The Political Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-40)

March 20, 2016

            “Make America great again!”

            “Feel the Burn!”

            Words.

            A political rally was canceled due to threats of violence and physical altercations between protesters and supporters.

            At a political rally, a supporter punched a protester in the face.  The candidate at least for a time considered paying the legal fees his supporter would face for committing assault.

            Response.

            In words and in the ways people respond to words and to events and to movements, we have a window through which we can gain perspective on our country’s political scene. 

In words and in the ways people respond, we have a window through which we see Jesus’ actions on that fateful Sunday prior to his crucifixion.  I will not talk directly about the political movements of our day.  I certainly won’t endorse a party or a candidate.  We will look at the Jesus movement and how Jesus forms us.  Who we are in Christ absolutely plays into our approach to politics today and it shapes our response to what happens in politics. 

We are called to praise God, even in trying circumstances.  That’s the end game of Luke’s depiction of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the day we now commemorate as Palm Sunday.  The actions of Jesus, as told by Luke, are invitation.  We are beckoned into love and hope, called to worship and praise God. 

How do we get there? 

            As Luke sets the scene, there are many disciples following Jesus and the group has been growing ever since chapter 9, verse 51, when Jesus set his face to get to this point.  Through parables and teaching and actions, Jesus has over and over emphasized how challenging it is to be a disciple, yet people find him so compelling, they follow anyway.  They give up their money, they realign their relationships, they adjust their priorities, and they fix their lives upon following Him.

            A group, with Jesus in the lead, is nearing the city of God, Jerusalem.  He sends disciples ahead to the village on the outskirts of the city, Bethany.  They are to get a colt for Jesus to ride.  When they go to untie the owners ask what they are doing, just as Jesus anticipated.  They answer as he told them to.  “The Lord needs it.”  Nothing more is said or needs to be said. 

            This doesn’t appear particularly interesting, but in the Greek language the word translated “owners,” as in owners of this colt, is kurioi.  The word translated “Lord” as in the “the Lord needs it” is kurios.  It’s the same word. 

            The people who own the colt are the colt’s lords.  We might call them the animal’s masters or owners, but we wouldn’t say they are the beast’s ‘lords.’  We don’t use the word ‘lord’ that way.  However, when we see the contrast and also when we see how submissively the animal’s owners give it up when they realize who needs it, a deeper understanding comes into view.

            In our world, people are owners and masters, presidents and kings, CEOs and lords, lower case ‘l.’ Jesus is Lord with a capital ‘L.’ Everything in the world is under him.  He owns all including everything in my house, every penny in the church’s bank account, this building, everything in your pocket, and everything we can see or imagine and all that is beyond what we can see or imagine.  There are lords.  He is the Lord. 

            Words.  When we say “Jesus is Lord,” we are saying something significant.  We pray to God as Father and God as Savior and God as Lord.  What if we prayed to God as owner?  It feels weird to me, cold, impersonal.  But for us capitalists, it might make a lot of sense.  We recognize that however hard we might work to acquire capital so as to have an advantage in our capitalistic society, because we are Christians, we know Jesus is the Owner.

            Words.  Consider the words of the crowd as they herald the coming of Jesus to Jerusalem.  The crowd quotes Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”  That is how it reads in the Psalm and that is how it is quoted in Matthew and Mark and John.  Luke renders the quote differently.  In Luke it says, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”

            Did Luke just make that up?  For his own purposes did he change the story, making it say “king?”  I don’t think so.  The wording is different in John, but John also makes the point that the crowd proclaimed Jesus to be king.  And I don’t think we’re dealing a contradiction.

            The gospel writers quote both Psalm 118:26 and Zechariah 9:9, which heralds the coming of the blessed king.  If crowds really line the roads shouting this prophecies like political slogans, they would have shouted over and over.  They would have conflated the quotations.  Luke selects a quote from many that were shouted as Jesus road into the city.  The question is not who was right, Luke or the other gospels.  The question what is Luke trying to convey in his decision to include the shout of the disciple who merged the Psalm and the prophet Zechariah as he praised Jesus?  What is about that word, “king?”

            There can only be one.  If Jesus is king, then Archaelus, the son of Herod is not king.  More significantly, if Jesus is king, then the Roman Emperor is not.  To declare the royalty of Lord Jesus is to declare one’s allegiance to the death.  And, after the resurrection, which is when Luke’s gospel was written and read, disciples were sent to the death because they insisted Jesus, not Caesar, is king. 

            Words.  Lord.  King. 

            Enter the Pharisees.  They won’t use these words for him.  “Teacher,” they say, “order your disciples to stop.”  ‘Teacher’ is an honorable title and they show respect in using it.  However, with this word, they view Jesus as their peer.  As his peers, as they see themselves, they assume the right of communal authority over him.  For the good the community, he needs to quiet this furor down immediately and they see it as their place to impose this.

            Word.  Lord – Jesus is to be worshipped and all belongs to Him.  King – Jesus is to be obeyed and given complete allegiance, even to death.  Teacher – Jesus is my peer and if he gets out of line it is my job to rein him in. 

            One more word demands our attention and it is tied to a response, so I will come back to it. 

            The disciples are the first to respond.  Jesus tells them to go ahead to the village, enter a yard of a home they have never visited and take a colt that is not theirs.  They respond in obedience.  I suspect the owners of the house and the yard and the cold were also his disciples, just unknown to those in his traveling party.  They also obeyed without question, giving up the colt. 

            Obedience is a response. 

            Praise is too – the response of the crowd.  They make noise as Jesus rides into Jerusalem because Jesus is worth the noise.  Their praise is not just a predetermined act of worship and political protest.  Luke says they raise their voices joyfully.  It is a response of the heart.

