WHAT WE DO KNOW…
The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
March 16, 2008
Sermon Preached by The Rev’d Robert Picken
Church of the Ascension, Greenpoint
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Palm Sunday is one of the more confusing days in the Church year. By its very nature, it shakes us and turns us and, by its very nature, creates a bit of a tension. And, it is the only Sunday when the story is left somewhat unresolved.
We began our liturgy singing, “Hosanna in the Highest: Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Waving palm branches, hailing our King.
And, within moments, before our Palm Procession even ended, we stopped and looked toward the Cross, towards Calvary. And, as each prayer and reading progressed, we marched closer and closer to the Crucifixion, until we became the crowd yelling, “crucify Him, crucify Him.”
We are the same people who only a short time ago were yelling, “Hosanna!” And, just a few moments ago, “Let Him be crucified.”
It is very simply mob-mentality. And, we make this same choice every day of our life. One day, maybe, we join the crowd that shouts "Hosanna!" and the next day "Crucify him;” that praises one day and forgets the next, that adores one day and ignores the next.
From the Jr. High School lunch room to the Wall Street office to Coffee Hour to walking out these doors into those streets, we make choices between living for the Jesus who lived and died for us or fleeing from Him to find security in ourselves.
No matter how we try to sugar-coat it, we turn from a mob that sings praises to a mob that ignores Christ in the poor, the suffering, the outcast, the people sitting right next to us and even Christ in ourselves.
Yet, somehow in the middle of this tension, in the middle of the confusion, in the middle of this Sin, God brings out new life.
What we do know is that Jesus, our Lord, our God, walked willingly to His death after the ticker-tape parade was all swept up and done. What we do know is that Jesus would say to our heavenly Father, "Thy will be done," even though his commitment would lead to his death.
That Jesus would have compassion on the crowds, whether they shouted praise or condemnation, whether they welcomed him as a hero or rejected him as a criminal.
That Jesus was willing to suffer excruciating pain even though he did nothing to deserve it.
That Jesus could have called down legions of angels to defend him, could have taken himself down from the cross, could have condemned his accusers and damned his betrayers; but instead, he hung there, knowing his death would mean the defeat of death, even if he had to go through hell to find out for sure.
That in God's eternal heart, you were present, and if you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have done this for you.
This should mean the world to us. This means life. This means hope and comfort.
There is no suffering we can experience that is not known by God's very self. There is no heartache we can have that Jesus cannot touch; no temptation we can face that Jesus cannot strengthen us against; no hard decision we have to make that Jesus cannot prepare us for; no burden to carry that Jesus cannot remove; no wounds we have to bear that Jesus cannot heal; no injustice we can suffer that Jesus cannot conquer; no assaults can assail us that Jesus cannot help us to endure; no loneliness we can feel that Jesus cannot come to meet us in.
The cross means there is no failure we can face that Jesus cannot fix; no sin we can commit that Jesus cannot remove; no mistake, misjudgment, act of meanness, ignorant thoughtlessness, petty-mindedness, or selfish seeking after security in this world instead of trusting in the eternal that Jesus cannot take and transform; no hardness of heart that Jesus cannot grind down and sift through and remold and reform into something that can love and receive love.
Maybe this is why we gathered today, because we know this. Or, maybe we are simply passers-by seeking and searching. Either way, What we do know is that today's gospel story, at the heart of the Church's faith, should be at the heart of our faith: that Jesus would live and die for us. And, this is to be continued… Amen.
