Good Friday 2010

April 2, 2010
The Rev. Susan J. Latimer

You probably have heard by now that an infamous hate group is coming to Charleston next week. They call themselves the Westboro Baptist Church but I will refer to them as the WBC – as no Baptist or church that I know would want to associate with them.

The message of this group, wherever it goes, is God Hates You - the you could be Jewish people, Catholic people, educated people, lgbt people, people of color, and on and on. They do not discriminate in their hatred of everyone who does not agree with them – and that puts most of the rest of the world in the “other” category. They protest at funerals of fallen soldiers and victims of anti-gay violence– they stomp on flags – they picket synagogues and churches and educational institutions. They hold signs that say “Thank God for AIDS”, “God Hates …..lgbt people”. A few years ago they picketed a funeral for minors killed in WV – and carried signs that said, “Thank God for dead minors”. In short, they do everything in their power to enrage people – to push their buttons – so that the people around them will resort to violence. This group is deceptively savvy.
They are particularly good at getting people into situations in which they could be sued for infringing on their right to free speech and assembly.

Recently, the father of a fallen soldier has been ordered by a court to pay over $16,000 in legal fees to the group, because the WBC won a lawsuit against him when he tried to keep them from picketing his son’s funeral.

The WBC’s message is “God Hates”, and they play on the frailty of human nature because it is so easy for us to hate them back.

Today is Good Friday – the day that Jesus died on the cross.
It is the day when we remember our failures to love as God loves,
our vulnerabilities, our penchant for hatred and violence.
It is the day we remember our brokenness – our sinfulness – although many of us are uncomfortable using that word.
It is the day that we remember that evil still exists, and that we ourselves are often capable of evil. The WBC group reminds us of both of these realities.

It was evil and the frailty of human nature that led to Jesus’ death. He died as a revolutionary who demonstrated against the domination systems of his time.

The atonement that Jesus performed on our behalf has been understood in several different ways. The prevailing understanding for centuries has been that Jesus died for our sins – that is, that Jesus willingly sacrificed himself as an offering to take away the consequences of our sins. This theory says that God required payment for our sinfulness – and that only Jesus could provide the necessary payment.

Another understanding of the atonement, and one that makes more sense to me, is that Jesus freely gave himself up to death in order to break the bonds of death itself – in order to liberate us from the power of death forever.
God did not require this of Jesus – but Jesus gave his life for us out of love.

In this understanding of the atonement, Jesus died not so much for our sins – but because of our sins.

The WBC would have us believe that God Hates. We know this is a lie.
Good Friday tells us this – God Loves.
God loves us all.
Jesus died for us all – even those who pervert his message and do evil in his name.

The only antidote to hate is love. And since it is impossible for most of us, on our own, to love those who are so full of hate, those who are so clearly doing evil, we must rely on God’s grace and power.

We must look to the cross, to Jesus, on this day, this Good Friday,
and remember his love.