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Enter your password -- flashed up on the computer screen. The pastor was trying to show some of his parishioners the church's new web page. With pride he had gathered them into his office after the Christian Education Committee meeting. He paused. "I don't do this very often ... We may have to try this another time," he said disappointed. "Try 'church,' " someone says, looking over his shoulder. The pastor types c - h - u - r - c - h. Amazingly the internet connection pops up on the screen. A password is a secret word given to gain entry. It can mean security. But if you can't remember the password, you can be out of luck. So folks choose easy passwords they think they can remember. The church uses "church." The financial secretary of the church uses his/her first name. On your home security system you use your birthday for your password number. This practice increases ease of entry and decreases security, in other words, defeats the purpose. But does it defeat the purpose any more than having a password so difficult, it can almost never be remembered?

Enter your pax word.
In Lent we seek a different kind of entry which requires a different word -- a pax word. The fifth chapter of Romans is famous for the powerful words Paul employs: grace, saved, reconciled, bled, suffering, weak, die, wrath. It is hard to appreciate the power of carefully chosen words in an age when we throw words around so easily and with little precision.

When I was a boy and my parents were teaching table manners, we would be instructed to fork reasonable amounts of food into our months rather than to use the fork as a shovel, passing the maximum load limit. This was such a hard lesson to learn and it took parents years to teach it to three ravenous boys at very different ages and stages of development that the instruction gradually became shorter: "Please remember to use your fork properly," became, "That's too big a bite," which became "That'sabigbite." My father could insert, "That'sabigbite," into a sentence without diverting his thought or breaking his cadence of conversation. "We won't be able to go to Aunt Mary's That'sabigbite this weekend because we have to trim the trees."

But times have changed and now I am the parent and my boys are learning table manners. "Don't use your fork as a shovel," still comes up from time to time, but, "That'sabigbite," has become passe. "That'samegabite," I instruct without breaking the cadence of my conversation. And at times I am tempted to employ "Gigabite."

Or consider how a person from just a generation ago would interpret our strange use of words. "She shot a trey" -- she shot a basketball from behind the three point arc.

Q: "What kind of jeans are those?"

A: "Guess."

Or the possible definitions for these terms: white-out -- a weather condition; ink-jet -- a dark plane; microwave -- a special kind of hair permanent; compact disk -- similar to a ruptured disc; and P C -- a pea soup colored body of water.

Remember when Jesus was preparing to enter Jerusalem? To his disciples he said, "Go find me a colt. And if the owners say, 'Why are you untying the colt?' give them the word, 'The Lord has need of it.' " And the disciples did as Jesus instructed and there was a great parade -- people throwing their garments on the road, lifting their voices, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" But some of the Pharisees chastised Jesus because of the commotion and the disciples' excitement, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
And drawing near to Jerusalem Jesus responded, "If these were silent the very stones would cry out."
If the followers of Jesus were silent, the very stones would be given words to shout. Then as you recall, Jesus saw the city and wept over it. "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!" (Luke 19:30-42).

What is your pax word? Paul writes, "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to the grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God." What is your pax word and how does it give you access to this grace in which we stand? In Lent we think of words employed here by Paul, suffering, blood, weak, die, but for most of us it is difficult to claim the suffering of Jesus which seems remote and over with. Even his disciples, present at the time, ran away from it, but each one later returned to make his or her own sacrifice of suffering in his name. The suffering in Vietnamese POW camps or of political prisoners in unknown dungeons was no greater than Christ's suffering during his last days, and yet it is repelling to us and thankfully we see his suffering at a distance. But to say that because it is remote from us, in time, then also that it is completed, over with, once and for all accomplished, is to diminish the power of his presence and the vigilance of his love.

Jesus said: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him. "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?" And the king will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
-- Matthew 25:35-40

And so his suffering is not complete, it is not over with, it is not accomplished. As the world groans so our Savior continues to groan, crucified again and again on unknown Calvarys, laid to rest in graves unmarked. In this season we employ a lexicon unique to our faith: upper room, towel, mortification, hand washing, thorn, cup, loaf. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.

"Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand...." And because you have a pax word, you have obtained access. But how have you used this access? How have you claimed this access? Do you know your pax word? The apostle Paul in Romans 5 also uses other words: faith, hope, love, poured, reconciled.

A pastor is traveling in September of '97. On a Saturday morning, he hurriedly readies himself in a hotel room for a busy day. Putting on a well-starched shirt he flips on the television. "Oh, I forgot," he thinks out loud, "Princess Di is being buried today."
And pausing he observes the dignitaries and the choirs and the honor guard.
He watches as the Archbishop of Canterbury invites all who are present to pray and all who are listening and viewing the service to pray: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ..." The camera cuts to the multitude gathered outside the church, " ... Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven ..." The pastor alone in his hotel room prays out loud as well," Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us...." The prayer over, he blushes with a pang of embarrassment as he realizes the service with which he has been praying out loud is on tape delay. But then he thinks, "How many others around the globe in many time zones as the service is rebroadcast and rebroadcast will likewise pray this great prayer, sending it echoing throughout God's created world? And may it be so, not only today, but every day."

Prime Minister Tony Blair reads from the scripture "So faith, hope, love abide these three...." Do you remember your pax word? Do you hold it and keep it and use it so that it will give you access? Your pax word is not faith, for faith sustains you, reminds you, that you have access to this grace in which we stand. Your pax word is not hope, though it is the subject of our rejoicing as we find strength in the hope of sharing the glory of God. Do you remember your pax word? Can you speak it and live it? Jesus said, "If these were quiet even the stones would cry out." Are we to leave our Master alone with the stones to speak the pax word which he has given to us, which gives us access, freedom and power and courage and purpose? Faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love, and that is your pax word. Can you speak it and live it? Jesus wept over Jerusalem saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!" Are we to leave him alone with the stones to speak, to weep over the places of our lives when we have the power of the access to the glory of God through our pax word, which he has given to us, which is love? Or will we enter our pax word: L - O - V - E?