04/06/2008 - Shed for You
Before Alfred Hitchcock became Hollywood’s master of mystery & suspense, he made movies for the British government. Some of the most powerful footage he ever shot was not from The Birds or Psycho or Vertigo or North by Northwest, but came from cinematography taken when the Allies liberated Germany’s concentration camps. Many of us have seen Holocaust films, but Hitchcock’s work was so graphic that the world had to wait 40 years to see the worst of the worst. Those images were of absolute horror & evil.
It was the 40th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day in 1985 when PBS put Hitchcock’s film on its Frontline program. They’ve run it many times since then. In the lives & deaths of those downtrodden masses, many of them Jewish persons, I saw another Jew, Jesus of Nazareth whom we call the Christ.
We live in a culture of violence where Philadelphia’s murder rate consistently made the front pages in 2007 & machete-wielding road-ragers ended their a.m. drive time odyssey in our parking lot. Research scientists, psychologists & educators decry the depiction of violence on television, in theaters, & on the internet. Despite the decades-long warnings from these experts, our children can witness graphic scenes of death on cable TV in the middle of the afternoon. Movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel & Saw I rake in millions & spawn sequels like Saw II & a second Chainsaw Massacre. The highest court in the land allows predatory abominations against children to remain on the web in the name of free speech. The body count in Iraq, a national debate on what constitutes torture, hundreds of millions of deaths by murderous, totalitarian regimes in the 20th century alone, a man murdered on the subway platform for “kicks,” all conspire to inure (desensitize) us to violence. Unless it involves someone we know, it’s “just another senseless act of violence” getting as much attention from us as the three-seconds it takes to read the headline or hear the evening news teaser. Blood & guts & torturous suffering have gone mainstream. They’ve become the norm.
The horrid beatings & agonizing death that Jesus underwent seem almost mild in comparison. Calling crucifixion mild! That’s a statement. The truth is, we are unfazed by Good Friday’s events. It took The Passion of the Christ, to shock us into reality, & even then, many Christians disapproved of the “unnecessary violence” portrayed on the larger-than-life screen. Well, what about the “unnecessary violence” Jesus actually underwent. Where are those protests?
Do we fully grasp & appreciate the shed blood of Jesus & what it means for us & humanity? St. Peter reminds us that we were not ransomed “with perishable things like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1:18). Do we truly count his blood as precious, or have we become desensitized to it, too? There’s a way to measure if we no longer really care, a biblical way.
Peter states that purified souls & obedience to the truth lead to a genuine mutual love for one another. That love is deep, constant, & from the heart. And just like the gospel-writer, John, in our Maundy Thursday gospel lesson, that love is for one another. The love Jesus talks about, that John & Peter write about, is not for anyone & everyone, but for fellow followers of Jesus. Oh, yes, we are to love neighbor & enemy, but love starts at home with disciples in our families & in the faith community. At a time when Christians are generally doing an adequate job of caring for the needy around the world, our treatment of one another leaves much to be desired.
When was the last time any of us prayed for Christians being persecuted for their faith? Beatings, torture, imprisonment, & death happen to fellow believers with frequency around the world. The Sudan & China are the most recent examples. How are we loving these brothers & sisters whose belief in Christ puts them & their families at risk?
Mid-town Parish, historically, our strongest UM connection in North Philadelphia is without a building. It was condemned & demolished. The congregation still worships & serves. Imagine ministering without a building. We build churches in faraway countries, but have a sister congregation “in our own backyard,” that needs help. How can our “loving one another” move off the pages of the Bible & into real action a few miles from home?
The bad behavior of Christians toward one another in individual congrega-tions & denominations is a widely-known fact. It is so bad in the 21st century that persons cite it as one of the main reasons they won’t become involved in a church. They know that the Bible teaches us to love one another, but see us doing so much hurting of one another, not loving. Books on church conflict are a cottage industry among Christian booksellers.
And, perhaps one of the most disturbing facts to surface in the last generation is that domestic violence among certain groups of Christians in America is higher than the general population.
To all of these citings I ask: Is this “genuine mutual love, lov(ing) one another deeply/constantly from the heart” (1:22)? If we could appreciate what Jesus’ blood has done & means for us, might not the quality of our relationships with each other improve?
Relationships are hard. They take work. Most persons, counseling psychologists inform us, are lousy at doing relationships. Quite frankly, our relational ineptitude is what keeps those therapists & researchers in business, so they should know! But if any group should be different by being better, it is Christians.
When it comes to Jesus’ sacrifice & blood, our attempt to avoid things morbid in church & be silent on these unpalatable matters as they pertain to Christ, have not had the desired effect of making us more loving. We’ve really forgotten about Jesus’ supreme act of love, & hence, love one another less.
Peter’s themes in his brief letter are suffering & hope. He links them. From profound suffering comes hope. From the blood of Christ comes new life. One cannot have resurrection without death, Easter without Good Friday, life without blood.
As the Apostle Paul says, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ & Him crucified” (1st Cor. 2:2). I believe that we need to recover our appreciation of Jesus’ crucifixion & sacrificial blood. How do we accomplish this in a spiritually healthy way? I have a few suggestions.
1) Our dealing with the events of Holy Week must not be confined to Holy Week. We need a renewed understanding (or, perhaps, new understanding) of what Jesus’ blood does for us & means to us. Preachers, teachers, & Bible study leaders need to talk more about Jesus’ life-giving blood. “There is power in the blood,” as the old hymn states.
2) Church musicians & congregations need to sing more about his blood. There are plenty of hymns. We’re singing a few of them today, but there are more. I know it sounds grotesque to sing of such things, but let’s try it. Generations of Christians have done this. Dealing with violence against Jesus may help us be less hurtful to one another. Certainly, silence & ignorance on these matters does not correlate with the desired effect.
3) Worship leaders & worshipers need to encounter Christ’s body & blood by recovering more frequent observances of holy communion.
A Christian approach to ending violence in all its forms & genuinely loving each other is to realize the indebtedness we have to Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary. New life for each of us & new life with each other are the direct result of Jesus giving his life & shedding his blood for you & me.
In the Name…. Copyright 2008 by G.D. Knerr at Lansdale, Pa. All rights reserved.