ADAMANT.
March 23, 1986, 11:00 a.m. Worship Service
John M. Buchanan

. Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago
“" the Lord God helps me,-..1 have not been.confounded; therefore I set. my

face like a flintj..." - vo a .'. . .=-Isaiah 50:7 (RSV)
| -- Scripture i .
-Isaiah 50:4-9a
ae The ultimate risk is.not“dying but Tiving without significance. .
_ There is a sense ‘in which human history is the story of the men and
women who decided that.dying. is not as- important ‘as living. committed
lives.” Of Ul a
| In‘ the: United Nations Building. in New-York City. there is a
magnificent Marc Chagall stained glass ‘window, created; in memory of —

_his friend, Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary Géneral of the
United:Nations. . The stunningly beautiful window is even more -

-. impressive when one 1éarns about the struggles and doubts of. the -

man and fis. anxiety about the.meaning of -his life.- We are privileged

” 2 to know about that because Hanimarskjold-kept a journal, published .--

posthumously under, the title, Markings. - He died, «significantly, not
_ ‘in old-age, but ‘in full career; im harness,.in an airplane crash ‘while
“ron a U.N: peacemaking mission ‘in Africa.: tO

“1. The title of this Palm Sunday sermon.is borrowed from a journal
entry which deals with the issues of risk ‘and life and death and

_.,meaning and this day... Coe a

..- . + “At young man, adamant in“his committed life. The one:who was .
“nearest to him-relates how; on the last evening, he arose -from supper,”
jaid aside his garments, and washed the feet of his friends and ©

_ disciples - an adamant young-inan, alone as he confronted his final
destiny. ot - , Pete vat ye

°.. “He knew that not one. of them had.the slightest conception why he

had to act in ‘the way that he must. He knew how frightened and shaken.

they. would.all be. - . Se 7

"He had assented to a possibility in his being, of which he had
.the first inkling when he returned from the desert. If-God required
anything of -him he would not fail. Only recently, he thought, had he
-begun to see more clearly;.and to realize that the road. of possibility
might. lead‘to the cross. He knew, though, that he had’ to follow it,

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still uncertain as to whether he was the one who shall bring it to
pass, but certain that the answer could only be learned by following ©
the road to the end. The end might be a death without significance.

"A young man, adamant in his commitment, who walks the road of
possibility to the end without self- -pity or demand for sympathy,
fulfilling the destiny he had chosen." (Markings, pp. 68-69].

Hammarskjold was writing about Jesus on Palm Sunday, of course,
and the terrible risk he assumed when he came. to the city, namely the
possibility, that his decisions might result in a death without
significance. Hammarskjold was writing about a very human Jesus, who
was torn between the impulse to trust God for his future and the
natural instinct we Know about, to play.it safe, ‘to. protect- himself.
' Tt-is that human Jesus Who speaks so powerfully to us when he actually
does trust God: and walk into the week: adamantly. And :Hammarskjold -was -
writing about himseif, his" life and the issues which called te . him: and
required lonely decisions and brave commitment, with no guarantees. -°
_And- therefore: he’ was writing about us.

. . . But: first, - : the ‘day - the event, “the victorious, “albeit .
temporary, - parade ‘for Jesus. It! seems uncomplicated. °. A charismatié >
‘young leader :comes to: the-capitol city and is ‘welcomed as a fiero... His-
friends and backers téar the branches from the trees ‘and the. clothing
from their back and maké his entrance a: demonstration of sorts. dust:

“slightly: beneath the surface there is an element of- political .

intrigue. | Judas, for. instance, is hoping that the noisy:

a _ demonstrations : will set off a. general revolt against Rome, ‘that Jesus a .
will throw. ‘in- with the revolution.-- and then the.betrayal gut of a :~

sense of desparation or disappointment . because it. - doesn't happen that.

. Way. ; .

dust sTigtitly beneath the surface ‘there is a nervous claque of |
priests “and ‘politicians, trying to-orchestrate everything that is, 0...

y * happening ‘in Jerusalém so that ‘during Passover. Week -the celebration

_ Will: not disturb the Roman authorities;- ready: --if- necessary .- to meet, |
-in the middte . of the night: to trys: convict and condemn: troublesmakers+

- “Directly on the ‘Stirface ist “the: crowd, the. ‘onlookers, thé: pardde~:.
: watchers. who today .tear: branches from the trees and shout ©
_ Hallelujah, ‘and tommorow will haye forgotten about him and by Friday.
will: ‘be back for another. spectacle, public execution.

