PALM SUNDAY (Year C) – Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 19:29-40 – 28 March 2010 – A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado
Worshiping God: An Act of Rebellion
INTRODUCTION – Are you a little rebel?
Raise your hand if you believe there is a little rebel in you. Raise both hands if you see yourself as a bona fide rebel.
Okay, if I may ask, what makes you part of the counter-culture? What has been your most recent act of rebellion? (wait for answers)
I’ve been thinking this past week about what would qualify someone as a rebel in today’s American culture. Here’s a few of the things I came up with – think of it as one person’s stab at a “Top Ten Rebellious Acts in America in 2010” list.
Someone who really takes the time to listen to another person
Someone who hangs out with people that the vast majority of the culture has no time for – those who are in nursing homes, those in the hospital, those who are in prison, those who are homeless or lonely or without work
Those who take some time to fast from all forms of technology and anything that generates noise so that they can pray and read the Bible and listen for a word from God
Anyone who looks for the best in other people, rather than assuming the worst and going into attack mode in ten seconds flat
Anyone who writes and sends an old-fashioned letter to someone
Anyone who reads for the sheer enjoyment of reading
Anyone who says, “No, I don’t need to be paid for that”, or “You are paying me too much. I’d like a cut in salary this year.”
Anyone who is open and willing to look at themselves and learn from every single experience that he or she has
All those who are equally concerned about the welfare of others (and their lives show it) as they are about their own welfare
And perhaps the most rebellious, counter-cultural act in which you can participate in the United States in 2010, and one you have chosen to participate in today…. (a drum roll, please)… worshipping God.
JESUS RIDING INTO JERUSALEM
Jesus could visualize some things before they happened. Perhaps that is what happens when you are very close to God, you’re seeking to do God’s will above all else, and you really know in your body what is supposed to happen in a given situation.
“Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. [How did he know it had never been ridden? I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing it had something to do with him being observant, or maybe he had struck up a conversation with the owner of the colt on a previous occasion.] Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you [because surely someone will], “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.”
And it unfolded exactly as he said it would. And the owners let the disciples borrow the colt. And Jesus set himself on it, and he rode from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, coming from the east, the direction from which, according to Zechariah, on the coming “day of the Lord”, the Lord would come into Jerusalem and become “king over all the earth”. (Zechariah 14:9)
And a whole multitude of disciples of Jesus – not just twelve of them but a huge crowd – were paying attention this day, and they realized that perhaps Jesus was the fulfillment of this prophecy, and they couldn’t help themselves. They “began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen…” (Luke 19:37)
They thought about all the people that Jesus had healed, all the folks who had been restored to their right minds, the two huge crowds that had been fed with so little food, how he had calmed the storm when they were out on the Sea of Galilee, and how he had brought both Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter and their adult friend Lazarus back to life. And there was no stopping them from praising God.
“Blessed is the king [notice they called him king, in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy] who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (Luke 19:38)
There’s always someone who is going to say “Okay, everyone calm down!” when folks get excited. It happened here, too. Some of the Pharisees who were there said to Jesus, “Teacher [Rabbi], order your disciples to stop.” And he answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Luke 19:39-40)
Perhaps Jesus was thinking of that wonderful passage in Isaiah, when those who had been exiled were given a word of hope. “For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:12)
We have these different images from scripture, that God is so worth praising that when we are worshipping God, it is not just we who are rejoicing and singing and praying, but we are joining the countless throngs of angels – “the heavenly host” – who are praising God. And there are times when all of creation joins in, too. The mountains, the hills, the stones, the trees – these things we think of as being inanimate – they are going crazy with love and praise and thanksgiving, too. And that is what was going on, the day that Jesus mounted that colt and rode into Jerusalem.
And some Pharisees said, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” What party poopers!
If Jesus were speaking into today’s lingo, he would have said, “Say what? Are you kidding me?”