            The Pharisees offer a response of fear.  They hear how much noise the disciples are making.  They know that if they hear it, others will too: temple police; Roman soldiers in the area.  They fully understand the words they have heard, so they know any priests who hear this will fully understand it too.  They fear the powers that be – the temple, the puppet King Archelaeus, Roma – more than they fear God.  God is the one worshiped in the temple and the one who allows Rome to exist, but the Pharisees cannot see that God is in this man before them, Jesus.  So they try to shut the whole thing down. 

            Jesus’ response to the Pharisees raises the last word, the most important word.  We have seen that he is Lord and our response is worship.  We have seen that he is King and our response is obedience and loyalty.  We have seen an attempt to reduce him back to human size by calling him teacher.   He is teacher, but not now, not in this moment.

            Jesus tells the Pharisees if all were silent, the stones would praise him.  The only way the created order – animals, waters, trees, earth – the only way the natural world offers praise is if the praise is going to God.  That’s the only way stones shout out.  Jesus is God.

            He continues through the praises, through the Pharisees and their fears, and into the city.  And God weeps.  Jesus weeps and says to Jerusalem “You did not recognize the time of your visitation.”  God is here and you cannot see it. 

            Words:  Lord. King. God.

            Responses: Obedience.  Praise.  Worship.      

            We have confidence today in the truth in these words and responses to Jesus.  I don’t know if this past Tuesday’s primary results made you happy or fearful.  Maybe you believe Donald Trump can make America great again.  It doesn’t matter.  Maybe you are horrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency.  Doesn’t matter.  Maybe you feel burned because voters didn’t feel the burn for Bernie Sanders.  Doesn’t matter.  Maybe you are super excited at the thought of Hillary as president.  It does not matter.

            From the standpoint of America’s democracy, our presidential election is of course very important.  It always is.  But we are in church.  We have an eternal perspective.  We vote and play our part as law abiding citizens who contribute to society, but what happens in society, who is president, whatever crisis comes up, whatever war is going on – it does not change the fact the Jesus is Lord, King, and God.

            As despair mounts,  society crumbles, and people are at each other’s throats, we speak a word of hope amid the chaos.  The Lord and God and King who rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday died for our sins and then defeated death in the resurrection.  Our Palm Sunday politics transcend the temporary troubles that worry the world. 

Because of Jesus, we have a politics of life.  We know his visitation was a visitation of God and he brought salvation with Him – our salvation and the salvation of all who put their trust in him.  More than that, he came to save world including the rocks and stones.  No wonder they are ready with words of praise.  But praise is our job. 

AMEN 

God Trending (Isaiah 12:1-6)

God Trending (Isaiah 12:1-6; Matthew 3:1-3)

          This year when the radio station switched to all-Christmas music, I was ready.  I was determined to enjoy the season and to not complain.  We have driven through neighborhoods at night to see how people light up their homes.  Our tree was up and decorated early. Here at church, we had the church dinner with tables decorated. 

I love the fun traditions of Christmas and our family has many of them.  It really helps us feel the spirit in the season.  I celebrate that. 

In church, when we worship, we have a specific calling that is related to the good feelings of Christmas but is more purposeful because our worship is a part of our life in Christ.  Our responsibility in worship is to enter the story of Jesus which begins in the Bible but continues in our lives.  Sentiment is beautiful, but it is something we can put away along with our decorations on January 2. 

We can’t do that with the story of Jesus.  When we realize that it really happened, it changes everything. 

One of the things I find most effective in theological writing is actually a simple observation.  Theologians have an entire vocabulary of words that only make sense in theological writing.  But I have been deeply affected by a basic truth given to me in reading works of theology.  God has done something.  Christmas is news of God’s action.  How does this news hit us?

Maybe it doesn’t hit us at all because it doesn’t feel like news at all.  A veteran preacher has extremely thick file folders on Luke chapters 1 & 2 and Matthew 1 & 2.  We read those chapters in church every year at this time.  This story is news?  We hear these verses, and we sigh.  Been there, done that. 

Compare the news of God with what’s currently in the news.  If you go on Twitter, certain topics are trending.  Type in #starwars or #republicandebates or #Syrianrefugeecrisis.  Everyone is talking and tweeting about these things.  Instagram has photos, Facebook has posts, and cnn.com provides pithy articles with video. 

One of the radio shows I listen to has a segment called “What everyone’s talking about.” Well, is everyone talking about the thing God has done?  God is not trending on twitter.  If God acted, Facebook would blow up from all the posts.  Facebook has not blown up.

          I actually went to my Twitter page and typed in a search: #GodsNews.  There were several hits.  It’s not trending, but several Christian tweeters have used this hashtag.  But, you know, it wouldn’t matter if there 10 million people tweeting about Jesus or just 10.  God’s importance is not tied to the number of Twitter mentions God gets.

          We follow him because he is Lord.  He doesn’t stop being Lord if his Clout score decreases or his popularity wanes.  He doesn’t get a bump in his divinity and sovereignty if he gets more Twitter followers.  He is Lord because he couldn’t be anything else.  The three bits of evidence of his Lordship are creation, the resurrection, and the personal relationships his followers have with him.

We belong to him and we have a story to tell, an alternate narrative to the ones that get tweeted so often.  God is not the most popular force of our time.  Nevertheless, we know God has done something.  We have news to share.  God has acted. 

          What has God done?  God, in Jesus Christ, God-in-the-flesh, has established the eternal Kingdom.  In Jesus’ death, in which he shared with us the end result of sin, and in Jesus’ resurrection, in which he defeated death, God has begun the work of redeeming the world.  God’s work will come to a conclusion when Jesus returns, all are judged, and the world is made new.  Heaven and Earth will come together, and it will be good as all things created by God are good.

