9/14/25 Words Fail

0:00 So, I'm going to say something really obvious. And words are good. I know, hot take. Words are good. Words are super helpful. Words are effective. Words do something. Words are powerful. Words are good. but sometimes we realize that sometimes words fail words are really good but sometimes words they're not enough sometimes words we need we need something more than words and what I mean by that is is I mean even a simple way sometimes words are just clearer about like so for example you go up to a public restroom and it can say men women easy piece of cake words very clear but sometimes you ever go to those places that are kind of trying to be funny about their signs over their bathroom doors? Like you'd go to like a hunter's bar and it says, you know, bucks and does. Like, okay, I get it. I can tell the difference. There was a comedian talking about this. He said he went to an Italian restaurant once and it said spaghetti and meatballs. He's like, I don't know which one I am. Because sometimes words are good, but sometimes words fail. So, you know, symbols, Signs are incredible.

1:14 You have a little stick figure, two legs, great. Guys, two legs, dress, great. Girls, easy. Because sometimes words are good, but sometimes words fail. Sometimes we need symbols. Or even just that sense, words are easier sometimes. You pull up to a four-way stop, and there could be signs that say stop or slow or go. Or you have some symbols, like a red light and a yellow light and a green light. Makes it so easy. In fact, when we communicate with each other, sometimes, again, words are good. Have you ever texted something that was like super embarrassing to someone else? And rather than explain the whole embarrassing thing, that situation of like, yes, I did not realize that Philadelphia was a state inside Pennsylvania. Didn't know Pennsylvania was a whole separate state. Didn't know that Pennsylvania and Philadelphia are in the same state. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are in the same, right? And instead of saying, I'm so embarrassed, what do you send? Facepalm emoji.

2:06 Done. It's covered. Or even I mentioned before, masks. GIFs. GIFs, they capture so much. You don't have to have any words, just that one guy going like this. And I'm like, yeah, you get it. Because sometimes words fail. We just want, we need a sign. Did you know that, you know the universal power sign, it's like that little half circle with a line on it? That was like invented almost 60 years ago by tech people. And the zero stands for like, it's binary code, like zeros and ones. so the zero is means off and the one means on and they just combine to zero and a one and we universally no matter where you are in the world you want to turn learn how to turn something on or off just hit that zero one it's done why because sometimes words fail and sometimes symbols are just easier it's also easier in our daily lives like i don't know we have a lot of married people here tonight it'd be one thing to walk around and everyone see me like hi i'm joe i'm married hi i'm jane i'm married sorry sorry ladies stay away or just wear a wear a ring it's very clear you don't have to say it because there's a symbol there's a sign because why because sometimes words fail and sometimes symbols speak louder than words they say something sometimes more powerfully than we could say with our words so I go back to let's go back to the first reading today first reading is Numbers chapter 21 we know the story Numbers 21 and the people of Israel they're being led through the wilderness now pause on this for one second I don't know if you've ever thought about this. When the Israelites complain against God and just back up like a couple days and you realize, okay, they're complaining against who? Against God who's done what? He has fought for them after they were slaves for hundreds of years. He set them free after they were slaves for hundreds of years. He's now leading them through the desert. He is protecting them in the desert. He's feeding them every day. They just have to go outside their tent and the food's already there. It's like Uber eats, like way back when. They don't have to go anywhere. They go outside. There's the food.

4:05 And what happens? They complain. It's not good enough. And you realize, oh my gosh, this isn't just, this is us. That we can live in a world that is so full of goodness, so full of blessings, so full of everything we possibly could need. But it's not exactly what I like. And so what happens? God allows these seraph serpents to come in. They start biting people and the people start dying. Now, you heard the story. What happens? They complain to God. They go to God and they say, we're sorry. So God says, okay, what's a sign of your brokenness? What's a sign of the thing that's killing you? What's a sign of your shame? It's a serpent. So here's what God says. He's saying, I'm going to take the sign of the thing that's killing you. I'm going to take the sign of the thing that is your shame.

