GOOD FRIDAY
Lutherans around the world are in the middle of
marking the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. This is a three year celebration, with Synods
and congregations focusing on the theme: Liberated by God’s grace. The theme is
divided into three specific convictions: Salvation is not for sale! Human
beings are not for sale! Creation is not for sale!
Each sermon over the Three Days reflects on the not
for sale theme, weaves in a trilogy of novels by Greg Iles, and binds the ideas
together through the branches and roots of a tree.
Below the
thick 150 ft. canopy of feathery deciduous conifers, - below the Cypress- the
moist humid air stands still above the greened waters of the swamp. The ancient gentle giants - the trees, hung
with pirates beard moss, silhouette in rows as ghosts floating in miles and
miles of water; confined by emerging roots, in knee stubs seeking oxygen, there
is no easy access and no quick way to escape.
This forest is ominous -- a place one could get turned around, lost; one
tree looks like all the rest, and each with its 12 ft diameter hides what is
beyond. The landscape hems in around those who dare to enter – those willing to
face death; to work through grief- and it surrounds one in suffocating
loneliness.
The second
book in Greg Iles trilogy is titled, The
Bone Tree. It continues the drama from Natchez
Burning where Iles’ characters play on the civil rights stage where darkening
drama includes violent race murders, conspiracy, the New Orleans Mafia, the KKK
hit squad, JFK, FBI, Castro. It involves
a deeper unraveling of secrets and the body count rises as secrets can no
longer be silenced through death. Time has come when this generation looks back
40 years and pushes their friends, families,
-all whom they know- who lived
through that time to come clean. This
generation wants the truth and the hope of freedom truth might bring.
People die for
what they believe in. People are willing
to die to discover and tell the truth. It
is time for senseless killing to stop --- and if it is by death of a valiant
few, so be it.
The secrets,
as they are let loss, lead in one direction --- to the mysterious bone tree, a
legendary killing site--- a hidden tree in a vast cypress tree forest – in the depths
of a Mississippi swamp on the edge of a game preserve—concealing more than the
remains of the long forgotten.
In the inner
folds of the trunk structure, much is hidden.
The heart of cypress trees are a place of refuge for animals who are
hurt or waiting out a storm, some die, some survive; the sanctity of the quiet
dry cavern is one of peace, death, and healing. The Bone Tree, however, has lost any sense of
sanctity- being used as a butchering ground and human bone depository. The bone tree is most desecrated when history
is told that a man was crucified upside hanging inside the tree, above the pile
of bleached bones. Crucified by family because they thought he had turned on
them; a warning that no one is saved. Crucified; crucified in the belly of a
tree.
That family lost their
soul. In the darkest maelstroms of life,
as described in the novel, souls are sold – by powerful men for audacious
agendas, favoured jobs, and family protection- salvation seems to be up for
sale.
This morning
we stand in the dry cavern of the Bone Tree, looking on at a man hanging
crucified. Crucified by his own people because they thought he had turned on
them; a warning that no one is saved.
Crucified; crucified on the wood of a tree.
It was a loss
of soul, in the dark maelstroms of life, by powerful men with audacious
agendas, favoured jobs, and a need to control the status quo by allowing one
man -Jesus- to die to save what was. In
selling their souls they manipulated others to betray, to denounce, to leave,
to taunt, to yell – crucify.
There were
some -although scared and confused- persevered beyond their capabilities to be
present and experience the truth, no matter how dark, or dangerous the day
became. They stood watching. They saw the Temple curtain torn in two. They
experienced the darkness – the silence.
And they
stayed to the very end --- because ---- because they had hope that something
new was about to spring forth. Could
this death be the Word, that salvation is not for sale?
The haunting
Cypress forest --- flooded, full of danger, with monster gators and poisonous
snakes ……It doesn’t look like it today, but, in the swamp lies a miracle; in the
rich nutrient debris, trees slowly grow that have a life expectancy of 600-1000
years. After a long wait, 200 years, the heartwood of the tree forms – a
heartwood resistant to decay, prized around the world. For today, we are left in the sanctity of the
cavern -under the man crucified on the cross; the space made holy because of
who he was.
The Cypress
has lost its leaves for the season --- it
is surrounded by mist and the smell of decay from the swamp, --- eerie, sighing
of death … but, just under the water waits a miracle.
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