Good Friday
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle B
Object:
Theme of the Day
A vulnerable God struggles to overcome our sin.
Collect of the Day
Two alternatives are provided. In the first, petitions are offered to God to look with loving mercy on the family of faith. In the second, petitions are made that we who have been born out of Christ may find mercy at all times. Justification by Grace is the theme of both prayers.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 22
* A lament prayer for deliverance from mortal illness, attributed to David.
* Cry for help and defense of forsakenness (vv. 1-2) quoted by Jesus on the Cross (Mark 15:34). This suggests the Psalm can be read as applying to Jesus' Passion.
* Other references foreshadowing the crucifixion (vv. 6-7), His being poured out like water as enriched by evildoers (vv. 14, 16), His clothes being divided (v. 18).
* The Psalm concludes with a vow of the sick one to offer a formal thanksgiving in the Temple on recovery (vv. 22, 25). The hymn to be sung follows (vv. 23-31). Among its references to praising God include acclamation and affirmation of His hearing cries of the afflicted (v. 24), caring for the poor (v. 25), as well as receiving praise from the whole earth (v. 27), from the dead (v. 29), and from posterity (vv. 30-31). This praise could be applied to the God who raised Jesus.
Sermon Text and Title
"Laying Your Sins on Christ"
Isaiah 52:13--53:12
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim that we put Christ on the Cross with our sin, but with confidence that though disfigured by our sin Christ will be exalted, and we with Him (Atonement and Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Again a work of Second Isaiah, written soon before the fall of Babylon.
* The text is taken from the Book of Consolation, a series of eschatological prophecies.
* This is the so-called Fourth Servant Song. For a description of these songs, see First Lesson for Palm/Passion Sunday.
* The first ten verses of chapter 53 are a congregational reflection on the Servant. Other verses in chapter 52 and the last two of chapter 53 purport to be God's Word.
* This song is about God exalting His disfigured Servant (52:13, 15; 53:12a).
* Although in its historical context the song is intended to depict Israel's restoration, several passages (see below) can be read as prefiguring Christ's atoning work.
* The servant is said not to have a desirable appearance (53:2). He was despised and rejected (53:3).
* The servant also bore our infirmities (53:4) and was wounded for our transgressions. He took the punishment that made us whole (53:5).
* His death is said to have been a perversion of justice (53:8).
* Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush the servant. It was an offering for sin (53:10). He makes many righteous (53:11).
* He bore the sins of many (53:12).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text, read in relation to its context in the Christian Bible, focuses on Christ and the Atonement (esp. the Satisfaction Theory).
* Reference in verse 11 connotes Christ's work of justifying us.
* On the extraordinary character of what Jesus had done, Martin Luther, while lecturing on this text, wrote:
Therefore the prophet leads us so earnestly beyond all righteousness and our rational capacity and confronts us with the suffering of Christ to impress upon us that all that Christ has is mine.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 221)
This makes it a challenge in his view truly to believe this work of Jesus: "We can preach and uphold this passage in public, but we can only believe it with difficulty" (Ibid., p. 222).
* The Reformer follows with some practical advice about accepting this witness:
Our nature is opposed to the function and power of Christ's passion… We must clearly transfer our sins from ourselves to Christ… Hence you must say: "I see my sin in Christ, therefore my sin in not mine but another's. I see it in Christ."
(Ibid., p. 223)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* For social sins to abhor, see the references in this section for the First Lesson, Palm/Passion Sunday.
* For challenges many Americans have believing the atonement, see the third bullet point of Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples, Second Lesson, Pentecost 21.
5. Gimmick
Martin Luther had it right about this passage, about what Good Friday really means. Read the last quotation in Theological Insights.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Luther says to transfer your sins from yourself to Christ. Good Friday's all about laying your sins on Christ. But it doesn't come easily.
* Luther also tells us why it is difficult. Part of the problem is because our nature resists it (see the quotation from Luther used in the Gimmick).
* Martin Luther tells us more about why it is so hard to lay our sins on Jesus. It goes against our rational capacity to believe it, Luther says (see first quotation in Theological Insights).
* As a result, Luther notes, we may say we believe what happened on that first Good Friday, but can't quite believe it in our hearts. Use the second quotation in Theological Insights. Ask the congregation if it is not also true for them, that it is difficult to believe that all their sins were taken care of by the death of that vulnerable carpenter's son, to believe that their sins are now transferred to Him. It is one thing to believe that Jesus had to die for our sins. It is another to be convinced that in God's eyes we are no longer sinners, that they are all gone.
* Our First Lesson gives us some other reasons why it is all so hard to believe (or at least not very appealing to believe) what happened that first Good Friday. The lesson is not in the strictest sense about Jesus, but about a messianic Servant who would suffer on behalf of a gradually weakening Judean kingdom. But we Christians have understood the lesson as a prophecy of Jesus and His suffering. There are some things in the lesson that help us further appreciate the challenges and the joys that are involved with laying your sins on the crucified Christ.
* We learn from the lesson that the Servant, that Jesus, was disfigured (52:14), without a desirable appearance (53:2). The Messiah, its seems, was not good-looking! It gets harder and harder to think that this ordinary-looking Jew could really take our sins away. After all, He is said to have been despised, rejected (53:3).
* No, you might wonder what the payoff is to lay your sins on somebody like this. Our lesson says He was wounded for our transgressions, took our punishment for us (53:5, 8b). He bore the sin of many (53:12b). We deserve to be punished, but the Messiah took it for us. It's like Martin Luther mentioned earlier: "… I see my sin in Christ, therefore my sin is not mine but another's. I see it in Christ" (Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 223).
