ࡱ> DFCq` -bjbjqPqP 8@::`%%        8 4 . . "P P P P P P y{{{{{{$h  P P   P P  X P P y y   P "  # y0  j   P Z @ 4 P P P  XP P P           Palm Sunday Sermon 2008 Bures Family Communion (16th March 2008) Bad news and good news Luke 19:28-40 There were once two friends called Sam and George, and they had a lot in common including a love of cricket which they played whenever they could. As they began to get on in years they would talk about heaven and what it might be like, and they agreed that whoever went first would come back and tell the other all about it. Sadly it was Sam who was the first to pass on. One night George was asleep and he heard a voice: George, George, wake up, its me, Sam, I need to talk to you. It cant be Sam, Im just hearing things thought George, but Sam goes on, George, it really is me, I said Id come and tell you all about heaven. Oh Sam, it is you, says George, go on then, whats it like? Ive got good news and bad news, says Sam. Whats the good news? Heaven is really great, and guess what, you can play cricket everyday. And it NEVER rains. The sun is always shining, and the umpires always right. And no-one ever gets injured. And the teas are just brilliant So whats the bad news? says George. And Sam says, Youre down to bowl on Tuesday. Actually, if heaven is that great, and I think it will be, then maybe that wasnt bad news after all! I like the idea of the sun always shining, although Im hoping that cricket isnt obligatory. But I tell you that story because today is Palm Sunday, and I think its a good news/bad news sort of day, for Jesus anyway. Today he rides into Jerusalem to great acclaim, its a grand entrance, a heros welcome, the King has come, its good news. And next Sunday, in the early morning light, he will meet a woman in a garden and give her a message that will change the world for ever its very good news. But in between comes one of the saddest stories ever told, very bad news indeed. I was reminded of this by some recent weather not the gale force winds this week, but a few days before that we had a hail storm. And it was quite extraordinary because I was staring out of my kitchen window at blue skies and sunshine and little birds hopping about and then I walked through to the other side of the house and the view could not have been more different, black, black skies, very dark, the wind getting up, and the birds I could see were flying around in a sort of panic. You wouldnt have thought it possible to have two such completely different sorts of weather on different sides of the house at the same time. And you wouldnt think it possible that in just a few days these cries of Hosanna weve heard this morning would turn to kill him, crucify him. But they did. If you were to film this Palm Sunday scene with a Hollywood touch there would probably be an ominous hint in the music a relentless drum beat, and something mournful in the notes, to hint at the drama and the darkness to come the bad news. Jesus, of course, doesnt need any hints. He knows whats in store. And he doesnt flinch. In fact hes setting it up. One of the things I want to talk about today is Jesus determination. His unswerving determination to see things through. This is the plan and he is so committed to it, it seems hes quite deliberately triggering these events, in spite of the agony to come. One of those triggers is his timing, because this is the Passover, the time when the Jews remembered and celebrated their escape from slavery in Egypt, but also the time when expectations would have been at their highest that the Messiah would come now, the new saviour, their new King, if hes ever going to come it would be now. Another trigger is that they knew from scripture that he would do so on a donkey, and Matthew makes this point in his account of Palm Sunday, quoting as he does from the Old Testament: See your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey Jesus decision to use a donkey is entirely his idea, at no other point in his ministry do we hear of him riding on one, and he knows the impact it will have at precisely this moment in time, and in this place, outside Gods own city. Jesus is pressing all the right buttons to get the reaction he does. And so the crowd begins to hail him as King. In fact in Lukes account its his own followers, his disciples who start up the shout perhaps because all this time theyve longed for him to act like the Saviour King they think he could be, and now at last it looks like hes going to do it. And for once Jesus doesnt tell them to be quiet, he allows the adulation and the celebration. Its a clear declaration of who he is, and it cant be stopped, as he says, if the people were silent, the very stones would cry out. So it very much seems that Jesus has made his choice, and has organised his own parade into the city that is destined to kill him. He could have avoided it, he could have settled for survival, and remember he was a man as well as God, Im sure it was a temptation for him. But no, he is determined to go through with it. And the reason for that determination? His passion. Today is also known as Passion Sunday, and this period of Lent also known as Passiontide, and when we refer to the Passion of Jesus, its usually taken to mean specifically the suffering and death inflicted on him in these events of Holy Week to come. But I think that the passion of Jesus is not just something done to Jesus by others, its a power within Jesus, its his passion, and it makes him able to face the violence and the pain, and its been whats driving him all along. And what is he passionate about? The simple answer is that hes passionate about us. And thats the staggering truth that lies at the heart of Christianity. Hes passionate about us. He weeps for the poor and the lost. Hes furious about religious leaders who do nothing but invent new burdens for people. Hes deeply saddened by those who show little love and forgiveness. Hes overwhelmingly generous in the way he provides basketfuls of food and jars of plenty and by the way, he loves a party! He is incredibly attached to people who see themselves as worthless. Hes heartbreakingly loyal to those who have deserted him. Hes extravagant with everything - his teaching, his healing, his time, his compassion and his anger. Is this a man who is timid and meek, who protects his space, and values his safety? Absolutely not. His passion for the world is so great that he throws all caution to the winds, his passion is so great that he thinks we are worth dying for. We could paraphrase that well known verse from Johns gospel about God loving the world, and say rather Jesus so loved the world, that he gave himself (in every way possible) so that those who believed in him would have eternal life. And his passion is so great that he sheds tears. In the very next verse after our reading ended it says this: As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace If it seems to you from what Ive said today that Jesus was fulfilling his own destiny, then bear in mind that he may have chosen the hour and the place, and he may have chosen the donkey, but he didnt choose to be betrayed, and he didnt choose the whip and the thorns, he didnt choose the nails and the cross. Even at this eleventh hour there is a chance for things to go differently, not because Jesus chooses to avoid his end, but because people could have made a different choice. But we didnt, and Jesus knows that this extravagant passion he has is going to cost him everything he has. Where does that leave us this Palm Sunday? I think Jesus is calling us to make our own choice, and to do so, as Jesus did, with determination and passion. That doesnt mean we have to have all the answers about God, but equally we cant respond to everything that Jesus did and gave in a neutral way. Jesus chose us, he asks us to choose him. He chose to put us first, now he asks us to put him first. And to do it with meaning, and commitment. He didnt spend his time on earth drifting about from place to place in a half hearted way he did so with purpose and a fire in his heart. And if we have faith in him, and if we have any sense of wonder and awe at his passion, then surely we shouldnt just drift from Sunday to Sunday either, but actually be caught up in some of that fire and purpose. Its a fact that may well pass you by because in itself its not at all important, but there are only two Sundays when we wear red in church, one is today, and one is Pentecost, when we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit in tongues of flame that completely inspired and transformed the disciples, and perhaps thats what were looking for on Palm Sunday too, that we will not just believe in the cross and in the resurrection in a remote sort of way, but that we would really mean it, that we would believe in his passion with passion. And how can we be unmoved today. By the bad news and the good news. Moved perhaps to tears ourselves by the plight of a king who takes all the bad news on his shoulders in the weight of a cross. But moved too by the fact that he does so in the hope that he wont have to weep for us, as he did for Jerusalem, but can rejoice with us instead. He suffers, so that the good news can be ours including the promise of heaven. He suffers to bring us peace. 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