Ben’s March Letter
Dear Friends in Christ,
As I prepare my sermons for Lent, I have noticed a pattern in my lectionary: as Jesus and his disciples begin their journey towards Jerusalem, Jesus’ preaching becomes more challenging, and he becomes more certain that bad things await him in the city. This is the arc of the gospels: the miracles and upbeat preaching Jesus does in Galilee fades into provocative teaching and scary omens. If you are setting the scene for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday (which I am, 3/28 and 3/29, 7PM!) you can’t do better than the dramatic movement of Jesus and his disciples toward Calvary.
We’re no strangers to doom-oriented thinking. In 2024, our language includes doom-scrolling (constantly reading bad news on your phone), doom-spiraling (feelings or conversations where people pile on increasingly awful future possibilities), and doom-spending (non-management of personal finances based on the conviction that there won’t be a future to save for). Doom and gloom are pervasive—partly because we face real, large issues and partly because sadness and anger sell more papers than optimism. But it strikes me this month that rarely in Jesus’ predictions of his own suffering does he end with his death. His predictions of his betrayal and execution don’t end with the tomb—they end with his rising from it. Even when imagining his own suffering, Jesus refuses to let doom have the last word.
This month begins in the middle of Lent, and amid sermons where Jesus’ teachings bring his disciples down. It reaches its spiritual crescendo on Maundy Thursday, when Jesus loves and serves those who will betray and abandon him; and on Good Friday, when goodness is nailed to a cross by people who think they are doing the right thing. And it ends on March 31 as we celebrate an empty tomb, and the victory of love. If you are watching carefully this March—and every Lent—are a Christian statement in the face of doom: the way to the cross may be grim, but the Resurrection speaks last.
So I cannot join in with any chorus of doom and gloom. Because the Christian faith teaches that doom and gloom are followed…always…by good news. There can be no doom-spiral for us, because our spiraling is halted and turned around on Easter morning. The Christian outlook isn’t naive. It takes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday seriously—along with every instance of bodies broken and blood shed and relationships marred. It does not deny harm or wrong. But nor is it prone pessimism—how could it be? If Jesus is risen—then doom must be weaker than it seems.
This month (and always) may our hope in the resurrection and our outlook rooted in Christ stand against doom and gloom. Like this March of 2024, it all ends with Easter.
In the love of Christ,
Rev. Ben