Christmas 2A - January 5, 2020

Prayer

May we welcome this mystery of your love and thus delight in the joy that will be ours as children and heirs of your kingdom. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.


Some Thoughts on John 1:1-18

"For an alternative approach, rather than helping our hearers to see the light of Christ shining in the darkness, preachers might help them to hear Jesus as God’s love song, singing life into the world’s babble, chaos, and voices of death."

Commentary, John 1:1-14, Craig a. Satterlee, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"The gospel message does not go forward without witnesses like John, and one of the tasks in this sermon is to help show what it looks like to point our fingers towards Jesus. In the age of talk of missional churches, how does that work out practically? How can we point towards Jesus in mission in such a way that others come to know him and come to know and love God?"

Commentary, John 1:(1-9), 10-18 (Christmas 2), Ginger Barfield, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"It would be truly horrendous to be in the hands of an all-intrusive God who never left us alone, and who, when it came time to send his messiah, sent one who ruled the earth like some heavenly Mussolini. In the very unobtrusiveness of the light of Christ, God honors our finite freedom."
"Penetrating the Darkness," Ronald Goetz, The Christian Century, 1988. At Religion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


I like how Raymond E. Brown approaches this text. There is first the Word with God (1-2). The opening verses of this Christ hymn used to frame an entrance into the Johannine Gospel is brief and it is completely, or I should say “seemingly”, uninterested in a metaphysical conversation about the nature of God. It is however very clear that Salvation history begins with the relationship between God, revealed through the living Word, and Man. Quite simply God reveals God-self to us in the work of creation – and by John’s usage here; creation also reveals something about the salvation of man as well. Creation is by its very nature a revealing act. (John, vol. 1, 23, 24)

Secondly, there is the Word and Creation. “All creation bears the stamp of God’s Word,” Brown writes. (Brown, 25) Here we see the author reflecting and re-imagining the opening lines of Genesis. We can see that what is clearly of importance is that creation itself existed primarily for the glory of God and the revelation of who God is. The problem is that the creation is broken; it does not fulfill its purpose as God intended. It is not a sustainable creation. Instead, it is one where there is a constant battle to supplant the power and revelation of God. We can return to the creation story in Genesis, certainly, this seems on the author’s mind. However, it is not really that hard or difficult to see and imagine as we read the paper or watch television how humanity has created a non-sustainable kingdom for ourselves, and that we wrestle for power with God placing our needs above creations explicit purpose to glorify God.

The third portion of our Gospel selection is the portion where we are re-introduced to John the Baptist. I say reintroduced because we spend several Sunday’s reading passages from Matthew that dealt with him and his ministry. Yet here we get a slightly different attempt to speak about how John responded to the living Word, the Light in the world. How he was clearly not the one everybody was looking for, but that he dutifully gave witness to the revelation of God. Moreover, that John the Baptist called everyone to a time of preparation and repentance for the light itself, the living Word was entering the world.

We come to the final and fourth portion of our reading and we return to the relationship between God and humanity; specifically in how the community of God (God’s people) responds to the living Word. God is dwelling with his people. He has made a “tent”, he is incarnated, and he is present within the community. (Brown, 35) The images here in this last section return not to Genesis but play on our remembrances of the Exodus and the idea that God came and dwelt among the people as they made their way in the wilderness. Here too is an expressed intimacy between God and people. God is not simply outside, having wound the clock tight and is now letting it run. On the contrary just as God was intimately involved with the creation and the people of Israel, God also is involved in the new community post-resurrection. God has come and is dwelling with the people in wisdom and in truth. God is the living Word is making community within God’s tent and is revealing himself and the purpose of creation to all those who would call him by name: Jesus.

Some Thoughts on Ephesians 1:1-14

"It signals a massive initiation of transformation — New Creation — most of all, for us. If we believe Paul in Romans 8, the children of God have a crucial role in leading the transformation of Creation. And the fulcrum in our transformation is the redemption of our religion, our spirituality. What leads the way is the renewal of our relationship with God. Once again, James Alison is amongst the best of guides to help us understand this process of transformation. If one chooses to preach on these themes, I highly recommend reading his discussion of “Creation in Christ” (excerpt from Raising Abel) on NT passages like John 1:1-3, as an excellent introduction to the shape of that transformation."
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Christmas 2, by Paul Nuechterlein & Friends.

