Vespers of Holy Friday "The End"

And returned. The sight that St. Luke refers

to is this, what they beheld. We behold. We behold

it in a different way. Moses asked to see the

glory of God, and God says, well, I will pass

by you, my glory will pass by you, but you can't

see it. This is the glory of God. cross that's

why it says the king of glory it's the one who

is on it that's glorious because of what he's

done and the fruit it says in Isaiah the fruit

of his travail he will see and rejoice and that's

us we are the fruit of this agony and travail

the sight that we behold now the profound meaning

of what happened that day hidden from the eyes

of those that were there mocking him Hopefully

we see now a little bit more by faith. And by

over 2 ,000 years of witnesses, that is the saints,

the martyrs, who bore testimony by their own

death to the death and the resurrection of Christ,

that death is overcome. St. Joseph the Hesychast

says we need to not be afraid of death, but actually

chase it a little bit because it starts to run

away from us. It's afraid of us because we're

Christians and we've been given the Holy Spirit.

Last night we heard about St. Peter's denial.

Multiple times. The early church put that in

there while St. Peter was still alive. Imagine

every year he bore that shame. He bore that shame.

Multiple times it was emphasized. emphasize to

us how easy it is to deny the faith, whether

it's by words or our deeds or by laziness or

by our sloppiness in the faith or by our apathy

about the faith or because our fear or shame

that someone may cause to us. And yet, although

Christ had done so many miracles before them,

says, one of the evangelists. Still they did

not believe. And here we are, contemplating and

pondering what it meant to the few people, the

few people that took the Lord down from the cross

that day. Just a few of them. Two men and some

women. One disciple only. The old spiritual hymn

asks, were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?

Yes, that's what we're doing here. We're there.

How many times do we have to hear the word today?

Today, the Lord of glory is crucified. Today,

the most pure virgin stands and beats her breast

and tears her hair. Today, over and over and

over again. This means that we are there when

they crucified our Lord. And sometimes it is

not they who crucified. the Lord, but as we by

our lukewarm response to him and our sins. But

today is no day for a lukewarm response. Today

it's all or nothing from us because he gave all

because we were nothing, returning to the dust

from nothingness that we were created. Today

is not about a lukewarm response. Yesterday,

last night, this morning, today, over and over

again, we read gospel accounts of the trial.

The beating, the spitting, the whipping, the

crucifixion, the mockery. Twelve selections last

night. A long reading at the liturgy yesterday.

Another long reading that the deacon did so beautifully

today. Why? Why this repetition? In order to

invite us to the today of the earth -shattering

event that happened today over and over and over

again, the repetitions saturate us in that. They

penetrate into our hearts, our understanding

and our feeling. It takes a while, my brothers

and sisters, for us to get it. So the church

says over and over again this same story. You

heard it. Multiple times, it's the gospel in

its power. It's not information. It's the truth,

and it convicts us, and it embraces us. Because

the Lord, as I was telling the deacon the other

day, he asked me a question. I said, he is not

only our judge, but he is our defense attorney.

Father Andrew Morby, dear friend, former rector

here back in the 80s, says that this is all somewhat

problematic for us. Holy Friday is not easily

approached and understood. He says this, in our

daily life we can put up with a lot of things

if we know the outcome is going to be good. Surgery,

chemo, medication, losing money, family issues.

Those are representative of the many moments

and transactions in our life that we know if

we're patient and we work hard, we will get through

them. And there'll be a good outcome, a positive

outcome. But in this case here today in the church,

in this service, what's problematic is that we

actually know the gospel story. And we know what's

going to happen over the next three days. It's

quite possible that the real gravity and horror

of that day, the crucifixion of the Lord, the

sorrow, the anguish of it, remains a story, yes,

a moving and deep and profound story. But knowing

the end as we do, maybe our minds are already

thinking about the celebration to come. Breaking

our fast, the cheese and the meads and the beverage

and the enjoyable time. But today the church

wants us to be disciples like they were. The

women and Nicodemus and Joseph. Perhaps fearful

disciples have run away, of course. Why does

the church want us to be disciples with the women

and Joseph and Nicodemus? Because for them, they

knew. They knew that the crucifixion was the

absolute end. It was the end of the story. It

was utter defeat. They were crushed. They weren't

just dismayed and sad. They were completely confused,

anguished, grieved. We thought it would be he

that would be the consolation and the savior

of Israel. The apostles say to Jesus on the road

to Emmaus, Broken hearted, the pain and pains

that all throw their shadow across our life.

This is what we experienced too. This was the

death of the one they loved the most. Imagine

for a moment in a spiritual way that today is,

this is it. Crucifixion's the end of the story.

There's nothing more. Are we brokenhearted? We

have to put ourselves in their place if we are

going to rejoice in their place too. The suffering

of the Lord, his anguish, his pain, it embraces

all of us and all our anxiety and all our suffering

and brokenheartedness. His love, his death embraces

everything. And so this way, says Father Andrew,

the way in which to approach the tomb of the

Lord is to come and venerate the Plaschnitza

and the cross and to allow full measure of your

grief. All the memories of hurts, offenses, hard

-heartedness, brokenness, betrayal, sorrow, a

way in which we've had so many dead ends in our

life. and thought there was no hope and no escape

and no solution. Forget about breaking the fast

and sausages and shots of vodka. Bracket off

the glorious cry, Christ is risen. Leave it aside.

Let us experience today this moment as the end,

how the apostles saw it in their bewilderment

and fear. As a priest, I can tell you, when people

are suffering, that's how they see it. They don't

see what's coming. We forget about it. So this

is where today we bring all our sorrow to the

man of sorrows, to the mother of sorrows who

love us. Can we spiritually enter into the great

today of this service and realize that our Savior

experienced a real genuine death, that he was

afraid in his human nature, that he sweated,

as it were, great drops of blood, that he was

sorrowful and grieving, says the evangelist,

even to death. You see, that's the whole problem

of knowing the outcome. We don't always grasp

that it's a very real death. It's not a pretend

death. It's not acting. It's not an appearance.

It's a reality. And as real as this fallen and

broken and devastated world, that's what God

entered into for our sake. Why? So that he could

go into that dark realm of death and transform

it from the inside. And we will celebrate that

tonight and tomorrow. Love gets crushed. Betrayals

happen. Wickedness happens. The same stupid violence

that the Lord experienced, we experience, we,

us, now. Since he also experiences it because

he is our head and we are his body. He knows

it. This is what we need to bring to the Lord

this great today of Holy Friday, with tears in

our eyes, with love like the women and Joseph

and Nicodemus. This is our story too. Amen.