Scripture: Luke 19: 28-40 (click on Scripture passage to go to Biblegateway)
“These Stones Will Cry Out” Sermon Preached at Open Circle 3-28-10—Palm Sunday
When you think about it, today is a bittersweet celebration. And although the folks on the road along the way don’t see what is coming—it is clear they know that change is in the air. And so we begin, along with Jesus, a final descent into Jerusalem and the day of reckoning that would just not go away.
Many of us remember waving palms and shouting hosanna from the time we were very young—and we like the idea of hailing Jesus as both an earthly and heavenly ruler especially since we know what is coming up on down the road—and we all want to be on the side of that road—to praise and honor this Jesus before the religious and political leaders of His world drag Him off to die. And we must not lose sight of the fact that this is a very long week in the life of Jesus of Nazareth and in the life of the Church. We start the week in Hosannas and end it in the quiet despair of Good Friday. It takes the beginning of another week for the hosannas to turn to hallelujahs and we have much about which to think in the meantime.
Here is my translation of the Pharisees’ request to Jesus and His response during the celebration: “Jesus, tell these people to be quiet—they are going to get us all in trouble, and then where will we be? We have things we need to get done here, it’s important to keep our priorities in mind—even if we believe that You are who You say you are and that You did all those miracles, it won’t help our cause to get on this bandwagon. Your issues are not our issues…tell them to hush!’’ Jesus says, “Your priorities are not strong enough to quiet these people…they know what is really important, and even if I could get them to stop, what I stand for and that is the coming reign of God’s justice—is so powerful that these very stones would cry out!” Now I ask you, has anyone ever told you or a group you were in to hush? To not spread the good news that Jesus died for all of us and that God loves us all just the way we are? For that is the truth of the in-breaking of the Reign of God’s justice on the earth—but it threatens those whose earthly priorities are more important to them than what this humble King, riding in on a donkey, stood for.
I rarely preach a sermon that has political overtones to it—but Palm Sunday is the single most political of Jesus’ actions and so we must look at it in context—both His and ours. Daniel Clendening tells us that “On Palm Sunday Jesus invites us to join his subversive counter-procession into all the world. But he calls us not to just any subversion, subversion for its own sake, or to some new and improved political agenda. Rather, Christian subversion takes as its model Jesus himself, ‘who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.’” Clendening concludes this about this call to subversion: “Dying to self and the many demons of egoism, and living to serve others, will prove itself as sufficiently and radically subversive.”
The symbolism of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is clear—the people are hailing Him as King—He remains humble—choosing for himself not some royal Arabian stallion like a Roman military ruler, but a donkey on which to ride—but it was a political entry nonetheless. And what did this political Jesus do immediately after entering Jerusalem to the joyous shouts of His disciples? Luke tells us that Jesus looked over Jerusalem and wept because of all the terrible things that were going to happen to the people. Afterwards, he went to the temple and drove the moneychangers from the temple. Then for several days he preaches and teaches in the temple. Towards the end of the week, Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover meal. And we experience, Jesus’ final meal with his disciples. Jesus continues to tell them of things to come, but, once again, lost in the trivialities of their own lives, they are more focused on an argument concerning who among them was to be considered the greatest. At the end of that meal, Jesus takes them with Him to the Mt. of Olives where Jesus prays.
So what are we to make of Palm Sunday on this balmy (sunny, rainy) Sunday afternoon where we sit, interestingly in the shadow of a large palm, in the newness of our still brand new community. Rev. Craig Barnes—Pastor of the National Pres. Church in Washington, D.C. calls us to relive the details of this day and this next week even though we have done so before. He challenges us to look at them with new eyes. He says: “When Jesus sat upon that young colt and began to ride into Jerusalem, some of the people around him were wise enough to recognize the moment of their salvation. They cut branches down and spread them on the ground in front of him. Many spread their cloaks on the ground. They began to shout, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!’ The singing of psalms was a liturgical act repeated at every Passover and feast day. Every time the people worshiped, they worked through those psalms. Year after year, week after week, day after day they paid attention to the details of looking for a savior. And when the Savior came, some were ready. We know the details of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Good Friday and Easter. We’ve gone through them year after year. Why do this again?... It’s the only way we can take our eyes off the things that do not matter and set them upon the arrival of the Savior.”
And so today, we look at what this humble King brings to us, here at Open Circle. We are building a community, not a building, but a church, nevertheless. What are the stones that would cry out if we were told to hush?—those stones would be our very lives, our very witness to the saving grace of God. Why do we gather here, in this place, and not someplace else? We gather here because we believe that we have a message to share with each other and those around us—the message of God’s radical acceptance of each one of us exactly the way God made us. If the stones are to continue to cry out once the crowd has gone away, our voices are the voices that God needs to use. And our lives are our voices.
And we , just as the very stones under Jesus’ feet, cannot be quiet. As long as there are people who do not know the radical acceptance of God, and the love and salvation brought to this world through this same Jesus we hail as King today, we must not be quiet—our community is waiting to hear the message. I believe that God has set us here for a purpose—not just me—everyone of us who walks through this door and experiences what God has to offer through the voices of everyone here.
Our lives are the stones—our brokenness the palms—our hearts the pathway to Jerusalem—Jesus wept upon seeing Jerusalem—we weep at injustice and pain, both ours and others’— this is our first Palm Sunday in our new community, and next week will be our first Easter. I pray that we do not lose sight of the perfect wonderfulness of this blessed time—that we will see with eyes made sharp in the freshness of new life, and that we will hear with ears attuned to the needs of others. I pray that we will persevere, even when told to hush by others in our world whose priorities are different from ours. Today we will celebrate communion as family—for the last time before Easter—but we do so in the knowledge that Easter will come again, that salvation is promised for all—the salvation that includes resting in the grace of the knowledge that God loves us and cares for us and shares our priorities because our priorities are in alignment with the in-breaking of God's radical reign of justice and peace.
We go forth into Jerusalem, to the last supper, to Good Friday, knowing that struggle will be turned to celebration, that pain will be redeemed by love, and that faithfulness will be rewarded with new blessings beyond what we can even imagine. Blessed are we when we come in the name of the Lord! Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed be the Lord! Hosanna! Amen!
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