Some Pretty Good Sermons: Palm Sunday 2015

Palm Sunday 2015 - ©Brian R. Paulson, D.Min.

Libertyville, Illinois

"Kingdom Come" - Isaiah 50:4-9a; Mark 11:1-11

Let's begin with a "Hosanna!" and consider this fascinating quotation:

"Power comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on."[i]

This is a line written by Norman Maclean in his family story, "A River Runs Through It," that was made into a movie by Robert Redford.

He referenced it with regard to the Presbyterian way of fly cast fishing.

"Remember," his father kept saying, "it is an art that is performed on a four-count rhythm between ten and two o'clock."

So, writes Maclean, "my brother and I learned to cast Presbyterian-style, on our mother's metronome."[ii]

Power, his father taught, comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on.

Holy week begins with power and Jesus understood the source of his power.

As the prophet wrote, "The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced."[iii]

Norman Maclean wrote, "My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace."[iv]

The Lord God helps me. That is grace.

"All good things come by grace," wrote Maclean, "and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."[v]

Jesus set his face like flint. This he could do because he knew the source of his power. His power was grace - the help of God.[vi]

Now grace comes by art and art does not come easy. Jesus turned to Jerusalem full of grace and truth but what lay ahead would not come easy.

Yet with God, our help, all things are possible.

Jesus set his face like flint and knew he would not be put to shame. His face was like flint. Adversity would come, passion would come, but the substance of his character - the flint of his soul would set a flame of faith and endurance for the ages.

As the Psalmist announced, when the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear.[vii] God is my help.

There is a kingdom the people announced with hosannas as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. It is not like the empire that Pontius Pilate embodied with his legions arriving for the Passover festival.

They announced, "blessed is the kingdom of our ancestor David"[viii] - that boy who conquered a giant - not with armor, not with armies, but with the help of God - the power of grace.

It is the Kingdom of David - that king who sinned, the king who grieved, but the one who always understood the source of his power - the help of God, the power of grace.

So when we shout, Hosanna, we are crying for a different kind of world than what we perceive. We cry out for a kingdom of grace that relies on the love of God.

We cry out for a new world: Where the centuries old grudges of the middle east can be healed; Where true reconciliation can abolish racism in our world.

We cry out for a kingdom of grace - "thy kingdom come, thy will be done," we pray.

In her book, Travelling Mercies, Anne Lamott quotes Eugene O'Neill saying, "Human beings are born broken. We live by mending. The grace of God is the glue."[ix]

The grace of God is the glue. It can turn the chalky sands of our life into the sturdy stone of flint.

The grace of God is the power of Jesus' kingdom.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Can I get a hosanna?!

Power comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on. It comes by grace. It comes from the help of God - from the mending of our character, - and the art, is knowing when to apply it.

It is Palm Sunday - Passion Sunday. Jesus applied the power of God.

I am drawing from the prophet Isaiah today because Jesus embodies the suffering servant described by the prophet. I am drawing from this image because in his day the prophet was writing to God's people (as I am speaking to you as God's people), with words of encouragement for the experience of their broken lives.

There will be days in your life when you confront the powers of the empire - not the kingdom of grace. We are confronted by the empire of power and control - the demonic forces that assail us.

Jesus teaches another kind of power. It is the kind of power that rides on a beast of burden. - Humble. It is a power that you can dispense as well.

It need not be grand or historic. It can be as simple as a cookie.

I love the way Dennis the Menace puts it when talking to his friend Joey. In one cartoon scene the boys are walking away from Mrs. Wilson's house with arms full of cookies. Joey wonders, "I wonder what we ever did to deserve this!" Dennis answers, "Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're nice, but because she's nice."

And you can do this. You can share a cookie.

You can be like Mrs. Wilson. You have that simple power. The power of grace.

I heard it in the voice of the father of one Germanwings crash victims this week. He said his heart was with the parents of the co-pilot who is presumed to have caused the great air tragedy. He spoke in hopes that the man's parents were not bearing undue shame or responsibility. - He demonstrated grace.

"The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher," says the prophet, "that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word."[x]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, one of the scribes approached him and asked which commandment was greatest. Jesus answered by saying Love God and Love your Neighbor. You are right, said the scribe. Then Jesus told him - you are not far from the kingdom of God.[xi]

You can be the one to share the kingdom of grace. You have the power to love God and to love your neighbor in practical ways like our event at Feed My Starving Children.[xii]

You have the word of life - the kingdom of grace - to offer the world.

Morning by morning God wakens — wakens our ears to listen as those who are taught.[xiii]

The power Jesus brought came from his capacity to listen. Throughout his ministry leading up to this pivotal day, he engaged the lives of ordinary people with ordinary hopes for a better day. He was steeped in the teaching of the prophets, the wisdom of torah and the poetry of the psalms. He had learned how to listen.

His words were discerning. His words were power. On Palm Sunday, the time had arrived to put that power on.

How would we do it? And I wonder, how will we do it?

I love the question that sociologist Tony Campolo borrowed from his preacher and used time and again. "What would you rather have? A title or a testimony?

As Jesus approached Jerusalem that day long ago - Pontius Pilate had the title, but Jesus had the testimony.

Pilate had the empire, but Jesus had the kingdom.

Soon, metal would strike flint.

Sparks were about to fly.

But Jesus had the testimony, he had the character of grace, he had flint for a face - he was set to take the blows.

A new kingdom was coming. A kingdom of reconciliation. A kingdom of grace.

A new world for you and me. Thanks be to God. Hosanna!