Keeping Watch with Jesus

Friday, April 18, 2025

4:58 AM

I have somehow managed to get to the parish on time. My shift at this vigil, which began at the end of the Maundy Thursday service, is scheduled for 5 AM. After a nearly sleepless night spent trying to calm a very protective beagle on high alert over the possum dancing across the backyard fence, it was everything I could do to drag my tired carcass out of bed when the alarm went off at 4 AM. I reheated the Starbucks I had bought the night before, showered, and sped off toward Winter Park.

It is a beautiful morning. Little traffic on the roads yet. I know that will change within the next hour. But for now, it is peaceful, quiet. I drive without the radio, not wishing to be poisoned by the latest news emerging from the global dark night of the soul in which our world currently finds itself before I go in to sit with Jesus. I bid good morning as I pass to my friends, the trees who line the roadway heading into Winter Park, friends who lovingly embrace me each time I travel this way.

 

It is dark when I arrive at St. Richards. The lights announcing the presence of our parish in this neighborhood stand in stark distinction to the blackness of the night around it. I smile. It is a wonderful gift to be a part of such a vibrant, healthy parish. Light in the darkness.

 

As I enter the sanctuary, I see the flickering candles in the Lady Chapel. Even in the dim light I can see that Jesus has not been abandoned this night. There are two other faithful parishioners waiting on me. Their shifts will end soon. For now, I appreciate their faithful silent company.

I enter, reverence the altar where the body and blood of Jesus repose under the veil and sit down.

I had missed last night’s Maundy Thursday service when, after the washing of feet and sharing of the last eucharist before the resurrection, the parish was stripped bare. This is inevitably one of the most moving rites our church engages. There is a visceral loss as all the visual clues that this is a church where Jesus’ presence is palpable, that a faith going back two millennia is the purpose of this place, that the devotion of so many souls, some of which are present with us this night, call this place their home, are all taken away. The bare bones structure which remains is a stark distinction from the daily life of this incredibly vibrant parish.   

The main altar and all the walls are bare. The parish looks so empty this morning. This place that is ordinarily so full of life, of flowers, of art, of music, of words, of people – all absent this morning save this little chapel in the corner of the sanctuary where candles flicker at Mary’s feet.

  

  

These votives are the flickering records of those who said their prayers here after faithfully spending a portion of the night waiting and watching with Jesus -  the infant Jesus his Mother holds, the Jesus who awaits the Temple guards in Gethsemane, the Jesus shrouded in the reserved sacraments on the chapel altar, the Jesus who peers down from the icon above.   

 

Jesus knows what is coming.

 

So does his Mother and his companion, Mary Magdalene, and the Guardian Angels who always surround him. This morning they hover overhead, keeping vigil with Jesus.

  

 

Mary stands to Jesus’ right, watching the gathering from above. MP θϒ (Mater Theus, Mother of G_d) is inscribed around her in this beautiful icon with the title “Holy Protector” above her head in her halo. Jesus will definitely need divine protection this day.

To his left, his companion and confidante, Mary Magdalene, stands in vigil. She will be present when he breathes his last this day. And her presence in the Jesus movement after his death will prove to be what insures its survival to the present time, something for which she and the other women in Jesus’ movement rarely get any credit.

 

 

It is not surprising that Jesus is surrounded by women here. It will be these women among others who follow Jesus down the Via Dolorosa this day. It will be these women who stand at the foot of the cross. It will be these women who come to the tomb to anoint him, a grisly job given the state of Jesus’ tortured body. And it will be these woman who encounter an empty tomb, running back to tell the other disciples what they have seen, only to be discounted by sexist male disciples as spinners of silly tales.

Except, they weren’t. They were the actual witnesses to the resurrection.

  

 

On either side of these three figures the Guardian Angels are present, as they always are with all of us.

There is Gabriel with his horn, divine messenger, herald of important events. Gabriel is often associated with key historical moments like the one about to unfold. It was Gabriel who announced to Mary that her divine child was coming.