          In this Kingdom, there is no sin, no rebellion, and no death.  Imagine a country like that.

History shows that every human government has had to guard against rebellion.  The malcontents, the disposed, those who feel powerless try to overthrow the powers that be.  Every society has rebels and lawbreakers.  Human governments have to punish criminals and turn back revolutionaries.  And all human governments eventually crumble because all are designed by and run by sinful human beings. 

          God is doing something different, establishing a Kingdom where there is no rebellion and no crime.  There is no sin, no evil, no disease, and no death.  It is a concept beyond my grasp.  I cannot picture it.  The birth of Jesus is the first step in this becoming reality.  The final chapter comes when Jesus returns.

          We live between Jesus’ resurrection and his second coming.  When he returns, we join him in resurrection.

In our time, individuals can opt to follow the Lord or go their own way.  To follow Jesus is to trade any form of government we can conceive including our own constitutional democracy for a Kingdom.  Of course even as we are fully submitted to Jesus as Lord we still continue to participate in our culture and in our country’s life.  We participate as a good citizens, committed to fighting injustice as we help the people in our community flourish.  We are engaged but as people who belong somewhere else – in God’s Kingdom.  We exchange the notion of independence for rule – we would be ruled by God. 

Why would anyone make such a trade off?  Because, in throwing our lot in with Jesus, in accepting his cross and his forgiveness, we trade sin and all its consequences for new birth.  We are new creations.  We exchange bondage – we are slaves to sin – for freedom in Christ.  We trade pain and death for joyful, glorified eternal life.  When we assert definitively that God has done something, this is what God has done!

In the fourth verse of the hymn “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” we sang “born thy people to deliver; born a child and yet a king.  Born to reign in us forever.  Now, thy gracious Kingdom bring.”  Did the slaves under Pharaoh rejoice that he reigned over them?  I think not.  Did citizens of Germany sing praise songs for Hitler?  Maybe, but only out of fear.  No one praised Hitler out of love or true loyalty.  Human history has shown that kings often rule by keeping their people under heel.  Even good kings eventually become tyrants. Yet, the reign of Jesus provokes rejoicing.

Another Christmas hymn, one we have sung in different versions the past two weeks makes the same point.  “Joy to the world!  The Lord is come; let earth receive her king.”  I don’t think the people of North Korea, if they could express thoughts without fear of punishment, would joyfully sing of their lives under the reign of Kim Jung Un or his father or grandfather before him.  In the hymn, “Joy to the World,” with our song we rejoice that we are subjects in a monarchy, the Kingdom of King Jesus. 

This is news to those who don’t know him and increasingly, even in our country, people grow up with no knowledge of the Biblical account of Jesus.  The prophet Isaiah writes “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted” (12:4).  God’s action in Jesus compels us to tell whomever will listen about God and about the significance and relevance of Jesus. 

Jesus brings hope of rescue from death.  Jesus offer hope of a life of joy and meaning to all who follow him.  We tell the news of God in such a way that people see not just another religion that can be reduced to doctrine that can be accepted, rejected, or ignored.  We tell about God so that it is evident that absolute hope for the fullness of blessing and rich joy will come to anyone who hears our report and respond by putting faith in Jesus.  We make his deeds known.

Matthew picks up on the prophetic word by describing the prophet, John the Baptist, who set the conditions into which Jesus would burst upon the scene.  Of John Matthew says, he is the one to “Prepare the way of the Lord” (3:3).  In his preaching and baptizing, John made the worshipping communities of 1^st century Israel ready for the arrival of the Messiah.  We, by announcing the news, help those who hear us get ready to meet God.  We help people move from the thought of ‘Christianity as one religion among many,’ to ‘wow, God has done something and because of it, I can know Him.’

We aren’t prophets in the sense of the Biblical prophets like Samuel and Nathan, Isaiah and John the Baptist.  But we are news-announcers.  Is “God trending,” because of our witness, our testimony?  Maybe not.

However, we can hold up our relationship with God and the Biblical story of God’s action in Jesus Christ.  We can be a friend and in the context of friendship point to God’s action in Christ.  We can do this.  And we can hold up our own individual relationships with God in Christ as evidence.  Through this movement of sharing news in casual relationships, we invite those who do not know Jesus at all to enter the story. 

This is contingent on one thing – the main thing for us this morning.  I began by declaring that while sentiment is lovely, as worshipers our responsibility is to announce that God has done something in Jesus.  In Jesus, God has come in human flesh for the salvation of the world.  Next, I said this thing that God has done is initiate the establishment of His eternal Kingdom.  Then, I said that this truly is news for those who do not know Jesus at all.  And we even meet people like this in our supposedly Christian culture because our culture is quickly becoming post-Christian.

The final and main point of this news is the awakening it triggers in those of us who do know Jesus, but have not fully understood him.  We can only point to our own relationship with God in Christ as an example of the effect of what God has done if that relationship is real and makes a difference. 

So, is it?  Is my relationship with God a real thing, or a fantasy I have concocted?  Does the action of God make a difference in your life?  Or is Christianity just a religion you or I choose to practice?

Last Christmas, I held everything in close – my emotions, my love, my joy.  I did not share it with my church family.  I did not enter the happiness of the season with my wife or kids.  My excuse was that I was sick. I had a rotten cold that carried on from mid-December through the New Year.  I wallowed in phlegm and discomfort and absolutely refused to embrace Christmas cheer.

My wife was not happy with me and in early January she told me flatly, “You were a real grump this Christmas.”  Ouch!  I never wanted to hear that again.  From the time she said that, I have been determined to be happy this year.  Along the way, I discovered something important.

          Maintaining a sweet spirit at Christmas so that people around you, the people you love, will have a good time – that’s important and noble.  There is though something much bigger.  When we pay attention to who we become when we receive life in Christ, the joy cannot be contained.  It is the most important aspect of our message when we share the news about what God has done. 

