Palm Sunday: What Happens When You Assume?

Palm Sunday is upon us. Christians all around the world will remember and celebrate Jesus coming into Jerusalem. For Jesus, this was the beginning of the end; he knew this journey would lead him to the cross. But for those present on the road with him into the city, this was an occasion to celebrate! They spread cloaks on the ground and waved palm branches in the air and yelled shouts of "Hosanna!" (Mark 11:1-11)

The word "hosanna" has its roots in Hebrew and made its way into Aramaic (the language Jesus probably spoke) and Greek. People have been saying it for a LONG time. It means "help us" or "save us." So when they shouted this as Jesus traveled to and entered Jerusalem, they were asking for a savior. Today, we ask ourselves: in a world of violence, injustice, greed, pain, and suffering how do we wage peace, hope, healing, gratitude, and love? I imagine that the people who first shouted "Hosanna!" were crying out for the same thing.

You may have heard the joke about what happens when you assume...you make a...donkey...out of u and me. Both the Romans and the Jews did a lot of assuming. They assumed they knew what Christ meant when he promised to bring the kingdom of heaven. Jewish zealots were eager to spill Roman blood and take their roles in a new Davidic monarchy. Pharisees and Saducees were concerned about their religious leadership. Centurions were ready to ensure that  the "peace" that existed between nationalities within the Roman Empire was maintained, no matter the cost.

Jesus came, proclaiming that the kingdom of God was near, and people assumed they knew what he meant. They were eager to make sure their expectations about this new covenant were met, beginning with the crowds. The people of Jerusalem poured out into the streets and shouted this word, "Hosanna!" This was not the first time the people of this city shouted this word; nearly 150 years prior to this occasion, they same exclamation was shouted as a family called the Macabees assisted a revolution that drove the Roman occupiers out of the city. They ruled there for a while until the Romans came back and installed puppet Hebrew kings (like Herod, who attempted to find and kill Jesus when he was born). "Hosanna!" they called out to the Macabees. "Hosanna!"they called out when Jesus came..."Save us, king of Israel!"

But Jesus did not come to drive the Romans out. He did not come to conquer the city. He inspired a different kind of revolution. Jesus introduced another way, another kingdom. The only blood that was spilled from his revolution was his own, on the journey to his own death on the cross. Jesus began a revolution of grace, forgiveness, hope, and love.


*Prayer:

God, whose fingers sculpt sun and moon
   and curl the baby’s ear;
   Spirit, brooding over chaos
      before the naming of day;
Savior, sending us to earth's ends
   with water and words:
startle us with the grace, love, and communion
   of your unity in diversity,
that we may live to the praise of your majestic name. Amen.

*Worship and Song Worship Resources, 21.

In Christ,

Jack

Covenant: Vows

In Jeremiah 31:31-34, God has a relationship-defining conversation with the prophet Jeremiah, who is a spokesperson of the Israelites in exile in Babylon. In High School, me and my friends would call this a "DTR," an occasion in which a couple would have a conversation where they would "define the relationship." It was time, in this DTR, to label the relationship: are we dating? boyfriend/girlfriend? going steady? Where are we as a couple?

So God has a DTR with Jeremiah and the Israelites. God says "I don't want to be just friends, I want to deepen things, I want to take things to the next level. The covenant I am making with you will be a covenant whose codes are not written in stone, but on your hearts." God wants a more personal relationship with the Israelites. "I will write this covenant on your hearts; and I will be your God, and you shall be my people."

The word "religion" comes from the Latin verb religare, which means "to connect, to bind together." So my faith, your faith, the Church's faith, our relationship with God, are not about getting ourselves or others to fall in line with a set of doctrine. Religion and faith is not about getting anyone to fall in line with a proper way of doing things. What this faith, this religion, this community, this covenant with God is all about is to get us, not to fall in line, but to fall in love. This is not entirely romantic, but there is an element of that as God reveals and sticks to God's promises. God loves us, and we can fall into that love by living as if this promise by God is indeed on our hearts. It is part of us.

*Prayer:

O God of our Hearts
You yearn to be so close to us
that we can know you in every breath,
in every hope, in every relationship.

Meet us here today and
teach us to recognize
the covenant of justice, peace and love
you have written on our hearts.

So may our desires become your desires,
our work become your work,
and our community
the place where you are sought and found.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

~*taken from “O God of Our Hearts: Prayers for the Fifth Sunday in Lent,” written by Rev. Kathryn Matthews Huey and the Rev. Susan A. Blain.

In Christ,

Jack

The Gospel in Miniature

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Martin Luther once said that John 3:16 is "the gospel in miniature."  It is one of the most well known verses from the whole Bible, let alone the gospels. I have seen it on signs at Super Bowls, billboards, church signs, and out of the mouths of new Christians and long-time ones too. It might be the gospel in miniature, but there is nothing else small about it.


Scholars have debated it, but it seems as though the words in John 3: 16-21 come from John the evangelist himself, not Jesus. Here, the author of the gospel is reflecting on a crucial conversation between Jesus and "a man of the Pharisees" (part of the religious authority who contended with Jesus) named Nicodemus. They have this conversation about what it means to be "born again" in the beginning of chapter 3, and then the evangelist John begins to reflect on what he has learned from this interaction.

I will admit that to comment on these verses, John 3:16-21, is quite humbling. Here, I am encountered with, much like the author, the awesomeness of God, the love of God. These verses can stump my speech and take my breath away.

If we agree with Luther that John 3:16 is the gospel in miniature, perhaps we would agree with him when he says "If I were as our Lord God, and these vile people were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world in pieces." But God "so loved the world..." God's foolish, blundering, wayward, sinful world...and God cannot bear to leave it in its troubles and disasters, but has done all that God can do to save it. God gave us Jesus. God can not, will not, let us go. We have given God every reason to, and yet God has remained our God. God has remained faithful to us, and given us eternal life. That life begins now, no matter how deep in sin or shame you are. And it continues forever.


"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:17)

Come to Jesus, for the first, tenth, hundredth, thousandth, or millionth  time, to be saved.


*Prayer:

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide,
brighter than snow you may be today.

Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin!

*Grace Greater than Our Sin, The United Methodist Hymnal, 365

In Christ,
Jack