* Luther also says it well elsewhere, summarizing the significance of the Cross:
But Christ takes our place and innocently endures death, terror, and hell, so that through Him and in Him we escape all this. Through His undeserved and innocent death He saves us from the rightful death which we deserved, that is, from the sins whereby we merited death and hell.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 402-403)
* We lay our sins on Christ this day, He takes the punishments we deserve for all our selfishness, waywardness, laziness, nastiness, greed, and prejudice (you name yours). But for His sacrifice and the intercession He makes for us, God awards the Messiah a great portion, makes sure He is exalted (53:12; 52:13). As a result of this sacrifice of this righteous one, God makes many righteous (53:11b)! Get that? Christ's sacrifice on the Cross makes you and me righteous (like Christ is).
* It's like this: Remember how Christ takes our sin and then takes the punishment for us. As a result, you and I are now innocent in the eyes of (divine) law. God the judge declares us not guilty!
* What makes it so hard to believe all this, hard to lay our sins on God? Martin Luther gives us some other clues when he reminds us that in this text the prophets lead us away from all our righteousness (see first quotation in Theological Insights).
* Continue the quotation: Note Luther's point that on the Cross, all that is Christ has is now ours! All his righteousness and goodness are ours.
* In the same spirit, the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Christian businessman and Pentecostal missionary John G. Lake wrote: "The wonder is that Jesus purposed to make your heart and mine just as sweet and lovely and pure and holy as His own."
7. Wrap-Up
Hard as it is to believe it, Good Friday really is good. We start out by laying our sins on that vulnerable Savior, an event that's awfully tough as we have to admit our own sin and our own complicity in the Lord's death. But when that happens miraculously (and to believe this scandal is certainly miraculous), we also find that those burdens and hang-ups we brought to the Cross begin to fade while a brand-new righteous loving and pure you and me (really a little Christ) emerge from that empty tomb. Your sins are fading now in the Crucifixion. And then as we lay those sins on Christ we can sing with Isaac Watts and even live the words of his great song "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Read or sing the last verse.
Sermon Text and Title
"Direct Access to God"
Hebrews 10:16-25
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim the good news of the direct access we now have to God as a result of Christ's high-priestly sacrifice (Justification by Grace and Atonement construed as Satisfaction Theory), also noting the implications of this more intimate contact with God for Christian life (Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* After a brief citation from Jeremiah (31:33-34) concerning the New Covenant ushered in by Christ the high priest (vv. 16-18), exhortations to the faithful are offered.
* Forgiveness of sin and writing the Lord's laws on the hearts and minds of the people are the essence the New Covenant (vv. 16-18).
* Reference is made to the blood of Jesus giving confidence to enter the sanctuary [the presence of God] through the curtain (which is said to refer to His flesh) (vv. 19-20).
* Jesus is said to be a great priest (v. 21). As a result the faithful can approach a public confession in full assurance, for their hearts are clear from an evil conscience (vv. 22-23).
* Calls for provoking each other to love and good deeds (v. 24). Would have the faithful not neglect meeting together (unlike some who do not) for the end time is approaching (v. 25).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* A discussion of the atonement (esp. Satisfaction Theory, implied by designating Christ a priest who performs sacrifice of sin, but since it is not clear to whom the sacrifice is paid, the text could be interpreted in the mode of the Governmental Theory) and Justification by Grace as well as their implications for Christian life (Sanctification) and the church.
* John Wesley noted while commenting on verse 20 that:
As by rending the veil in the Temple, the holy of holies became visible and accessible, so by wounding the body of Christ, the God of heaven was manifested and the way to heaven opened.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 568)
* John Calvin describes Christ as the fountain of all holiness and righteousness (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, p. 236).
* About the admonition to hold fast our faith (v. 23), the Reformer writes:
For we hence first learn, that our faith rests on this foundation, that God is true, that is, true to His promise, which His word contains; for that we believe, the Voice or Word of God must precede… for except God promises, no one can believe.
(Ibid., p. 238)
* Calvin regards verse 25 as addressing the need to cultivate unity, which is so difficult because human beings tend to set themselves above others, for "those who seem in anything to excel cannot well endure their inferiors to be on an equality with themselves" (Ibid., pp. 240-241).
* The great preacher of the early church John Chrysostom, commenting on verse 24 and its exhortation to provoke one another to love and good deeds, proclaimed: "For if a stone rubbed against a stone sends forth fire, how much more soul mingled with soul!" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 14, p. 455). The connection of people sparks the flames of love.
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* At least as recently as 2006 a Pew Foundation poll indicated that 2 out of 5 Americans believe in a distant God. A Harris poll earlier that year recorded the percentage at 44%.
* Consider the leads in this section for the First Lesson.
5. Gimmick
Nearly one half of Americans think God is distant. Cite statistics in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Our lesson today from Hebrews helps us understand how the Cross is God's way of overcoming this distance. Let's get clear first on the background.
* Remember, the letter to the Hebrews was written to help convince Jewish Christians that Jesus' sacrifice was greater than those of the temple priests. That is what is going on in our lesson, as the author of the sermon was explaining the characteristics of Christ's Good Friday Sacrifice, His role as high priest (9:11--10:18).
* Quoting Jeremiah 31 (vv. 33-34), our lesson proclaims that we have been forgiven, that the laws of the Lord will be written on the hearts of the faithful (vv. 16-18). Christ's blood, the forgiveness given to the faithful, is said to give the faithful confidence to enter the Temple sanctuary, opening through the curtain to a new and living way (vv. 19-21). As a result, the author adds, we have been provided with full assurance, with hearts sprinkled clean (v. 22).
* Keep in mind here how the Jews worshiped God prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. They believed that God was present in the Temple, in the holy of holies, behind a curtain that only the high priests could approach (9:3; Exodus 26:31-33). In other words, God Himself was not accessible to the ordinary believer. Like we noted earlier, that's kind of the way Americans feel today. But Jesus' sacrificial and cleansing death (the sacrifice He performed that first Good Friday) has changed things!