. Striding through the- middle of it; indeed at. the center of it ali, “the
lonely, adamant young man whose courage caught the imagination of Dag

Hammarskjold: and whose moral example inspired him as he made his own:

lonely: ‘decisions and “which beckons to each of us. sO compellingly this day:

Why go to the city? Why not remain in remote safety of ‘Galilee where
he might have lived to old age? Why not stay in-Galilee, practice’ -
carpentry, do a: little teaching, ‘slowly bring along the disciples: and give:
maturity an.opportunity to moderate the intensity of this 33 year old.

_ radicalism? He decided. to go to Jerusalem - "set his ‘face toward
Jerusalem" is: the descriptive way the Gospel tells. it, because he was not

3/23/86 an oe 2.

content with Galilee, the periphery. His own integrity demanded that he
confront the life of the city. And so he decided to ignore the cautious
advice of the people who loved him best. He knew the risks.

But the greatest risk of all, Hammarskjold suggests is not
dying, but life without significance, living without meaning and
- purpose - which would mean a death without significance. Jesus did
not know how it would turn out. He did not know that he would not be
forgotten as quickly as the thousands of other disturbers of the peace
Rome. had executed.

- Malcolm Muggeridge, who has done some spiritual ‘Struggling
-himself, hears Jesus agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane on the

night of arrest:. "Let ‘this cup pass from me...not just the arrest,

the ignoring, the harrassment, the trial] dnd execution with ali its
', grisly accompaniments ; rather, “the | sense of failure;..." [Jesus, p.
160] ; . . —_

_ .THat‘is the.final and ultimate risk: not death, but that one
-should-have lived- without significance, without, mattering. And the
best part ofthis day is. that.-it focuses, without obstruction, on the
man ‘who faced :that risk,. embraced it .in full view, for the centuries
to witness, “the. man who: did it defining what, is best and most noble

. and most’ promising ‘about. our -humani ty: - this admant young man.

The. Courage to Be, ‘the: late pau. Tillieh ‘called it - "the
ethical act in which we affirm our own being...the. affirmation of
one's self that always: produces .joy.". [The Courage to Be, pp. 3-14]

. Poets and playwrites and novelists often deal with the Tssue. At its

_ most personal ‘Jevel;- each of: uS has to decide that our lives are ©
worthwhile. We must affirm our being, in Tillich's language - decide
. to be, to live, to have medning. A powerful drama playing locally,

. ‘night’ Mother; ‘focuses on the decision of a- middle-aged woman to

Commit suicide ‘because there simply is ‘no significance to her life.
.-The audience is appalled with. the decision and-is pulled into the

; a struggle 4 desperately: trying = with :the woman's own mother - to convey
to. her: that. her life is valuable, pleading with fier to affirm it.

The danger is that we ‘broker. away ‘our ‘lives, “compromise our
commitments, accept the. status quo, allow others to make our
. decisions, and as a consequence’ never: -become someone on our own,
someone authentic and whole and free. °: Rollo May thinks that we live
_ in a time that conspires against our: individuality, a heavy, complex
time’ that flattens us out and makes us- feel small, inconspicious and
unimportant. "Men and women become fully human,“ he writes, “only by
their ‘choices. and their commitment to them." May speaks for many when
“he-warns that ‘the issues-facing us’ if our time are so huge and so

"complex and so fearsome that the instinct of the individual is to

retreat, hidé, ‘find a hole and jump.in.. “To live into the future
_means to leap into the unknown, and this requires a degree of courage
ea there is no immediate precedent. " {The Courage to Create,
p-2 . —

Who hasn't felt that? How can ari individual today even

, 3/23/86 oa = 3

.. from the Jewish founders. of Christiani

understand the complex issues that confront our society, let alone

contribute to their resolution? What can I do about hunger? About
health care and education and the environment and the nuclear arms

race? The very catalog makes us wring our hands in despair.

This day however celebrates the courage of an adamant young man.
This day suggests that our humanity is at stake when we abdicate
responsibility for the world and the specific issues that are
. besetting our society. What is at stake, this day’ suggests, is not
just the welfare of the race, but our own SOUTS- :

. This day celebrates the adamant courage of Jesus. It is also
- the occasion to remember that this day he thrust the Gospel, the

-Christidn religion, into the center of human life. Adamniantly he. .
moved, literally from the périphery to the center: from remote -

‘countryside to the vital- and dangerous capitol city. |

-- There is a venerable. tendency -in religion to remain -on the
periphery, to keep religion out on.the edges. It is one of the. oo
- hoariést traditions,in American piety. It is not something .we learned .