4:53 Fashion it into a bronze image, a bronze symbol. If you look at it, it'll be a sign of your healing. So what God does here is, and this is a quote from Father Dave Provanka. He's a priest out at Franciscan University. He said this, he said, what God does is he transforms us. He says the sign of our shame becomes the symbol of our hope.

5:13 That what was killing them, that snake, it's a sign of their shame. It's a sign of their brokenness. It's a symbol of their hope. Now, I think this is fascinating. When you hear that the serpent has come into their lives, it's a little, I think this is like God having a little callback. Because Numbers 21 makes me think of Genesis 2 and 3. Let's go back to Genesis. You guys know the story, Genesis 2 and 3. Here's in Genesis 2, Adam and Eve, they're in the garden. And what's God doing? Well, he's given them life. He's filled them with love. He's given them freedom. He's put them in a garden where they have everything they possibly could want. And then what happens? A serpent comes in and they start to complain. Well, we don't have, we can't eat from every fruit of every tree here. imagine again this is the situation we find ourselves in where we're surrounded by blessings and yet what do we complain about what i can't have and actually what happens the serpent comes in and they'd be actually begin to doubt whether or not god is good well if god was good he'd let us have all the fruit of all the trees Amen.

6:17 and they eat it, and something unique happens. If you get to the end of chapter 2 of Genesis, the last line of chapter 2 says, the man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame. Their nakedness was actually a sign of their innocence. Their nakedness was a sign that they were loved. Their nakedness was a sign of like, we are free, we are loved by God, we're in a place of peace. Again, their nakedness originally was a sign of their innocence, and then what happens? They eat the fruit, their eyes are opened, and they realize they were naked, and the first thing they do is they cover themselves because the sign of their innocence has now become a sign of their shame. but God wants to do something with this. He wants to transform that sign of shame in the exact same way that he transformed the serpent. You guys, speaking of symbols, we know this.

7:09 We know that there's one symbol that has defined our lives for 2,000 years. There's one symbol that's at the heart of Christianity for the last 2,000 years, and that symbol, of course, is the cross. No, we sometimes think that, well, all religions have symbols, and they kind of do but not all religions have symbols that are as intrinsic to it as the cross is why so islam has the crescent right and uh crescent moon and the uh and judaism has the star of david did you know that the the crescent moon actually isn't a sign of islam it was a sign of the ottoman empire which happened to be muslim so muslims now sometimes adopt the crescent moon as their symbol but it has nothing to do with muhammad the star of david didn't even exist until 2,700 years after Abraham. The year 700 was the first time you ever saw a Star of David anywhere near Jewish or anything. So they're great, yeah, they're signs of their religion, but the cross, the cross is an essential sign of Christianity.

8:06 And it makes no sense. It makes zero sense. Why? Because the cross was what? Crucifixion was the invention of the Romans who were experts at putting people to death. you think about think about the depth of the human heart or the the depth to which we can do evil to each other here's the Roman Empire that had mastered the art of putting people to death in the most painful way possible and they believed that they had perfected it in the crucifixion in fact the crucifixion was so brutal that it was illegal to crucify a Roman citizen that no matter what your crime was no matter how bad what you did was it was crucifixion was seen as being too horrible because why because crucifixion isn't just designed to kill it's designed to humiliate what crucifixion was was meant to be a billboard telling the whole world this is how powerless you are in the face of the power of the Roman Empire so you'd be stripped absolutely naked no protection whatsoever you'd be either nailed as you know this or tied to rough wood that wouldn't be planed it wouldn't be sanded down the splinters be digging your backs the nails that would pierce your hands or wrists would get your radial nerve and just cause excruciating pain your shoulders would be dislocated from their sockets you'd die by suffocation it would sometimes take days if not weeks didn't crucify you very far off the ground only so far that you were inches off the ground so dogs would come and oftentimes begin to eat your feet off of your body as you were alive not only would there be mosquitoes and flies and other bugs getting at you and you had no way to get them away but literally birds would come and they would begin eating the softer parts of your body those parts that were now exposed because you're naked your eyeballs your ears

10:17 and all of this was a sign all of this was a sign that you are powerless in the face of Rome's power and this sign became the central symbol of Christianity.

