Supper with Judas & Jesus
Green grow the rushes, ho! What is your twelve, ho?
Twelve for the twelve apostles,
Eleven for the eleven that went to heaven, and
Ten for the Ten Commandments.
Nine for the nine Bright Shiners, and
Eight …
When I was a boy singing songs at church camp every summer, we had a responsive, repeating counting song that we sang at mealtime - - Barnum McCarty or Harry Douglas or one of the other teenage college guys on staff would stand up and start it, and we would sing “Green grow the rushes, Ho” that concluded, counting back down twelve verses,
“Twelve for the twelve apostles,
Eleven for the eleven that went to heaven and
Ten for the ten commandments”,
and all the way down to
"One is One and All Alone and Evermore Shall Be-ee So".
Theologically, we were certain that Judas Iscariot is burning in hell for all eternity.
WE did not like Judas Iscariot. None of the gospel writers like Judas, especially Gospel John, who casts him as thief as well as traitor.
Down through the Christian ages nobody likes Judas. You never heard of St Judas Iscariot Episcopal Church.
At least one Christian group, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, counts Pontius Pilate as a saint, but nobody sanctifies Judas Iscariot, as a song in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" says, "goodbye, Judas; poor old Judas; damned for all Time".
A common discussion among those who try to comprehend the incomprehensible God, is whether Judas Isariot, for his remorse and contrition (and penance unto self-destruction), was forgiven by God and Saved: did Judas Iscariot go to heaven?
At Mark 14:21, Jesus says of Judas, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to the one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had never been born.”
Even more horrifying for Judas, at John 17:12, Jesus prays, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe … . None has been lost Except The One Doomed to Destruction that Scripture be fulfilled.”
So, who was this Judas, predestined and elected to damnation?
An Encyclopedia Britannica article suggests Judas’ surname is a corruption of the Latin sicarius (“murderer” or “assassin”), that he was a member of the Sicarii, a radical group of political assassins, already a murderer when Jesus called him to be an apostle.
Today’s gospel triggers my curiosity about Judas Iscariot, a trusted apostle, one of The Twelve, selling Jesus out to religious authorities who then turned him over to the Romans to be crucified.
Matthew 27:3,4,5 says after Jesus was condemned, Judas was filled with remorse, went to the authorities and confessed “I have sinned, I have betrayed innocent blood” - - then, hearing no mercy, went out and hanged himself. Is there no absolution for a penitent Judas?
At Acts 1:18, Luke says Judas fell and burst open, dying in Akeldama, Field of Blood.
If Judas carried out his destiny as part of God’s Plan of Salvation, when Judas presented himself at the pearly gates, was he plunged into hellfire?
Lutheran theologian Ronald M Hals wrote “Grace and Faith in the Old Testament” - -(required reading in my seminary, and still on my bookshelves, now and then read again over the years) - -
Hals writes that God’s one characteristic is Grace, which is unconditional Love. Not power, not vengeance, not justice, not righteousness, not fairness, but Grace, unconditional love - - that God loves no matter what. So - - Hitler? Stalin? Germans who carried out the Holocaust? Putin? Pontius Pilate? Nero who burned Christians alive? 9/11 bombers of the World Trade Center? American soldiers who massacred innocents at My Lai? American flyers who dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (have you read the on ground experiences of innocent survivors who had nothing to say or do with the War?)
You watched the killing of Osama bin Laden on television, did God love Osama bin Laden?
What about Russian soldiers who are killing innocent Ukrainians? Does God love them?
Grace for the Canaanites? have you read the book of Joshua: God leads Israel through the conquest of Canaan, The Promised Land, commanding the killing of every man, woman, child and animal in every Canaanite city? Does God love the Canaanites?
Judas Iscariot? Predestined to treachery but remorseful unto suicide? “Eleven for the ‘leven who went to heaven” or was Judas loved, forgiven and saved? Even predestined to salvation?
In his homily Wednesday evening, Fr Steve said “this is a gospel of extravagance, of extravagance and love”. Yes indeed, and it’s love all the way, not just love for Mary who wasted extravagant ointment on Jesus’ feet.
The theology of Grace, God’s unconditional love, is absurd, outrageous, extravagant, incomprehensible, incredible, unbelievable: unfair. How could our kind and loving God love a human monster? Judas Iscariot, Saved? Are you kidding me?
This gospel is about you and Judas Iscariot: the Grace of God, that God loves unconditionally, loves no matter who or what. Do you believe that about God? Can you accept a God whose love is so extravagant that God loves Judas Iscariot - - loves even you?
Can you forgive a God who saves Judas Iscariot whom you were sure was damned, God who loves Judas no matter what you think God ought to do, should have done, and would have done? Or does such a God offend you?
Christianity is not a religion of creeds and doctrine and dogma, and ungodly Certainty about who is Saved and who is Damned. Christianity is a love story, the story of God’s love for the unlovable, even Judas and me, even Judas and you.
Christianity is not a religion of answers, but a religion of questions to ponder. a religion of unanswerable puzzlements to drive you crazy, and turn your certainties upside down.
Is God Grace, unconditional love, or is God justice? WHOSE justice? YOUR notion of justice?
Is God what you believe God is? Or is God ehYEH ahSHER ehYEH, I AM, whoever and whatever God says God is, in and as God’s Word (who is Jesus the Christ, Logos the Word) - ?
Jesus loves Judas who spoke so hatefully that night at Supper.
Jesus loves Judas who a few nights later left the Last Supper to go out and betray him unto death.
God loves Judas Iscariot and saves him.
Would you eat with a God who loves such a one? Would you share table fellowship with such an outrageous God?
Think about it, because in a few minutes you will, in the Name of that extravagant God, be invited to come, to Supper that makes you one with That God and That God one with you.
Supper with Judas and Jesus.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Grow_the_Rushes,_O
The twelfth, cumulated, verse runs:
- I'll sing you twelve, O (or Ho)
- Green grow the rushes, O
- What are your twelve, O?
- Twelve for the twelve Apostles
- Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven,
- Ten for the ten commandments,
- Nine for the nine bright shiners,[b]
- Eight for the April Rainers.[c]
- Seven for the seven stars in the sky,[d]
- Six for the six proud walkers,[e]
- Five for the symbols at your door,[f]
- Four for the Gospel makers,
- Three, three, the rivals,
- Two, two, the lily-white boys,
- Clothed all in green, O[g]
- One is one and all alone[h]
- And evermore shall be so.
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- Sermon preached in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on the 5th Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022, by the Rev Tom Weller (Retired), Priest Associate of the Parish. Text:
- The Gospel
- John 12:1-8
- Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”