* Use the quotation by John Wesley cited in Theological Insights. Thanks to what Jesus did today, we have been made clean, holy enough to approach God and to come into God's presence, tasks as the Jewish priests had (Numbers 8:14-15). For people of the Cross like us, we are all priests (1 Peter 2:9) who can just like the Jewish priests enter into God's holy presence.
* Get that point? With Christ's work on Good Friday, God is accessible to all the faithful! Get that? God is not distant and inaccessible anymore. You and I have now been made holy enough (despite all our sin) to approach God boldly!
* Remember that the next time God seems absent, not hearing your prayer, not responsive. Approach Him with confidence. Christ the high priest has made you worthy to approach this awesome, loving God of ours.
* It is like Saint Augustine is purported to have written: "God loves each of us as if there only one of us." He is that accessible to each of us as individuals. God would not be distant to His only child (and that's the way He regards each of us).
* The great preacher of the early church John Chrysostom made a neat observation about the implications of Jesus' high-priestly status and its implications for the everyday life of Christians made holy and made priests by Him. Our lesson from Hebrews closes with exhorting the faithful who have been sprinkled clean and pure to love one another and continue meeting together in worship (vv. 24-25).
* Think of it: You and I are now priests (not just the pastor and worship leader), each of us God's only child. All the faithful are on an equal footing before God. That's what the appeal to meeting together in communal worship, not just going before God privately, is all about. The faithful can't help but rub shoulders with each other, can't help but mingle with each other. Follow with the John Chrysostom quotation in Theological Insights.
7. Wrap-Up
Mingling souls in church, mingling the priests whom Christ has made clean, can't help but lead to fire -- a fire of love. Jesus' Good Friday work has brought us into closer fellowship with God, broken down all the barriers that divide Him and us and each other. Today we commemorate the day that made us God's only child (with lots of brothers and sisters in Christ). It is an experience as Martin Luther once said that is beyond what our heart can grasp, a love so great that we can scarcely taste a few drops of the divine ocean of love (What Luther Says, p. 821). Note how good this Friday of our high priest is.
Sermon Text and Title
"Hardened in Sin"
John 18:1--19:42
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
An attempt to help us see ourselves and our sins in the actions of those surrounding Jesus on the way to the Cross. From that perspective the love and grace of God are all the sweeter and more compelling for everyday life (Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* John's version of the Passion narrative, Jesus' arrest, trial, and Crucifixion.
* Following His high priestly prayer (ch. 17), Jesus and the disciples reportedly journey to Kidron Valley, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives (18:1). Judas leads soldiers, temple police, and Pharisees to arrest Him (18:2-3).
* Jesus asks them whom they seek and when His name is mentioned, He uses a phrase suggestive of his identification with God (with the name Yahweh), "I am He" (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:10-11, 25). His arresters do obeisance (18:4-8a).
* He urges that his followers be released to fulfill earlier prophecies that He would lose no one (18:8b-9; cf. 6:39; 17:12).
* Jesus stops Peter from taking arms to free Him (though Peter did cut off the ear of one of the high priest's men [vv. 10-11]).
* Jesus goes before Annas, the father-in-law of High Priest Caiaphas, who had (vv. 48-50) advised that it would be better to have Jesus killed as representative of the people of Israel than to have the people and the Temple attacked by the Romans (18:13-14).
* Peter denies Jesus outside the gate of the high priest's courtyard. Another disciple known by the high priest enters the courtyard (18:15-18). Unlike other gospels where Jesus first sees the Sanhedrin (in John's account He had already been judged by them [11:47-53]), Jesus simply is judged by former High Priest Annas. In the interrogation Jesus claims that all know or have heard of His teaching (18:19-21). He is struck for insubordination and sent to Caiaphas (18:22-24).
* Peter denies Jesus again after being accused of being a follower by a relative of one whom he had injured defending Jesus (18:25-27).
* Jesus is brought to Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. Jews do not enter headquarters lest they become unclean for Passover celebrations (18:28).
* Pilate tries to have the Jews punish Jesus themselves, but they note that they are not permitted to inflict capital punishment (18:29-32).
* Pilate questions Jesus if He is king of the Jews. He notes His kingdom is not of the world and that His followers are not defending Him (18:33-36). More emphasis is placed by Mark on the charge of Jesus' kingship than in other gospels.
* After more exchange with Jesus, during which Pilate surmises that Jesus has claimed to be a king, but failed to comment on the truth of His testimony, he offers Jesus' release to the Jews. The crowd prefers the release of Barabbas the bandit (18:37-40).
* Pilate has Jesus flogged and mocked by clothing Him with king-like attire (19:1-2). He is mocked, called king of the Jews (19:3).
* Pilate claimed to find no case against Jesus. But chief priests and police call for His crucifixion (19:4-7) Jesus' claim to be Son of God is the reason given for their call.
* After this exchange, Pilate is fearful. He further interrogates Jesus. Jesus refuses to answer some questions (19:8-9).
* Angered, Pilate threatens Jesus with the power he has over Him, but Jesus responds that Pilate's power is dependent on God. The one who handed Jesus over is said to be guilty of a greater sin (19:10-11).
* Pilate then tries to release Jesus, but the Jews claim that Jesus is the enemy of the emperor (19:12-13). Announcing Jesus as the Jews' king, asking if He should be crucified, he finally hands Jesus over to the crowd at noon (19:14-16). Jewish custom was to slaughter Passover lambs for the festival on the day of preparation at noon.
* Jesus carries the Cross to Golgotha (Aramaic for "skull"). He is crucified between two others, with an inscription on the Cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many read it (19:17-20).
* Chief priests try to have the inscription changed to make it clear that it is only that Jesus claimed to be king of the Jews. Pilate refuses their protest (19:21-22).
* On His Crucifixion, Jesus' clothes are divided by soldiers and they cast lots for His tunic, in fulfillment of Psalms 22:18 (19:23-24).