Then there is Michael, the chief of the angels and archangels, responsible for the care of God's chosen people in Hebrew tradition. In later Christian tradition, Michael will come to be seen as the angel protecting the faithful from attacks of the devil.

Jesus will need everything they can provide him this day.

The quiet is overwhelming. Even this pitched wooden roof which often pops and cracks in the daily sun and groans in the many storms it has withstood, remains silent.

The spirits of those whose devotions over the years have made this place holy, whose presence I often feel here, sometimes even catching a glimpse of them out of the corner of my vision, some of whose names I remember and faces I can still envision –all maintain silence this morning. They all know what’s coming.

In our culture of constant distraction, none of us well trained consumers do well with silence. That is decidedly true of myself. 

As I try to calm my monkey mind, a Taizé chant inspired by Jesus’ words in the Garden of Gethsemane, begins to fill my head.

“Stay with me

Remain here with me

Watch….and pray.

Watch and pray.”

So I watch and pray. But I am sleepy. I brought coffee with me this morning but I feel a little embarrassed about that. As a rule, I never take beverages into the sanctuary.

But I don’t want to fall asleep on Jesus. His words “Can’t any of you remain awake with me?” echo in my head. Already I am thinking about my waiting bed once safely home.

How spoiled we are.

5:38 AM

Outside the first birds have begun to sing the sun up. I wonder if they sang to Jesus as the sweat of blood rolled down his stricken face. I wonder if he could have even noticed them, despite his deep love of creation which he often illustrated his parables.

Was the overwhelming terror of the coming day all his mind could handle this early morning?

As I focus on the icon of Jesus, I hear in my head the words of St. Richard of Chichester, our patron, which often come to me unbidden in this parish:

Jesus, our Brother,

May we see you more clearly

Love you more dearly,

Follow you more nearly,

This day and every day.

 

What will following Jesus mean this day?

 

6:09 AM

The fatigue of a sleepless night is beginning to catch up with me.

It is my tendency to close my eyes when I meditate. And there are any number of aspects on which to focus that meditation in this deeply spiritual moment. But if I close eyes for very long, I feel the sleep ready to come over me.

 

  

It’s at this moment that I think I understand why the disciples slept. They, too, were exhausted. But they were also overwrought with apprehension and sadness, paralyzed with fear. Their hearts were breaking at the very thought of losing their beloved Jesus, a tragedy they so wished to avoid but knew was inevitable.

No wonder they shut down.

6:20 AM

There were two people here when I entered. One left about 5, her shift completed. The second, a dear man who serves on our vestry, just left. Both stood, crossed themselves, and walked away slowly in silence. I now sit alone.

 

 

I note that the birds have stopped signing. But they have done their job. The sun is beginning to rise. The stained glass window above the altar is beginning to light up.

Jesus’ time is coming. The soldiers, led by Judas his disciple, will arrive momentarily.

What is Jesus thinking? Feeling?

The women who share the icon above the altar seem to stare down at me. What fears run through their minds at this moment?

6:38 AM

As my time to leave approaches, I focus on the angels in the icon before me. These angels will hover round Jesus this day as they do with all of us every day. Sometimes we even catch glimpses of them, hear their wings fluttering around us, overjoyed – relieved -  to know they are present.  I wonder if Jesus could be aware of them as he made his way to Golgotha.

6:58 AM

The parishioner who is to take the 7 AM shift has arrived. We talk briefly, softly, so as not to disturb the serene scene all around us. Then it is time for me to go.

“Keep him company,” I say. “I will,” she replies. And I know she will.

I light my votive, cross myself and depart in silence. As I leave the parish, I am struck by the beauty of the morning sky, lighting up the eastern horizon beyond our memorial garden with its bell we seldom ring. The evening’s moon still lingers overhead even as the rising sun illuminates the beautiful long needled pines that shade our dog park and pet cemetery.  

