Bethlehem Lutheran Church

If you were here last week, you might remember that Mary asked for a volunteer to come up to help demonstrate what the word grace meant. Well, just like her sermon, I would like a volunteer to help demonstrate the word "sacrifice"...That's right, just come on up to the altar and I will be right there.

What? No one? No, of course not. Grace is a word we run to, we like the sound of it and the comfort it gives to us, but when we hear the word sacrifice, we either run away from it, or at the very least, have mixed emotions. When we hear the word sacrifice today, it takes on different connotations depending on the context.

If sacrifice is mentioned in a political speech, our response and reaction to the word depends on how much we trust the politician asking for a sacrifice. If we are talking about sacrifices for a country or nation, then our reaction depends on how much we support that nation or what that nation is fighting for. If we are being asked to give more and more when we have already experienced involuntary hardship, the response is different than if we are voluntarily sacrificing or giving of ourselves.

Our sermon series during Lent is entitled "The Word that Changed the World." The Word, or logos which is the word printed in Greek on your bulletins, is Jesus and Jesus came to change our world and turn it upside down. There are many words that we use in the church without much thought to their origin or their real meaning for our lives. And like the word grace, the word sacrifice is one of those words playing a role in changing the world. But it is one of those churchy words that needs to be unpacked a bit more.

In Old Testament times, a sacrifice was made as a part of every worship ritual, but it was also used to signify a promise between God and God's people. At one point in the book of Genesis, Abram makes an offering before God and God promises him many descendants. Then in the book of Exodus, a lamb was sacrificed before the Israelites were released from slavery in Egypt, so this kind sacrifice represented protection and freedom. Sacrifice was also a practice that took the guilt of sin away from an individual or the community. In the book of Leviticus, you can read about how a priest would lay his hands on a goat and confess the peoples' sins. The goat would then be taken out into the desert and let go. At the same time in the ritual, a second goat was dedicated to God and offered up for sacrifice. The meaning for scapegoat today combines these two meanings: bearing the guilt and being sacrificed for the sake of the larger group.

Actual sacrificial practices like these have long since been abandoned in most parts of the world. But these practices were already being criticized and redefined during the time of the prophets and during the time of Jesus:  In the Gospel of Matthew we read: "Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." And this was probably a restatement of the prophet Hosea who said: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

Nevertheless, Jesus is the one who voluntarily offered himself and this is the sacrifice we remember every time we share the Lord's Supper in worship. Jesus seals the promises between God and God's people; it is Jesus', the Lamb of God, who continues to take away our guilt and sin and forgive each one of us; and it is Jesus who frees us from worrying about ourselves so that we can be freed for loving our neighbor.

Our gospel reading today has Jesus being warned about the dangers that lie ahead for him in Jerusalem. Even the Pharisees are warning him to be careful because of Herod. But Jesus says that he must continue. Jesus was willingly and knowingly continuing his journey to Jerusalem which would mean at the very least imprisonment and at the most a humiliating, excruciating death.

After we hear Jesus say how it is necessary for him to continue his journey, however, we hear his sadness. "O Jerusalem, why wouldn't you let me gather you? Why wouldn't you trust in me to guide you?" In this scene, Jesus is not only lamenting over those living in Jerusalem at that time, but Jesus continues to cry over the ways that we do not want to be gathered and follow him today. This lament is for us as well because we continue to trust only in ourselves rather than in God.

Jesus willingly gives up his freedom and ultimately his life, to forgive all the ways we hurt one another and ourselves. He could have simply bypassed the personal sacrifice with a quick detour back to Galilee or with one comment saying "Hey, there must have been some misunderstanding, you have the wrong guy here", but that was not what he had come to do. He had come to bring about the elimination of sin and evil in the world. He had come to offer himself as the sacrifice for us all.

M.Scott Peck once wrote about something he heard from an old priest who explained sacrifice like this. He said: "The only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living human being. When it is absorbed there like blood in a sponge, it loses its power and goes no further......the healing of evil....can be accomplished only by the love of individuals. A willing sacrifice is required...I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does....Whenever voluntary sacrifice happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world." (Quoted in The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey, p. 204)

The cross shows us that God is the One who was willing to sacrifice and let go of power for the sake of love. Ultimately God willingly sacrificed himself and his power for the sake of love for the world. Because (as it says in Philippians) "although he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness."