He couldn’t have stopped them if he wanted to. And more important than that, he didn’t want to. They were doing something rebellious. They were worshipping God, and not the emperor, and Jesus wasn’t about to tell them to stop. He wasn’t about to silence them or tell them that they were doing the wrong thing, because they were doing the most important thing of all, and a very right thing.
HOLY WEEK IS HERE, DO SOMETHING REBELLIOUS
Holy week is here. For those of us who call ourselves Christians, this is the biggest week of the year. Do you know that? It’s bigger than Christmas. It’s bigger than New Year’s. It’s bigger than your birthday. It’s bigger than the 4th of July or the Super Bowl. Name a day or a week. It’s way bigger than any of them. For this is the week that changed everything. This is the week when we are reminded that out of death comes new life, and that that is the way life works. If you want new life, you have to do some dying – dying to self, dying to old patterns and ways that do not lead to life, dying to the lie that if we all look out for #1, first and foremost, that everything will be okay. This is the week that we learn again about sacrificial love and grace and “not my will but thine be done”.
You have two choices this week.
You can have a normal Monday – you know, the kind where people complain about it being Monday – or you can be rebellious and join your voices to Mary’s as we sing the Magnificat as part of Holden Evening Prayer at 7 pm.
You can have a normal Wednesday, where you think of it as “hump day” and rejoice that the kids are going back to school, or you can be rebellious and participate in the Tenebrae service at 7 pm, where you will experience the shadows and get a sneak preview of what’s to come later in the week.
You can get caught up in March Madness on Thursday as the NCAA basketball tournament winds down with the final four teams, or you can participate in a different kind of madness that is the icing on the cake when it comes to being rebellious. How about washing your neighbor’s feet at 7 pm that night? Is that counter-cultural enough for you? Or staying up one hour, here in the shadows of the nave, to pray one hour with Jesus? Or thinking of those disciples participating in Jesus’ last supper, when he said, “Take, eat; this is my body” and “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins? Worshipping and remembering the last night of Jesus’ life – is that counter-cultural enough for you?
On Friday you can think to yourselves “T.G.I.F.” and go about it as a normal Friday, and think about what you will do to have fun on Friday night.
Or you can do something truly rebellious. You can come to church on Friday night at 7 pm (or Friday at noon), and contemplate Jesus on the cross. If you remember the day your mom or dad died… if you understand something about what a sacrificial death means… if you understand that this was the biggest death in all of history… then it probably makes some sense to go to church and worship God on this particular Friday, the one that we call “good”.
And Saturday, we all know that as play day, clean day, get-stuff-done day, cheer-for-our-children-on-the-soccer-field day. But it’s also a day that you can anticipate Jesus’ rising from the dead, by coming to church – there’s that rebellious act again – at 8 pm.
And next Sunday… have you noticed that there are so many things to do on Sunday now that it is just like Saturday? Sports going full blast, malls open, catching up on work that has to get done, housework. Sundays are the new Saturdays. Now we have two Saturdays each week. Unless… unless we do something really dangerous and extremely rebellious, and decide to worship God that day. And, on yeah, it will be Easter Sunday, so bring your bells and your best singing voices, and be prepared to praise God in a way that they might hear us all through Spanish Hills.
CONCLUSION
What I’d like to see this coming week, and every Sunday for that matter, is a bunch of rebels in action. And if you’re a bona fide rebel, then that literally means that you are a “good faith” rebel – one who lives out faith in Christ, even when more and more people choose to give only lip service to God, if that. Yes, more and more every year, worshipping God is becoming a counter-cultural act. I’d like to invite your inner rebel to be very visible this week, right here at church. And let us not be afraid to share with others that this is our biggest week of the year, our most important week of the year, our loudest week of the year. Because this is the week that our Lord washed his disciples’ feet and said “take; eat; this is my body” and “drink, for this is my blood”. This is the week that our Lord died, and this is the week that he rose again. This is the week that we celebrate his life, death, and resurrection, him being alive in us and in this community. No one can stop us from giving a “shout out” to God this week, no matter what else may be going on, that other people think is so important. Because there is nothing more important than this.
Any bona fide rebel knows this to be true.