It has been a good morning. But now comes the hard part, the day we remember one of history’s most brutal executions, knowing that every day in this world the powerless and the vulnerable continue to be crucified. It is a day we so ironically call Good Friday. As my professor in seminary often said, “Qui bono? Good for whom? And at whose expense?”

As I walk to my car, letting the thought and emotions of the past couple of hours wash over me, another Taizé chant runs through my head:

“Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”  

May my heart and my soul be present with you, Jesus, my Brother, this day as we walk the Via Dolorosa together.

[IMAGES: Photos by the author. All iconography images are the work of resident icon writer and director of the parish icon guild, Sayaka Kamakari.]

 

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

 

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

       © Harry Coverston, 2025

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Easter Blessings from the Heart of Orlando!

Contrary to the myths we Floridians love to relate about our history, it is not certain that Juan Ponce de Leon was the first European to sight Florida. Earlier maps from both Spanish and British sources suggest that at least parts of the peninsula were known to Europeans prior to Ponce de Leon’s arrival.

A better candidate might actually be the Italian explorer, John Cabot, sailing under the auspices of England’s King Henry VII. Cabot journeyed far enough south from Canada along the North American coast that he could see Cuba to the east according to an account by his son.

What is known is that Ponce de Leon first spotted what he thought was an island on Easter Day, 1513 probably off the coast of today’s Melbourne Beach, just south of Cape Canaveral. He saw a land ablaze with flowers and he named the place Pascua Florida, flowery feast day. Pascua was alternatively used as Easter and Passover in Spanish. From that sighting came the name of our state, Florida, and one of our counties, Pasco.

On this Easter Sunday we Floridians celebrate that sighting and naming. And it is a beautiful, flowery feast here in the heart of Orlando. The New Coverleigh Jungle is ablaze with flowers on this beautiful, sunny Spring morning. As Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins put it, “The world is ablaze with the glory of God.”

Easter Blessings to all from the heart of Orlando.

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

 

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

    Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

 For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

  Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

       © Harry Coverston, 2025

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

G-d and Caesar: Part III - Democracy and Calvinism

1. G-d and Caesar – Intro

 

This is the third of a three part series on G-d and Caesar. It is a look at the way Christian symbols and identification have been utilized in the last three national elections. I thank you for coming this morning to consider these troubling considerations.

2. Review – Politics Under a Divine Imprimatur

          In the first session, we began by discussing how the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was marked by three patterns of expression. The first was nationalism, the second the use of deadly force and the third was a claim that these actions were consistent with if not ordained by the god of the Christian tradition.

            That session focused on the work of John Dominic Crossan in which he delineated the values of the Kingdom of Ceasar and the Kingdom of G_d. The conclusion there was that, ironically, the MAGA movement which has claimed the mantle of Christian faith is in fact marked by the values of the kingdom of the Caesar who killed Jesus. 

            In the second session, we discussed how the archetypes of messiah and antichrists. We discussed how Donald Trump has been constructed in messianic terms by his followers. We examined how messianic figures arise in times of great social tensions and how some within the American electorate have interpreted our own times through the lens of the Apocalypse of John of Patmos with its predominant figure of an Antichrist. Finally we considered how the understanding of antichrists, plural, have historically been applied to those whose values stood in opposition to those of the Jesus movement. Again, while I am unwilling to cast Donald Trump or any of his regime as the Antichrist, it seems apparent to me that the values of MAGA are often the very antitheses of those of the Jesus movement, hence we are looking at the spirit of the Antichrist or antichrists, plural.

3. Democracy and Calvinism

            In this session, we will broaden our discussion a bit to examine how the values of a particular tradition within western Protestantism is impacting American political thought today. Our focus today will be the role that the thought of Jean Calvin and the Calvinist tradition have played in the rise of MAGA to power.