* In the presence of his mother, her sister Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene, Jesus speaks to the disciple He loved (identity uncertain) to care for her (19:25-27).
* Knowing the end is near, Jesus sought to fulfill scripture (Psalm 69:21) by receiving sour wine in response to his thirst (19:28-29). He then proclaims it is finished and dies (19:30).
* Because the Sabbath would dawn in the morning and Jews did not want bodies left on the cross, Pilate ordered the legs of the crucified broken (19:31-32). No need to do that for Jesus, who was already dead (19:33). Instead his side was pierced (19:34). Eyewitness testimony is claimed (19:35). Scripture is thereby fulfilled, with reference to not breaking bones of God's chosen (as Passover sacrifice cannot have bones broken, as per Exodus 12:46) (19:36). Jesus being pierced is said to fulfill Zechariah 12:10 and its claim that the one pierced will be mourned at the end (19:37).
* Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus, gets permission from Pilate to take Jesus' body (19:38). With a leader of the Pharisees, Nicodemus (see 3:1-15), they lay the body in a tomb (19:39-42).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Focus on Sin and Justification by Grace through Faith, with some attention to their implications for Christian life (Sanctification).
* Concerning Peter's zeal in defending Christ, John Calvin issues a helpful warning:
… Christ condemns every thing that men dare to attempt out of their own fancy… Warned by so striking an example, let us learn to keep our zeal within proper bounds; and as the wantonness of our flesh is always eager to attempt more than God commands, let us learn that our zeal will succeed ill, whenever we venture to undertake any thing contrary to the Word of God.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, pp. 194-195)
* Regarding Peter's repeated denials of Christ, Calvin notes how symptomatic it is of our ways of sinning:
Thus it happens to many persons every day. At first, the fault will not be very great; next, it becomes habitual, and at length, after that conscience has been laid asleep, he who has accustomed himself to despise God will think nothing unlawful for him, but will dare to commit the greatest wickedness.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, p. 203)
* But about this episode Martin Luther adds: "For it is so very rich in comfort for all poor sinners, that a great man, an apostle, suffers such a fall and yet receives grace and forgiveness" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 404).
* The Reformer also reflects on how easily the world dismisses such love: "Nevertheless, the dear, pleasure-loving world goes merrily along, takes none of this to heart, is lazy, cold, unthankful, and despises this great treasure" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 473).
If someone came to my rescue in an emergency, when death threatened by fire or water, I would have to be a wretch not to feel grateful toward him… Should we not respond, my Lord Jesus Christ suffered for me; therefore in return I will love Him… It is terrible for anyone to despise such a love!
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 474)
* Noting that Christ was stripped of His clothes (19:24), Calvin notes "Christ was stripped of His garments, that He might clothe us with righteousness…" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, p. 230).
* Luther also well summarizes the significance of the cross:
But Christ takes our place and innocently endures death, terror, and hell, so that through Him and in Him we escape all this. Through His undeserved and innocent death He saves us from the rightful death which we deserved, that is, from the sins whereby we merited death and hell.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 402-403)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* As recently as 2009 a Gallup poll revealed that nearly one half of the public believed the observance of moral values was poor. Seven in ten Americans thought that the state of moral values was getting worse, the poll revealed.
5. Gimmick
Most to the time we get Good Friday wrong. We try to explain it away. Good Friday is a day that reveals our sin. But we are so hardened in our sins that we try to find ways to dodge this reality or forget it. Let's take an honest and frank look at how hardened we are in our sin today. It will help make Good Friday's goodness a little clearer, help us to take to heart with a little more intensity the marvelous love of God so compellingly revealed today.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* This Good Friday account is the story of one betrayal after another. We could speak of the fickleness of the crowds who turn on Jesus, Pilate, and even the Jewish religious leaders, but the most striking betrayals are perpetrated by Jesus' own followers -- Judas and Peter.
* How could they do it? They were followers of Jesus. Like us. But the truth is that we are so hardened by sin that we do our share of betraying too. The story of Good Friday is about us (how hardened in sin we are) and about God's persistent love for us.
* Use the third bullet point in Theological Insights regarding John Calvin's observations. Relate Calvin's point about how we become habitually conditioned to worse and worse sins to the decline in moral values in America outlined in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
* Sin closes the eye to truth, Augustine writes (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 8, p. 55).
* Calvin explains these dynamics further by contending that the majority of people are so involved in the cares of the world that they have no time for God (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VI, p. 411). Sounds like us modern Americans, does it not? We find all sorts of busy activities that we say burn us out so much that we say we don't have time for prayer or even for church. Oh how hardened we are in our sin!
* Regarding Peter's denial, Martin Luther saw something good in it. Use the fourth and the first quote of the fifth bullet points in Theological Insights.
* Lazy as we are and hardened in our sin, God will not give up on us. Use the second Luther quote in the fifth bullet point.
* Regarding the amazing character of God's love in view of our sin, Martin Luther added another compelling observation: "Our Lord God must be a devout man to be able to love knaves. I can't do it, although I am myself a knave" (Luther's Works, Vol. 54, p. 32).
* Blaise Pascal nicely puts the work of Christ on the Cross in perspective:
… Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut themselves off from God, that He has come to destroy these passions, and to give men His grace….
(Pensees, p. 164)
The compelling love of God can pry us loose from our passions and our sin.
7. Wrap-Up
The great medieval mystic Bernard of Clairvaux sang winsomely of this love and what it does to us:
He is living and full of energy. As soon as he has entered into me he has awakened my sleeping soul. He has stirred and softened and wounded my heart which was torpid and hard as a rock.
(Elmer O'Brien, Varieties of Mystic Experience, p. 105)
Ask how we can stay hardened in our sin, in our declining moral commitments in face of an energetic, lively, powerful love like we see on the Cross. Ask if the flock is not stirred!