10:37 Why? It just, again, it makes no sense. because why because Jesus on the I you know I don't know if you I remember when I first heard that Romans had crucified tens of thousands of people I don't know what had run when I was a kid I grew up I just thought Jesus was the only one I thought he was the special one the two guys with him but like I thought Jesus was the only guy to be crucified and I remember thinking like oh wow tens of thousands I guess Jesus is nothing special because I got it wrong I thought the point was the cross I thought the point was the crucifixion I did not realize the point was the person on the cross. The point was the person who was being crucified. Because who was being crucified? This man who is also God. and in doing that Jesus is doing what? He's embracing our shame because when you look at the crucifix we see our brokenness when we look at the crucifix what we see is we see our wounds we look at the crucifix we see our sin because it's my sin that put him on the cross and so I look at the cross and that cross is a sign of my shame Thank you.

11:46 but because it's Jesus on that cross the sign of my shame has now become the symbol of my hope the sign of your shame has now become the symbol of your hope you know from the very beginning Christianity there was the the image is this the image is that we find ourselves in a courtroom and we're on trial and we're guilty like this is kind of the the awareness that humanity had is like we have fallen short that's scripture we have fallen short of the glory of God and so we're we're in a courtroom and we're on trial and we're guilty and the question that people asked is what is God's answer to our guilt and the answer is that the answer is the cross that we show up and we have our sin and we have our shame we have our guilt and God's answer to my sin God's answer to my shame God's answer to my guilt is the cross because it's on the cross that Jesus takes the sign of my shame and makes it the symbol of my hope.

12:57 He takes the sign of your shame and makes it the symbol of your hope. But it's fascinating. Something recent has happened. It's only in the last hundred years or so that we as human beings have flipped the script. I don't know if you've noticed this, but we as human beings have flipped the script and it's still a courtroom, but instead of us being on trial, maybe you've noticed this. God's on trial.

13:22 C.S. Lewis is the first one to point this out. About 100 years ago, he said, modern man does this. Modern man looks around this world and sees the suffering we see, sees the evil that we see, sees the tragedy that we see, sees the death that we see, and we are angry with God. And we say, God, you're the one who made this world. You're the one who keeps us in this world. You could fix this world if you want, so now you're on trial, God. I think it's time that many of us admit the truth.

13:53 And the truth is many of us hate God. many of us even show up to church and we hate god and we're angry at god and if you don't think that i'm describing a lot of us think about think about god himself here's god god is invincible right god he's god he's mature he can't be hurt he's invulnerable even if we were angry at god we couldn't do anything to him until when until he takes on a body until becomes one of us you think about this. What is it that we try to do to God the very first moment he makes himself vulnerable? From the very first moment God makes himself killable, we try to kill him. He gets born in Bethlehem and Herod tries to kill him. He grows up and he presents himself in Nazareth and his friends and family try to kill him. He goes to Jerusalem, they try to pick up stones to kill him and he escapes.

14:53 And then finally, finally, on Good Friday, we do what we've always wanted to do. God makes himself vulnerable. He makes himself hurtable. He makes himself killable. And we killed him. Why?

15:15 Because we're angry with him. The cross is the sign of our anger. Oftentimes the cross is a sign of our hatred. And we're in that courtroom and God's on trial. and we don't trust him. And how does God respond? God's on trial and we don't trust him. His response is the exact same response. His response is the cross. That the cross is God's response to our hatred of him. The cross is God's response to our anger at him. the sign of our shame has become the symbol of our hope and also the sign of our hatred has become the symbol of his love for all of us that's why we read for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that all those who believe in him would not perish but would have eternal life all those who believe in him would not perish but have eternal life that means everyone at the same time it means everyone but it also doesn't mean everyone it I'll say this, it doesn't just mean everyone.