4. “A Republic, if you can keep it…”

            One of the primary concerns that played out in the last three US presidential elections was the fear that our democratic republic itself was in trouble. America has always had a hybrid system of self-governance from its outset.  Its republican form serves as a representative democracy in which voters elect officials to make decisions on their behalf. The Framers were clear they were taking a calculated risk with this new approach to government. When Benjamin Franklin was asked what the new constitution he had helped hammer out in Philadelphia provided, he presciently responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

5. Roots in Judaic, Christian Thought  

            While there are few instances of direct democracy in America - the New England town hall meetings and Iowa caucuses a couple of exceptions to that rule - ideals of democracy have informed our politics in America since our beginnings. Democracy is rooted in values that arise from our Judeo-Christian heritage. The primary root of democracy is the imago dei, the image of G_d that all human beings are said to bear and which we are bound to respect. From our common origins in G-d, presumptions of human dignity, the right to live fully human lives and the equality of the value of each human being all arise.

            The ministry of Jesus provides a textbook argument for that equality based in the divine image. Jesus readily crossed socially constructed lines to engage those his culture saw as less than fully human – lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, Roman soldiers, children – and inevitably affirmed their humanity in his exchanges with them – You are the salt of the Earth, you are the light of the world! St. Paul provides a bit more spotted record though some of his more memorable statements, such as his letter to the Galatians, pointed toward this equality under the rubric of the divine image: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

6. Presumptions of Human Dignity, Equality

           Democracy presumes that if everyone is equal, everyone should have an equal voice in decision making for our collective lives together. With equal access to that process, decisions can be made by majority votes of the electorate.

            But a true democracy is more than a mere majoritarian process. The obligation to respect the rights and dignity of all citizens prevents minorities from being tyrannized by majorities, a value that is written into our constitution itself. Democracy does not vest in majorities the power to vote its minorities off the island.

            American democratic theory is deeply grounded in Christian thought. Jefferson’s assertion in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” reflects the notion of equality upon which democracy is based as do the protections against the tyranny of the majority in the Bill of Rights for which Jefferson strongly advocated. Yet, America has always been a work in process, its ideals ever the measure against which its efforts – and failures - to meet those ideals are measured from the Trail of Tears to concentration camps of Japanese-American citizens in WWII to the roundups of immigrants today.

            But the values of the Gospel and the Hebrew Torah are not the only religious values that have shaped American democracy. 

7. Role of Jean Calvin

            Scholars of American religious history estimate that at the time of the American Revolution, up to three of every four colonists were affiliated with a religious tradition influenced by Jean Calvin. Among the more readily identifiable scions of Calvin were the Puritans of New England, the Scotts-Irish Presbyterians of the middle colonies who quickly spread down the Appalachian chain to the west and the low-church Anglicans of the southern colonies all of whom evidenced the theological influence of the man some called the tyrant of Geneva.

            Calvin was one of the major contributors to the thought of the Reformation along with Martin Luther. His Institutes of Religion would be required reading in America’s new universities, most born to train clergy. All of the Framers were familiar with its provisions. But while the Institutes provided aspects to insure the democratic republic would survive, a number of implications arise from the Institutes that impact the question of whether democracy can continue in America today.

8. Positive Contributions of Calvinism to American Democracy

            Calvinist anthropology distrusted the human capacity to make decisions given the belief that our souls were tainted from depravity from our births. Thus, there was a major concern to keep power from becoming too heavily vested in any one sector of the new government. The Framers would divide power into three branches, the legislative branch to make laws, the executive branch to carry them out and the judicial branch to determine the constitutionality of the language of the law, the behaviors of those seeking to enforce them and their impacts on the citizens. To insure that no single branch could coopt either or both of the other two, the Framers created powers each branch would have over the other to check their powers and keep them balanced among the three branches. This is classic Calvinist thought at work and one of the gifts from that tradition to our system of governance.

