March 29, 2015
- The Week that is, that was, that will be
- (sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Terry Hidichuk)
- Palm Sunday
- Text: Mark 11:1-11, 14:1ff
- It all started with a bang.
- It was a parade and don’t parades start with a bang?
- The clash of symbols
- The swirl of the bagpipes.
- The screaming crowds.
- It started with a bang.
- At the gates of Jerusalem.
- The start of Passover.
- At the start of Holy Week
- On Palm Sunday.
- As Jesus enters Jerusalem.
- That is the way some of us envision the parade on Palm Sunday.
- Not with bagpipes, that is only wishful thinking for some of you.
- But with celebration and noise.
- Shouts of hosanna.
- The waving palm fronds.
- That is how we remember it.
- But others will tell you that more than likely Jesus entered Jerusalem surrounded by a small group of followers.
- Not leading a parade
- but rather performing a parody.
- A little guerrilla theatre going on while most of the world hustles and flows their way through the Passover holiday.
- Jesus enters the East Gate Jerusalem, carrying with him baggage of Jewish hope and promise.
- In first century Palestine, the people desired a king,
- A liberator
- A hero
- A Messiah
- Palestine was occupied territory.
- There was for hunger to shake off the chains of Roman bondage that suffocated the people.
- There was a thirst for someone to come and restore the majesty of
- David’s kingship.
- Jesus comes to the gates of Jerusalem with all of that
- swirling in the air.
- He enters the city riding on a donkey,
- surrounded by a cadre of companions saying to all the world a king is coming.
- A king alright…
- Jesus riding a donkey…
- Those in the crowd would get it.
- They would know what Jesus was trying to show.
- The prophet Zechariah refers to the Messiah entering Jerusalem on a donkey.
- Those in the crowd, steeped Judaism would see the Messiah on the donkey…
- Jesus was king.
- Different kind of king that what most people wished for.
- Jesus riding on a donkey
- Is a way of saying Jesus is a donkey king.
- Taking our burdens upon his shoulders.
- Serving not being served.
- They wave palm branches, these disciples do.
- The waving of palm branches was a sign of military victory for the Roman occupiers.
- The crowd would this king surrounded by the palm branches and they would see a message to Rome: not your victory,
- not your glory,
- not war but peace.
The message of the Palms is enforced by shouts of hosanna, blessed is one who comes in the name of God.
- All a way of saying Jesus is king
- But a different kind of king.
- This Jesus.
- A servant of God bringing healing to sick,
- Justice to the poor
- Equality for all.
- A different kind of king.
- A king of peace.
- We find ourselves there, with the crowd watching, wondering, getting glimpses of the drama being played out.
- Some of us start to catch on.
- The little theatre was developing an audience.
- With a crowd we are waving our branches
- Shouting hosanna.
- Getting swept up in it all.
- But like those in Jerusalem on that spring morning, we realize who he was and who he is…
- And the shouting stops.
- All glory laud and honour easily segues into that other Palm Sunday hymn.
- The one we will sing later.
- Ride On, Ride On in majesty,
- ride on in lowly pomp to die.
- That is how seamlessly the atmosphere changed.
A palm-carpeted passageway leading to a royal throne, takes a turn up a narrow stair case into an upper room.
- And we follow, the motley crew up the stairs.
- There was more than a shift in geography.
- In that room
- behind those doors
- around this table
- the church was conceived.
- And we were all there, too.
- A loaf was broken and
- was offered to Peter and to James and to John.
- It was even offered to Judas.
- And they took it and they ate.
- Then bread was offered to us too.
- And we took and we ate.
- Finding ourselves swept up in the drama of the story.
- Not as bystanders, nameless voices in a nameless crowd but now we are leading characters.
- Playing out roles once and forever.
- That was our night,
- the night he took bread,
- blessed it
- and broke it
- and offered to us.
- And on that same night
- after we had eaten
- He took cup filled it with wine
- Blessed it
- Offered it to us.
- It is traumatic, it always will be.
- It is never a casual act.
- Because in the celebration of the Eucharist the whole church is present
- and the barriers of both time and space
- have been transcended.
- Wherever and whenever this celebration takes place
- the church for that moment is the pilgrim church arriving at the East gate of Jerusalem,
- waving our palm branches and whispering our hosannas, walking up the stairs to the upper room
- because we recognized King Jesus.
It is in this act of remembrance that the whole church is present or, again as Hebrews would say, we are surrounded by "so great a cloud of witnesses"
- So we take our places about the table.
- And we hear the words again….
- Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.
- And with everyone in the room, we shout in one voice…
- Surely not I?
And we all turn to Judas.
- We look at Judas first because he is fascinating and he is safe.
- Not because he did the will of Jesus
- Because we need a scapegoat.
- Or not
- Judas is not all that different from the face in the mirror I see when I ‘m shaving.
- He is like us
- And it is not because we are so horrible:
- nor was Judas,
- the political activist, so horrible.
- In the same night that Judas and you and I betrayed him
- he took bread and blessed it
- and broke it and
- gave it to us.
- And we ate.
And then there is another shift in this guerilla theatre production.
We sing a hymn.
- Then knowing the stuff we're made of he tells us to bring along our money-bags and our swords and accompany him to the garden.
- How he knows us better than we know ourselves!
- We must have our money and swords;
- for these are our crutches,
- these are our ego.
- These protect us from ourselves.
- They build our ego and we need them lest we face the awful truth of who we are.
- But we don't use them for a while.
- On the way…
- Peter makes his vow of fidelity.
- And in looking at Peter he looks deep into our eyes,
- as he will later on from the balcony;
- Before the cock crows you will deny you even know me.
- And with Peter we say to prison and death we will go.
- He knows it’s lie when he hears the words.
- We know it too.
- For there are too many priorities
- Too many things to do
- And places to go.
- He knows all of this.
- We go with him into the garden and he invites us to watch and pray while he goes off alone himself to pray.
- He asks us to be friends with him
- as he goes himself into the totality of loneliness "Remove this cup from me"
- His loneliness is accentuated when he returns to find us asleep.
- He asked us to be with him
- for him,
- and we all fall asleep.
- The future now becomes clearer.
- The soldiers and the priests and Judas came.
- And Judas kissed him.
- And Peter denied him.
- And we forsook him.
- And it all begins today.
- At the gates of Jerusalem.
- It begins with bang.
- Amen.