_ the. ist ty. They understood that it. 7s —
‘not possible to separate religion from life, to differentiate between
“the -secular.and the sacred. Their holy Taw defined spiritual health.
in terms of: the accuracy of .the scales. in the marketplace. “Good :
Yelfgidn had woré- to. do with justice for“the poor and-dispossessed - le

-. than-keep “the right ‘customs..~”

_ . ._. It was a Greek heresy that allowed early Christianity to think —--
of itself as other-wordly; having to do with a solely spiritual
Kingdom peripheral to and different from the ordinarly, .daily. .- Lo
realities of 1ifé in the world. - The Greeks maintained that reality is .~
divided into two realms. ~ spiritual and physical. In practical terms. ~
Greek dualism allows you to-draw a line.through the middle of your *

. Hife and the life af. your community and the life of the world, and

_ calTvoné side worldly, secular ‘and the other side spiritual. On the ~.°
~ secular side‘ you. can keep matters:-like-how you yote and spend your.
‘money,- how you act toward your neighbor .and how you Tove. your spouse,
how you make out your taxes arid how you feel about welfare recipients.
On--the religious side you can-keep things’ like -singing hymns, saying: .
- prayers.and listening to sermons, reciting creeds: : i.e.. religious
. reality, peripheral activities, at best. ‘When:religious ‘matters ~

‘began to Took ‘secular: or more probably, when worldly, matters began, to

- fall. over the line into the religious side as they have an .annoying

__way of doing - say when somedne steals the election and not only
personal integrity but the integrity of the whole system tis in

question = or innocent. bystanders start dying because of the people .
‘we are arming to. protect Texas from Communism, or when elderly. people
suffer not only the indignities of loneliness and despair but ~ oe
malnutrition and unnecessary: sickness because our society can't afford —
old people, you and I are inclined to make that little liné into. a
_wall and say “Religion and. politics don't mix." That kind of. thinking
allowed members of the 5S. -S. to’-go to.church on ‘Sunday and operate gas
chambers on Monday morning, or more immediately it allows us to regard
hunger in our community as a problem in economics, and the murderbus.

3/23/86 re 4

realities of a single mother trying to raise four smal] children on
the eleventh floor of a tenement building where the elevators don't
work and the stairways are full of filth and rodents - basically a
real estate problem, and the dilemma of the homeless thousands
wandering around the streets and sleeping in the doorways of Chicago
as a sociological problem. And we could get away with that
Hellenistic nonsense except for Palm Sunday, the day when an adamant
young man took the holy love of God and marched it right into the
political and economic as wet] as the religious heart of the city and
there was crucified.

At least once a year, on Palm Sunday, we ought to hear Sir
George MacLeod's eloquent words: .

. "I simply -argue that the’ cross be raised again at the center of
the marketplace as well as. the steeple ‘of: the. church...desus was. not
‘crucified.in a ¢athedral between two, candles, but on a cross between

~ two thieves: on the town garbage - heap: at a crossroads so cosmopolitan,

that they had. to. write -his- name in Hebrew and in Latin and in .
‘Greek...at the kind. of: place’ where cynics: talk sniut. and’ thieves curse |.
- and soldiers. gamble. -Because that is where. he -died and that is what ~
‘he died about. And. that-is where. church ' people ought to be and what,
‘church peopte should: be about." ‘

- The. “imperative of “this celébration. ‘soon ‘to. be” an ‘execution is “to know ”

. again, perhaps for-thée first. time, how:toally God loves this-world and this - - me

city.- The imperative is know that God. takes the human city’ very: serfously,
that. what, happens in. the human city is of value, and coricern to God. . ot

The. imperative is to know again that an adamant young man rode
into a city- to demonstrate with a terrible eloquence that there is no
- where in human life that. stands’ outsi de- the Tove. of God. -

The: imperative: is’ to affirm aur. own being, as he did, ‘in acts of

“lonely. courage; to join-the fight, to decide what: we think is right and to a

' throw. in on that“side: to~stop:being spectators and to get: involved. ~The

"imperative is to’ take ‘some chances not only because the world desparately: —

~ needs people who care. Like: ‘that. but, ‘because our own souls are at Stake. ,

“Behold him who ‘comes “in ‘the natie ‘of the Lord," see this christ;: this

adamant young man,. who penetrates . to the center, who comes to the heart: tb.-*

.-your heart and mine, that is to say.- He is not content with the periphery.
“He will not remain on the edges. ° He comes to the center: and today requires -
a response. The invitation ts to care deeply and love’ bravely, -to stumble
..along behind that parade, to pull a brdnch from a tree and the coat from
your back.for him,. and in whatever -voice you have to sing your Hal tetujahs

- = because on this day the Gospel promises, if you, and I. don’ t, Af we miss

_ it, the very stones will cry out...

Blessing. and glory; -
and wisdom and- thanksgiving,
and honor and, power dnd might
. be unto our God. for ever and-ever. -Amen..

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