9. Fending Off the Tyranny of the Majority

            Another way this distrust of power played out was in the protection of Civil Liberties in the Bill of Rights. Some of the Framers held memories of having been subject to the tyranny of majorities in their homelands. The Constitution was thus quickly amended to prevent that from happening in the new world they were creating. And after the Civil War, a similar protection of the civil rights of the formerly enslaved people would be added to the Constitution through the 13^th, 14^th and 15 Amendments.

            The Calvinist ethos was rooted in the Hebrew notion of covenant. The very notion of a commonwealth meant that its citizens and their government made mutual pledges to one another. It’s arguable that along with the thought of Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau and their concept of the social contract, the Preamble to the Constitution also reflects the Calvinist notion of covenant. It begins with “We the people of the United States,” states the purposes for the new government and ends with the words “do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States.”  This covenantal form is one of the bases for sociologist Robert Bellah’s description of our democracy as a “civil religion.”

            In this understanding, citizens and their government have mutual duties to one another. Those duties included the obligation to engage the electoral process. The Calvinist ethos is evident on election day in New England where the entire citizenry of some of its small towns will have cast their ballots within a couple hours of the polls opening and reported their vote.

            So, at some level, American democracy is in the debt of Calvinism.

10. The Dark Side of Calvinism

            But there was a decided dark side to Calvinist thinking as well.

          In his Institutes Calvin developed the understandings of Augustine of Hippo’s construct of original sin, declaring that all human beings were utterly depraved, our best intentions and behaviors tainted by sin. This pessimistic anthropology would play out in some important ways in constructing the new American democratic republic.

            Calvin’s construct of G_d arose from medieval honor/shame cultures in which the sovereign was absolute and whose honor could not be tarnished without punishment. Given that human sin was seen as an offense against the supreme sovereign of the universe, Calvin’s theology taught that everyone deserved to go to Hell. He described human beings generally as the damned.

            However, Calvin argued that amidst this universal damnation there were some who were elected to salvation. But no one knew who. Sociologist Max Weber observed that among Protestants impacted by Calvin’s theology, those who worked hard, lived respectable lives and met with financial success appeared to be blessed by G_d, thus revealing that they were the elect. Hence, Calvinists worked like hell to feel confident they were not going there. And Weber would locate the rise of the capitalist system in this pattern which he called the Protestant work ethic.

11. Obedience to Divinely Appointed Sovereigns

            But there was more to Calvinism’s impact on the societies in which it became dominant than its financial aspects. Like all systems based in the thought of St. Paul, a duty to obey power holders was seen as paramount among one’s duties as Christians. And Calvin added that all power holders had been appointed by G_d for that purpose. Thus, to obey one’s sovereigns was to obey G_d. and Calvin’s Institutes argued against rebellion stating that if a tyrannical leader came to power, he represented deserved punishment for human depravity.

            All of this served both to preserve the status quo with its power holders and those subject to that power as well as to keep those deemed subservient - women, children and enslaved people - in their places. That provision went hand in hand with another aspect of this system.

12. Godly Cities

            Calvinists have long believed that they were charged by G_d with creating godly cities. Perhaps the best example of this was Puritan leader John Winthrop’s vision of a New England called to be “a city upon a hill.” In such highly visible cities, there would be no place for evidence of the damned even as most Puritans presumed that the majority of their fellow colonists were justly headed for Hell.

            This also raises the dangers of dualistic thinking. The fear of going to hell is unbearable for most people. Hence, our tendency is to find ways to repress our own darkness into our Shadows. But that darkness doesn’t stay put. Inevitably it manages to be projected onto others. It’s always handy for a godly society to have a designated group seen as the damned for scapegoats.

            What this has meant is in the that places where Calvinists have been able to gain political power, they have often chosen to use that power in ways that punished those they declared to be the damned. Consider the blue laws that were dominant here in Florida until the turn of the century. Think of the current war on drag shows here in our state. And I would say that it is no accident that in a heavily Calvinist Bible Belt practicing first chattel slavery and later Jim Crow segregation, the damned have always been racially identifiable.

