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The Fifth Sunday of Lent
21st March 2010

The price of the Passion

In the film The Big Country James McKay, played by Gregory Peck, is a New Englander, whose career has been at sea, arrives in the Old West to marry Patricia Terrill and to meet her family. With his suit and his hat, Jim looks out of place among the cowboys, and as he and Pat make the long journey by horse and trap to the family ranch they are challenged by Buck Hannassey and his brothers. Pat drives on, forcing them out of the way. "Who are they?" asks Jim, looking back at them. "The Hannassey brothers", says Pat, "Local trash". Goaded, the Hannasseys catch them up, dragging Jim from his seat, snatching his hat and trying to shoot at it. When Pat snatches up the rifle, Jim intervenes and eventually the Hannasseys tire of their sport and ride off.

When they finally arrive at Major Terrill's impressive ranch, Jim dismisses the Hannasseys' actions as "high spirits". He soon realises, however, that there is a feud going on between the rich Terrills and the rougher Hannasseys, headed by Rufus Hannassey. The feud centres on the land that lies between them and the water around the land known as the Big Muddy. This land and the water is owned by Pat's friend Julie Marragon who is determined to hold on to it, knowing that whichever one she sold it to would use that power of ownership to destroy and drive away the other.

Jim is appalled when he discovers that Major Terrill and his men have taken revenge on the Hannasseys, invading their camp-like ranch while Rufus is away, shooting holes in the water tank, causing mayhem and beating up two of the sons watched by the cowardly Buck hiding in a cart.

Jim decides to go on a journey using his compass and he discovers the land by the Big Muddy that is at the heart of the dispute and meets Julie there. He offers to buy the land and insists that he will honour the same commitment, allowing the Terrills and the Hannasseys to w ater their cattle at the Big Muddy. In the madness around them they seem to be the only two people who can see sense.

But things are escalating to the denouement: confrontation in the dangerous valley on Hannassey territory that costs many lives before Major Terrill and Rufus Hannassey realise that the deadly feud is between them alone. They enact a duel and both are killed. Tragically, this was the only way that there would ever be peace in this part of the Big Country.

I relate this story on Passion Sunday because it has a theme that is relevant as we move into the second part of Lent and draw closer to the cross. Six days before the Passover, Jesus is very clear that he is drawing closer to suffering and death. Things that happen during that period have a heightened significance. The woman who anoints Jesus' feet is not just making an act of penitence; she is preparing his body for burial. The disciples no doubt can make nothing of that and right up to the arrest in Gethsemane they have no idea what is to come. How lonely that must have felt - to be the only one who knows what is coming. But in any case when Jesus goes forward to engage with evil, he goes forward alone. They can't even go to witness his death because they are so afraid; only the women can do that.

The liturgies of Holy Week take us into the witnessing of the darkness of that conflict and the glory of its conclusion. If you cannot be with us other than on Sundays you will experience it on Palm Sunday as we read the Passion Gospel and on Easter Sunday as we welcome the risen Lord. But if you can do so, join us on Maundy Thursday, on Good Friday and perhaps also on Easter Eve as we the Church watch from a distance as God in Christ embraces the madness and suffering of the world, and they embrace him only to find that they cannot hold him for ever.

Amen

© PCC St Martin's and St Paul's Canterbury 2008 - 2010