"Yet, it is worth trying to enter this stream for these verses set the tone of the letter and the tone of our lives in Christ the beloved one (verse 6). How does a contemporary preacher help a congregation hear poetry, catch the hymn, hear an echo from such a distant past?"
Sarah Hernick at Preaching This Week commentaries of RCL texts at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2015.

"No, in the end, you are going to have to face these words head-on, staking your sense of entitlement regarding the determination of your own destiny against twelve verses that insist most insistently that even your destiny--especially your destiny--has been in Christ's hands all along. In fact, if you were pressed to sum up these twelve verses in one sentence, you might try this: "Christ Jesus is in charge (and you are not)."
Hans Wiersma at Preaching This Week commentaries of RCL texts at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2019

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Ephesians is about the Glory of God and the glorification of God.  The reality is that God reaches out across the cosmos and enters our lives and becomes one of us and then even provides a path by which we may become sons and daughters of God.  This is an amazing reality and as such we recognize that the greatest form of response is the glorification of God. In Ephesians, this is the first response to God's mighty act of deliverance. We are to glorify God and our speech and living word is to glorify God.

God has been about this work for a long time and before time.  God's love is working its purpose out and the coming and incarnation of Christ is part of the manifestation of that love in creation.  Christ's work is to be completed and that is the salvation and reconciliation of the world.  HOWEVER, this is not for humanity or for the sake of humanity. Ephesians seems very intent on ensuring that we understand that God is about God's business and God's business flows from the relationship of Christ and Father and from before time.  God's love is at work for the purpose of helping us to do the first thing: glorifying God.

All of this reveals to us the reality of God's heart and longing for humanity.  It reveals God's pleasure in the work of Christ. So we labor together for this work and we celebrate the revelation of God.

God's work is not over though.  This began in the past and continues in the present and future.  God continues to reveal God's self and God's intentions.  God is even now pouring more grace into the world and is about the work of reconciling all people to God's self.  The Church, the community which follows Jesus, attempts to listen to that grace, be a witness to it, and work in tandem to bring all things into union with God.

This is truly a lovely passage and one of my favorites as I believe it reveals the holy trinity at its best!

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 31:7-14

"Jeremiah's oracle promises salvation for the scattered remnant of Israel, return from exile, and joyful homecoming."
Commentary, Jeremiah 31:7-9, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"This beautiful melange of promise oracles asserts the power of the Lord to gather those Judeans who have experienced forced migration and captivity."
Commentary, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Carolyn J Sharp, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"With love for the lost, Jeremiah imagined his way into exile. With hope for life outside of the city, Jeremiah's willingness to be skeptical gave him the power to see forward."
Commentary, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ingrid Lilly, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Let us remember that Jeremiah is writing, prophesying, to the people of the Southern Kingdom called Judah. That is except for this passage! Here he has turned his gaze to the people of the Northern Kingdom and most likely under control of the Assyrians. We are talking around 600 BCE.

He is offering hope that the people, even the blind and the lame, will return home. This will be amazing and the answer to many prayers. It will be a sight to behold and a sign of God's faithfulness to be with God's people in foreign lands of captivity and at home. 

He goes further though, he imagines for the people a great image that moves him with tears and in his gut. It is God who brings them back. It is akin to the release of the people from Egypt and Jeremiah is careful to bring this into the picture he is casting. 

When this happens it will be an occasion for great celebration. And as he writes:

"He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd a flock."
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall become like a watered garden,
and they shall never languish again.
Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
I will give the priests their fill of fatness,
and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty"

This is indeed good news. 

Interesting, it is here then that Matthew picks up the tale. The Gospel of Matthew will go on to the very next set of verses wherein there is grief for what is done to the people which we do not actually read in our lectionary. Matthew draws on this for his offering of the story of Herod's massacre of the children. Here Matthew moves us with the prophetic tie in at Matthew 2:17ff where he draws on the imagery from Jeremiah. The words are these, "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15) (Richard B. Hays helps us make this connection in his text Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels - see page 115.) Yet what is not said may be as important as what is said. 