13. Coming to a Church Near You

 

           I should note that Calvinism’s impact has
not been relegated to the exercise of governmental power. The Anglican tradition, of which our Episcopal Church is a national church, was strongly impacted by Calvinist thought. Some of the theologians who midwifed the Church of England’s break from Rome had been schooled in Geneva. The words we say as we offer the communion to our parishioners was a major concern for the crafters of the Book of Common Prayer ending in a compromise which placed both the Calvinist understanding of the communion as simply a memorial service side by side with the Catholic vision of the communion as sacramental. Hence was born the Anglican Via Media, the middle way which is both Catholic and Reformed.

            For those of you who have on occasion sought boring sermon relief by checking out the back of the prayer book, you will have discovered the Historical Documents section containing the Articles of Religion. If you get as far as Section 17, you’ll hear the voice of Calvin speaking of predestination and election. While American clergy do not have to subscribe to these articles as our brothers and sisters in the UK do, this historical document along with the two quadrilateral statements and the Athanasian Creed do provide an idea of the various theological understandings that have impacted our tradition historically.

14. Notions of an Elect are the Antithesis of Democracy

            While the notion of an elect is consistent with both oligarchies and authoritarian government, it is the antithesis of democracy. Starting with a Calvinist anthropology, if you do not value human beings, seeing them as depraved, then you will not value their agency as citizens and feel no compunction about preventing its exercise. If you do not believe G_d has any concern for those you presume to be the damned in the next world, what obligations would the elect hold toward them in this world?

            A power-bearing elect by definition implies that everyone other than the elect are incapable of making good decisions. Given this view, it’s easy to understand how voting rights would be curtailed. Indeed, even elections become obsolete in such a system. As Donald Trump said in the last election – Vote for me this time and you’ll never have to vote again.     

15. Now, Imagine….

          Now, given this, imagine a country where a handful of almost exclusively white straight males who see themselves as the elect exercise virtually all of the power. Imagine a country where the ability to vote by persons of color is systematically blocked by increasingly repressive obstacles. Imagine a country where people of color, people who do not identify as heterosexual, binary gendered, and women who have not lived into socially constructed gender roles are erased from public memory. Imagine a country where the elect are privileged to determine what books can be present in libraries and what teachers can teach in their classrooms.

            Imagine a country where in vitro fertilization is banned because gay couples and single persons are using it to become parents. Imagine a country where the governmental agency that was charged with insuring kids with disabilities can receive a free appropriate public education and those from impoverished families could find financial aid to follow their dreams in attending college is dismantled. Imagine a country when those we once saw as fellow citizens are now demonized by power holders as our enemies because of their political visions, their sexuality, their gender identification, their race and their place of origin.

16. Framers Rolling in Their Graves

            Now imagine that this is your country. And as you probably already know, you don’t have to imagine it - this is not a hypothetical. This is precisely what the Project 2025 framers proposed prior to this election. And the name of their movement is telling: Dominion. In a dark Calvinist world, the elect command every level of society, creating the elect’s visions of godly societies at the expense of those they see as the damned.

             No doubt the Framers, albeit schooled in Calvin’s thought, would find this alarming. Again, the notions of checks and balances is patently Calvinist as is the notion of civic duty, the obligation to participate in the electoral process in a manner designed to serve the common - rather than the individual or tribal - good. Much is lost when the dualism of the elect v. the damned and the obligation to submit to authority becomes the primary aspect of Calvin’s thought utilized.

            So will democracy in America survive? Will we choose to keep our democratic republic, as Franklin challenged us? Time will tell.

17 . QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 

            I want to thank you for your attention, for remaining here, through what have undoubtedly been troubling considerations. And now I have some questions to consider.

1. What difference do understandings of G-d and human nature make in the governments you create? What difference does it make in the churches you create?

