Deacon Pete's Palm Sunday Sermon

We began today’s service with the Blessing of the Palms.  We heard the story of Jesus sending his disciples into the village to find a donkey and telling him to say to the owners “the Lord needs it”.  Jesus knows that he is heading toward his death; he knows the crowd will cheer for him, proclaim him King and generally make a ruckus so loud that the authorities cannot and will not ignore His presence.   He also knows that in the next few days he will disappoint, anger and arouse not only the” powers-that-be’ but his own followers.  Jesus knows that his disciples do not understand who he really is and why he has really come, although as Luke says  “they praise God in loud voices for the miracles they had seen”, they have no idea that Jesus came to invite us to work and suffer and struggle along with God until God’s kingdom comes here on earth; no idea that the reign of God will be subversive, will turn everything and everyone upside down, no idea that instead of power seeking and power wielding God’s kingdom functions on the fuel of self-giving, inclusion and justice-making.   Judas will become so disillusioned that he decides betraying Jesus is his only option and Peter will become so frightened that he will deny his Lord.
The Passion readings take us through the events we now call Holy Week.  We hear of Jesus’ Last Supper, of his time of agony in the garden, his arrest, trial (and crucifixion).  Isn’t it curious that we get all of these really hard readings right after the story of the Palm Sunday celebration?  Why can’t we have today to just acknowledge the joy and energy of that raucous parade?  Why do we have to encumber today with the dark and dismal reminders of how God’s Son was rejected, betrayed, despised and killed?   Can’t all that wait until later in the week, until Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday?  Why today in the midst of a parade do  we have to think of what it means to have Jesus gone from this world?
You know that I work in a school.  And because of that, even though I don't teach, I sometimes have to sit in on teacher training in-services.  Many years ago I learned the term "front-loading".  It means that in order to teach a really important lesson, to help students grasp a really difficult concept, it helps to give them the end point first.  When students know where they're going to end up, when they have some frame of reference, some context, to put new learning into, they are more likely to be successful learners.  And I think that's part of the reason we get the passion readings today, in advance of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.  What happens on Easter is so incredible, so unbelievable, so miraculous that  we need to hear the Holy Week readings twice to prepare us for the  new thing God that does next, the resurrection of Christ..
We are experiencing two huge celebrations, Palm Sunday and Easter, and they do not stand alone.  They are book ends to a week of misery, loneliness, loss, emptiness and existential sadness.  Each day of this week is reflected in our readings today.  We move from the triumph of Palm Sunday, to a day honoring service, Maundy Thursday, then Good Friday, a day of suffering and sacrifice, onto a day of waiting, Holy Saturday.  I invite you to join in, to participate in these services, to experience the pain so that you can experience the complete joy of Easter Sunday, to truly receive, deep in your bones, deep in your heart the triumph of the resurrection.
On the face of it, Palm Sunday is a bust.  When the shouting stops, when the palms lie dusty and dirty and trampled into the ground, nothing much has changed.  Jesus refuses to be the kind of king or messiah that Jerusalem wanted.  Even his closest followers are disappointed.  Rome is still in charge, Jerusalem is still an occupied land, those who collaborate with the power that is Rome are still favored.
Those are the facts.  And yet, there is far more to this raucous rally of the parade of palms than meets the eye.  It is more complex and darker than we could have thought.  Is Jesus the man we have hoped for?  He has performed so many outrageous and unbelievable miracles, yet today he appears riding into town on a small, unbroken donkey.  Not exactly the picture of a messiah or king that we expect.  Is it time to back down, to retreat from following this itinerant preacher?  Will we continue to associate with this paradoxical  man?  Should we make up with the ruling powers, apologize to the Romans and temple authorities for disturbing the status quo?  Can Jesus solve all of our problems, can He save our world?  Can he save us?  We have a decision to make.  Can we, will we follow this man?  Will we be with him on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday?  Will we experience with him the pain, the loneliness, the betrayal and the agony?  That is what Holy Week is all about.  It's a time for us to examine Jesus in the scriptures, in the events of the last week of his life, to decide for ourselves who this Jesus really is.  Is he a messiah, a savior, a Christ?  When Easter comes will we be ready?  Will we be in a place emotionally and spiritually to truly celebrate Easter?  Will we be able to embrace the incredible, the unbelievable, miraculous new thing that God does on Calvary?  Will we do the work,  the prayer and reflection, that is necessary for  Easter to be transformative?  Pray that God will give us the strength, the determination and the grace to do so.  Amen.