During the Lenten season,
First Church is focusing on health and recovery.
And each week we've been taking one word from the very beginning of the creation story in Genesis chapter 1 as our guidance and focus for our own spiritual health and also our spiritual and collective recovery.
During this Holy Week,
We're setting aside each day to be mindful of one word.
A word that helps us to understand maybe the depth of what has occurred on this Holy Week,
The days leading up to Easter.
And so today our word is mul,
Mul.
Let me read from John chapter 13.
This is a scripture text that is very infrequently preached but is all too important as an invitation to see and sense the drama of the story as it unfolds,
Especially with those disciples who gathered together.
Jesus is foretelling his betrayal.
And these verses from John chapter 13 starting at verse 21.
After saying a few words,
Jesus was troubled in his spirit and declared,
Very truly I tell you one of you will betray me.
The disciples looked at one another uncertain of whom he was speaking.
One of his disciples,
The one whom Jesus loved was reclining next to him.
Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.
So while reclining next to Jesus,
He asked him,
Lord,
Who is it?
Jesus answered,
It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.
And when he had dipped the piece of bread,
He gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.
And after Judas received the piece of bread,
Satan entered him and Jesus said to him,
Do quickly what you are going to do.
Now no one at the table knew why Jesus has said this to him.
Some thought that because Judas had the common purse that Jesus was telling him,
Buy what you need for the festival or that he should give something to the poor.
So after receiving the piece of bread,
Judas immediately went out and it was night.
I invite you now to get in a posture of meditation.
Today I'd like for you to find a place of comfort,
Maybe even reclining.
And in that reclined position,
I invite you to close your eyes or rest your gaze away from a screen,
Maybe toward an inanimate object.
And begin to breathe.
We just heard a story that may be somewhat unfamiliar to you.
So begin to breathe.
Breathe and center in on this moment right here and right now.
An invitation for you to be with whatever has come up for you in the reading of this story.
Maybe you've fully placed yourself there in that tiny room reclining next to Jesus.
Or maybe you have found yourself dismissing the story because of a word or phrase that was read.
Whatever it was,
Stay with that thought or feeling in this moment,
It may be the very thing that is trying to teach you.
It may be that fracture in the clay jar where light can pour in.
Our word today is mull.
So let us mull over these things.
Finding our breath,
Finding this moment.
The thoughts and feelings that have come up in you are important.
And will help to shape you in this midweek of Holy Week.
Let us mull over these things.
The question at the very heart of Holy Week is this.
What does love really look like?
What does love mean?
How does love become part of the story,
Especially the end point of the story of Jesus?
As we're mulling these things over,
We know that love can mean sacrifice,
Literally to make holy.
We know that love can mean embrace,
That is the acceptance of a present reality.
We know that love can mean aspiration,
A kind of nurturing of a future ideal.
And during this Holy Week,
These three things,
Sacrifice,
Embrace,
And aspiration,
These intertwine as the story unfolds.
And in this text,
In the center of the Gospel of John,
We are faced with the most challenging text of divine love.
Jesus' own engagement with Judas,
And Judas' own thought process on betrayal.
It is clear in this text that Judas does what he's going to do.
And Jesus all the while says the Son of Man is glorified.
The lesson here is that this life circumstance of Jesus,
Even betrayal,
Does not define Jesus.
Even in the same breath,
Nor should it ultimately define Judas.
What defines Jesus and what defines Judas is the very same.
The Son of Man's glorification.
Judas is the ultimate truth.
So often we are caught up in our own life's circumstances.
Maybe even betrayal.
The good news is that that betrayal,
Those difficult life circumstances,
Do not define you.
Let me repeat that.
Your difficult life circumstances do not define you.
What ultimately defines you is the ultimate truth of glorification.
That love in the end will win.
That there is something greater for you in your life than all of those things that we have created negative stories about in our heads,
In our hearts.
So the invitation I have for you today in this Holy Week may be the most difficult invitation for you.
I want you to mull over those previous life circumstances that have continued to define you.
Name them and claim them.
And then release them.
Your definition for your life is altogether different somewhere else.
Your life definition is love.
Love.
Not a conditioned set of circumstances.
Not a series of to-do lists affirmed.
But love.
That sacrifice,
That embrace,
And that aspiration that is deep within you.
That is your ultimate self-definition.
You have been made holy in this present reality,
Nurturing you to a future ideal of the ultimate love that is within you.
Your previous life circumstances no longer define you.
You are free.
In the moments today,
When those stories,
When those circumstances come up for you,
Place your hand on your heart and realize and recognize there is something far greater that defines you.
And it's at the very heart of your being.
Love.
Open your eyes.
Open your mind.
Open your heart.
Open your life to the reality that you are love.
