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The Other Side

Here we are, the final week of Lent. In the church we call this Holy Week and it begins today with Palm Sunday. What an odd day, though! We began our time of worship with a celebration, but then the story quickly changes to one of betrayal, pain, grief and sorrow as we read the story of Jesus final days before his crucifixion. Many look at this day and week and think of it as a depressing time. Yet, it is really and truly a time filled with hope and promise for in this week we learn of God’s redeeming power at work.

But, to really be able to see God’s redeeming power at work, we need to all start with the premise that there are always at least two sides to every story. There is usually the obvious side, or at least the side that demands the most attention, and then there are the “other” sides. That is those sides that are less obvious, or have been behind the scenes working diligently. Often, we fail to stop to take a look at these other sides and therefore we fail to understand their perspectives.

This week, there is the obvious side, Jesus’. Jesus had come to reveal God’s glory and to remind the world of God’s love for all creation. To help us understand Jesus’ side, we have read over the past several weeks the stories of how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, how he met and offered hope to the Samaritan woman, how he healed a man who had been blind from birth and how he even raised Lazarus, his friend, from the dead. For us, the “faithful,” we see Jesus, our Lord, trying to open the eyes, the minds and hearts of the world to God’s ways, but so many reject him.

But there are other sides to this story. There is the side of those who plot to capture and even kill him, the Pharisees and other religious leaders. For the most part, these are faithful men who want what they believe is right for God’s sake, but fail to see God at work in Jesus. There is the side of the Roman leadership, who seek to silence anything or anyone, even God, who would dare to stand against them. There is the side of the faithful disciples who, although they love Jesus and follow him, still deny him, and even betray him because they either fear for their own lives, or they do not, yet, understand that this Messiah, is not the messiah of their dreams. And then of course, there is the side of the masses who live in a constant state of oppression and just want to experience true freedom and wholeness, but can be easily manipulated because of their state in life.

As Jesus went about his life and his ministry, he sought to include all sides, but as is often the case, even today in our own world, the “other” sides rarely want to listen, rarely are they willing to change, and rarely are they willing to concede that their “side” might not be 100% right. When it comes to God and God’s ways, each side wants to put God in their own box and make God, “their” God. But God cannot and will not be put in a box. God will do what God desires so that the world will be reconciled to God in God’s time. So, in this world as each side fights for it’s own way, God is busy bringing about reconciliation and new life, regardless of the other sides.

Holy Week, is that time when we are reminded that God said to the world, that is to all the “other sides” to God’s story, “Regardless of how you act toward Me, My faithfulness, My grace and My presence will remain and will be for everyone. I will not fight with you, but I love you and I will die for you.”

In a world filled with many sides, we too often want to take sides. We, too often want to insist on our way, or the highway. Too often we are unwilling to see that God’s ways can and do include more than just us. As I have shared with you before, my discovery in life has been that God seems to always be on the “other side,” abut all too often, our own pride, stubbornness and sometimes, even our ignorance will not allow us to see God in those “other” places.

A common example of this today has to do with our Muslim brothers and sisters. In our society, we vilify that faith tradition and community because of a few fundamentalists and terrorists. But, last Sunday, four members of the South Johnson County Islamic Society came here and spoke with the adult Sunday school class. Both sides shared and talked with each other and learned about each other. Because of that positive response, their leadership and I will be offering a three-night class on Christianity and Islam on Wednesday evenings in May. What we learn in these types of conversations is that although we come from opposite sides, we are more often than not, on the same side. Yes we have significant theological differences, but our God, the God we call the Father and they call Allah is the same God that says our mission in this life is to love as God loves, it is to care for the hungry, the homeless, the oppressed and all creation. Our mission is not to fight, but to bring about the will of God.

But situations like this are not just between Christians and other traditions, we have them right here in our own congregation. Too, often we want to create and have “sides” to fight with over our own agendas. When others don’t see things our way, or we think things should be done differently, we are quick to blame and accuse, instead of talk and work toward our common mission, which is God’s mission for us.

Holy Week is upon us and my prayer this week, as we live out those final days to the cross is that as part of our own personal renewal, that each of us opens our hearts and our minds to God and God’s ways. My prayer is that we might be willing to always listen to the other side and be willing to hear in it the truth that is there and that we may always focus on the fact that whatever we do, it needs to be to God’s glory, not ours.

Jesus showed us this way, when he willingly placed himself upon the cross and said I will not fight with you but I will die for you. And may we remember those final words at the foot of the cross by the Centurion, one form the other side, when he said. “Truly, this was God’s Son” (Matthew 27:54). Praise be to God, Amen.

Tags: Sermons