We see the importance of playing both our passage today off of the passage in Matthew and in Jeremiah 31:15. It is God's faithfulness that will endure through - Jeremiah 31:7-14. It is God's hope. God will deliver God's people no matter how bad it is God is present with us. Even in the death of Children God is there. The metaphor of Rachel as all those who weep for the unnecessary death of children is that God will bring about peace and miraculous restoration. It has been true says Jeremiah since the time of Egypt. It is as if Matthew knows his audience will remember not only the cries of the people but that those first listeners will remember that God will, in the end, bring about resurrection - a raising of the dead and the living! This is the God who speaks form the universes beginning and shall speak at its end. This is the God who was present in the first days and who has been present ever since. This is the God who brings life out of the vacuum...hasn't it ever been so? Jeremiah reminds us that it has.

First Sunday after Christmas Day December 29, 2019

Prayer

God ever near to us, you numbered your Son, together with Mary and Joseph, among the homeless of the earth, and counted them among the countless refugees who have fled into hiding out of fear for their lives. Shield our families from the dangers to which this world exposes them. Clothe us with compassion and kindness with gentleness, patience and mutual forgiveness, so that we in turn may provide others with the shelter of a home where everyone is welcomed.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 2:13-23

"Typically for such narratives, there is more than one stream of allusions. We not only have Israel going down into Egypt and being called up out of Egypt in the Exodus as God's son (hence the quotation of Hosea 11:1 in 2:15), but we also have echoes of the attempt of the Pharaoh to kill Hebrew infants which led to Moses being set among the bulrushes."

"First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Christmas 1A, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"Clearly then, the "fulfillment" of scripture in Matthew is NOT to be understood as a termination of the ways of the world. The birth of Jesus does not put an end to human tragedy."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 2:13-23, David Ewart, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

This passage from Matthew exists within a wider framework of short stories collected into a narrative. While on the one hand, it is tempting to separate them each out and look at the differing pieces something wonderful happens when they are held together. Certainly, Matthew intended them to be read in one sweeping episode.

As in Advent, the Gospel continues with a theme of individuals, in this case Joseph, responding to the Word of God proclaimed.

As we look at the text the remarkable presence of the Book of Exodus strikes a note. We cannot read the Matthean text without thinking of the innocents killed by the king of the Egyptians, and how Moses was saved by Pharoah’s daughter and how Moses himself flees later.

Moses is considered the greatest prophet of the Hebrew faith and here Matthew makes it clear that the Word is alive and dwelling in our midst. We read clearly that the individuals throughout Matthew’s narrative are hearing and responding to the Word. Moreover, Christ himself, the living Word, will proclaim and free God’s people once again. However, this time it will not be freed from external earthly power (Kings, Romans, etc.) but rather from an internal power which is as deadly – sin.

Yes, we must look backward to Moses, at the same time the author is driving the narrative to the cross and resurrection. While this passage does not include the story of the Magi, we must keep in mind the Gospel sequence. This passage looks back to Moses but moves forward to the worshiping kings and eventually the worshipping disciples.

Jesus is in this passage deeply rooted in the story of the people of Israel, changed forever by the presence of the living Word in our midst. Just as Joseph is faithful and responds to the Word brought by a messenger you and I are challenged to worship God in the person of Jesus Christ and to follow him through acts of faith.

Some Thoughts on Hebrews 2:10-18

"Once the hoopla of Christmas fades, and the wonder of the new baby in the manger starts to become a memory, Christians rightly turn to the harder questions that arise from the Incarnation, such as "why ..."
Commentary, Hebrews 2:10-18, Micah Jackson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.