As followers of Jesus, we are to be of the same mind. In the waters of baptism, we become part of the body of Christ poured out to continue the healing of evil and sin in the world? But what kind of sacrifice is asked of us? If the meaning of sacrifice has come to mean costly or difficult action for the sake of a higher ideal, how might you and I give of ourselves and pour out our lives for the sake of love?

Sometimes this might mean sacrificing being right and justified in our anger for the sake of love. I experienced this with my mother as a teenager. She and I had an explosive relationship when I was in high school. And while I don't remember any of the specifics about what we argued about, I do remember what happened on more than one occasion after our fights. After saying some terrible things to her, I would go in my room determined to never speak to her again. After a while, however, she would come in to my room, sit beside me and give me a hug. In spite of the horrible things I had said and in spite of the fact that she was justifiably angry, she would make the first move toward me to restore the relationship. In the journey to my side and in those hugs, the anger and hatred was absorbed and eliminated. There was no place left for it to go. My mother sacrificed being right and justified in her anger for the sake of love and for the sake of restoring our relationship. I am now a parent who tries to show this same kind of love, but I now know how difficult it is on some days to sacrifice one's sense of being right and justified in anger for the sake of love.

Sometimes we might be moved to give up material things for the sake of love. Last weekend many of our Jr. and Sr. High students went without food for 30 hours to help them learn about love for God and love for the 24,000 children who die in the world everyday because of hunger-related causes. Each link hanging in the gallery represents 10 of these children. Our youth sacrificed time, money and food for the sake of love. And every $30 they raised feeds a child for a month. Their combined sacrifices will keep 152 kids alive this month.

Sometimes we might be called to give up our own plans and our own freedom for the sake of love. ...Nuha Khoury, a Palestinian Lutheran Christian who was born in Bethlehem in Palestine had the opportunity to go to school in Michigan and complete her doctorate at the University there. She could have taught here in the United States and had a calm life. Instead, she decided to move back to Bethlehem where her freedom and movement from town to town is extremely limited. The choice her family made to stay living in Bethlehem ultimately meant the death of her father because they could not get him to a hospital in time. He was denied passage past a security checkpoint on the way to the hospital because he did not hold a "sickness permit" after having a heart attack. Even his American passport was not able to gain him access to a Jerusalem hospital.

This Tuesday and Saturday, Nuha and her pastor, Mitri Raheb, will be telling their stories about how they are sacrificing their freedoms for the sake of growing love, hope and peace in the place from which hope was born. Nuha specifically will be telling her story at the women's retreat about she will be the Dean of a new college they are building there and she chooses to do this because of her love and hope for the next generation.

I know many of you here in this congregation as well have made similar choices to give up your own plans and freedoms willingly. And you have done this because of love for an individual or because of love for the next generation.

All of these are examples of giving up something for the sake of love and for the sake of restoring relationships. On a grander scale, this is what God does for all of humanity. In spite of all the ways we hurt one another and cheat one another for our own personal gains, God willingly gave up power for the sake of love....For the sake of restoring the relationship and showing love to you, to me and to the world.

As Christians, we understand that sacrifice is part of following Jesus. And today as the offering plates are circulated, I encourage you to write down one thing on a piece of paper or on your Star insert. Write down one thing that God has or is urging you to give or sacrifice for the sake of love and place it in the offering plate with your offering.

Then let us pray the Lord's Prayer together saying "Your kingdom come, your will be done." When we pray that God's kingdom come and that God's will be done, we are praying that God's will and not our own wills come first. We are praying that God's kingdom and not our own personal kingdoms be built up. In this prayer, we ask for God to move us to sacrifice and give of our lives in ways that will bring about Jesus' continued healing of the world today. We do this by walking toward someone who might be angry, by giving of our time and possessions, or by giving of our lives to others for the sake of love. Let us pray that God fill us with his same urgency...

Please bow your heads and pray with me: Loving God, May your Kingdom and vision for this world come, and use me to make it happen. Urging and Nudging God, May your will be done here and now and mold my will to yours each and every day. Amen.

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