of a community, but to his death. Our question this morning is WHY? Why were there so many accusations made against Jesus’ passion for you and for me? Why did the crowd who had welcomed him as a hero on the Saturday turn on him on the Friday a week later? How on earth could the crowd on that same Friday morning choose instead to release Barabbas, a ‘notorious prisoner’? What kind of jealousy was it that St Matthew claims seized the crowd that morning? And finally, was that jealousy a crime which speaks to us of yet another kind of passion – and if so what sort of passion was it and is it alive and well today?

1. So our reflection this morning is based unashamedly on the film Never on a Sunday.
2. It’s the story of Homer an Ancient Historian who comes from America to ‘save’ modern day Greeks. He believes that the decline of the Greeks was due to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who preached (in his view) a laissez-faire, ‘loose’ world view which led to moral profligacy and decline in Greece.
3. On his arrival in the Piraeus harbour in Athens, he meets up with Ilya whom he immediately adjudges to be the personification of Greece’s immoral decadence. He becomes convinced in amidst the smashing of glasses and lascivious and sensual drunken dancing at the local pub encouraged by Ilya the infamous courtesan, who, it seems, in an unseemly indiscriminate way, offers her body to the world of men.
4. Homer by saving Ilya from her debauchery believes Greece’s decline will be arrested. Of course, his mission is based on a wrong premise: that Ilya is unfaithful.
5. The reality is that she is true to her principles, true to herself: a lover of life, serially monogamous, who harms no one and in an extravagant generosity of spirit nurtures the community spirit of looking out for each other. For she, unlike her courtesan sisters only gives her body to those whom she loves and likes and to those who respect her personhood. AND what is quite moving – never offers her body on a Sunday, because that is her day of rest, and that is the day she invites everyone without exception to her rented lavish dwelling for food and friendship.
6. The genius of the screenplay and the film is that it is a beautiful if provocative re-telling of the gospel of grace, unmerited favour which we celebrate on this morning of Passion Sunday.
7. You see, Homer’s ‘mission’ to Greece and to the world comes unstuck because his moralism blinds him to the harm he brings to the Greek world he wants to save, because he does violence to their culture. No wonder then that he falls prey to Mr No-face, the local conman and head of the Mafia who exploits the girls by imposing exorbitant rents on the properties which he owns and they occupy.
8. To the American Homer’s accusation: “You’re barbarians. You don’t need a philosopher, “you need a missionary!” No-face replies: “I too exist. You can’t ignore me.” And follows this up with his infamous proposal: that he will pay lavishly without cost to the cash-strapped academic Homer monies without repayment, if he can in two weeks convert Ilya from a life of profligacy to the kind of (suspect) purity of life Homer believes in. And if Homer is unsuccessful, No-face deems it his right then to continue his unreasonable rent hikes at the girls’ expense, and Homer must leave off interfering and return to America.
9. Homer agrees to this Mephistophelean contract and in the process, unknowingly and in reality, compromises his own moralistic, patronising morally superior stance on life.
10. When Homer takes his offer to Ilya, he lives the Big Lie. He packages his moral crusade as a mission to change her into a better person. He succeeds in convincing Ilya that the offer for her self-improvement comes thanks to his That it is his generosity whereby the lavish payments to her over a two-week period will be showered upon her provided she attends lessons in moral culture which he says will redeem her: “Give me two weeks of your life… two weeks during which you close down the premises and devote yourself to  studies … art music the classics of course”, he says, “And I’ll pay you for each minute of those two weeks and you’ll become someone good to love… you’ll be reborn…” If after that time I am unsuccessful, he tells her, he will concede defeat and return to America.
11. All is going well despite Ilya’s misgivings which she overcomes by resorting to those who challenge her that she knows it’s not as much fun as before but that she feels much better because “he (Homer) believes in me.”
12. But in a moment of weakness provoked by a question of a passer-by as to whether she was happy, she turns in her mind to her old ways and her old songs: “As I step out the door there is no one I am not in love with”
13. However, it all comes unstuck, when one of Ilya’s girl friends spills the beans. She has overheard the conversation and so has got to understand the betrayal and the sham of Homer’s project of reform. When Ilya gets the news, she overturns the room with all its fake pictures and art works and music and storms out to … her personal freedom.
14. A far cry you say from the Gospel story, you say. I say, No – it is closer than you think.
15. For in our Gospel reading today we read of a different kind of passion, a freedom which is not of this world.
16. Rather than itemising the accusations against Jesus, which I consider to be a distraction, or even to address the questions one by one which I announced at the beginning, which would be tedious: I want to take you, briefly, into the world which produced such violence and inhumanity. So that in understanding it, we then see the passion world of Jesus for what it is: pure unadulterated unconditional love.
17. In other words, by true understanding of passion and its inverse we grasp what GRACE actually means.
18. As Thomas Merton reflects: “I would be inclined to say [a person] who has meditated on the Passion of Christ and has not meditated on the extermination camps of Dachau and Auschwitz has not yet fully entered into [that Passion].” ([1950] 1975: 78).
19. For, deprived of that understanding we make the mistake Jacques Lacan makes when he interprets Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) deeply emotional response to the passion and love of Christ with ‘groans which cannot be uttered,’ as the incomprehensible groans of, “an orgasmic woman” – “she’s coming there’s no doubt about it” (Lacan: 1972-73: 76) which the academic Constance Furey dismisses as nonsense. She rightly and strongly makes the point that this kind of explicit language of the mystics is a nuanced understanding of the desiring body which transcends the notion of sexuality ‘as a fixed identity,’ not ‘something that can be plotted along a grid with the dichotomy of heterosexuality or homosexuality on one axis. Or abstinence or intercourse on the other’ but that when Teresa of Avila comments on the Song of Songs and its “Let Him kiss me with a kiss of his Mouth,’ and They breasts are better than wine for they give off fragrance of sweet odours,’ academic Furey argues that these expressions expose ‘how difficult it is to differentiate between the desire for food and touch sleep and sex between arousal and satisfaction,’ in other words the language of nurture not exploitation.
20. What was Jesus doing on the cross enduring the most painful and brutal of deaths in the face of unconscionable misrepresentation and false accusation? What was the meaning of his resurrection?
21. Father James Alison in his series on The Forgiving Victim, and the subsection, The Difference Jesus Makes argues that Jesus Passion was all about entering a very specific space for us all. No not the space of the blood appeasement of an angry God (the cross is human anger, human vindictiveness and cruelty at work not God’s). But the space of our shame and our fear of death. He is saying to us this morning: I have walked into this space for you so you no longer have to fear it. No longer have to wear masks and pretend. You can come into the light of your worst moments and shame and understand that you are understood and loved. You can go into the valley of the shadow of death and come out the other end into green pastures and rest. There is no fear with here with me. My passion for you is unconditional love.