"The second reading for the First Sunday of Christmas in this year of Matthew is clearly chosen to give further testimony to the pain and suffering so palpable in the story of the Massacre of the Innocents that only the Gospel of Matthew tells."
Commentary, Hebrews 2:10-18, Karoline Lewis, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"This reading from Hebrews for the first Sunday after Christmas continues to celebrate the festival of the Incarnation, the adventus/katabasis of God in the human Jesus. "
Commentary, Hebrews 2:10-18, Erik Heen, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"This passage offers four ways of looking at Jesus and ourselves. When preaching, ask who you are preaching to: people in need of a future, people in need of belonging, people held captive by powers beyond themselves or sinners in need of atonement?"
Commentary, Hebrews 2:10-18, Craig R. Koester, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2007.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

I have been struck by this very real notion that God is more than Emmanuel "God With Us."  God is as one scholar put it God in common with us.  This strikes me as profoundly offered as truth in the first verses of our reading from Hebrews.

God is with us, God experiences life as we experience it, God has suffered as we have suffered, and God is our brother and sister in Christ.  "Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death."  An odd thing to say I know...  But the reality of the Hebrews' text is this...we are heirs of Abraham, we are the family of God, we are children of God. "For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham..."  This would have been a radical notion to gentiles in the day this text was first penned.  It is a radical notion today.

I think we underestimate the power of preaching that God is one with us and we, through Christ, are known to God and we are called God's family.  Like a family, we are all apart regardless of our own journey to this moment.  I believe people do not hear enough that they are loved and that God accepts them into God's family...so then the church accepts them; or is to accept them.  

We are not only to be messengers of Good News of this familial adoption we are ourselves to be the ones who adopt.  

Sometimes I think we listen to the story of the incarnation and we think it is a story about hospitality to God.  We say things like, wouldn't it have been nice if people let the holy family stay with them.  Wouldn't it have been nice if the holy family did not have to flee for its life to Egypt.  But the reality is that the radical hospitality is on God's part...accepting us as members of his family welcoming us into the kingdom of God.  The letter to the Hebrews understands this and talks about the lengths to which God goes to embrace humanity.  

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 63:7-9

"In the lectionary text for this first day of the New Year, the central theme regards the importance of thanksgiving, of taking a moment and celebrating the gracious deeds of a gracious God."
Commentary, Isaiah 63:7-9, Juliana Claaassens, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.

"He is Emmanuel, God with us, and as that he will call us to himself as his chosen ones. He will ask us to deal only in truth, and in response, he will care for us and love us in our deepest distress, will redeem us, lift and carry us as his God has done from the beginning.
"The Hope of Divine Companionship," John C. Holbert, Patheos, 2010.

"Before comfort comes the honest expression of what it feels like to live with a stubbornly aloof God."
"Selfie Culture and True Community," Walter Brueggemann, ON Scripture, 2017.
Commentary, Isaiah 63:7-9, Ingrid LillyPreaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"The coming of the Lord is, at its heart, no romantic story of a cherub-like child born in innocent but rustic surrounds... The coming of the Lord is always in the midst of the most horrid, bloody endeavors humans can conceive to execute against even the most innocent."
The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.

"This 'hesed' (steadfast love) of God is what brings forth our praises."
Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This part of the Isaiah prophetic text most likely is written in the midst of or shortly after the "desolation" (64.11) of the Temple in Jerusalem and Jerusalem itself. Moreover, you need to read the whole chapter. God's steadfast love only fits within the prophetic tone and prayer of the whole passage. No shortcuts on Isaiah this week!

Once again the prophetic house of Isaiah recalls the "gracious deeds" of God and how the whole of history has revealed that no matter how high or how low the people were God has been present. Here the prophet uses a very key and important set of words that captures the narrative arch of the whole biblical witness. That is: God has revealed "hesed" - God's steadfast love. 

There is in this moment a profound and very real understanding (especially in the wake of the destruction that is all around) that God, God's self, is present. God has sent angels and messengers, prophets in the "days of old". This is also true. But what is profoundly true is that God has been present. It is God's presence that has "redeemed them." It is God's presence that has "lifted them up." God's steadfast love is not deliverance in every case but God's steadfast love is presence. It is this presence and steadfastness that gives people hope. 

The prophet also comes close to blasphemy as he mourns the people's stray from faith and the leadership that does not remember God's, faithful steadfast love. He grieves that they have forgotten the nature of God's relationship with Israel which is suzerainty and that as such God is their God and King. He prophetically wonders if all of this and God's own distance has not brought this upon them all. It is the prophet who speaks the words of God as words of hopelessness against the backdrop of broken sinful human struggles for power and wealth. God sees the reality of sibling rivalry writ large in the life of the people and it is as if God has hidden his eyes from their tragic acts.

