SPECIAL DAYS: Passion/Palm Sunday

April 16, 2000 - LESSONS: Isaiah 50.4-9a; Mark 11.1-11

SERMON TITLE: Not Again!

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. Well, here we are again: Not Again!.
    1. It is like going to the same restaurant
      1. Sitting in the same booth
      2. Looking at the same menu
      3. Ordering the same meal.
    2. There are feelings of comfortableness.
    3. But at the same time feelings of sameness.
  2. So why do we keep coming back.
    1. We keep coming back to be reminded of who and what we are.
    2. We keep coming back because this is a deep need that can only be fulfilled by God.

MAIN BODY

  1. We are in need of a God who cares
    1. Henri Nouwen found a sculpture of Jesus on a donkey in the Augustiner Museum in Frieburg.(1)
      1. He calls it one of the most moving Christ figures he knows.
        1. The fourteenth-century sculpture originally came from a small town close to Breisach on the Rhine.
        2. It was made to be pulled on a cart for the Palm Sunday procession.

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      1. Nouwen found himself drawn to this sculpture.
        1. He sent postcards of it to his friends and keeps one in his prayer book.
        2. Looking at the face of Jesus he reflects,
          1. "There is melancholy, but also peaceful acceptance.
          2. There is insight into the fickleness of the human heart, but also immense compassion.
          3. There is a deep awareness of the unspeakable pain to be suffered, but also a strong determination to do God's will.
      2. Above all, Nouwen writes there is love,
        1. An endless, deep and far-reaching love born from an unbreakable intimacy with God
        2. A love that reaches out to all people, wherever they are, were, or will be.
    1. There is nothing that he does not fully know.
    2. There is no one for whom he does not deeply care.
  1. We are in need of a God who forgives all who seek forgiveness.
    1. God who is willing to forgive the bad as well as the good.
    2. After years of wandering, Clint Dennis realized something important was missing from his life.(2)
      1. He decided to attend church.
      2. As he entered a church for the first time he noticed people putting on long robes.
      3. They were also tying ropes around their waists and wrapping headdresses around their heads.
      4. "Come be a part of the mob," a stranger told him.
      5. It was Palm Sunday and the church was re-enacting the Crucifixion in costume.
      6. He would be part of the crowd that shouted, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"
      7. Hesitantly he agreed.
      8. Then another stranger hurried up to him.
      9. "The man who was supposed to play one of the thieves on the cross didn't show up," he said.
      10. "Would you take his place?"
      11. Again Clint agreed and was shown to the cross where he would look on as Jesus died.
      12. Just then, though, something about Clint's manner caught a member's eye.
      13. He turned to Clint and asked, "Have you ever asked Jesus to forgive your sins?"
      14. "No," Clint replied softly, "but that's why I came here."
      15. There beneath the cross, they prayed, and Clint asked Jesus to come into his heart.
      16. What the church didn't know was that Clint had been in prison for ten years.
        1. He was a real thief.
        2. Even after his release he had gone on stealing cars and trucks until he realized that something was missing from his life.
      17. In that moment he found forgiveness and reconciliation.

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    1. It is the forgiveness and reconciliation that is always present for the one who is willing to ask.
  1. We are in need of a God who not only cares and forgives, but backs up caring with action.
    1. Kenneth Lyerly of Kenosha, Wisconsin was the narrator at his church's Easter cantata a few years ago.(3)
      1. He remembers that as they were about to go into the sanctuary to sing,
      2. The pastor came up to him and asked if he would be willing to carry the cross out at the end of the service.
        1. Kenneth agreed without giving it a second thought.
        2. "But as the cantata went on," he recalls, "I had a lot of time between narrations to think about what I had been asked to do."
      3. From where he was standing he could see the cross at the rear of the sanctuary.
      4. "As I thought about carrying it out, I had a strong feeling of not being worthy."
      5. He thought that someone else should do it.
        1. "I wondered why the pastor had asked me. Why hadn't he asked someone else?"
        2. These thoughts distracted him from what he was supposed to be reading in the cantata.
        3. His eyes kept returning to the cross.
      6. At the end of the service, the pastor brought the cross over and handed it to Kenneth.
        1. He was struck by its size and weight.
        2. "It wasn't a very big cross," he said, "but at that moment it seemed very large and very heavy."
      7. The walk from the front of the church to the back seemed a long way.
      8. "A part of me wanted to get it over with; to get out of there and put it down, because I felt very uncomfortable with it."
      9. Then something unexpected happened.
        1. "When I got out into the narthex, I turned and watched as the children started to come out of the sanctuary."
        2. A little boy looked up and touched the cross.
        3. He asked, "Did Jesus really die on a cross like this?"
      10. "It was all that I could do to say yes,"
      11. Kenneth later said, "but I did manage to get it out.
      12. I'll never forget what happened next.
      13. His face lit up as he began to comprehend, probably for the first time in his life what Jesus had done for him.
      14. As I lay the cross down, I felt very pleased that I had been given the opportunity to carry it."

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    1. Jesus could have ducked his mission.
    2. But still he rides on.
    3. This is the result of a God who acts on behalf of those who are in need.

CONCLUSION:

  1. So here we are again, Not Again, yes, again.
    1. We need God to help us to remember who are what we are and the deep needs we each have.
    2. A lady tells about the Palm Sunday celebration at her church.(4)
      1. It was their tradition to celebrate Palm Sunday with members marching outside the church waving palm leaves as they sang the Palm Sunday hymns.
      2. Because they knew that Palm Sunday was but a prelude to Good Friday, however, the congregation was careful not to get too giddy as they did this.
      3. After all, as she says, "We already know, as Paul Harvey says, 'the rest of the story.'"
      4. It's hard to put your whole heart into the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem when you know what comes next.
      5. "So the adults hold back..." she writes,
      6. "And somehow we think if we don't get too exuberant with the palm frond on Sunday,
      7. maybe we can escape the nail on Friday."
    3. We cannot escape the nail of a Good Friday, but we can join in the rejoicing of Easter.
      1. It's quite a day.
      2. It's quite a week.
    4. To understand and feel, we immerse ourselves in the activities that reminds us of the events.

    5. IT'S PALMS, AND SUPPER,

      COMMUNION AND GETHSEMANE,

      A CROSS AND A BURIAL,

      A SEALED TOMB AND AN EMPTY ONE.

      A DEAD JESUS AND A RISEN LORD

      THE PROSPECT OF NOTHING AND THE PROSPECTS OF ETERNITY.

  2. This is why we keep coming back!

1. The Road to Daybreak. Henri J. M. Nouwen. New York: Doubleday, 1988, pp. 134_135.

2. "The Thief." Jo Hart. Snowflakes in September. Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 1992, pp. 13_14.

3. Lectionary Stories. John E. Sumwalt, Lima OH: C. S. S. Publishing Company, Inc., 1992, pp. 61_62.

4. Stories for the Christian Year. Eugene H. Peterson. (ed.) New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992, pp. 104_109.

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