When I look at the blood
all I see is love, love, love.
When I stop at the cross
I can see the love of God.

But I can’t see competition.
I can’t see hierarchy.
I can’t see pride or prejudice
or the abuse of authority.
I can’t see lust for power.
I can’t see manipulation.
I can’t see rage or anger
or selfish ambition.

I can’t see unforgiveness.
I can’t see hate or envy.
I can’t see stupid fighting
or bitterness, or jealousy.
I can’t see empire building.
I can’t see self-importance.
I can’t see back-stabbing
or vanity or arrogance.

I see surrender, sacrifice, salvation,
humility, righteousness, faithfulness, grace, forgiveness,
love! Love … love…

When I stop! … at the cross
I can see the love of God.

Godfrey Birtill

Note: this too is a song on You-Tube

Note: the film and the lyric too can be found on YouTube

Lyrics of the Song

Oh, you can kiss me on a Monday
A Monday, a  is very, very good
Or you can kiss me on a Tuesday
A Tuesday, a Tuesday, in fact I wish you would
Or you can kiss me on a Wednesday
A Thursday, a  and Saturday is best
But never, never on a Sunday
A Sunday, a Sunday, 'cause that's my day of rest 

Most any day you can be my guest
Any day you say, but my day of rest
Just name the day that you like the best
Only stay away on my day of rest 

Oh, you can kiss me on a cool day, a hot day
A wet day, which everyone you choose
Or try to kiss me on a gray day, a May day
A pay day, and see if I refuse
And if you make it on a bleak day
A freak day, a week day, why you can be my guest
But never, never on a Sunday

Liturgy 2nd April 2023

02 April 2023 – Passion: Never on a Sunday?

CALL TO WORSHIP

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2.10-11 

Almighty and everlasting God,
Of your tender love towards us you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
To take upon him our flesh,
and to suffer death upon the cross,
that all should follow the example of his great humility:
mercifully grant that we may both follow the example of his patience
and also share in his resurrection
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved’ John 3:17      

CONFESSION 

God we thank you that nothing catches you by surprise. Like the Prodigal Father you watch our feeble attempts to prepare our forgiveness speeches with love. From the great distance which we have created in our minds about you, you come running towards us and embrace us as we are, filth and all.