          When we know God, we want him to be our king.  When we know God we want Him in the center of our every thought and experience.  He is trending in our hearts.  When we know God the joy spills out contagiously.  People around us may become Christians, they may not.  But they will be invited into our joy in a way that is unmistakable. 

          Isaiah could make God known and John the Baptist could prepare the way because each knew God.  They weren’t sharing theories or doctrines.  They were speaking out of their experiences of relationship with God.  Because of what God has done, you and I can enjoy just as powerful a relationship with God as these notable individuals of history.

          So, enjoy Christmas cheer.  Invite friends out for coffee.  In the course of light, casual conversation, talk about what it means to follow Jesus and love Jesus.  Find ways to share why He is so important in your life.

Invite friends to our Christmas Eve service. 

But before doing any of that, sing these Christmas songs.  Worship with your brothers and sisters in your church family.  Bring your struggles to the cross – the small things and the big things.  Be fully present to God and fully open.  Do this so that when it comes time to talk about God and all that God means to us, we will have something to say.

AMEN

"Who's Got Your Ear" (1 Kings 12:1-11)

July 12, 2015

          Alex, a 23-year-old Sunday school teacher and babysitter, was trembling with excitement the day she told her Twitter followers that she had converted to Islam.[i]

          That is how the New York Times story begins.  It ends with her secretly logging on to Skype to receive this message from Faisal, a man she had never met in person.

          I told [your grandmother] I would never communicate with you again.  But I lied.

          Between that opening and closing we get to know Alex, an isolated young woman in a rural community in the state of Washington.  She lived an isolated, lonely life, sharing a home with her grandparents.  Mabin Shaikh said this is exactly the type of person recruiters seek out online. 

          Mr. Shaikh was himself a member of an extremist Islamic group.  After leaving that group he went on to testify before the United State congress about the mechanics of radicalization.  He said of extremist recruiters, “We look for people who are isolated.”

          They can pick up on someone’s loneliness by following their twitter account, trolling them on Skype, and paying attention to their Facebook “likes,” their posts, and their comments in chatrooms and forums.  Mr. Shaikh identified this method of seeking out those Americans who lived isolated lives.  He said, “If they are not isolated already, then we isolate them.”

          Illustrating this point, Faisal, the man who reached out to Alex, surprised her when she told him she had convert to Islam.  She excitedly told home she had found a Mosque near her home.  His tone went cold.  He told her to stay away from the Mosque.  She did not know any Muslims, not in person anyway.  He warned, Muslims in the United States are persecuted and she would be branded a terrorist.  She should keep her new identity a secret and live a double life.    She complied.

          By the way, he lied.  I recently attended a dinner Muslims have to break the fast during Ramadan.  It was an invitation to Christians to come and see what non-radicalized Islam is about.  It was a lovely time where they offered us generous hospitality.  I do not think Islam and Christianity are compatible, but we can be friends.  We can show generosity to one another.  I was treated with great respect by these Muslims and everything about the evening was transparent.  Faisal did not want Alex to discover this peaceful, open version of Islam that does exist in American and other places.  She listened to Faisal. 

          So, if she could not associate with other Muslims or go to the Mosque, how could she (a) become a Muslim and (b) grow in her faith?  He told her to become Muslim, in the presence of witnesses she needed to repeat the phrase, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”  So she tweeted the phrase, and Faisal acted as her witness along with another Twitter follower, one of Faisal’s associates, Hallie Sheikh.

          Within hours, her number of followers on Twitter doubled.  That night she tweeted, “I actually have brothers and sisters.  I am crying.”  Of course these ‘brothers and sisters’ were names and twitter accounts, not people Alex ever met or touched or looked in the eye. 

At some point, she suspected Faisal may not be telling her everything.  She looked him up online to discover that he had twice been arrested in England for possession of massive amounts of illegal firearms and explosives.  He was in his 50’s, married, and had children – he had not shared any of this with her. 

          Moreover, her grandmother discovered the secret life she led online.  She, called the FBI who came to the house and downloaded her entire electronic communication history.  Alex handed over control of all her online accounts to her grandparents who shut them all down.  But they forgot to close the Skype account.  On family vacation, while her grandparents were out on the beach, she logged on and Faisal contacted her immediately. 

          Why is this story important?  To whom are we listening?  Fox News?  NPR?  A preacher on TV? What angle is the person to whom you listen closely taking?  What is that person trying to get you to do?

Consider Rehoboam, the king who followed Solomon.  His story is found in Second Kings chapter 12.  Solomon’s reign was Israel’s Golden Age.  Nations around the world admired the greatness of Solomon and Israel under Solomon.  But, he also had his own failings, most specifically, adultery which led him into unfaithfulness to God.  He died and his son Rehoboam took over. 

As soon as his took the throne, he inherited the pressures of leadership and it came in the form of complaints that Solomon had been too tough on the 10 Northern tribes.  Led by Jereboam this is how the exchange went.

Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” ⁷ They answered him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But he disregarded the advice that the older men gave him, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him. ⁹ He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” ¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus you should say to this people who spoke to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; thus you should say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹ Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

King Rehoboam listened to the advice of men with no more experience that himself.  If he did what they recommended and ruled with an iron fist, it might make him and his court wealthy, but it would continue to weaken and emasculate the rest of the country.  The people whom he counted on for support would come to hate him.  But those advisors around him told him what he wanted to hear.

To whom are we listening?  Who has my ear or yours?  Are they telling us things we want to hear?  If we follow their advice will it greatly benefit them?  Are they leading us down a path that will needlessly create enmity as we help them and maybe ourselves but hurt others?