Yet in the end, he will come back to God's steadfast love. As if to say, "No. This is our doing."

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks about this understanding of accountability and the upholding of God's steadfast love. He characterizes the difference between our love and God's...our faithfulness and God's. He writes:

Jerusalem’s fate was sealed not by conventional religious failure but by the failure of people to act honestly. They engaged in sharp business practices that were highly profitable but hard to detect – mixing silver with baser metals, diluting wine. People were concerned with maximising profits, indifferent to the fact that others would suffer. The political system too had become corrupt. Politicians were using their office and influence to personal advantage. People knew about this or suspected it – Isaiah does not claim to be telling people something they didn’t already know; he does not expect to surprise his listeners. The fact that people had come to expect no better from their leaders was itself a mark of moral decline.

This, says Isaiah, is the real danger: that widespread dishonesty and corruption saps the morale of a society, makes people cynical, opens up divisions between the rich and powerful and the poor and powerless, erodes the fabric of society and makes people wonder why they should make sacrifices for the common good if everyone else seems to be bent on personal advantage. A nation in this condition is sick and in a state of incipient decline. What Isaiah saw and said with primal force and devastating clarity is that sometimes (organised) religion is not the solution but itself part of the problem. It has always been tempting, even for a nation of monotheists, to slip into magical thinking: that we can atone for our sins or those of society by frequent attendances at the Temple, the offering of sacrifices, and conspicuous shows of piety. Few things, implies Isaiah, make God angrier than this:

"The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord… “When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me … I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts My soul hates. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.”

The corrupt not only believe they can fool their fellow humans; they believe they can fool God as well. [ You can read the whole post here Devarim (5772) – Profits and Prophets]

The Gospel author Mark will be the one who looks towards this particular passage as he understands the person and mission of Jesus.  It is this chapter that Mark looks too and it is Isaiah's prophetic vision of a people who have lost their way with God and God's own steadfast love that speaks to Mark as he authors his good news. Richard Hays in his book Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels suggests that as Mark is speaking of the messianic Christ and his work in the world he is answering the prophetic prayer of Isaiah. One might say that to read the Gospel of Mark, you need to have this chapter of Isaiah and understand God's steadfast love in one hand and the Gospel in the other. (For more see page 17 of Echoes of the Scripture.)

It is into a sinful broken world that the Christ is born. It is into a world of humans who believe they can trick God that God comes. God's steadfast love is not to be undone at our worst or in our most faithful time. 

Liturgy of the Palms, April 2, 2023

Prayer

You Servant, Lord our God, speak the word that all the weary long to hear. Your Son humbles himself to carry the cross that your people long to embrace. As we enter this holy week, let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus. Empty us of ourselves, and draw us close to his cross, that, comforted by his word of forgiveness and gladdened by his promise of Paradise, into your hands we may commend our spirits. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 19:28-40

"...what the authors of the Bible take for granted and fail to mention is that while Jesus is parading in on a colt through one of the back gates, on the other side of the city Pilate is parading in on a war horse accompanied by a squadron or two of battle hardened Roman soldiers."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Luke 13:1-9, David Ewart, 2013.

"When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he did so as a king, but his royalty was not pomp and power but humble obedience. Thus, he entered the city to make peace with the offering of his own life."
"Season's Greetings," Thomas G. Long, The Christian Century, 2001. Religion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

This Sunday is Palm Sunday. We are tempted to preach on the passion reading. I have always struggled with this ancient tradition as in our culture I often find that it excuses people from coming to the services on Good Friday. Moreover, it clouds and complicates the wonderful readings we have in our Gospel for the day.

I would go so far as to say that we should only do the liturgy of the palms and the eucharist; it is heresy I know.  Preach the moment...let the week unfold in liturgy...don't run to crucify our Lord just yet! 

