Abandon, Deny, Betray... and Return

Hi, friends, and welcome to the Weekly Dulin Podcast, a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Here, we take time to think together about faith, community, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in today's world.

Well, hello, Dulin Church. It is James Henry, your pastor here on this Maundy Thursday, Holy Thursday, for a moment for us to share together. We have a service coming up tonight at 07:30PM that we do together with our friends at Christ Crossman, Callaway and Galloway United Methodist Churches. And we'll be together tonight. Dulin is hosting.

So maybe we'll see you there. It is Thursday though, and it seemed to me it was good to share a moment. So here we are, and I'm sharing that moment. I've been thinking a little bit about Holy Week and about this particular day, Holy Thursday, and what's about to happen, what we remember happening tonight. And we reenact it to see where it teaches us today when we look at the story of what happened to Jesus on that fateful last supper and foot washing experience and then late into the evening as he prayed.

Certainly, thing that I am particularly mindful of is what this season of Lent has been teaching me. And I wonder if you're mindful of those same kinds of things. I've talked to people who've given things up, some of their favorite desserts, other kinds of items in their lives. And I've talked to some people who've taken some things up as well, things that they thought would be good practices to learn or to practice, at least during the forty days leading up to Easter. Today, I wonder if we might reflect just for a moment about what is about to happen to Jesus and what we can learn about it as disciples of Jesus, as people who follow in his path.

As you will remember, or maybe you won't, and it's fine if you don't. After the last supper, after they arrest Jesus, the disciples scatter. Three things happen, three main things that I note happen on this evening related to the disciples. They did three, the disciples responded in three different ways to either abandon, deny or betray Jesus. And it seems like to me in our everyday lives, we have the opportunity sometimes to do the exact same thing.

Whether we realize it or not, we find ourselves having, for instance, abandoned Jesus. All the things that we say we believe or the things that we think we've built our faith on. We leave them by the wayside when it's inconvenient for us perhaps or when peer pressure pushes us in a different direction. We might find ourselves abandoning the very way that we're committed to. The way that we've said that we are going.

And that puts us in the same place as those first disciples to have abandoned Jesus. Some of us are going to actually be very clear and in our lives in some personal way deny Jesus. Deny the way that his impact has hit our lives. Perhaps the very things that we know are wrong we do anyway, or the things that we know are right, we don't do. And in that way, we deny the Jesus presence in our lives.

We go along with a crowd. We do things that are not in keeping with what Jesus is calling us to do. And we deny that he has that place in our lives that we have said over and over again he has. Whether it's a place of companionship, a place that sort of provides a model for us as teacher, as savior, as friend, we deny him. And certainly there are times when we cross our own moral lines, the lines that Jesus drew for us, and we betray him.

We betray Jesus by the way we live, counter to the way he taught us. In some ways, each one of the disciples did their own betraying and denying and abandoning. Each one of them in their own way did that very thing in the way that they lived. Now, we know the story goes on. All but the betrayer realized that what they had done was wrong and came back.

And I believe that if the betrayer had realized what he had done wrong, admitted it, he too could have come back. But that's a conversation for another day. I think that God's grace and mercy is big enough to cover us no matter what. And I think that that's something to remember. And perhaps you can look back over your Lenten journey now that you've been trying to realign yourself, trying to find that place where you fit in best.

As you come to that, you might ask the question, it might even become a daily question for you. Where have I abandoned Jesus today? Passed by on the other side of the street. Didn't take a second look. Maybe you think of the Matthew 25 passage, the least of these.

Perhaps you see somebody in need and you go another way. You don't respond. And perhaps that's a form in your mind of abandoning Jesus or denying Jesus because Jesus would ask you to do to the least of these or it's a way of betraying. It's an opportunity to ask those questions. Just like those early disciples tripped and fell, so we modern day disciples trip and fall.

And the good news for us is that God's grace is always there. And that God's grace is always ready to welcome us back. More willing to welcome us back than sometimes we are to come back because we are feeling guilty about the mistakes that we make. So Peter realized what he had done and came back. The other disciples realized what they had done and came back.

And ultimately we are here today because they did. Who will be here tomorrow in the world yet to come? Because even though we abandoned, denied or betrayed Jesus, or maybe all three, that we came back, that we realized we forgot who we were, We forgot whose we were. We forgot about the path we were following. And still, because we know a God of grace, we came back.

And we touched somebody's life by coming back. And they were perhaps transformed or changed or at least offered that opportunity. A seed was planted in them because we came back. It is not too late. It is not too late to come back.

Just like those first century disciples, we abandon, deny and betray Jesus ourselves. And just like most of those first century disciples, we too can turn back, come back from those places and know that there is a place for us in the work of Jesus in this path. So don't beat yourself up too badly, no matter how well you have succeeded or failed in your practice during the Lenten season, whether you feel like because you didn't keep it or because you did keep it but you broke down sometimes, you feel like you might have abandoned, denied or betrayed Jesus by not living into those, let those things go. Learn what you can from them and move forward. Practices of discipleship are really not meant to make us feel bad about each other, to make us feel bad about ourselves.

What they're an invitation to do is to recognize we still have more to learn. We still have more to grow. There are still seeds to be planted within us that need to be tended and cared for so that they might grow to full fruition. I hope that Lent was that kind of a season for you. I hope that these last three days, the triduum is what it's called from Holy Thursday through Good Friday through Easter vigil, which is what Saturday is traditionally called, all the way up until Easter.

That these days will be an opportunity for you to learn what you can learn, to see where you've become more realigned, to see places you still have to grow, to recognize God's grace covers you on that journey. Thanks for joining me today whether it was in the infinitely, whether it was in our Dulin Weekly Podcast or whether it was on the Dulin Weekly Moment live on video. I am delighted you were here and I wish you all the best in these last three days leading up to Easter. May you find true peace and discover what a gift you already are. Thanks for joining me.