A vulnerable God struggles to overcome our sin.
Collect of the Day
Two alternatives are provided. In the first, petitions are offered to God to look with loving mercy on the family of faith. In the second, petitions are made that we who have been born out of Christ may find mercy at all times. Justification by Grace is the theme of both prayers.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 22
* A lament prayer for deliverance from mortal illness, attributed to David.
* Cry for help and defense of forsakenness (vv. 1-2) quoted by Jesus on the Cross (Mark 15:34). This suggests the Psalm can be read as applying to Jesus' Passion.
* Other references foreshadowing the crucifixion (vv. 6-7), His being poured out like water as enriched by evildoers (vv. 14, 16), His clothes being divided (v. 18).
* The Psalm concludes with a vow of the sick one to offer a formal thanksgiving in the Temple on recovery (vv. 22, 25). The hymn to be sung follows (vv. 23-31). Among its references to praising God include acclamation and affirmation of His hearing cries of the afflicted (v. 24), caring for the poor (v. 25), as well as receiving praise from the whole earth (v. 27), from the dead (v. 29), and from posterity (vv. 30-31). This praise could be applied to the God who raised Jesus.
Sermon Text and Title
"Laying Your Sins on Christ"
Isaiah 52:13--53:12
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim that we put Christ on the Cross with our sin, but with confidence that though disfigured by our sin Christ will be exalted, and we with Him (Atonement and Justification by Grace).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Again a work of Second Isaiah, written soon before the fall of Babylon.
* The text is taken from the Book of Consolation, a series of eschatological prophecies.
* This is the so-called Fourth Servant Song. For a description of these songs, see First Lesson for Palm/Passion Sunday.
* The first ten verses of chapter 53 are a congregational reflection on the Servant. Other verses in chapter 52 and the last two of chapter 53 purport to be God's Word.
* This song is about God exalting His disfigured Servant (52:13, 15; 53:12a).
* Although in its historical context the song is intended to depict Israel's restoration, several passages (see below) can be read as prefiguring Christ's atoning work.
* The servant is said not to have a desirable appearance (53:2). He was despised and rejected (53:3).
* The servant also bore our infirmities (53:4) and was wounded for our transgressions. He took the punishment that made us whole (53:5).
* His death is said to have been a perversion of justice (53:8).
* Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush the servant. It was an offering for sin (53:10). He makes many righteous (53:11).
* He bore the sins of many (53:12).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text, read in relation to its context in the Christian Bible, focuses on Christ and the Atonement (esp. the Satisfaction Theory).
* Reference in verse 11 connotes Christ's work of justifying us.
* On the extraordinary character of what Jesus had done, Martin Luther, while lecturing on this text, wrote:
Therefore the prophet leads us so earnestly beyond all righteousness and our rational capacity and confronts us with the suffering of Christ to impress upon us that all that Christ has is mine.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 221)
This makes it a challenge in his view truly to believe this work of Jesus: "We can preach and uphold this passage in public, but we can only believe it with difficulty" (Ibid., p. 222).
* The Reformer follows with some practical advice about accepting this witness:
Our nature is opposed to the function and power of Christ's passion… We must clearly transfer our sins from ourselves to Christ… Hence you must say: "I see my sin in Christ, therefore my sin in not mine but another's. I see it in Christ."
(Ibid., p. 223)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* For social sins to abhor, see the references in this section for the First Lesson, Palm/Passion Sunday.
* For challenges many Americans have believing the atonement, see the third bullet point of Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples, Second Lesson, Pentecost 21.
5. Gimmick
Martin Luther had it right about this passage, about what Good Friday really means. Read the last quotation in Theological Insights.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Luther says to transfer your sins from yourself to Christ. Good Friday's all about laying your sins on Christ. But it doesn't come easily.
* Luther also tells us why it is difficult. Part of the problem is because our nature resists it (see the quotation from Luther used in the Gimmick).
* Martin Luther tells us more about why it is so hard to lay our sins on Jesus. It goes against our rational capacity to believe it, Luther says (see first quotation in Theological Insights).
* As a result, Luther notes, we may say we believe what happened on that first Good Friday, but can't quite believe it in our hearts. Use the second quotation in Theological Insights. Ask the congregation if it is not also true for them, that it is difficult to believe that all their sins were taken care of by the death of that vulnerable carpenter's son, to believe that their sins are now transferred to Him. It is one thing to believe that Jesus had to die for our sins. It is another to be convinced that in God's eyes we are no longer sinners, that they are all gone.
* Our First Lesson gives us some other reasons why it is all so hard to believe (or at least not very appealing to believe) what happened that first Good Friday. The lesson is not in the strictest sense about Jesus, but about a messianic Servant who would suffer on behalf of a gradually weakening Judean kingdom. But we Christians have understood the lesson as a prophecy of Jesus and His suffering. There are some things in the lesson that help us further appreciate the challenges and the joys that are involved with laying your sins on the crucified Christ.
* We learn from the lesson that the Servant, that Jesus, was disfigured (52:14), without a desirable appearance (53:2). The Messiah, its seems, was not good-looking! It gets harder and harder to think that this ordinary-looking Jew could really take our sins away. After all, He is said to have been despised, rejected (53:3).
* No, you might wonder what the payoff is to lay your sins on somebody like this. Our lesson says He was wounded for our transgressions, took our punishment for us (53:5, 8b). He bore the sin of many (53:12b). We deserve to be punished, but the Messiah took it for us. It's like Martin Luther mentioned earlier: "… I see my sin in Christ, therefore my sin is not mine but another's. I see it in Christ" (Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 223).