16:26 This last May, I was talking to another priest. His name is Father Boniface Hicks. Father Boniface is a great priest, incredible guy. Father Boniface was telling me the story about when he was in seminary. He was just Brother Boniface at the time and he worked on a college campus. And this one young man came up to him and he was a very thoughtful young man and he said, hey, Brother Boniface, why do you think that Jesus died when he died? And Brother Boniface was making fun of himself and he said, at the time I was in the seminary, so I knew the answer. he said I knew everything I was in seminary so he said he went on for this long long response about here's why Jesus died when he died well you know because the height of the Roman Empire and roads had been invented so the gospel could go out but also Jerusalem is at that crossroads of Europe and Asia and Europe and Africa and so it's a perfect place that's why Jesus died when he died long long answer young man looked at him and said I think there's more he went on his way a long while later he came back and said, Father Boniface, I was wondering about this.

17:25 Why did Jesus die how he died? Like, why did he die on the cross? Once again, Brother Boniface, the seminarian, knew the answer. He went on this long answer, 15, 30 minutes of like, well, you know, if you think about it, the cross is like this, the horizontal, the vertical part of the cross is that God reconciles heaven and earth. He reconciles God and us, but also it's horizontal. So God, like he reconciles us to each other. Plus, Jesus on the cross has his arms out because he wants to embrace all of us and goes on this long answer. Gets done, the guy says, I think there's something more.

17:59 And after a few months, that same guy, same man came up to Brother Boniface and said, Brother Boniface, I've been thinking about this. I've been thinking about that question of why did Jesus die when he died and why did he die how he died? And I think I know the answer. He said, I think it was so that he could save the good thief. that he knew that that man would be in that place at that moment. And he went through all of it. so he could be next to him in the worst moment of his life. See, I think one of the things we do is we hear this whole story, we hear the whole story of the Bible, we hear the whole story of the cross and what God loves all of us.

18:58 We think, yeah, that's for y'all. And the reality is it's not for y'all. It's for you. it's not that Jesus died to save the world it's that he embraced the cross to save you Maybe you've heard people talk about it like this. I mean, even from the very beginning of Christianity, people said things like, even if you were the only person in the universe, Jesus would have died on the cross for you. Have you ever heard that? Even if you're the only person in the universe, Jesus would have died for you on the cross. And I say, yes, that's awesome. And that's something that we all should sit with. What about this? What if you weren't the only person in the universe?

19:40 But what if you were the only person in the universe who needed it? that there's still 8 billion people on this planet, but what if you were the only one who needed his mercy that badly? What if you were the only one who needed his love that badly? what if you were the only one out of everyone on this planet who needed it question would you still let him die for you would you still let him embrace that cross for you would you still let him save you would you still let him redeem you even if you were the only person in the universe who needed it is the last thing. the truth is he already has the truth is he already has done this that even if you're all you were the only person in the universe who needed this he did it and now now the sign of your shame has become the symbol of your hope and the sign of your hatred is now the sign the symbol of his love and so what do we do with that here's what I think we do to that.

20:54 We let his love win. I think what we do to that is that we actually let what he's done on the cross do something in our lives. You guys know the sacrament of confession. We all know the sacrament of confession is the sacrament of God's love for us. Now pause on this for a second. Look at the crucifix. Why did Jesus come to earth? Why did he live? Why did he die? Why did he rise from the dead? He did that so that, to crop participation, he did that so that our sins could be forgiven. Exactly. He did all of that so that our sins could be forgiven. Now, you go to confession. What happens in confession? In confession, your sins are forgiven. So think about this. If you want to say, okay, I believe that Jesus would have done this and that he did do this for me as if I was the only person in the universe who needed it, how do you respond to that? We respond to that by letting him forgive our sins. To not go to confession would be to say, I appreciate what you've done, but I don't need it. To go to confession is to say ultimately, Jesus, I am not going to let what you did for me go to waste on me.

22:14 I'm going to let you win. because every time every time we let him forgive our sins he wins because that's why he came and every time we go to confession, what happens is the sign of our shame becomes the symbol of our hope. and every time we let him win, every time we embrace the cross, every time we let him give us his love, when we deserve it the least, the sign of our hatred. becomes the symbol of his love.

23:05 When words fail, this symbol in his love doesn't.