Alex, the 23-year-old recruit into radical Islam, was told to hide her new life from the people she had always lived with, her family. 

To whom are we listening?  Are they telling us to keep secrets?  Are they telling us to pretend to be one thing?  Are they turning us against our own family?  Are they secretive about who they are? 

If your family or your circle of friend is into hard core drug use or pornography, separate from them.  Don’t stop loving them but remove yourself from their influence because the things they are into are destructive and deadly.

But if someone from a religious group or a new circle of friends or a new life philosophy is actively paying attention to you in order to get you to follow the path they walk, ask why?  Why do they want you to keep things secret from your parents or your spouse or your friends?  Why do they get uncomfortable when you ask “why?”

I encourage you to question everything I teach.  Hold the words I share up to scripture.  Talk to trusted friends in our church or people you trust outside out community. 

We have no secrets.  We believe Jesus is Lord, salvation is found in Him, and the way to joy and eternal life is through Him, his cross and resurrection. We believe all people need him.  We say this openly and we try to be transparent in our presentation of the Gospel.  We want all people to become passionately devoted followers of Jesus.  Tell everyone you know that this is what we are about. 

And test everyone who tries to influence you. 

That’s the bottom line this morning.  Identify the most powerful influences in your life.  It could be a parent, a TV personality, an author, a friend, a pastor, a spouse, a sibling, or a boss or role model.  Take a moment, step outside yourself, and identify to whom you listen.  Who is it you respect the most?

Now critically assess what that person is sharing with you.  I know you aren’t necessarily like Alex whose feelings of isolation made her vulnerable.  But you and I – we have other vulnerabilities.  We have blind spots and in those blind spots, the enemy, the devil, will draw us away from our devotion and loyalty to Christ.  We will find ourselves led down a path we never imagined we’d travel, a path rife with snares. 

How do we guard against being deceived?  First, look to Solomon.  Early in his reign as king, the Lord spoke to him and offered him anything he might desire.  He said to God,

“⁹ Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹² I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind.” 

Ask God for wisdom, as Solomon did. 

Second, pay attention to advisors who are looking out for your best interests and are pointing you to Christ.  First John chapter 4 begins this way:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus^[a^]is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. ⁴ Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 

Finally, seek God in prayer.  Hebrews 4:16 says we can “approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  We are invited to bring all our concerns into God’s presence.  Why would we ever not take advantage of such a generous divine invitation?

I pray God will rescue Alex from the allure of the seductions that have latched onto her.  And I pray you and I can live in wisdom and share the truth of the Gospel as we live our lives.

AMEN

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[i] R. Callimachi, The New York Times, June 28, 2015, p.A1.

Can you Hear the Hosannas

Do We Hear the ‘Hosanna’s’? (Matthew 21:1-17)

Sunday, April 13, 2014 – Palm Sunday

            Shane Claiborne is a writer, activist, speaker, and prophet who lives in an intentional community called the Simple Way in a Philadelphia neighborhood populated by addicts and dealers.  Children often go unsupervised.  There is violence.  Claiborne writes that whenever a fight breaks out near his house, he runs outside with torches.  He stands down the street from the rumble juggling the torches like clown.  He writes, “Perhaps kids will lose interest in the noise of a good fight and move toward the other end of the block to watch the circus.  I truly believe,” Claiborne says, “we can overcome the darkness of this world by shining something brighter and more beautiful.”[i]

            Fights are so common where he lives that he has a ready-made response, a beautiful response.  Give them something fun and whimsical to see instead of violence.  Provide a happy alternative to the corruption. 

            I may not ever see two people beating each other with fists and sticks and knives on the street where I live, but the world is soaked in sin and sin always leads to violence and death.  Cain always ends up killing Abel.  Sometimes the pathway to violence is indirect.  We don’t see the bloodshed but, the wage of sin is death, Romans 6:23.  And sin is everywhere.

            Claiborne’s attempt to divert attention away from the street fight by providing a circus shows in a playful way the serious alternative to a cycle of death that Jesus offered in the temple.  Jesus declared there is another way, a way that’s different and better than the way of violence and death.

Every year on the Sunday before Easter, Palm Sunday, we see Jesus praised on his ride into Jerusalem.  We watch him explode in righteous fury, driving animals out of the temple.  Matthew’s version of these events describes four definite actions of Jesus.  He rides into town as a king, passes judgment on the temple as a prophet, heals in a way that only God can, and receives worship, as only God should. 

In the Old Testament, the book of 2^nd Kings, chapter 9, Jehu is anointed by a prophet of God to be Israel’s next king.  Jehu and his men must get rid of the wicked King Ahab.  As he announces to his friends what God has said and what they must do, they hastily spread their cloaks before him, blow a trumpet, and shout “Jehu” is king (9:13). 

The crowd in Matthew 21 remembers the cloaks laid before Jehu as they reenact the impromptu coronation, laying their cloaks before Jesus.  The people hope he is will be the king of Israel.  UCC minister Nancy Rockwell suggests more than simply declaring the reign of Jesus, this is revolutionary.  It is an affront to King Herod the puppet monarch who answers to Rome. 

More significantly, it is a blatant rejection of the Roman Emperor.  Rockwell cites a book called The Last Week by Borg and Crossan[ii] that proposes that there was another procession the same day Jesus rode into Jerusalem.  While he came into town to cries of “Hosanna,” while riding an animal of peace, a donkey, Roman Governor Pilate processed into another part of town with a legion of soldiers on horses for the sole purpose of making a show of Roman force.  This was to discourage any potential rebellion.  Pilate had no idea how mistaken he was.  Even as he flexed the muscle of empire, the disciples acted out the kingship of Jesus.