We are given for our lesson in year C the passage from Luke 19, beginning at the 28th verse. This passage is reaching towards the culmination of Jesus’ ministry and is often referred to as the prophet’s entry into Jerusalem. Here in this moment we see all of Jesus’ followers hoping for something new, more than likely a return to Davidic rule…meanwhile the prophetic mission of Jesus is unraveling before them and revealing quite a different mystery to behold.

We begin in the first verse with the narrator telling us that Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem. This very first verse is intimately connected with the parable that directly precedes our text today. Neither Luke 19:11-27 or our passage for this Sunday, Luke 19:28-40, can be read alone. Here is the parable Jesus tells before his entry:

12So [Jesus] said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. 13He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ 14But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’ 15When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. 16The first came forward and said, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.’ 17He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.’ 18Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made five pounds.’ 19He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five cities.’ 20Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, 21for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’ 24He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ 25(And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’) 26‘I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.’”

As we read this passage we see that Jesus is teaching that indeed he is the one who has the authority, he will exercise it, and he will give it away. As we project this forward we can easily recognize that the great prophet’s entry into Jerusalem will be messianic and kingly. We can imagine that he will soon and very soon give authority to his followers. He will even grant entrance into the kingdom to a thief. This exercise of authority and power will continue to be handed down through the apostles. So we look and see as he enters Jerusalem he is himself entering the distant country, where he will receive from God and claim as his own the rightful place as ruler in the reign of God. He is prepared for his death and to give away the authority to heal and reconcile the world to his followers. As we gather with Jesus on the hilltop, on the Mount of Olives, are we ready to receive the authority given to us? Are we ready to follow Jesus into Jerusalem? Are we ready to faithfully walk with him all the way to his cross and then to Easter morning?

The ancient pilgrim tales from Egeria recalls centuries of Christian practice on this palm day of rehearsing, re-imagining, and re-enacting Jesus’ entry. You can read more about this here: http://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm.

We are reminded of Zechariah 9.9 with the colt which is sent for by Jesus and retrieved by his disciples. Again, a simple prophecy but one characteristic of Luke’s writings, reminding us of the power this particular king lords over all.

Jesus then begins to make his way into the city riding the colt, as people throw their garments down before him. Each of us may remember any number of movie portrayals of this image or re-enactments at church or summer camp, in these reenactments and films we are touched in our heart with the true sense of wonderment at participation with Christ in this moment of triumphal entry. “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven! Glory in highest heaven!.” We are here connected to the kingship parable. The crowd is rejoicing in the presence of the visitation of God in Jesus.

[A brief footnote:  While in Canterbury there was more than one discussion about the lessons before us and the liturgy of the palms.  Interesting notes here brought back memories of seminary studies worth a thought on this Sunday.  Key to the reality is that in the front of Jerusalem Pilate who is entering, enters with palm leaves (also on the emperor's coin) a sign of the royal office he represents.  In Luke we have very little pomp...clothes....  The synoptics tell us of branches being placed on the ground.  The branches would have been olive branches...signs of peace, reminders of the deliverance through the storm and voyage of the arch.  Only in John do we get the movement to compare Jesus' entry with that of Pilate's.  The image that I bring home with me from Canterbury then is an image of deliverance, peace, a new time...a different time.  This is the image for every Christian traveling the pilgrim way this Holy Week.  This is a time of transformation and renewal.  It is a time to claim our difference in the world by following the pauper king with his images of healing, love, and peace.  This is the God I believe the world is looking for; this God does not need to compete with worldly power or authority.  This is our God and we are richly blessed by his coming.]

As we reenact this event Sunday I will be thinking not of doing something that was done long ago but rather my own celebration of Christ’s eternal presence with us. Christ is with us this week. Christ has been with us through Lent. Christ is present in the life of the church. Christ is known to us and before us. Our Lenten journey is almost fulfilled and thanks to the presence of the risen Christ we may walk with Jesus into the last days of his life, his trial, and his crucifixion.

The Pharisees call out and rebuke the crowd. They even tell Jesus that he is to silence the people. They are objecting to the cry that Jesus is king. As Luke Timothy Johnson points out, that this shows us clearly that they are the ones from the parable “who would not have him rule over them.”

