Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 19:1-37
This sermon was preached on Good Friday at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on April 7, 2023.
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John, which we just heard, has tragically been used by Christians throughout history to justify anti-Jewish violence. Sadly, the symbol of the Cross, which is ultimately life-giving for Christians, has been experienced by members of the Jewish community (and other oppressed communities) as a symbol of violent Christian oppression and coercion. So, on this Good Friday, I want to share a story about a friendship between a Jewish woman and an Episcopal priest, a story that culminates around the image of the Cross, not as a symbol of coercion, but as a symbol of joy and love and harmony and even laughter.
The woman is Elizabeth Krohn who I preached about on the Fifth Sunday in Lent. She was struck by lightning in the parking lot of a synagogue in Houston TX in 1988. She had a powerful near-death experience in which she became utterly convinced that everyone is loved intensely, no one need fear death, and there is tremendous comfort in knowing there is more. Although she previously believed that death was the end, her near-death experience completely shifted her beliefs while also giving her amazing powers: she could see other peoples’ auras, she was able to interact with other people who had died, and she would see future events detailed in her dreams. However, when she tried to talk about her unique experiences with the spiritual leaders in her faith community, her rabbis were not really interested. In fact, she felt ignored and even shunned by the rabbis from whom she sought help and understanding.[1] She said, “For a long time after my NDE I tried to find a rabbi who would listen to me. I mean here I had this massive spiritual experience and they don’t want to hear it. For years, it was basically a pat on the head, ‘There, there, you’re fine, honey, go on now.’ And nobody would listen to me as far as clergy. And I really felt like I needed a clergy person to hear what I had to say.” [Now for the record, I know rabbis here in California and in Humboldt County within her tradition (Reform Judaism) who I’m sure would be excellent sources of wisdom and support in regards to one’s NDE, but Elizabeth did not experience help from her rabbis in Houston.]
And then one day, while reading the Houston Chronicle she learned about a book on near-death experiences written by an Episcopal priest named John Price. So, she reached out to him at the church where he worked and within ten minutes after sending the email, John Price called Elizabeth on the phone and asked, “You’re Jewish?” She said, “I am.” And instead of falling to the ground like the Roman soldiers in tonight’s Gospel (John 18:5 – 6), Reverend Price said, “Can I take you to lunch?”
During lunch, they got to know each other, and the first question John asked Elizabeth about her NDE was, “Did you see Jesus?”
Elizabeth said, “No.”
And so, John, disappointed, said, “Oh, well, then I don’t think you had a near-death experience.”
Elizabeth said, “Oh, I think I did. I think I did.”
“Well, then how do you explain not seeing Jesus?”
Elizabeth explained that she understood her NDE as tailored specifically for her, and she didn’t expect to see Jesus. She said she might have seen Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. And this conversation as well as subsequent conversations inspired John Price to reflect more deeply and to start writing his second book on Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim near-death experiences. Over the years, the two learned a lot from each other and became very good friends.
In the summer of 2021, the Rev. John Price passed away and his death upset Elizabeth since he was the only clergy person with whom she could talk about her NDE. One day after John died, Elizabeth was lying on the beach in Galveston TX with her eyes closed and she said, “John, if you can hear me and if all this stuff we talked about is real, send me a sign. Make it something really big that I can’t miss because sometimes I’m a little dense…and make it something meaningful to you.” After she said that, she started to doze off and then about 15 minutes later, she opened her eyes and looked up into the sky and saw a giant cross formed by the vapor trails of a plane. And she started to laugh and said, “Ok, John, thank you!”[2] Then she said she could almost hear John laughing as if he were saying, “Here, take this, my Jewish friend.”
I especially love this story because I had the privilege of meeting and befriending the Rev. John Price during my brief time in Houston TX. We were even in correspondence about having him and his wife come up here to teach us about what he learned from his research. I met him serendipitously during a midweek Eucharist at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church where he served, and which happens to be the same church where our friend Ken Cowan plays organ.[3] Ken Cowan performed here earlier this year. John Price and his book titled Revealing Heaven were a source of comfort for me as I was facing the mortality of my father, who was undergoing clinical trials for his leukemia in Houston.[4]
Although Good Friday is perhaps the most somber day of the liturgical year, I felt compelled to share this story of friendship and even levity between John and Elizabeth today because not only did John help me realize that we need not fear death, he also helped me realize that, because of Good Friday, we ultimately do not need to fear the possibility of pain, even an excruciatingly painful death like the one Jesus endured on the cross. We certainly don’t want or seek that pain and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, but we know that Christ who was “a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity” (Isaiah 53:3) stands with us in our pain and many people often grow closer to God amidst suffering. According to the late philosopher and Episcopal priest Marilyn McCord Adams, our intimacy with the divine will always and ultimately override the power of any pain or suffering, which is always temporary.[5] As Paul said, “Our temporary sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory and joy and laughter about to be revealed to us and through us” (Romans 8:18), words spoken at the funeral of the Rev. John Price, words that I trust Elizabeth Krohn would affirm wholeheartedly, and words that convey the life-giving and death-defying and non-coercive message of the Cross and Good Friday. Amen.
[1] Elizabeth Krohn, Changed in a Flash: One Woman’s Near-Death Experience and Why a Scholar Thinks it Empowers Us All (Berkeley CA: North Atlantic, 2018), 115. “For a long time after my NDE I tried to find a rabbi who would listen to me. I mean here I had this massive spiritual experience and they don’t want to hear it. For years, it was basically a pat on the head, ‘There, there, you’re fine, honey, go on now.” And nobody would listen to me as far as clergy. And I really felt like I needed a clergy person to hear what I had to say.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTQ9WzPvbQo, 1:12:12.
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTQ9WzPvbQo, 1:16:30.
[3] There are very few Episcopal churches named after modern people. Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church is named after Edward Albert Palmer who bravely died at the age of 25 while trying to rescue his drowning sister (Daphne Palmer Neville) in 1908.
[4] John W. Price, Revealing Heaven: The Christian Case for Near-Death Experiences (New York: HarperOne, 2013).
[5] See Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1999).
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 