Palm Sunday
This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.
I had to look. Sure enough, just to the left of the Jaffe gate looking out from inside the city walls there is a
huge break in the wall that is now a busy thoroughfare for traffic… mostly trucks… to bring goods to the
city. This is the wall that was dismantled to make room for Kaiser Wilhelm as described in the quote in
this morning’s bulletin.
I had to make that walk, down the steep face of Olive Mountain, past the Garden of Gethsemane’s Church
of the Agony, past the Church of St. Stephen built where he is believed to be martyred, up the next slope
to the city walls as many are making that walk today in Israel. Believers of all ages, bishops, grandparents
and children making that Palm Sunday walk to the city.
Jesus rides on a donkey, and according to Matthew, on a colt as well with a crowd before him and a crowd
behind him and rattles the bejeebers out of the urban dwellers in the capital city.
And Jerusalem asked:
Who is this? This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.
Who is this? This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.
And Zechariah said:
Be psyched and thrilled Jerusalem.
Check it out – this is your King. Jesus is your King!
Who will literally and figuratively turn the tables and shake the patriotic foundations you worship
instead of the living God.
Check it out – this is your King riding to you… HUMBLE.
Humble! What does the LORD require of you? And Micah answered: To seek justice, love kindness, and
walk HUMBLY with God.
Paul told the church in Phillippi that Christ Jesus “did not regard equality with God as something to be
exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found
in human form, he humbled himself..”
And here we are on Palm Sunday, finding ourselves in human form listening to the story that is but the
first chapter of the string of stories that lead us through what is for many the holiest of weeks. Deep
prayer and reflection is in order here and many have been practicing since Ash Wednesday. Some of you
10 minutes a day just for our regional church. Deep prayer and reflection to allow our minds to connect
the seemingly polarized words of triumphant and victorious with humility and peace.
This peasant prophet, a political outsider is the new King. A political WAY outsider – not here to support a
party, but to tear down the whole system and replace it with a better way. He will not sit at the throne
you have built, but will sit on a donkey. And although Yahweh God inspects the globe and says “It is
good!” Jesus looks at the World as we know it and say, “Not nearly good enough” so much so, that my
kingdom is not of this world. You need a New World. You need a new mindset. Good enough isn’t!
And this king comes riding to us in humility and COMMANDS peace!
Commands that we study war no more.
And Zechariah tells us that if there is going to be any bloodletting after that, it will be by the hand of God
and not by us.
This king comes riding to us humble . . . a servant who leads by example.
To allow us to consider that if humility and servanthood is our better nature, then arrogance is evil.
And for any human being to kill another human being is the epitome of arrogance.
And for any group of human beings to kill another human being – well, this King knows the damage of
that evil all too well as we will remind ourselves on Good Friday..
There is no humility in violence.
And the king comes riding to us, humble.
Who is this? This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.
Who rides in majesty, modeling humility as a virtue…
And Paul tells the church in Phillippi – “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”
Who is this? This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.
Who rides to us in humility and commands peace.
Will this generation be the whirring, dizzy crowd that accompanies the one who rides in humility?
And sings of one who walks beside us
With children waving Palms and screaming “Woo Hoo, Oh Yeah and Alright”
To speak truth to power about climate change and the work we need to do to preserve a healthy ocean
To stand in solidarity with all minorities to demand that justice roll
To honor the One who sings with great sincerity “I ain’t gonna study war no more!”
To stand with the Afghanistan women who hugged the ancient trees to prevent devastating clearcutting
Through the gates of Moscow, Tehran, Washington DC and still Jerusalem
Will this generation be the whirring dizzy crowd that accompanies the one who rides in humility
And says, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee”
This is the new King who rides in humility and commands peace.
Sounds like a dreamer’s dream, don’t it?
But we might argue that a believer needs to dream a bit.
And sing of one who walks beside us.
And honor all who have been immersed in the waters of baptism
To join the whirring, dizzy crowd
Of dreamers
Who sing of walking beside the Humble King who commands peace.
Next week I have the honor
To wade into the sacred waters with a young woman ready to say to you publically that she is a Christian
and is ready to fully participate in the life of this church.
And I will say to Angelina, “Welcome Sister”
Welcome to the whirring, dizzy crowd.
Welcome to the dreamers who believe what Paul said to the Church in Phillippi
About the One who walks beside us
And is the King who rides humble
“at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is LORD”