Jesus retorts that even if they were silenced the stones would cry out. He is the king and nothing and no silence will make it different. We may remember God’s promise on the plain to Abraham that the children of God will be raised up from these stones. For more on this please refer to the following passages in Luke’s Gospel: 19.44; 20.17,18; 21:5-6; 24:2 and Acts 4:11. Furthermore, Luke Timothy Johnson continues the exegesis of this passage bring to life more fully the kingdom parable on pages 298 and following in his text Luke.

From this triumphal entry Jesus is making his way to the Temple where he will claim in, cleaning it out, and make it the seat of his prophetic Word. The prophet king has come to claim his people and to offer to them a place in the reign of God.

Sermon For Palm Sunday
"Everyone Loves The Other Parade"

Heavenly Father, I humbly beseech you to see before you the sheep of your own fold, the lamb of your own flock, and a sinner of your own redeeming. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On this day in which we remember the palm entry and procession into Jerusalem by our Lord, and on a day in which we come here to re-enact that with palm branches and palm crosses. We also intermingle into that recognition of God's desire to be with us, we have this Baptism and Confirmation.

We have a lot of images going on today in our service. And what—as I was praying and thanking and making notes all week, one of the things that came to me was a very old baptismal spiritual, which some of you will know because Episcopalians will use this and sing this many times, Wade in the Water. Right? The great African-American spiritual Wade in the water, wade in the water children, wade in the water. God is going to trouble the water. God's going to trouble the water. And indeed on this day, our God is a troubling God. God is troubling Jerusalem in this Gospel lesson. God is troubling the world with his love. A troubling God indeed. So let us wade in a little bit.

I know that that hymn itself is about freedom. It is a song that is deeply rooted in our own history and desire for freedom. It is a song that speaks to the freedom of the Israelites, those brought out of Egypt and set free into—through the Red Sea of the water that is divided and they walked through it.

It is also a hymn that refers to John's Gospel, which we read a lot in Holy Week, John's Gospel chapter 5 wherein there is a lame man sitting by a pool. And the words are, "For an angel would come down in a certain season into the pool and trouble the water. And whosever there first would stick them self in there after the water had been troubled for them they were made whole." They were made whole. God is troubling the water.

In our Gospel passage, of course, we have a parade. It's a parade into Jerusalem of Jesus on a donkey and people are throwing down garments and palm branches. But as most scholars say—believe, there were—there was more than 1 parade on that day in Jerusalem. There were 2 parades actually. The other parade was a Roman parade. It was a parade by which Pilate and his guards were coming in from the countryside where they had been residing. They were entering the city of Jerusalem to fortify it, to be present, and occupy it during the Holy season and days around Passover to make it clear, as Marcus Borg points out in his book The Last Week, that they are the ones who are to be adored. They are the ones to be worshipped. And this is their city.

Describing it, he says they enter the western gate and in some kind of imperial procession. So I want you to get your minds around what is happening there. A visual panoplies, he says, of imperial power with cavalry on horses and foot soldiers, leather and armor and helmet and weapons. Banners and golden eagles mounted on giant staffs so they would go through the crowd and could be—could be seen on these poles and the sun glinting on those eagles and on the metal of the soldiers. And the sounds of the marching feet and the creaking leather and the chinking buckles of the horses and the beating of drums. The beating of drums.

It was a magnificent parade, if you will. And he and other scholars point out that this parade is a display of Roman power of imperial theology, if you will. A reminder that their belief was that the emperor himself, the ruler of Rome and all its precincts including this little town over here of Jerusalem belonged to the emperor who they called Son of God. Who they called Lord. Who they called Savior. The story was, of course, his mother, Atia was the human mother Apollo who had come down and given birth to the emperor. Pilate's parade is happening in this same moment. You can't listen to the Gospel parade and hear the images that are swirling around Jesus and not understand that a little over 3,000 feet, only 3/4 of a mile away, there is a rival parade at the same time, happening in the same moment in opposition. A rival social order. A rival theology to what Jesus is presenting. And not think they were troubled in that moment.

