Palm Sunday - April 9, 2006

    The grandson was visiting his grandparents and was taken to Sunday school by the grandmother.  He returned home and was asked by his grandfather, who had stayed home, “What did you learn today at Sunday school?”

     The boy said, “The teacher told us about Moses, who was a big strong man and he beat up the Pharaoh.  Then while the Pharaoh was down, Moses got all the people together and ran toward the sea.  When he got there, he had the Corps of Engineers build a huge pontoon bridge.  Once they got on the other side, they blew up the bridge while the Egyptians were trying to cross.”

     The grandfather was shocked.  “Are you sure that’s what the Sunday school teacher said?”

     The boy replied, “No, grandpa, but you’d never believe the story she DID tell us!”

      It’s hard to believe the story we have to tell today, as well.  Palm Sunday requires us to cram the events of a whole week into the space of one hour.  It’s difficult to make such an incredible journey.

     We must face rejection and death this day.  We confess our participation in the fickleness of the mob.  We go from the triumphal entry chorus of “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” to “Crucify him!”  These are not two separate groups of people who represent the usual division when the name of Jesus is discussed.  No, this is the same crowd; you, all of them, and me.  He just didn’t turn out the way we thought he would.  We had such high expectations.  He seemed so qualified, but what kind of messiah would come riding into the city where his throne is to be on a donkey?  What revolutionary leader would dare to enter the Holy City without a well-armed and even better-trained group of guerilla fighters?  This is just another disappointment over the passage of the centuries, waiting, hoping, and praying for the Messiah of God.  The best thing to do with such a disappointment is get rid of it.

     So, the parade makes its way to Golgotha.  A small crowd has followed; most others have paid little attention.  The Passover ritual must be observed if God is to be pleased.  At Golgotha we gaze at three crosses.  On two of them the wrong in human life is turned in on itself.  It always does.  The picture is incomplete without those two crosses that flack the middle cross.  Lies are crucified.  So is truth.

     Palm Sunday, though, is about that middle cross.  On that one a dreamer hangs.  Psychiatrists, psychologists, and self-help gurus tell us how healthy it is to have our dreams.  We must have those goals, that vision we set for ourselves as individuals and as a church.  This is a good time to evaluate our dreams, our goals, and our vision, if we wish to stay healthy.  How realistic are our goals, our dreams, and our vision?

     Well, first of all, we have some questions.  Are we spending our time, talent, and treasure for the things that we believe are good and worthwhile?  Answering that question may lead us to be discouraged.  Nothing in scripture says we won’t become discouraged from time to time as we follow the steps of the man dying on the middle cross.  He had prayed that the bitter cup might pass him by.  He returned from praying on that Thursday evening and found his disciples weary with doubts and grief.  Such weariness often leads to sleep.  Doors are often shut, windows are closed, and all avenues of escape appear blocked.  So, we have our questions.

     Secondly, we have to count the cost.  “Blood, sweat, and tears!”  That’s what Sir Winston Churchill told the people of Great Britain it would cost to keep alive the dream of freedom.  Blood, sweat, and tears are what they gave.  Some of that bleeding, that hard work, and that crying was done in this community.  It is both a tribute to God and to those who gave the “last full measure of devotion” that the National D-Day Memorial looks down upon us from that hill not too far from here.

     Dreams often require us to leave some secure, comfortable place.  William Booth could not sleep one night and went walking into a poor section of London.  There he saw something of what the Industrial Revolution had cost in human terms.  He saw starving, ill-clad, homeless men and women, and helpless little ones begging and crying.  He returned home and his wife asked where he had been?  “I’ve been to hell!” Booth said.  From that walk into hell was born the Salvation Army.

     We can withhold the helping hand if we refuse to look into the eyes of another.  We can withhold money if we refuse to hear the plight of the less fortunate.  We can resist any call to help if we refuse to become aware of another’s need.

     Jesus had expensive dreams.  Those dreams took him to places the brave dared not go, where he got his hands dirty, his heart broken, and his spirit shattered.  We cannot be selfish if we would enter into his dreams.  Dreams can be terribly costly.  “When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him.”  That one statement of historical fact says it most clearly.  Stand for a moment and look.  That’s what his dream cost.

     And what did he receive for that dream?  Desertion from his closest friends and tears from a brokenhearted mother and a few other faithful women are two things he received.  Being cursed by Roman soldiers, cruelly beaten, whipped, mocked, killed, and laid in a borrowed tomb are some other things he received.  A celebration down in Jerusalem that public enemy # 1 was dead and out of the way and the ancient temple sacrifices could continue without reprisals from the Roman occupiers were some other things he received.  

     Can you see in this scene a profound spiritual truth?  Look at who stood at the foot of the cross.  His mother, a teenage disciple, a reformed sinner named Mary of Magdela, a few other women who had followed and provided for him over the past three years stood there with him.  That’s it!

     He died for his dream and we need to ask what that dream accomplished?

It is a new life that is made possible by this parade to Golgotha.  Sins are forgiven, lives are changed, and hopes are reborn by this dreamer’s obedience to his dream.  His dream would become our dream.  His values would become our values.  His goal would become our goal.  We give of our time, our energy, our money, and even life itself to advance his Kingdom on earth.  All of that has been made possible because, “when they came to a place called the Skull, there they crucified Jesus.”

     I don’t really need to remind you that the journey does not end at this scene of crucifixion.  We have yet another glorious chapter to be written because this is God’s story.  It’s good to be here this day for this part of the tale; it will be even more important to be here next week to hear the rest of this amazing story.  Amen.