Besides king, Jesus played the role of prophet.  The whole temple incident of turning over tables was a declaration of judgment.  In the Old Testament, the prophets do odd things to get their message across.  Jeremiah had a jar of rotting undergarments that symbolized the way pride had ruined Judah (Jer. 13:9).  Hosea had to marry a prostitute to illustrate how God would continuously take the nation back in spite of her infidelities.  These are just a few of many examples of how prophets sometimes used bizarre behavior to communicate the word of God.

Jesus did not cleanse the temple as this incident is sometimes described.  Something that’s be cleaned can be used again.  He rendered judgment.  The temple would no longer be the heart of God’s activity with people.  It was a den of thieves.  That phrase means that robbers – the religious establishment in Jesus eyes – felt like no harm would come to them in God’s temple.  They could get rich through dishonest means there in the house of prayer where people met God.  They felt their hold on the system made them safe.  They did not fear God.  Jesus’s violent acts, turning over tables, driving out animals, signaled the judgment that would be rendered when he died on the cross.

He came in as a king.  He spoke as a prophet.  And he received worship.  The people cried, “Hosanna,” a phrase from Psalm 118, verse 25, and it literally means, “Save us now, O Lord.”  We say this say to God when we are desperate.  Pinched between corrupt priests, Pharisees who laid a heavy load of legalism, the evil of Herod, and the oppression of Rome, the people were powerless.  They had nowhere to turn, so they turned to Jesus.  They invoked royal Psalms and words reserved for God alone and lifted those words upon Jesus’ arrival.

And Jesus accepted it all.  In this passage, our Palm Sunday reading, Jesus acted out what he truly was – prophet, king, and God.  The highest roles for ancient Israelites were prophet, priest and king.  Jesus was prophet and king, and the book of Hebrews over and over confirms what Matthew says implicitly – he was the supreme priest.  A priest is to stand between a human, marked by the profanity of sin, and the most Holy God.  Jesus was both fully human and fully God, so he was uniquely qualified to bring Heaven to Earth.  As we see in Revelation, Heaven and earth are joined in Christ as intimately as a bride and groom (Rev. 21).

What does this look like, in practical terms?  The Gospel of Matthew describes what Jesus did in the temple to show him to be who we believe him to be – Lord, Savior, King, God.  To get a sense of this, we need to do two things – remember, and look around and listen.

First, remember.  Specifically, we turn back in Matthew’s gospel to earlier in the story, chapter 11.  Jesus’ cousin John, called John the Baptist, was a prophet.  He called the nation of Israel to repentance.  He baptized people to show that they were cleansed of their sins.  He baptized Jesus. 

John preached without a filter.  So when Herod married his brother’s wife, John condemned the marriage.  Herod, the king of the Jews received his power from the Roman governor.  At any time, Pilate could oust Herod and have him killed.  Compared to other Jews, Herod was powerful and wealthy, but he was a puppet on the end of a Roman string.  Thus he was paranoid.

The fury and directness of John’s preaching infuriated the impotent monarch, so he had John imprisoned.  And John wasted away in Herod’s prison many months.  His energy waned.  He could not preach.  He did know what happened with Jesus after the baptism.  He had done his part in God’s plan, but in prison, he fell into depression.  So, his disciples, who were allowed to visit, came and he sent them to Jesus. 

There question to Jesus from John was, “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?”

Jesus responded, “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (11:3-5).  The blind receive their sight.  The lame are made able to walk.

These things would happen when the Messiah came.  These things were happening.  Jesus must be who John thought he was.  Now it is Palm Sunday.  A lot happened in Matthew’s gospel between that conversation with Jesus and John’s disciples, and the ride into Jerusalem that ended with disruption of temple money-changing tables.  But Matthew wants us, the readers to remember.  How can we know Jesus is from God?  The blind receive their sight.  The lame are made able to walk.  The dead are raised.

Matthew tells about Jesus riding in as a king, judging as a prophet, and receiving worship as God.  Then, in verse 14 it says, “The blind and lame came to him at the temple and he cured them.”  God is acting in history, changing everything, and the gatekeepers, the temple leaders do not like it at all. 

Matthew writes that they became angry.  After the excitement of the procession and the turning over of tables, and after the healing miracles, a confrontation between Jesus and the priests ensued.  There may have been 1000 adults in the temple area and they would be fascinated by an open confrontation between the high priest and the Galilean carpenter.  They would do what you or I would do if two people in public began arguing.  They would stop to gawk. 

Someone forgot to tell the children in the temple’s out court that the party had ended.  They kids kept singing the song – the song for Jesus.  “Hosanna to the son of David.”  Save us now, O Lord.  And he was doing exactly that. 

But the chief priests did not want to be saved.  Remember, den of thieves, the place where the criminals feel safe?  The temple leaders, like Herod, were under the heel of Rome, but they enjoyed status.  They may have been enslaved by Rome, but they were the rich slaves.  They did not need Jesus disrupting things, taking away their privileged position, bringing punishment on them.  They had no faith that he was of God and could bring freedom and new life. 

They saw the miracles and did not rejoice.  They heard the singing and did not join in.  “Do you hear what these [children] are saying?” The chief priests demanded (Mt. 21:16).  Yes, said, Jesus.  He quoted Psalm 8 to show that the children and anyone else who sang praise songs to him were the ones with understanding and the ones receiving the blessing God had sent. 

We’re trying to see and understand who Jesus is – Lord, Savior, God, King.  So we remember.  We know it is the Messiah of God when the blind receive their sight.  The lame are made able to walk.  The dead are raised.  Matthew tells of the healings in the temple that day.  The final act would come a week later when Jesus left the grave behind.

I mentioned that we needed to do two things to understand Jesus.  First, we needed to remember and we have looked back to John the Baptist and we have remembered.  This Thursday, we will wash feet and take communion and we will remember.  This Friday, we will tell the story of the cross and remember.  Next Sunday, we will see the sun rise and joyously, victoriously remember.

