"Gave up his spirit"-Sermon for Good Friday, John 18:1-19:42
Several weeks ago, my family and I got to see for the first time the musical Hadestown at Bass Concert Hall. If you like musicals, I highly recommend it. Hadestown is a Tony Award-winning musical by Anaïs (ana-ees) Mitchell that explores the themes of love, faith and economic justice by reimagining the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It is set to a score inspired by American folk and New Orleans jazz music. And, the story follows Orpheus's journey to the underworld to save his love, Eurydice, from an eternal life of servitude in the industrial realm of Hadestown…which sits at the heart of the underworld. Now, if you are familiar with the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, you know that the story is a tragedy. Though Orpheus successfully risks life and limb to find his beloved Eurydice in the underworld…and though such great sacrificial love inspires Hades to allow Orpheus to leave the underworld with Eurydice to return to the land of the living…Hades also attaches to their departure a great and terrible challenge. And, that challenge is that Eurydice must travel home, which is an arduous and perilous journey, some distance behind Orpheus. Further, Orpheus cannot ever look back to be sure that Eurydice is actually safe and still there until they have both fully emerged from the underworld. And, if he fails, if he turns to see his beloved…even for a quick glance…Hades will snatch her back…back to eternal servitude…back to hell…for all time and forever. And, again, if you are familiar with the myth or as I have already named the story as a tragedy, you might correctly guess that in the end Orpheus’ courage fails…he must know that his beloved is still there…his fears, his worry, his doubts…overwhelm him…and in the last possible moment he looks back…only to see Eurydice being drawn back into the underworld…his great love lost.
And, I will admit that despite its rave reviews and my own love for jazz music, as one who is familiar with the myth and its tragic ending, I honestly was a bit apprehensive about seeing the musical…for I knew the gut-wrenching end already. I knew it would end in heartbreak. And, as one who feels all the feels…friends…I can get weepy watching a sentimental commercial…I knew, I knew there was a chance I would leave the theater…sad. And, further, I will honestly admit that I approach this day each year…time and time again…this day we call Good Friday…also with a bit of apprehension…for I know how the story we just read together ends as well…with heartbreak…and I often leave the church…sad. But, I will say, in regard to the musical, they did something interesting…something that I would even describe as revelatory and hopeful…in how its creators chose to both begin and end the story. For, at the beginning, in the opening number, it acknowledges the coming heartbreak…it names the tragedy from the beginning. The opening song, sung by the Greek messenger god Hermes, who serves as a sort of narrator throughout the story, includes these lyrics:
“Once upon a time there was a railroad line. Don't ask where, brother, don't ask when. It was the road to hell, it was hard times…
It's an old song. It's an old tale from way back when. It's an old song… And we're gonna sing it again…
See, someone's got to tell the tale. Whether or not it turns out well. Maybe it will turn out this time. On the road to Hell. On the railroad line…
It's a sad song! It's a sad tale, it's a tragedy… We're gonna sing it anyway
On the road to Hell there was a railroad line. And a poor boy workin' on a song… His mama was a friend of mine. And this boy was a muse's son. On the railroad line on the road to Hell. You might say the boy was touched…. Orpheus!
There was one more soul on this road. Girl, come on in from the cold! On the railroad line on the road to Hell. There was a young girl looking for something to eat! And brother, thus begins the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice!
