April 13 2025
READINGS & MESSAGE
PSALM 118:1-2, 19-29
On this Palm Sunday, we join the crowd in Jerusalem, naming Jesus as the one who is coming…and you know, we’ve all lived beyond our first Palm Sunday and we know how the week is going to unfold…we know that the ‘builders’ who have rejected Jesus as king and a cornerstone are not only the chief priests and other authorities but also the crowd and even his disciples…and you know folks, we still reject what God chooses…but none the less, our actions will never determine what God is building…never!...for Jesus will become the Risen Lord…
LUKE 19:28-40
In this Luke passage, the Pharisees want the crowd to be quiet for Jesus is entering Jerusalem…perhaps they think that it’s too political…or that folks were inferring to Jesus as the Messiah…we don’t know for sure…but the Pharisees can’t stop the crowd…on a day like this it would be like me suggesting that the choir be quiet…it’s not going to happen…and remember, Jesus is riding on a huge white horse, just a lowly colt…he chooses to enter into a deadly situation without force or any protection…he gives himself freely and without reservation…I see it as a sign of God’s vulnerable love, which risks everything and this is the means by which God creates peace…
“ENTERING THE WEEK OF MANY MOODS”
As we begin the journey of this week from the gates of Jerusalem to the meal shared in the upper room, to betrayal and denial, to being arrested, tried and convicted, crucified and entombed, it becomes a week of many moods and it tends to hold us in friction between the joy and the deep sadness…from being inward to being outward…from the loud Hosannas of today which is an outward expression to the tears of a world torn apart and everything else in-between…we call this our “Holy Week”…our “Passion Week”…our “O My God, What I Have Done Week?”…and from a minister’s standpoint, at least from mine anyway, from today until next Sunday, I have 6 services to put together and to live through with 2 celebration of life’s services which bracket this week…it’s a grueling challenge and truthfully, it’s not for the faint of heart because all of the years of preparation point towards this week and if the message doesn’t get through about the importance of all this…I’ve somehow fallen short of my calling…I’ve somehow failed somewhere…for God’s purposes are very explicit throughout this week, beginning with today…it’s not who you are – it’s what you are…and I have mentioned this incident before but I believe that it needs to be revisited…
When Mahatma Gandhi finally visited England in the height of the crisis between England and its colony of India, Gandhi went first to the textile workers in Liverpool…the very ones who had been hurt by the boycott of English textiles in India…he attempted to explain to them his aspirations and why he was leading India in such a way…what was Gandhi doing?...he was subverting political expectations…he was inadvertently challenging the powers to be…he professed hi ideas outward, to the masses…if you were a political leader, the very first thing that you did when you entered into another country was to pay homage to that country’s political leader…Gandhi did otherwise…he wasn’t arriving with a conquering army…he was wrapped in his sari or sheet…it wasn’t who he was – it was what he was…a voice for those who were voiceless….and this day, over 2000 years ago, we have Jesus entering into the holiest of cities and demonstrating to Jerusalem that her true security is not in raising an army and running out the Romans but entrusting yourselves to God and in believing in the One Creator… the One who breathes us…
And where does Jesus go when he enters into Jerusalem?...not to have an important meeting with Herod or with the Roman elite…he goes straight to the temple…his Jewish roots…and he purifies the temple, making things ready for the true worship of God…and we know that this puts other noses out of joint with his outward actions…so in this sense, this political statement by Jesus is really a deeply religious event…in one way, he is teaching us how to worship…he is turning our gaze away from our false idols toward what is real…our hope…our peace…
“The stone that the builder’s rejected has become the chief cornerstone” the story of the Ugly Duckling…players in the Wizard of Oz…Frodo and Bilbo in the Lord of the Rings…or the child born in a stable…it’s not who you are – it’s what you are…
And then later this week we have the “state dinner” with very unlikely guests and a very unlikely host…for the exalted leader to serve was unthinkable…and then to have your feet washed besides…no huge banquet with dancing girls and tables and tables of food…a simple meal…a small loaf of bread and some wine…
a very important meal, for each person breaks off a piece from the common loaf…and then, the common cup…
Well the first act of this Holy Week begins today and it’s a week of many moods…the palms are waving in the air and the people know that something extraordinary is about, or is, taking place…there’s happiness…there’s excitement in the air…it’s all outward…could this be the beginning of a new world order?...could there be a paradigm shift – and a huge one at that – which is about to take place?...
And we know the story…we know the ending…we’ve seen the credits as they move down the screen…and it’s to be a week of moods…are you ready for it?...can you handle the joy – the love and betrayal – can you handle the terrible ending?....
Only if you believe that sometimes…mountains move…
That God may be saying to you, “Let me make you into something new”...because sometimes…we all need to dance…
So, as you enter into this week of different moods…seek each other out…open yourselves to the possibilities of the Spirit moving you to places where you have least expected yourself to be…and contemplate on your significance in this world…for you are…significant…Amen