Please teach us to walk the way of love and to know not only that we are forgiven, but that we are better than our worst moments.

Amen.

Pause

The Absolution.

Almighty God,
who has promised forgiveness to all who turn to you in faith:
pardon [us] and set [us] free from all [our] sins,
strengthen [us] in all goodness
and keep [us] in eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen.

 

THE WORD

Matthew 27.11–54

¹¹ Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You say so.’ ¹² But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?’ ¹⁴ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. ¹⁵ Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. ¹⁶ At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. ¹⁷ So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ ¹⁸ For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. ¹⁹ While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ ²⁰ Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. ²¹ The governor again said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ ²² Pilate said to them, ‘Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ All of them said, ‘Let him be crucified!’ ²³ Then he asked, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified!’ ²⁴ So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ ²⁵ Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ ²⁶ So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. ²⁷ Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ ³⁰ They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹ After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. ³² As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. ³³ And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), ³⁴ they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. ³⁵ And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; ³⁶ then they sat down there and kept watch over him. ³⁷ Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ ³⁸ Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁹ Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ ⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, ⁴² ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, “I am God’s Son.” ’ ⁴⁴ The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way. ⁴⁵ From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ⁴⁶ And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ⁴⁷ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ ⁴⁸ At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ ⁵⁰ Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. ⁵³ After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴ Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ 

Jesus’ Invitation 

^28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 
                                            Matthew 11.28-30 (The Message  paraphrase)

COMMUNION

Lord Jesus, stand beside us in our need and bring your healing love.
Help us to bridge the gap between who we say we are and what we do.
Amen. 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Consecration.
God is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise. 

All thanks and praise to you, loving Father,
for sending your only Son to be our Saviour.
He took upon himself our human nature,
shared our joy and our tears,
bore all our sickness,
and carried all our sorrows.
He brought us through death,
to the life of his glorious resurrection,
giving for our frailty eternal strength,
and restoring in us your perfect image.
Therefore, with saints and angels,
and with all the company of heaven,
we praise you saying,

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. 

Merciful God, we thank you
for these gifts of your creation,
this bread and wine,
and we pray that by your Word and Holy Spirit,
we who eat and drink them
may be partakers of Christ’s body and blood.

On the night he was betrayed Jesus took bread;
and when he had given you thanks
he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
‘Take, eat. This is my body given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.’
After supper, he took the cup,
and again giving you thanks
he gave it to his disciples, saying,
‘Drink from this, all of you.
This is my blood of the new covenant
shed for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again. 

With this bread and this cup,
we remember the saving death of your Son,
his resurrection and ascension,
and his promise to be with us for ever. 

In the power of the Holy Spirit,
bring us to eternal life with Christ,
as we look for his coming in glory,
and for the heavenly banquet
prepared for all your people.

Blessing and honour and glory and power
are yours for ever and ever. Amen. 

The Breaking Of The Bread And Communion

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.
We who are many are one body,
for we all share in the one bread. 
The gifts of God for the people of God.

Come let us take this holy sacrament of the body and blood of Christ in remembrance that he died for us, and feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

After Communion

I have made the Lord God my refuge, and I will tell of all that you have done.  Psalm 73.28

God will cover you with his wings, his faithfulness will be your shield and defence.  Psalm 91.4

Father of all mercies,
for your gifts of healing and forgiveness,
for grace to love and care for one another,
for your hidden blessings,
and for all you have in store for us,
we give you thanks,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Watch now, dear Lord,
with those who wake or watch or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ,
rest your weary ones,
bless your dying ones, soothe your suffering ones, pity your afflicted ones, shield your joyous ones, and all for your love’s sake. (St Augustine) Amen

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord;

and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

DISMISSAL

Closing responses
For loving the world and knowing our names, thank you God
All: thank you God
For your strength that fills us and your love that heals us
thank you, God
All: thank you GodFor your presence here with us today
and for your hand that leads us into tomorrow thank you God
All: thank you GodCome bless us, hold us, wrestle with us warm us in your embrace
All: for we are your people
and you are our justice and joy. Amen

Communion Service:
Adapted from The Pattern of Our Days, Liturgies and resources for worship, Edited by Kathy Galloway, The Iona Community, and extracts from A Prayer Book for Australia, Ministry with the Sick. 

Rumi writes:
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all those barriers that you have built against it.” 
“There is a field. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing, and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.

Open Secret: Versions of Rumi with translations, Coleman Barks, John Moyne and Maulana Jalal Al-Din Rumi.