The second thing we need to do is look around and listen.  We see and hear Jesus when we hear the children singing “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  The Hosanna cry comes from people who need to be saved.  Who needs to be saved?  Children in households where they are neglected and abused; they need Jesus.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  Who needs to be saved?  Addicts – alcoholics, gambling addicts, porn addicts; you name it.  Addiction cannot be overcome without God’s help.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  Who needs to be saved?  People locked in poverty, trapped with no hope of escape.  They go to bed each night not knowing if they will eat the next day; not knowing where they will sleep the next night.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.”  Who needs to be saved?  People in the path of war need to be saved; Syrians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Afghans.  “Hosanna – Lord, save us now.” 

Of course it is obvious that people in these situations need help.  It appears unrelated to the events of Palm Sunday.  Palm Sunday is supposed to take us into Holy Week and Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday when we celebrate Jesus’ death for our sins and resurrection victory over death.  This is supposed to be spiritual and triumphant.  Why bring all these political and social justice matters into the conversation?  Domestic violence, addiction, hunger and poverty, war – how do these thorny issues worm their way into a nice Palm Sunday celebration?

On that day, Jesus declared the end of a religious institution – temple worship.  In the new way, the way of Jesus, People would come to him in order to come to God.  On that day, Jesus upended hierarchical systems.  In the new way, the way of Jesus, religious leaders are servants who walk with people instead of lording over them.  On that day, Jesus healed diseases like blindness because he loves people and abhors our suffering and also because his healing was and is a sign of who he is – Lord, Savior, God, and king. 

All of this is political.  All of this is justice and compassion, especially for the most down and out around us.  We hear the children’s song, the “Hosanna!” when we go to where the hurting people are.

We also hear it when we listen to brokenness in our own hearts and realize how desperately we need Jesus.  Until we hear the children singing for us, we will not really see Jesus. 

“Do you hear what these [children] are saying?”  The chief priests asked it indignantly.  We need to ask it innocently and humbly.  Do we hear the children?  Are we seeking Jesus, singing “Hosanna!” begging him to save us?  He gives us a choice.  We gather with the bloodthirsty crowd and watch the street fight and by watching and encouraging the combatants we are as guilty of the violence as they are. 

Or, we can take the Jesus alternative, the one where blind people are healed, the broken mended, and the lame made able to walk.  We can pray, “Hosanna!  Lord save us.”  We can pray it because God hears it and will answer and has answered in Jesus, his come, his death, and his resurrection.  His is the way of life and beckons us to it.

AMEN

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[i] S. Claiborne (2006).  The Irresistible Revolution, Zondervan, Grand Rapid, p.285.

[ii] http://biteintheapple.com/ride-on-ride-on/

God Saves - Christmas Eve, 2012

This was never preached.  Our associate pastor preached Christmas Eve and did a wonderful job.  In a post coming up, I will talk more about how difficult it has been to preach this Christmas-Advent of 2012.

Monday, December 24, 2012

            We have journeyed through lent with Old Testament prophets Jeremiah, Malachi, Zephaniah, and Micah as our guides.  Jeremiah showed that God is judge, but not just for condemnation.  Malachi spoke of God refining those who will come in repentance, and Jesus is the primary means by which this purification comes about.  In Zephaniah, we see God as victorious Lord and King.  And Micah gives us word of the protecting God who watches over us.

            It is time to move from the prophets to the Gospel – and we need good news as much as we ever have.  We are little more than a week removed from the horrific school-shooting in Connecticut.  Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee who was a pastor before he became a politician said that the tragedy should not surprise us because we have kept God out of our schools and government and military.  By keeping God out, we invite Hell to break loose.

            Huckabee’s comment might be seen as a crass move; he used the senseless awful death to promote his political agenda that marries a certain type of Christian expression with a certain type of political expression.  I think Huckabee is probably sincere in his desire to see a ‘Christianizing’ or he might say a ‘re-Christianizing’ of public institutions in America.  While his statements in my view were poorly timed and as a pastor he should have taken a more caring approach, I don’t question his sincerity.

            I just don’t see things as he does.  But, I completely agree with one comment he made although I probably mean something different than what he intended.  Huckabee said, “We don’t have a crime problem, a gun problem, or even a violence problem.  What we have is a sin problem.” 

I heard left-leaning political opinions react the shooting with the opposite position of Huckabee, declaring this tragedy was exactly the result of a gun problem.  Lack of gun control was the cause.  I don’t agree that what happened in Connecticut was a result of poor gun control and I am not getting into gun control politics this evening.  I merely point it out to show that both sides of the political aisle weighed in the wake of the tragedy when in fact prayer and caring were needed more than politicizing.

Back to Huckabee though, I agree 100% with his “we have a sin problem” line.  I suspect when he said “we,” he meant “America.”  When I say we have a sin problem, I mean all of humanity. 

The Connecticut school shooting makes this glaringly obvious.  So too does a story that was in the Raleigh News and Observer the same day as the reporting on the Connecticut tragedy.  A homeless man was found dead – murdered and left in a trash can.  Five people were arrested for murder but none were named in the paper because they are each minors.  Four are 15 and one is 13.  When I was that age I was afraid of sassing my parents or disrespecting a teacher.  These are children, and they’re under arrest for murder. 

The story is local, not national news, but it is just as tragic.  So too is the fighting in Syria and the Gaza strip – two separate wars, and both awful.  That children suffer from hunger and malnutrition is just as bad.  We could go on and on.  Yes, we need to tonight, this very moment, move from the prophets, and they also contain gospel, to the four gospels.  Since it is Christmas Eve, we specifically must find comfort, hope, truth – all of in Luke chapter 2. 