2. Who are the elect in our culture? Who are the damned?

3. Benjamin Franklin said the Framers had given us a republic if we could keep it. Can we?  Will we?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

 

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

    Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

 For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

  Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

       © Harry Coverston, 2025

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Archetypes of a Passion Narrative

IMAGE: Fr. Maximino Cerezo Barredo, CMF, En la Cena Ecológica del Reino (“At the Ecological Dinner in the Kingdom”)

 Our Gospel today is the longest single reading that we will hear in our church year. It begins on the day we call Maundy Thursday with Jesus eating his last supper with his disciples, moves to the Mount of Olives where Jesus will pray for strength to meet the horrible fate he knows is coming even as his disciples sleep. It continues with Jesus being taken into custody, tried before the Sanhedrin, brought to Pilate, the Roman governor, and in turn to Herod, the Judean king, to decide what should happen to him.

 There is a horrific scene where crowds which only days before shouted Hosanas as Jesus entered Jerusalem will turn on him, angrily screaming “Crucify him!” And before the reading is finished, that is precisely what will happen. It ends with a Roman soldier confessing Jesus’ innocence and the faithful women who had accompanied him down the Via Dolorosa to his death departing to prepare his burial rites.

 There is much to be considered here.

 

Archetypes: “Bidden or Unbidden…”

In all truthfulness, we have little idea of how much of this account is historical. The mere logistics of there being witnesses at all of the junctures in this story suggests that what we are hearing is probably a handful of actual events connected by an incredibly talented writer we call Luke, writing some 50 years after they occurred.

So why do we tell this story? Why do we engage in its reading, with individuals bringing the story to life reading parts and parishioners joining the angry crowd shouting “Crucify him!”? What is it about this story that speaks to our souls?

Carl Jung was a 20^th CE psychologist who sought to explain how human beings understood symbols that appear in our dreams and in our religions. Above the front door of his home in Zurich, Jung had hung a sign that read “Bidden or unbidden, God is present.” Jung called the images and patterns of words that spoke to our souls archetypes and he was clear that our attraction to them occurred outside our rational thought process, “bidden or unbidden,” as he put it. When we encounter them, something powerful touches us, activating those archetypes within our own souls.

So let’s look at this story we’ve just heard. As we examine the characters in this drama, I invite you to consider where in your own life and in the world around us that you see them.

Disciples

The first group of people we encounter are the disciples. Devoted to Jesus, they are often confused, contentious, ambitious, yet willing to be vulnerable, to follow this figure they simultaneously trust but rarely understand. 

Where in your spiritual journey have you experienced these qualities?   

Of the disciples there are two who play cameo roles. First there is Simon Peter, the disciple called the rock. Peter is the leader of the disciples, the one they trust, solid as a rock. But it is often Peter who doesn’t get what Jesus is teaching them, dense as a rock. It will be Peter who, when push comes to shove, will deny Jesus to save his own hide. And yet it is this imperfect human being who holds the movement together after Jesus’ execution by the Romans, a movement that will become the world’s largest religion. He’s a complex character.

Where do you experience your inner Peter?

The other cameo role is the embodiment of what Jung called the Shadow, the darkest qualities of ourselves that we repress from our consciousness. Judas is simultaneously the passionate defender of the poor, the one who desperately wants a messiah to help Judah throw off its Roman overlords, and when that hope is not realized, is willing to betray Jesus.

Can we be honest enough with ourselves to identify one or more of those qualities within ourselves?

Power Holders

Then there are the holders of power. There is Pilate, hypervigilant Roman governor of Judea. Pilate is known for his ruthlessness and his cruelty, a man who sees all things and persons as means to a singular end – the exercise of power. It is he who cynically asks Jesus during his interrogation “What is truth?” implying that truth is ultimately not important. This is not a character most of us would want to identify with even as we see plenty of examples of it in the world around us today.

But where have we been single-minded in our pursuits of goals we saw as essential, treating others as means to our own ends?