* Luther also says it well elsewhere, summarizing the significance of the Cross:
But Christ takes our place and innocently endures death, terror, and hell, so that through Him and in Him we escape all this. Through His undeserved and innocent death He saves us from the rightful death which we deserved, that is, from the sins whereby we merited death and hell.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 402-403)
* We lay our sins on Christ this day, He takes the punishments we deserve for all our selfishness, waywardness, laziness, nastiness, greed, and prejudice (you name yours). But for His sacrifice and the intercession He makes for us, God awards the Messiah a great portion, makes sure He is exalted (53:12; 52:13). As a result of this sacrifice of this righteous one, God makes many righteous (53:11b)! Get that? Christ's sacrifice on the Cross makes you and me righteous (like Christ is).
* It's like this: Remember how Christ takes our sin and then takes the punishment for us. As a result, you and I are now innocent in the eyes of (divine) law. God the judge declares us not guilty!
* What makes it so hard to believe all this, hard to lay our sins on God? Martin Luther gives us some other clues when he reminds us that in this text the prophets lead us away from all our righteousness (see first quotation in Theological Insights).
* Continue the quotation: Note Luther's point that on the Cross, all that is Christ has is now ours! All his righteousness and goodness are ours.
* In the same spirit, the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Christian businessman and Pentecostal missionary John G. Lake wrote: "The wonder is that Jesus purposed to make your heart and mine just as sweet and lovely and pure and holy as His own."
7. Wrap-Up
Hard as it is to believe it, Good Friday really is good. We start out by laying our sins on that vulnerable Savior, an event that's awfully tough as we have to admit our own sin and our own complicity in the Lord's death. But when that happens miraculously (and to believe this scandal is certainly miraculous), we also find that those burdens and hang-ups we brought to the Cross begin to fade while a brand-new righteous loving and pure you and me (really a little Christ) emerge from that empty tomb. Your sins are fading now in the Crucifixion. And then as we lay those sins on Christ we can sing with Isaac Watts and even live the words of his great song "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Read or sing the last verse.
Sermon Text and Title
"Direct Access to God"
Hebrews 10:16-25
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To proclaim the good news of the direct access we now have to God as a result of Christ's high-priestly sacrifice (Justification by Grace and Atonement construed as Satisfaction Theory), also noting the implications of this more intimate contact with God for Christian life (Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* After a brief citation from Jeremiah (31:33-34) concerning the New Covenant ushered in by Christ the high priest (vv. 16-18), exhortations to the faithful are offered.
* Forgiveness of sin and writing the Lord's laws on the hearts and minds of the people are the essence the New Covenant (vv. 16-18).
* Reference is made to the blood of Jesus giving confidence to enter the sanctuary [the presence of God] through the curtain (which is said to refer to His flesh) (vv. 19-20).
* Jesus is said to be a great priest (v. 21). As a result the faithful can approach a public confession in full assurance, for their hearts are clear from an evil conscience (vv. 22-23).
* Calls for provoking each other to love and good deeds (v. 24). Would have the faithful not neglect meeting together (unlike some who do not) for the end time is approaching (v. 25).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* A discussion of the atonement (esp. Satisfaction Theory, implied by designating Christ a priest who performs sacrifice of sin, but since it is not clear to whom the sacrifice is paid, the text could be interpreted in the mode of the Governmental Theory) and Justification by Grace as well as their implications for Christian life (Sanctification) and the church.
* John Wesley noted while commenting on verse 20 that:
As by rending the veil in the Temple, the holy of holies became visible and accessible, so by wounding the body of Christ, the God of heaven was manifested and the way to heaven opened.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 568)
* John Calvin describes Christ as the fountain of all holiness and righteousness (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, p. 236).
* About the admonition to hold fast our faith (v. 23), the Reformer writes:
For we hence first learn, that our faith rests on this foundation, that God is true, that is, true to His promise, which His word contains; for that we believe, the Voice or Word of God must precede… for except God promises, no one can believe.
(Ibid., p. 238)
* Calvin regards verse 25 as addressing the need to cultivate unity, which is so difficult because human beings tend to set themselves above others, for "those who seem in anything to excel cannot well endure their inferiors to be on an equality with themselves" (Ibid., pp. 240-241).
* The great preacher of the early church John Chrysostom, commenting on verse 24 and its exhortation to provoke one another to love and good deeds, proclaimed: "For if a stone rubbed against a stone sends forth fire, how much more soul mingled with soul!" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 14, p. 455). The connection of people sparks the flames of love.
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* At least as recently as 2006 a Pew Foundation poll indicated that 2 out of 5 Americans believe in a distant God. A Harris poll earlier that year recorded the percentage at 44%.
* Consider the leads in this section for the First Lesson.
5. Gimmick
Nearly one half of Americans think God is distant. Cite statistics in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Our lesson today from Hebrews helps us understand how the Cross is God's way of overcoming this distance. Let's get clear first on the background.
* Remember, the letter to the Hebrews was written to help convince Jewish Christians that Jesus' sacrifice was greater than those of the temple priests. That is what is going on in our lesson, as the author of the sermon was explaining the characteristics of Christ's Good Friday Sacrifice, His role as high priest (9:11--10:18).
* Quoting Jeremiah 31 (vv. 33-34), our lesson proclaims that we have been forgiven, that the laws of the Lord will be written on the hearts of the faithful (vv. 16-18). Christ's blood, the forgiveness given to the faithful, is said to give the faithful confidence to enter the Temple sanctuary, opening through the curtain to a new and living way (vv. 19-21). As a result, the author adds, we have been provided with full assurance, with hearts sprinkled clean (v. 22).
* Keep in mind here how the Jews worshiped God prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. They believed that God was present in the Temple, in the holy of holies, behind a curtain that only the high priests could approach (9:3; Exodus 26:31-33). In other words, God Himself was not accessible to the ordinary believer. Like we noted earlier, that's kind of the way Americans feel today. But Jesus' sacrificial and cleansing death (the sacrifice He performed that first Good Friday) has changed things!