It's a love song! It's a tale of a love from long ago. It's sad song! But we're gonna sing it even so. It's an old song! It's an old tale from way back when. And we're gonna sing. We're gonna sing. We're gonna sing it again…. Again....Again”
Hermes tells us from the beginning…from the very first number, “It’s a love song…it’s a sad song…it’s an old song…and we’re gonna sing it again…again…again.” And, what I felt was so revelatory, even hopeful, about how the musical ended was that the closing scene of the musical was a recreation of the opening scene. Rather than the musical ending with Orpheus lying heartbroken on the ground having just lost his great love for forever…instead of that ending…the cast literally returns to the beginning. That opening number called “Road to Hell” that I just shared from was reprised…all the characters return to the stage positions where they began. Orpheus working on his song, as the worn and weary Eurydice steps off the train and into his life…the tale begins again…the hope of young love is kindled again…as Hermes with the whole company sing…as they began:
“It's an old tale from way back when
And we’re gonna sing it again and again. We're gonna sing, we're gonna sing. It's a love song. It's a tale of a love from long ago. It's a sad song. We keep singing even so. It's an old song. It's an old tale from way back when. And we're gonna sing it again and again
We’re gonna sing it again”
And, that’s how the musical ends…at the beginning. You see, so long as the story continues to be told…so long as the song continues to be sung again and again…the love that sits at its center…remains fully alive and the hope for a different sort of ending remains. And, today, as those who love and follow Jesus, we gather together to sing our old, sad, love song…our own tragedy…the story of Jesus’ Passion and death once again. Once again, we see in the mind’s eye Jesus’ betrayal by one of his own closest followers. We see his own religious leadership ignore the truth he seeks to share that would set them free from the fear keeping them in chains. We see his friends abandoning him, Peter’s denial, the soldier’s mockery and torture, his unimaginable suffering and death, and finally his lifeless body placed in borrowed tomb…Jesus’ own entrance into the underworld. This person, who spoke words of life and love, who offered healing to the broken and broken-hearted, who showed us a different way of being community rooted in compassion and mutual care and appreciation for difference and diversity is snatched from us by the power of hell. And, we…we are left like Orpheus, once again, lying on the ground broken-hearted…at the very foot of the cross. And yet, we sing…we sing this old, sad love song again…every year…every Good Friday.
Many years ago, before beginning St. Julian’s, I attended a Good Friday service in a different church. And, at the end of the service, the priest invited the congregation to process outside the church where a large wooden cross was erected. Next to the cross was a hammer and basket of nails. And, one at time, those gathered approached the cross, took a nail, and hammered it into the cross…then the service ended in silence. The purpose for this symbolic act needed no explanation by the priest. It was clearly to name our own sin, our own brokenness, our own moments of selfishness and betrayal as complicit in Jesus’ death. And, indeed, it was a convicting moment for me. I felt sorrow for the ways my own failings have grieved the God of love’s own heart. I was given the opportunity to remember, and really felt, that Jesus died to take away the sins of the whole world, including, very personally my own. And, for many Christians, we, indeed, sing our old, sad, love song…again and again…on this day to remember those things we have said and done that have hurt ourselves and wounded others…not to become lost in guilt and shame…but to do and be better. For overcoming our compulsions and self-interest and moral failings begins by naming them and feeling sorrowful for them…by seeking God and others forgiveness…and by experiencing genuine gratitude for Jesus’ sin defeating death…that we rightly call good on this day. And, this can all be good soul work.
But, I think even more importantly, we sing this old, sad, love song again and again…we enter into Jesus’ story of great love mingled with tremendous suffering, even death, again and again, not only to be convicted of our brokenness…not only to find freedom from the guilt and shame that we carry…but to be reminded, again and again, of what love really looks like. A love willing to go to any length…a love willing to give anything up…a love willing to risk entering the gates of hell itself…to find and bring home his beloved. For friends, so long as we keep singing this old, sad, love song…till the very words are inscribed on our bones…the hope remains ever alive that we…that we…you and me…that we might become more and more ourselves a love like that…like Jesus…people, alive and active in the world even now, willing to love so courageously, so fiercely, so completely…that we too are willing to lay our lives down…go to any length…give anything up, even life as we know it…to find and bring home, whether strangers or friends, all those trapped by hells weighty chains, those suffering far and near, in this sorely divided and death-dealing world. We sing this old, sad love song again and again until it becomes our own…becomes who we are created to be…world-altering, life-giving, sacrificial lovers. And, so long as our singing doesn’t end, so long as we continue to tell the tale, indeed, hope for a different sort of ending to the story remains…for us…for those we love…for those suffering far and near…for the very life of the world.
Yes, it’s a sad song. We keep singing even so. It’s an old song. It’s a love a song. And we’re gonna sing it again and again…through this day…and through the day that follows…and on to the Sun’s/Son’s rising on the third day...as we arrive again at an entirely new beginning. Amen.