Gather

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
April 15, 2022

Good Friday 

          Death has a curious way of gathering people.  The power of death manages to bring people together, sometimes from all over the country or world, sometimes with people who would spend time with one another under no other circumstance, sometimes to celebrate a long life well lived and other times to mourn a life cut short.  When my mother died, the gathering was a simple one of immediate family.  When my father died people from all over the country gathered.  One of the great challenges of the pandemic was the inability to gather at a bedside or celebrate a life together.  The power of death can pull us together in a way few other events can.

          Tonight death has gathered us.  We gather to watch as Jesus is arrested, tried, and led off to be crucified.  We gather with the women and the beloved disciple who gather at the cross.  We gather to hear Jesus say “It is finished” as he gives up his spirit.  We gather with Joseph of Arimathea to care for the dead body of Jesus.  We gather to watch and to wait, allowing ourselves to feel the darkness of this night even as we stand in the hope of resurrection.

          Death also has the power to divide and scatter.  Most of the disciples were not at the cross, having scattered for fear of their own lives.  The people Jesus fed, healed, and taught were scattered.  In our own lives, Covid was and is still the power of death with great power to divide.  Covid has separated us physically from each other and divided society tremendously over issues of how to keep people safe, having taken almost one million lives in this country alone and over 6 million lives around the world.  War is the power of death unleashed deliberately on whole peoples.  Over 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, either leaving the country all together or trying to find safety within the country.  Just this week we saw gun violence scatter people in a Brooklyn subway.  Then there is the death and destruction inflicted on people who are deemed different in some way, whether because of their race, their sexual orientation, their economic status, or so many other things that we let divide the human family. 

Part of what we do when death gathers us is to remember.  We remember the good times and the hard times, the funny things and the sad things.  We remember what the person might have taught us or how the person loved us.  So on Good Friday as we gather at the cross, we remember the story.  We remember that not long after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus said “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”  In Jesus’ death, Jesus will gather all the world to himself.   Going further back in John’s gospel, we remember that Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  Jesus will give his life for the life of the world.  We remember that Jesus also said “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  Jesus will lay down his life for the life of the sheep.   And at the very beginning of the story, we are told that “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” As we gather at the cross and remember the stories, we remember that Jesus, the light of the world, told us that he would give us his life to draw the whole world to himself.  Jesus’ life would not be taken from him by anyone, not the religious authorities nor the Roman.  Tonight we watch as Jesus gives up his Spirit.

Tonight we gather, not just to remember the stories or to mourn Jesus’ death, but to think about what it means to be people who believe that Jesus, the light of the world, gave his life to gather the world to himself.  What does it mean to live as followers of the One, who in his death, gathered all people?  What does it mean to live as gathered people?

          In the Episcopal  Church, our baptismal covenant calls us to “Seek and serve Christ in all people,” to “work for justice and peace,” and to “respect the dignity of every human being.”  That is the answer to how we are to live as followers of the light of the world who gave his life to gather the world to himself.  Good Friday and our baptismal covenant call us to tear down barriers that divide and scatter and work for all that gathers and unites.  Even on Good Friday and especially on Good Friday, we are called to live as people of hope that out of hatred and death can come love and life.  In the face of the power of death and the darkness of all that divides and scatters us, Good Friday calls us to live as gathered people who believe that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.   

                                                                             Amen.