Good weekend, all, Here's my sermon for tomorrow.
Pr Bell ----------------------------------------------------------------- +In Nomine Iesu+ Palm Sunday St Matthew 21:1-9 17 April 2011 It is one thing for a baby to be seen as humble, or gentle, or non-threatening. It is quite another matter for a grown man in the prime of life to be seen in the same way. Even if Jesus were not God, His lying there in a manger on Christmas morning could not be anything but cute and compelling. Babies are no threat. <> But when someone comes along who has held the laws of nature at bay someone who has raised the dead, stilled storms, and multiplied bread and fish many times over when someone like that comes along His meekness and humility cannot be automatically assumed. Will He be gentle? Time will tell. And so we arrive at Jesus entry into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. <> The Messiah would be a Savior. He would be merciful, with healing in His wings. So said the prophets of old. But what does mercy look like? How does mercy act? What attitude does mercy adopt? Is mercy majestic? Is it powerful? Does mercy compel our attention? Or, does mercy always just skirt the edges of life? Is mercy just an attitude, or is it an action as well? Put it this way: mercy always looks like Jesus. Whenever you see Jesus, you are seeing the incarnate mercy of the Father. The actions of Jesus are always merciful. Riding into Jerusalem that day was the physical embodiment of mercy, and kindness, and tenderness all in one person. When Jesus comes, He comes as God for us. Jesus is the picture of Gods attitude toward us sinful humans. The picture and the reality. And everyone who believes in Jesus as Gods mercy for them will be saved. <> But such a receiving of Jesus in His humility is not enough for many. There ought to be more, they contend. Thus the temptation, always, to establish a Rah, Rah For Jesus Society. As if we, by our own piety and whatever humbleness we could crank out, can somehow add to the luster of what Jesus has done. Maybe this all comes from a misunderstanding of the cry of the crowds as Jesus entered the city. We read: And the multitudes that went before Him, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. <> To us the word hosanna sounds a lot like hurray. Understanding the word that way would mean the people were crying out, Hurray for Jesus, or Rah, Rah for Jesus. But that isnt the case at all. Hosanna is a Hebrew word that means save now, or save, (we) pray. Thus, hosanna isnt an acclamation it is a petition. The cry of the people of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was a prayer addressed to Jesus. A prayer imploring salvation. A prayer for mercy, if you will. <> And how is it that Jesus can save? The crowd tells us. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. In other words, Thanks be to him who comes in the name of our Father in heaven. Thanks be to him who comes as the Fathers Anointed One. Jesus saves simply because He is God. <> Now, if Jesus is to be thanked for saving us, then there must be something from which we need saving. If there is not if we can take care of our own needs then Jesus went to the cross needlessly. If there is nothing from which we need to be saved, then God the Father is guilty of the most hideous child abuse imaginable by giving His only begotten Son over to die. <> But, again, people misunderstand. Our distress is not that we need to be saved from poor choices too much sugar and not enough broccoli. Or that we need to be saved from a lack of popularity and low self-esteem. No, our problem is much deeper. We need to be saved from the corruption of sin. We need to be saved from the sin that corrupts so completely as to kill us right before our eyes. It isnt that we need to be helped so we can do better in our Christian walk. It is that we need to be rescued from ourselves. We need to be saved from what we have brought upon ourselves. <> If you lived in an area that was always cloudy and always had snow on the ground, would that eventually seem normal to you? Of course it would. Even though it was the total opposite of normality, to you having known nothing else it would look normal. We live in that kind of aberrant situation. The world we have always known has been a world deformed by sin. To us, this fallen world seems normal. And, as a result, so does death. And disease. And accidents. We may not like them, but we accept them. We assume that such things are supposed to happen. That such tragedies are simply part of life. We have come to think of sins consequences as normal. We have accepted the distortion of Gods creation as acceptable. The lie of Satan is accepted as truth. <> Thus, when we see Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday our first inclination is to cry out, Dont go Jesus! Theyre just going to kill you! As if somehow Jesus not going would be good. Ah, but think for a moment. Jesus not going to Jerusalem would have been good for one. It would have been good for Satan. It is interesting that Jesus first statement about going to Jerusalem to die on a cross brought a rebuke from Peter. And what was Jesus response? Get behind me, Satan. There is but one plan in the eternal mind of the eternal trinity. Jesus, the only-begotten Son of the Father will go to Jerusalem and will be offered up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Offered up as the sacrifice for your sins. <> Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem also shows up at another time during the Churchs Year. Todays reading from St Matthew appears on the First Sunday in Advent, too. In a sense that placement seems more appropriate. Advent is a bit more festive than Lent. The days leading up to Jesus birth seem more upbeat. We are, after all, anticipating something new to happen at Christmas. Even the music on the radio and the decorations in the mall speak of joyful expectations. <> But when Ash Wednesday rolled round did you notice any change in the music of the world? What Lenten decorations did you see? Chocolate eggs and bunnies, maybe? Cute, perhaps, but they have nothing to do with reality. You see, a dead Jew hanging on a cross doesnt bring in many customers. What we find in Jesus entry into Jerusalem just doesnt fit into the worlds thinking. At least at Christmas the world can make itself believe that the little baby in the manger can have a good life the forces of poverty and evil will have been conquered by the time he grows up. Thank you UNICEF. But when a grown Jesus appears at the gates of Jerusalem astride a donkey everyone knows what it means. The world looks at this pitiful parade with unease, with perplexity even dumbfoundedness. Salvific death is on the march, and the world can never understand what the Church finds to celebrate in such a dying. <> As Jesus enters the Holy City, He is actually descending. Time and events have moved quickly since Christmas. But now things shift. Christs passion is at hand. Time moves now as if in slow motion. Every detail every event is told in painful detail. Nothing is too small to escape the notice of the Gospel writers. The servants right ear. The guards falling backward. The reed in Jesus right hand. The charcoal fire. Pilates wife and her dream. The detail is vivid if not excruciating. <> We have joined the crowds this morning. Soon we will join our song to theirs. With them we will sing: Hosanna, Hosanna . . . Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord. But our singing has nothing to do with make-believe. We sing to the baby born in Bethlehem. We sing to the One who comes to do His Fathers bidding. The One who will save by pouring out His blood. Head, hands, side, feet. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Behold the Lamb who takes away your sin! <> Blessed, indeed, that His blood be upon us! Blessed that we are given to eat and drink of that Body of that Blood. Sins forgiven! Death defeated! Hell conquered! Now there is a triumph worth celebrating! Amen +Consummatum est, in omne tempus+ ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. 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