Why Passion?

Luke 19:28-40

Passion/Palm Sunday (April 4, 2004)

 

ROCKS AND US

“If [my disciples] became quiet, these very rocks would cry out.”  How could that be?  Look at this rock--so smooth on the surface; so firm to the touch; so unchanging through the years; so much at peace.   Actually, it might be nice to be like this rock.  Come to think of it, we bear some similarities to rocks:  We’re pretty smooth on the outside; fairly firm to the touch; resistant to change > unyielding. Sitting here today we look peaceful.  Our smooth exteriors belie any turmoil inside.

 

What is the difference between this rock and you? This rock and me?  What is the BIG difference?

The difference, my friends, is PASSION!  Passion is on everybody’s lips these days > and especially today.  We call today “Palm” Sunday > but every church calendar calls today “Passion Sunday “ and next to Passion is the word “Palm.”  Today is Passion/Palm Sunday

 

PASSION DEFINED

Passion is as old as this rock > and has as many different sides.  Passion is made out of an ancient Latin word passio, which means suffering.  Nowadays we have to capitalize “passion” before we think of suffering,  and then it means only one thing:  The sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death.   We haven’t used ‘passion’ for ‘suffering’ in so long that dictionaries say it’s obsolete.  Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ may bring it back, though--The Passion of the Christ  is all about Jesus’ suffering.              These days we usually equate passion with strong emotion.  totally separate from reason.  An intense, driving, overpowering feeling or conviction that leads to some action . . . an outbreak of anger . . . an aroused affection or love . . . or maybe an object of desire or deep interest.  When we hear the word passion, we think of enthusiasm and zeal at a fanatical level--actions that are beyond our own ability to control

 

WHY PASSION?

Why passion, anyway?  Why can’t we be like this rock, or Mr. Spock in Startrek?  So smooth on the surface; so firm to the touch; so unchanging through the of years; so much at peace.  Why passion?

I’ll tell you why passion > life springs from passion!  If it weren’t for passion > this world we know would still be a formless void--dark, bleak, uninhabitable.  God’s passion moved over the face of the waters and brought forth life;  God’s passion moved over dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley > brought them back to life;  God’s passion hung on the cross > and brought us all life.   If it weren’t for passion, everything would be as it always was:  Women would still be counted as property, and forbidden to vote or hold office.  People of color would still have to use separate water fountains, and sit at the back of the bus.  Children would be forced to work in the fields and the factories, and not be allowed to learn; men would be forever confined to their heads, and taught to ignore their hearts.

 

If it weren’t for passion > everybody would be nobody to anybody, smooth, firm, unchanging;

devoid of any feeling > no hurt, no anger, no fear; no hopes, no plans, no dreams, merely existing in a seasonless world where we laugh, but not all of our laughter, and we cry, but not all of our tears (as Kahlil Gibran once wrote). Un-human, in a word.

 

Why passion?  Passion brings life; passion makes us care and listen; passion brings heaven to earth!

 

FLIP SIDE TO PASSION

But there’s a flip side.  Even though the dictionary says ‘passion’ as suffering is obsolete, suffering is still very real!  Passion can nevertheless make us hurt, and passion can make us suffer.  Because of passion we risk rejection, misunderstanding, injustice,  pain, sorrow,  even death.

But remember--our God is a passionate God!  God loves us so much that even if no person ever again spoke a word of love, God would cause these very stones to cry out.

 

Come to this table > it is The Passion of Christ!  Here is Life!