Settle our spirits, that we might know just how far you go

to bring us the cup of salvation.

In the midst of a week of betrayal and denial,

help us forgive the betrayals and denials we commit in our own time and place.

In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Many of us were raised in a culture that valued autonomy, the expression of ourselves, the assertion of ourselves, and the fulfilment of self. We like to keep our options open, with the freedom to choose what path we will take, what destiny we will embrace. We don’t like the ‘musts’ of life – you ‘must’ do this or you ‘must’ do that; even in the expression of our faith, we prefer options and the elimination of any ‘must’.

But Jesus points out in Matthew 16.21 that he ‘must’ go to Jerusalem and suffer… and be killed… and be raised on the third day. There is no option to refuse the assignment. There are no personal preferences under advisement. To obey is to accept the ‘must’ of God.

Jesus did not wait to feel good about what was going to happen. But he did it anyway. The ancient Christian hymn recorded in Philippians 2 reminds us that Jesus was humble, emptying himself of his equality with God, that he might obey the summons of God to bring a rebellious people into the possibility of reconciliation with him. Good Friday is that humble obedience, the ‘must’ of God.

And because of Jesus’ accepting the ‘must’ of God, he is exalted above every name and above every power, that all will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. God did not leave him in that grave, but brought the offer of a new way of living, of being, to each and every one of us.

Are we willing to live in the ‘musts’ of God, as Jesus was? Philippians 2.5 tells us “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Will we accept the ‘musts’ of God in our lives? We get out of bed, dress, and shovel snow or wash the dishes, not because we feel like it. The rector preaches even when she does not feel like it, and I am certain the organist plays even when her heart is not in the prelude! Why then, do we vacillate between obedience and rebellion in so much of our faith expression?? Do we read scripture on a daily basis (our daily bread – not the devotional)? Are we a people of prayer? Do we worship corporately, as we are told to? Do we conduct ourselves in deliberate acts of service and love to one another, whether it is convenient or not? Ah, not always, because I want to keep my options open; I do not want to submit to the ‘must’ of the Christian faith. I do not want any assignments, please!

Shame on me! I want a freedom my Lord and Saviour did not keep for himself! Was that Triumphant Entry on Palm Sunday all joy and gladness for Jesus? I think not. I think he was already anticipating Gethsemane and beyond. “I have not come to do as I please,” he said. “I have come to do the will of him who sent me.”

I pray that you – and I – will be willing to “let the same mind be in us as it was in Christ Jesus,” to the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.