August 21: Lesson: Matthew 21.1-11

Sermon Title: Name Recognition

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. What names of famous people can you name?

    1. What makes them famous?

    2. Why is it easy to recall their names?

  2. Let us open this part of worship with a quotation from Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).

1 Let us now sing the praises of famous men (and women),
        our ancestors in their generations, (Sirach 44:1, NRSVA).

    1. What makes a person famous?

      1. It is not wealth nor fame.

      2. It is not position nor power.

    2. A person is famous because of what, not who you are.

    3. A person is famous who lives in the same village for 48 years and has a lot of friends and acquaintances.

    4. Admittedly, a person may become famous because of the ways in which the what of a person is worked out in the ways of a person.

    5. Why is it difficult to recollect the importance of the Master Teacher?

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Richard Lovelace (1618-1657) in To Althea, from Prison offers a clue.

    1. The last stanza of his poem reads:

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

      1. If stone walls do not a prison make, what else makes a prison?

      2. If iron bars do not make a cage, then what else makes a cage.

      3. We are the prisoners of our own minds which may be worse than any prison that humankind has devised.

    1. A Roman Catholic monk (1) in a southern California monastery, offers a clear understanding when he says:

"It is a familiar theme in religious stories that people fail to see God when he appears to them because he is not what they're expecting. They already have a clear conception of what God is like, and when the Almighty confronts them directly, they turn away because 'that just couldn't be right.'"

    1. Too often we are like the small child who came home from Sunday worship singing a different song.

Ho, Suzanna (2):

Mary Berntson writes about her six-year-old son who came home from our Palm Sunday service proudly carrying his palm.

My husband and I quizzed him on his Sunday school lesson for the day.

He told us enthusiastically,

"Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey. And the happy people waved their palm branches and sang, 'Ho, Suzanna.'"

      1. The crowd wants a king.

      2. They have no name recognition.

    1. Look at the Disciples.

      1. They want the same things as the people and more.

      2. They want positions of power and authority.

      3. They want positions of leadership and wealth.

      4. There is no other reason for the purpose they have of whipping up the crowd into a deeper frenzy.

      5. Even now they have no name recognition.

    2. Look at the one on the donkey.

      1. What does he want for himself.

        1. Acceptance

        2. Appreciation

        3. Understanding

      2. What does he want for his people.

        1. Spiritual growth

        2. Contentment

        3. Community based on mutual love and support.

      3. What does he want for all humanity.

        1. Freedom from slavery to false concepts and ideas.

        2. Relationship which leads to love and justice

        3. An overthrow of evil and the inauguration of the divine kingdom.

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  1. Jesus is seeking, above all on this day and in coming week, to communicate who and what he is and what he has to offer.

    1. He wants each of us to know his name.

    2. The television program Cheers had a wonderful theme song that was played at the beginning of every show.

"Where Everybody Knows Your Name" By: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.
You want to go where people know, people are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

    1. This is not Cheers, it is the greatest show on earth.

    2. It is important to allow this Jesus's communication to penetrate to the deepest levels of the mind and spirit.

Peak Communication (3):

Francis Lieb, Timothy Lutheran Church, Blue Springs, MO relates that,

The family had gathered for a wedding and, predictably, the two grown brothers in the family "enjoyed" another argument just like they did when they were kids!

On the way home from the wedding our daughter said:

"We talked about family argument in our class in high school called 'Family Relations.'

My uncles were not involved in 'Peak Communication'!

'What's that?' I asked.

She said, 'Oh that's the highest level of communication. There are five levels of communication:

      1. Cliche - chit-chat - surface talk

      2. Relate facts about others

      3. Relate thoughts and ideas about self (personal)

      4. Relate feelings about self (personal)

      5. Peak communication - open, honest sharing of self resulting in harmony and joyous sharing (intimacy of life)

    1. He continues: It was a week before Palm Sunday when my daughter shared this little bit of wisdom.

And it struck me--"Peak Communication' is exactly what God was doing during that holy week when the Son of God gave his life for you and me! His was the highest level of communication that has ever taken place! God wanted the whole world to know He loves us totally, unconditionally! And that moment of peak communication has brought you and me into the most important relationship of all--intimacy with God!!

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CONCLUSION

  1. The ride into Jerusalem is a sermon, it is the beginning of the greatest living illustration of love and desire.

    1. We may spend so much time discussing the details that we may miss the central purpose of what we call Palm/Passion Sunday and Holy Week.

    2. His purposes have not changed.

  2. He invites us to avoid the mind set that refuses to recognize, and enter into the relationship that benefits us not only today but thru the ages to come.

1. (The Myth of the Great Secret, pp. 73-74)

2. Mary Berntson in The Lutheran

3. Francis Lieb, Timothy Lutheran Church, Blue Springs, MO

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