* Use the quotation by John Wesley cited in Theological Insights. Thanks to what Jesus did today, we have been made clean, holy enough to approach God and to come into God's presence, tasks as the Jewish priests had (Numbers 8:14-15). For people of the Cross like us, we are all priests (1 Peter 2:9) who can just like the Jewish priests enter into God's holy presence.
* Get that point? With Christ's work on Good Friday, God is accessible to all the faithful! Get that? God is not distant and inaccessible anymore. You and I have now been made holy enough (despite all our sin) to approach God boldly!
* Remember that the next time God seems absent, not hearing your prayer, not responsive. Approach Him with confidence. Christ the high priest has made you worthy to approach this awesome, loving God of ours.
* It is like Saint Augustine is purported to have written: "God loves each of us as if there only one of us." He is that accessible to each of us as individuals. God would not be distant to His only child (and that's the way He regards each of us).
* The great preacher of the early church John Chrysostom made a neat observation about the implications of Jesus' high-priestly status and its implications for the everyday life of Christians made holy and made priests by Him. Our lesson from Hebrews closes with exhorting the faithful who have been sprinkled clean and pure to love one another and continue meeting together in worship (vv. 24-25).
* Think of it: You and I are now priests (not just the pastor and worship leader), each of us God's only child. All the faithful are on an equal footing before God. That's what the appeal to meeting together in communal worship, not just going before God privately, is all about. The faithful can't help but rub shoulders with each other, can't help but mingle with each other. Follow with the John Chrysostom quotation in Theological Insights.
7. Wrap-Up
Mingling souls in church, mingling the priests whom Christ has made clean, can't help but lead to fire -- a fire of love. Jesus' Good Friday work has brought us into closer fellowship with God, broken down all the barriers that divide Him and us and each other. Today we commemorate the day that made us God's only child (with lots of brothers and sisters in Christ). It is an experience as Martin Luther once said that is beyond what our heart can grasp, a love so great that we can scarcely taste a few drops of the divine ocean of love (What Luther Says, p. 821). Note how good this Friday of our high priest is.
Sermon Text and Title
"Hardened in Sin"
John 18:1--19:42
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
An attempt to help us see ourselves and our sins in the actions of those surrounding Jesus on the way to the Cross. From that perspective the love and grace of God are all the sweeter and more compelling for everyday life (Sanctification).
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* John's version of the Passion narrative, Jesus' arrest, trial, and Crucifixion.
* Following His high priestly prayer (ch. 17), Jesus and the disciples reportedly journey to Kidron Valley, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives (18:1). Judas leads soldiers, temple police, and Pharisees to arrest Him (18:2-3).
* Jesus asks them whom they seek and when His name is mentioned, He uses a phrase suggestive of his identification with God (with the name Yahweh), "I am He" (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:10-11, 25). His arresters do obeisance (18:4-8a).
* He urges that his followers be released to fulfill earlier prophecies that He would lose no one (18:8b-9; cf. 6:39; 17:12).
* Jesus stops Peter from taking arms to free Him (though Peter did cut off the ear of one of the high priest's men [vv. 10-11]).
* Jesus goes before Annas, the father-in-law of High Priest Caiaphas, who had (vv. 48-50) advised that it would be better to have Jesus killed as representative of the people of Israel than to have the people and the Temple attacked by the Romans (18:13-14).
* Peter denies Jesus outside the gate of the high priest's courtyard. Another disciple known by the high priest enters the courtyard (18:15-18). Unlike other gospels where Jesus first sees the Sanhedrin (in John's account He had already been judged by them [11:47-53]), Jesus simply is judged by former High Priest Annas. In the interrogation Jesus claims that all know or have heard of His teaching (18:19-21). He is struck for insubordination and sent to Caiaphas (18:22-24).
* Peter denies Jesus again after being accused of being a follower by a relative of one whom he had injured defending Jesus (18:25-27).
* Jesus is brought to Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. Jews do not enter headquarters lest they become unclean for Passover celebrations (18:28).
* Pilate tries to have the Jews punish Jesus themselves, but they note that they are not permitted to inflict capital punishment (18:29-32).
* Pilate questions Jesus if He is king of the Jews. He notes His kingdom is not of the world and that His followers are not defending Him (18:33-36). More emphasis is placed by Mark on the charge of Jesus' kingship than in other gospels.
* After more exchange with Jesus, during which Pilate surmises that Jesus has claimed to be a king, but failed to comment on the truth of His testimony, he offers Jesus' release to the Jews. The crowd prefers the release of Barabbas the bandit (18:37-40).
* Pilate has Jesus flogged and mocked by clothing Him with king-like attire (19:1-2). He is mocked, called king of the Jews (19:3).
* Pilate claimed to find no case against Jesus. But chief priests and police call for His crucifixion (19:4-7) Jesus' claim to be Son of God is the reason given for their call.
* After this exchange, Pilate is fearful. He further interrogates Jesus. Jesus refuses to answer some questions (19:8-9).
* Angered, Pilate threatens Jesus with the power he has over Him, but Jesus responds that Pilate's power is dependent on God. The one who handed Jesus over is said to be guilty of a greater sin (19:10-11).
* Pilate then tries to release Jesus, but the Jews claim that Jesus is the enemy of the emperor (19:12-13). Announcing Jesus as the Jews' king, asking if He should be crucified, he finally hands Jesus over to the crowd at noon (19:14-16). Jewish custom was to slaughter Passover lambs for the festival on the day of preparation at noon.
* Jesus carries the Cross to Golgotha (Aramaic for "skull"). He is crucified between two others, with an inscription on the Cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many read it (19:17-20).
* Chief priests try to have the inscription changed to make it clear that it is only that Jesus claimed to be king of the Jews. Pilate refuses their protest (19:21-22).
* On His Crucifixion, Jesus' clothes are divided by soldiers and they cast lots for His tunic, in fulfillment of Psalms 22:18 (19:23-24).