There we meet those who are near the bottom of the social ladder – the shepherds.  Their work made them ceremonially unclean.  By doing the work that put bread in their mouths – work with sheep, work needed by everyone in society – they were disqualified from worship.  And no one in the temple missed them or questioned how the system had become so unfair and unjust that human beings were seen as unworthy of coming before God for prayer and worship.

The shepherds are spending the night outside, watching over the sheep, doing their thing.  They did this in the rain.  They did it on cold nights.  They are out on this night, and heavenly beings come calling.  My nights are spent in an extremely comfortable bed.  I have done my share of camping.  I know what wonders and sometimes deceptions the wilderness at night can bring, but I am softened suburbanite who would have trouble with the toughness of these shepherds.  They handled much that would either scare me or kill me.

But Luke is quite clear in his telling of their reaction to the angels.  The glory of the Lord shone on them and they were terrified.  I don’t know how you act when fear becomes the dominant and only discernible feeling in you.  I lose my ability to think clearly.  These hardened shepherds did not have their wits.  They trembled violently and were out of control.  But the angel told them he was bringing good news of great joy for all people. 

Then the angel said something they would have probably found surprising.  “To you is born this day a savior in the city of David who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  There was plenty of messiah talk.  It means ‘anointed one.’  Many would-be messiahs had been crucified by Rome in the years leading up to this night.  Messiah-talk was not uncommon, nor was it uncommon to associate the Messiah with David.

What was not so common was to call this Messiah “the Lord.”  The first century expectation was that the Christ, a translation that means Messiah, Lord’s anointed, would be set apart by God.  They did not think the Messiah would come from God or would be God.  They weren’t thinking they would be calling this one “the Lord.”  Nor is it clear what is meant by ‘Savior.’

But, when we read the story of Christ’s birth with the thoughts of all Jesus did and does, then we realize Luke 2:11 is right at the center of this story.  The idea of the birth of a Savior, the Savior is at the heart of Christmas and is the hope for all people.  For left-leaning political voices who want guns banned, Jesus is savior.  For right-leaning politicians who demand that God – their version of God – be allowed back in school, Jesus is savior.  For the victims and victims’ families in Connecticut, Jesus is savior.  For the five young teenagers who face murder charges, Jesus is savior.

Turn in Luke, just two chapters over to Luke 4.  He begins his public ministry saying “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Of course he is quoting the prophet Isaiah, words expected to come true when the Messiah arrived.  He follows up this audacious prophecy with the simple announcement that the day Isaiah anticipated has arrived with his arrival.

The angel told the shepherds a Savior had been born.  In Jesus we see what kind of salvation the Savior brings:  … release to those in bondage; … recovery to those who hurt and suffer; … freedom from oppression.

A passage that accompanies Luke 2 in the lectionary readings for Christmas Eve is from Paul’s letter to Titus, Titus chapter 2.  Verse 11 says the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all.  Continuing into Titus 3, “He saved us … according to his mercy.  … He poured out [His] Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Through the forgiveness of sin and the giving of mercy without end, through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and through word we have in the Gospel, God has extended the gift of eternal salvation to all of us.  All people who will respond to his gift of grace are saved.

What does this mean in the wake of tragic events like the ones we have mentioned?  Those of us who have become followers of the Savior come alongside the sufferers in Connecticut.  We are a hand to hold and a shoulder to cry on.  We visit and pray, and we do this for the victims and for the wounded family members of the killer.  They are horrified at an entirely different level.  We Christ-followers, filled with the Spirit and filled with grace, come alongside the families of these teens who are likely facing prison time for committing the ultimate of crimes – murder. 

Sin is still in the world, cooperating with Satan to wreak havoc on humankind.  Mike Huckabee is 100% correct.  Our primary problem is a sin problem.  What it means that the Savior has come is that His followers, the people who make up His church, are in the world to show the way to Him.  And we make special time and effort to do this in times of tragedy.

It means also that we have good news when we go through difficulty.  I wonder, who is going through their first Christmas after the divorce?  Bringing up that issue is not a statement of judgment on your particularly, if you are in that situation.  Divorce is one result of sin in the world. 

Another sign of sin is death.   Who is going through their first Christmas after the funeral, after the beloved family member has died?  Christmas this year is different than it has been in a long time.  Or Christmas is hard because a relationship with a son or with a brother is in crisis.  Many who are already in pain feel their hurt magnified by the Christmas joy everyone else seems to feel.  How can everyone be so happy when I hurt so much?

The angel who terrified and then amazed the shepherds is here for you with a message of good news about great joy.  Jesus is Savior and He came for you.  His Spirit comforts.  He promises that death is not the end.  If sin is destroying your life, he reminds that He forgives all sin and His grace is sufficient for you.  It does not mean the hurt evaporates magically.  Wounds take time to heal and some don’t clear up until we get to that transformed place, the new Heaven and Earth that come together and there are no more tears.  Some pain is not assuaged until then.

But, we have the promise of Heaven and the hope of Jesus’ return.  We can count on those things.  We can also count on his Holy Spirit carrying us through the hardest of times.  He will work through the church.  And this night, He works through Christmas Eve worship where we sing the familiar songs and hear the story that even non-church goers know a bit. 

It is the story of a savior.  It is a very specific story about something very specific that God does.  God accomplishes this in a particular way.  We don’t proclaim a kind of general, nondescript good news.  God saves in coming to us, God in the flesh, Jesus.  His birth is the birth of the Savior.  If this Christmas is hard for you, you can count on this.  God saves.  If this Christmas is awesome for you and you are full of joy, then you have a story to share.  God saves. 

May we, as we worship recognizes our need for salvation.  And then, may we know with certainty that our need is met in Jesus, the God who saves.

AMEN