God troubled the waters of Jerusalem in that moment. For Jesus' procession while it is one that is humble on a donkey, no great banners, drums. Just some litter, litter, it's litter that they had grabbed. Just ripping off. Throwing around. Some clothes. But what is powerful are the images themselves. For what is here in their cries as we are told in the Gospel and the image of a Messiah on a donkey are the images from Zechariah and Micah. Powerful prophetic images to the people of Jerusalem reminding them that God loves them in the midst of this oppression that God will free them in the midst of this oppression, that God is troubling that city and offering them a vision of peace. A king who comes in peace to a city that is both the city of faith and the city of faithlessness. An image of a God who longs to gather his people and his children. To gather them in. God has heard the cry of his people in this oppressed city. God is troubling the waters. God is coming down. If they would just wade in a little, they would find the freedom they seek. The wholeness they desire, an image of plenteous food and work. The fortunes of Zion would be restored and peace will reign under vines and the harvest will be plentiful.

God is troubling the waters even in this. Jesus' procession stands in direct opposition. It is an assault Ched Myers ,the scholar, says and writes, in direct conflict with a world that says that power is what we use in our economy and wealth. God and Jesus is troubling those images and troubling a world and its politics as usual idea, its power and greed and consumption and exploitation. God is dreaming of a different world, a different kind of kingdom. God, in Jesus' coming in this parade, to take on his Father's work. Jesus is giving a physical sign—if you will–memorializing that this kingdom is a different kind of place. It is a place for the least of these and a place for all of God's people.

God's troubling vision of this kingdom will be the kind of vision in which you could tear down the whole temple in 3 days and have it built back up because this is a kingdom for the people. It is a kingdom that will be unleashed across the countryside and not just held in Jerusalem or places of power. But it is a kingdom that will go out to where every human being is and trouble the waters of their lives so that they may be healed and restored and receive freedom. This day, these 2 competing parades are the hallmark of our beginning of Holy Week. They remind us of the struggle that we have living in these 2 worlds. These worlds in opposition with one another. This weekend is Holy Devotions Oh Children of God are about us wading into some deep theology and deep story and deep narrative about how God troubles the world and chooses us in opposition to everything that he sees.

And I think that is what the most miraculous part of the story is. God doesn't somehow wait for us to become perfect. Doesn't kind of wait for the powers that be to get it right. Doesn't wait for you and I to have—somehow become sinless. But this God that we believe in chooses us and all of our brokenness. And the fact that we actually like the other parade better? I mean, come on, face it. Who doesn't like a parade with drums and soldiers and banners and everything else. We should own the fact that Pilate has a better parade, people! I mean that's the whole point is that that's the parade and yet somehow we see a glimpse of how it could be different. And yet no matter how hard you and I try, we are unable to live into that kingdom. I mean—maybe—someone was able to achieve perfect kingdom life this Lent. I'd love for you to come and take my place right now and tell us how you accomplish it. I'm pretty sure—as I've said—most every week in Lent, I'm pretty sure that my Lenten discipline of holiness lasted less than 24 hours.

We fail to achieve the vision that God has for us, and yet he continues to come down into the world to make himself lower than the angels to greet and meet us and offer us his love. To trouble the waters of our life and to invite wholeness and healing if we would but take a step towards him into this holy water.

The peace of Philippians is so powerful. It is not that God is somehow—that God somehow is a obedient to some vision that he has, but that God is obedient to his love for us. He loves us so much, he can't but help but be with us no matter what we do, no matter how many times we fail. The image that Paul gives us in Philippians is one of a God bound to us and devoted to us. Who keeps parading into our lives on a donkey and offering us healing and wholeness.

It is that season, my friends, in which we stand by the pool. This Holy and deep well of God's story, and we rehearse it and we remind ourselves of God's presence. And the waters are indeed troubled. From this point over the next 7 days, they will be troubled and troubled, but God will walk with us all the way into the city. And no matter how many times we ask, "Do you love me?" Jesus will say, "I do." And when we whisper in that dark night, "Would you give your life for me?" And like all human mothers he says, "Yes," and he does. He is with us even to the end of the ages, and his song is repeated over and over again. Yes, I love you. Yes, I will love. So let us make our way. Let us make our holy way to the water. Let us wade in deep as it troubles us. And let us there find wholeness and healing that is great and glorious. And it is for us and for our people.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.