Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011 Homily

“An ‘If-not’ Faith”, A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

As we begin our liturgical enactment of Jesus’ journey to the cross with this Palm Sunday liturgy, we embark on a drama that will touch the deepest places in our souls. The passion story that we will read in a moment begins with Jesus in Gethsemane, frightened and “deeply grieved and agitated.” He has brought with him several of his friends and supporters and has asked them to pray and watch with him as he prays to God in the midst of his fear and anxiety. His friends, however, keep falling asleep, while he prays in an agony of anguish for God to prevent the events that are starting to unfold from proceeding to their inevitable end. He “threw himself on the ground and cried, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’”

Those few words that Jesus speaks in this scene in Gethsemane are among the most powerful words of faith in the Bible. “Yet not what I want, but what you want.” In other words, “God I want this, but if not, then I will take what you have in store for me.” This “but if not” faith is the hardest thing for many of us to maintain in the face of life’s crises and struggles. It requires a radical trust in God - a trust that says that I will love you, my God, even when what is happening to me is awful, painful, life-threatening, scary. This “but if not” faith says to God that I want to be yours, to be beloved by You and in relationship with You even when it appears I won’t get something good as a result of that faith. It is a faith that endures in the face of the worst challenges, in the face of circumstances that make it seem from our perspective, that God has abandoned us.

The psalmist cries, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Jesus echoed that cry as he hung upon the cross. How many times have we felt forsaken by God? When a spouse dies, or a divorce happens, or we lose a job, or a child falls gravely ill, or we are diagnosed with a serious illness or suffer a setback of some kind – who among us has not cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” What happens to an “if not” faith at these times?

An “if not” faith is a faith that springs out of love for God and in response to God’s love for us. It is a faith that does not demand a quid pro quo. This “if not” faith does not say to God, “OK, I’ll believe in you, have faith in you and in return you will protect me from bad things, mean people, catastrophic events – you will ‘save’ me from anything bad that may happen in this life.” An “if not” faith says, “God I love you. Simply because you are who you are. Not because of what you did for me today, or yesterday or what you will do tomorrow, but because you are who you are.” An “if not” faith is not a talisman against life’s cruelties, hardships or pains – it is simply a necessary element in a life lived fully and abundantly.

An “if not” faith values the relationship with God over all else. It is in that loving and passionate relationship with God that life has meaning and purpose, regardless of what may happen during that life. An “if not” faith understands that relationship with God isn’t simply about feeling good and being happy, or about being a nice person and coming to church on Sunday or doing good things for others. It’s about profound love that endures through all the joys and sorrows, blessings and misfortunes, ups and downs of the earthly journey. It’s about a love so strong, so deep, so all encompassing that when things go well, we give thanks and rejoice with this God from whom all blessings flow, and when things turn sour, we give thanks and seek refuge in the love of that same God.

Episcopal priest Bryant Wilson wrote about an “if not” faith just six days before he died of lymphoma:

Faith is not faith unless it has passed the test of not getting what it wants. … The unhealed body. The untimely death. The divorce that came anyway. The promised promotion that turned out to be an empty promise. The friend who misunderstood. The list could go on and on. In order to handle the disappointment, frustration, or failure it takes an “if not” faith. When the “if not” is not there, it is just a fair weather faith, which does not hold when the winds and rains of adversity and unanswered prayer come howling against it. …. I face dying or living. I am confident I serve a healing God who is able and willing to deliver me. But as the flames lick higher and the temperature surges, I pray for an “if not” faith. Job said it: ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.’ That’s the kind of faith where you don’t get burned. Regardless.

Palm Sunday and the events we remember during Holy Week remind us that an “if not” faith is what we are called to embrace. Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross because he had an “if not” faith. He came to show us who God is and how to be in relationship with this God of love. “Hosanna” we shouted today as we began our liturgy. Then, “Crucify him” we’ll cry on Friday. Let us not be too smug as we sit this side of the resurrection, critical perhaps of the lack of “if not” faith demonstrated by the disciples. Let us pray, rather, that when confronted with our own Gethsemane and Golgotha, we will, like Jesus be able to pray, “yet not what I want, but what you want.”

And now, The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.