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Sermon - April 5th, 2009
Failure
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11
We live in a world where there is a lot of failure going on, failure of the economy, failure of big corporations, failure of the peace process. We are hearing way too much bad news in a world that worships and adores success. Being successful means having a good retirement plan, getting high grades in school, keeping your job, having health insurance, being happily married, raising well-adjusted children, not gaining too much weight, driving a hot car, having the latest cell phone with all the bells and whistles, having young-looking skin, and being on the right medication to chase the blues away.
It means that we live in a world there is more room for failure than success. Our world invents conditions for failure—Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Survivor, and all the reality tv shows where we watch the young and beautiful compete for an engagement ring from a handsome bachelor. All but one fails—spectacularly—right where we can see them in our living rooms. Are we thinking that it is better for the losers to show up on television than in the mirror?
Christianity has something to say about failure. We have a theology of failure. Here at the church, the loser shows up, symbolically, right above the altar. If success was on his list of things to do before he died, then it was not the kind of success anyone around him was used to. On his way to the cross, he blessed the poor, the mournful, the hungry, the reviled. Some of those people no doubt wished he had done something to improve their conditions instead of giving them a blessing. Others were probably incredibly relieved to hear that there was nothing deeply wrong with them. Jesus told them, “For you, give yourself grace as I have given you grace.”
Today, the first day of Holy Week, the beginning of the passion of Jesus, is an important part of our faith journey. Because it is not just about the passion of Jesus; it is about our passion. It is our story. And we need to be reminded that there is no shame in failure at the foot of the cross. O how we need to be reminded of that! There is no shame in failure at the foot of the cross.
Failure brings us down to earth, earth that is solid beneath our feet. Failure links our broken hearts to other hearts that are broken. Failure delivers us into the loving arms of God, where we find the solace that we cannot even begin to find when we are “successful.”
This is such good news. So good that we cannot hear it enough! Sometimes, though, we have to listen really hard for it, because the hymns are so full of triumph, the preacher (not this one) is often flawless, and the bulletin lists all the ways you can serve to become a better, more successful Christian.
We are here, on this Sunday so full of praise and pain, with the cross in plain view. And that cross is here to remind us that the spiritual path is not about success at all. Jesus was not pretending while he was hanging on the cross. He really did lose everything. And because he did, you and I can trust that when we are feeling our most hurt and futile, and totally abandoned by God, that is when we are not far from Jesus. Instead we are as close as we can get, poised to fail, spectacularly, in our own journey for a life that is true and lasting. The spiritual path is NOT about success; it is about being faithful, it is about failure (thank God), it is about grace (thank you, God, again), it is about being true.
This is the good news we need to hear today. This is the good news that the world needs to hear. This is the good news you and I need to hear.
Amen.