{"id":586290,"date":"2021-03-08T16:44:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T21:44:01","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:06:39","slug":"joyfully-wednesday-in-holy-week-march-31-2021","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/joyfully-wednesday-in-holy-week-march-31-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Joyfully, Wednesday in Holy Week \u2013 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/lectionary\/wednesday-holy-week\/\">RCL:&nbsp; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 70; Hebrews 12:1-3; John 13:21-32<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-red-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-red-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=DFMS4443397507&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-red-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-red-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Cover-FB-1-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-236305\" style=\"width:512px;height:268px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time? Don\u2019t you wish you could be the kind of person who could do what our collect says? You know, the kind of person who turns the other cheek, who never gets pulled into the petty, who responds to hate with love? Just how are we to accept sufferings joyfully? And\u2026 does Jesus really want us to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sufferings of the present time seem overwhelming. For many, the past year was horrible. Just last week, we marked the one-year anniversary of the first Covid-19 case in the U.S. Too many of us have an empty chair around the table, reminding us of the loved ones we\u2019ve lost to this disease. You yourself might have lost a job, opportunities, joy, a sense of community. You might have experienced micro- and macro-aggressions, been ridiculed or bullied, been belittled or gaslighted or misunderstood. All of us, at some point this year, have felt lonely, scared, depressed, or anxious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout the hurt, you might have heard others say something such as, \u201cThere has always been evil in the world,\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s always been hard, the hard things just change.\u201d Perhaps you\u2019ve heard this from the generations of our elders, or that great cloud of witnesses, the saints of scripture. You may have been told that the oft-repeated word \u201cunprecedented\u201d has been too-liberally thrown around in this era\u2019s particular crises. Our own tradition reminds us that the sufferings have always been here. And it can be a helpful reminder that, like us, our ancestors have also struggled to carry them with grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, Isaiah. The excerpt from the prophet Isaiah we read today comes from the segment of the writings sometimes called the songs of the Suffering Servant. It was written at the beginning of the Babylonian Exile, when the nation of Israel was held in captivity and servitude, exiled from their Promised Land. The \u201cServant\u201d voice in this passage fills a familiar place: calling on God for help navigating a difficult, lonely, hopeless world, while also trusting God\u2019s limitless grace and power. The servant attributes this wisdom to God. Because of God, the servant \u201cmay know how to sustain the weary with a word.\u201d It seems a bit aspirational, doesn\u2019t it, this desire to be able to suffer joyfully?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our prayers on good days might sound similar to those of the prophet \u2013 seeking God\u2019s wisdom and strength to navigate exceedingly difficult moments. Our prayers on hard days might sound more fraught, perhaps like the prayers of the average people to whom the prophets were always prophesying!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIs it okay to ask God to smite my enemies? Or do I have to pray for patience and forgiveness?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is it okay to ask God to stifle an irritating voice, to shut down an oppressive ego, to cause failure for a competitor? Or, in the words of the psalmist, must I \u201clet those who seek my life be ashamed and altogether dismayed\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes. Yes. Yes. God\u2019s answer to the prayers of prophets and to people like you and me is always some kind of yes. God is able to hold all these prayers and respond to them by saturating us with grace. Grace, God\u2019s one-way, no-strings-attached love for broken people who deserve anything but forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thankfully, the stories of our ancestors also include people who are broken, petty, hurting, and flawed \u2013 characters to whom it is easy to relate! Judas, perhaps one of the most demonized characters in our narrative, is also so explicitly human. How often have we betrayed Jesus out of ambition and selfishness \u2013 like Judas? How often have we denied Christ and our relationship with Jesus \u2013 like Peter? How often have we ridiculed or hurt Jesus \u2013 like the Roman centurions at the Cross?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Gospel of John, we get a glimpse into how Christ himself interacts with the brokenness of humanity. In the story, Jesus publicly acknowledges that one of his disciples \u2013 one of the friends with whom he travels, eats, sleeps, learns, shares \u2013 will betray him. The rest of the group is aghast, self-defensive, accusatory. But Jesus (perhaps calmly, perhaps sadly) accepts Judas\u2019 fallenness. He tells him, \u201cDo quickly what you are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus\u2019 response to Judas is a blessing. Yes, Judas. It\u2019s as if Jesus is telling us, \u201cYou are human and I can\u2019t expect otherwise.\u201d We love to demonize Judas, place him as the scapegoat, the personification of the betrayal of humanity against God. We love to compare ourselves to Judas, reminding ourselves that we would never stoop to the wretchedness of betraying Christ himself! But the truth is, Judas is as human as the rest of us, our sibling in brokenness and pain. How often with our selfishness, ambition, and scarcity mindset do we indeed betray Christ in ourselves and in our neighbor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The author of the letter to the Hebrews encourages the Christian community to focus on the community, the way of love, the example of Jesus, instead of lying in the ditch of our brokenness. To \u201clay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely\u201d could be an expectation to live entirely without sin. But it could also be an invitation to not let sin muddle us down \u2013 to confess and repent of our sin and then to continue the Christian life. The grace of Christ Jesus means we don\u2019t have to tally up our mistakes, our shortcomings, or dwell in guilt and self-flagellation. It means we can do the work of repenting, repairing, and reconciling, and then <em>moving on<\/em>. The gift of Jesus\u2019 no-exception love means that we are not expected to grow weary with our shame and sin. It means we can feel the power and connection from our great cloud of witnesses, and be rejuvenated to persevere, to try again, to walk in the way of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take a moment right now to honor your humanity, indeed, that is exactly what Jesus did at the Incarnation. If our God chose to feel the pangs and pains of a human body, certainly, so can we. By feeling the sorrow and fatigue that is intertwined with human experience, we honor our humanity. Can you honor the human? Can you honor everything your body, mind, heart, and soul have experienced this year, this month, this week, this day, this lifetime? Can you channel God\u2019s grace and comfort, feel the love that comes not despite, but <em>because of<\/em> your humanity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The grace of God is greater than the grace that we muster for one another. Thank God that God\u2019s expectation is not, in fact, for us to be perfect, but to be in relationship with Grace itself. Thank God that Jesus still loves us, still accompanies us. Despite <em>and <\/em>because of our very human brokenness, God offers all of us limitless grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>the Rev. Cn. Anna Sutterisch<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-617d7ce3-6c6e-4488-95a4-5f9248ac52e3\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/WiHW-English-Sermon.docx\">Word &#8211; Wednesday in Holy Week Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/WiHW-English-Sermon.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-617d7ce3-6c6e-4488-95a4-5f9248ac52e3\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-aa993eac-82cc-4a13-90ec-769edc5193cf\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/WiHW-English-Sermon.pdf\">PDF &#8211; Wednesday in Holy Week Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/WiHW-English-Sermon.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-aa993eac-82cc-4a13-90ec-769edc5193cf\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RCL:&nbsp; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 70; Hebrews 12:1-3; John 13:21-32 Accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time? Don\u2019t you wish you could be the kind of person who could do what our collect says? You know, the kind of person who turns the other cheek, who never gets pulled into the petty, who responds to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36,43,52,3],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-586290","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-week","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-wednesday-in-holy-week"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":36,"label":"Holy Week"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":135,"label":"Wednesday in Holy Week"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/586290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/586290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473347,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/586290\/revisions\/3473347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}