* In the presence of his mother, her sister Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene, Jesus speaks to the disciple He loved (identity uncertain) to care for her (19:25-27).
* Knowing the end is near, Jesus sought to fulfill scripture (Psalm 69:21) by receiving sour wine in response to his thirst (19:28-29). He then proclaims it is finished and dies (19:30).
* Because the Sabbath would dawn in the morning and Jews did not want bodies left on the cross, Pilate ordered the legs of the crucified broken (19:31-32). No need to do that for Jesus, who was already dead (19:33). Instead his side was pierced (19:34). Eyewitness testimony is claimed (19:35). Scripture is thereby fulfilled, with reference to not breaking bones of God's chosen (as Passover sacrifice cannot have bones broken, as per Exodus 12:46) (19:36). Jesus being pierced is said to fulfill Zechariah 12:10 and its claim that the one pierced will be mourned at the end (19:37).
* Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus, gets permission from Pilate to take Jesus' body (19:38). With a leader of the Pharisees, Nicodemus (see 3:1-15), they lay the body in a tomb (19:39-42).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Focus on Sin and Justification by Grace through Faith, with some attention to their implications for Christian life (Sanctification).
* Concerning Peter's zeal in defending Christ, John Calvin issues a helpful warning:
… Christ condemns every thing that men dare to attempt out of their own fancy… Warned by so striking an example, let us learn to keep our zeal within proper bounds; and as the wantonness of our flesh is always eager to attempt more than God commands, let us learn that our zeal will succeed ill, whenever we venture to undertake any thing contrary to the Word of God.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, pp. 194-195)
* Regarding Peter's repeated denials of Christ, Calvin notes how symptomatic it is of our ways of sinning:
Thus it happens to many persons every day. At first, the fault will not be very great; next, it becomes habitual, and at length, after that conscience has been laid asleep, he who has accustomed himself to despise God will think nothing unlawful for him, but will dare to commit the greatest wickedness.
(Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, p. 203)
* But about this episode Martin Luther adds: "For it is so very rich in comfort for all poor sinners, that a great man, an apostle, suffers such a fall and yet receives grace and forgiveness" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 404).
* The Reformer also reflects on how easily the world dismisses such love: "Nevertheless, the dear, pleasure-loving world goes merrily along, takes none of this to heart, is lazy, cold, unthankful, and despises this great treasure" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 473).
If someone came to my rescue in an emergency, when death threatened by fire or water, I would have to be a wretch not to feel grateful toward him… Should we not respond, my Lord Jesus Christ suffered for me; therefore in return I will love Him… It is terrible for anyone to despise such a love!
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 474)
* Noting that Christ was stripped of His clothes (19:24), Calvin notes "Christ was stripped of His garments, that He might clothe us with righteousness…" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/1, p. 230).
* Luther also well summarizes the significance of the cross:
But Christ takes our place and innocently endures death, terror, and hell, so that through Him and in Him we escape all this. Through His undeserved and innocent death He saves us from the rightful death which we deserved, that is, from the sins whereby we merited death and hell.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, pp. 402-403)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* As recently as 2009 a Gallup poll revealed that nearly one half of the public believed the observance of moral values was poor. Seven in ten Americans thought that the state of moral values was getting worse, the poll revealed.
5. Gimmick
Most to the time we get Good Friday wrong. We try to explain it away. Good Friday is a day that reveals our sin. But we are so hardened in our sins that we try to find ways to dodge this reality or forget it. Let's take an honest and frank look at how hardened we are in our sin today. It will help make Good Friday's goodness a little clearer, help us to take to heart with a little more intensity the marvelous love of God so compellingly revealed today.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* This Good Friday account is the story of one betrayal after another. We could speak of the fickleness of the crowds who turn on Jesus, Pilate, and even the Jewish religious leaders, but the most striking betrayals are perpetrated by Jesus' own followers -- Judas and Peter.
* How could they do it? They were followers of Jesus. Like us. But the truth is that we are so hardened by sin that we do our share of betraying too. The story of Good Friday is about us (how hardened in sin we are) and about God's persistent love for us.
* Use the third bullet point in Theological Insights regarding John Calvin's observations. Relate Calvin's point about how we become habitually conditioned to worse and worse sins to the decline in moral values in America outlined in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights.
* Sin closes the eye to truth, Augustine writes (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 8, p. 55).
* Calvin explains these dynamics further by contending that the majority of people are so involved in the cares of the world that they have no time for God (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. VI, p. 411). Sounds like us modern Americans, does it not? We find all sorts of busy activities that we say burn us out so much that we say we don't have time for prayer or even for church. Oh how hardened we are in our sin!
* Regarding Peter's denial, Martin Luther saw something good in it. Use the fourth and the first quote of the fifth bullet points in Theological Insights.
* Lazy as we are and hardened in our sin, God will not give up on us. Use the second Luther quote in the fifth bullet point.
* Regarding the amazing character of God's love in view of our sin, Martin Luther added another compelling observation: "Our Lord God must be a devout man to be able to love knaves. I can't do it, although I am myself a knave" (Luther's Works, Vol. 54, p. 32).
* Blaise Pascal nicely puts the work of Christ on the Cross in perspective:
… Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut themselves off from God, that He has come to destroy these passions, and to give men His grace….
(Pensees, p. 164)
The compelling love of God can pry us loose from our passions and our sin.
7. Wrap-Up
The great medieval mystic Bernard of Clairvaux sang winsomely of this love and what it does to us:
He is living and full of energy. As soon as he has entered into me he has awakened my sleeping soul. He has stirred and softened and wounded my heart which was torpid and hard as a rock.
(Elmer O'Brien, Varieties of Mystic Experience, p. 105)
Ask how we can stay hardened in our sin, in our declining moral commitments in face of an energetic, lively, powerful love like we see on the Cross. Ask if the flock is not stirred!