IMAGE: Henry Collier, Christ in front of Pontius Pilate, (1948)

Herod, the Roman appointed king of Judea, was known for his architectural accomplishments, building elaborate cities on the Mediterranean coast and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. But Herod was also highly insecure about his power, executing John the Baptiser who dared to criticize his infidelity as well as members of his own family he distrusted. Herod ordered the slaughter of the infants of the Galilee in his unsuccessful attempt to kill the baby Jesus. Herod is not anyone we would like to identify with.

But where in our own lives have we allowed our insecurities to drive our thoughts, words and deeds after which we are disappointed with ourselves, asking, “What was I thinking?”

The Crowd, The Criminals, A Soldier, The Women  

 

IMAGE: Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo (1800)

One of the turning points in the story is Pilate’s interaction with the crowd. Given the chance to save an already abused and tortured Jesus from execution, the crowd shouts “Crucify him!” Bear in mind that some of the members of this crowd only days before were dancing in the streets welcoming Jesus: “Hosanna to the son of David.” Today they have done a 180 degree turn, demanding his death. There is no critical thinking occurring here and absolutely no compassion in evidence. Such is the nature of groupthink, which as Jung observed, always descends to its lowest common denominator.

So where in our lives have we gone along with the crowd without thinking, willing to harm those we identify as enemies, perhaps even as our hearts and souls told us this was wrong?

The figures of the criminals executed along with Jesus offer us two possible responses to the Way of Jesus. One of them taunts the dying Jesus, adding insult to injury, saying “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself!” The other evidences a willingness to own his own Shadow – “We are getting what we deserve for our deeds.” But he also acknowledges his vulnerability, seeking hope in this fellow victim he recognizes to be innocent: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Where in our lives do we see our own cynicism, our willingness to blame the victim? And where in our lives are we willing to acknowledge our limitations, recognizing that none of us can make it through life alone, that we need others and we need the ever present G-d to be with us if we are to survive?

 

There is the Centurion, the man who owes his soul to the company store, the Roman Empire in whose army he serves. His job is to guard the execution site, to prevent those being crucified from being rescued by their friends and family. But he evidences a surprising depth of character not found in many guardians of power, going about their nasty business with the rationalization of “I’m just doing my job.”  The Centurion realizes that this was not just any human being. And he knows that the Romans had just killed an innocent man. Being able to publicly admit that must have been difficult to say the least.

Where in our lives is there a Centurion willing to admit the truth about ourselves and our nation-state that we don’t want to face?

IMAGE: Mickey McGrath, OSFS, Station 8, Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Finally, there are the women. Unlike the disciples who have run away frightened, they accompany Jesus all the way through the suffering to the bitter end. It is the women who stand at the foot of the cross watching Jesus die. And at the end of the story, it is the women who have come to see where Jesus is buried so they can return to anoint his body according to Jewish custom. This is a labor of love, a willingness to endure suffering out of compassion for the other.

 

Where do we see that pattern in our lives?

 

Can We See Ourselves? Our World?

All of these figures are readily observable in the world around us. And, if we are able to be honest with ourselves, we can probably locate all of these patterns within our own lives. And this is the reason we continue to tell these stories.

IMAGE: Dianne Minnar, Stations at the Cross, Sacred Heart Church, 

Samford Village, Queensland, Australia (2016)

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. This is the week we are asked to accompany Jesus from the Last Supper to the tomb. This final week of the penitential season of Lent is the perfect time to reflect on our own lives, to consider who we are, where we see ourselves in this story we tell and where we see this story in the world around us. May we all make good use of this time reflecting on our lives this Holy Week as we prepare for the coming of the Easter Feast. Let us pray:

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

       

[A sermon preached on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025, St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL. The sermon as presented can be seen at the link below starting at 43:00.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNFam_KWIsw&t=2534s

 

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 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

 

   Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

 For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

 

 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

 

      © Harry Coverston, 2025

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