Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
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SERMON
I suspect that if I asked each of us
to take a couple of minutes and make a list
of our “top ten favorite” Christian celebrations, or holidays …
that Palm Sunday would be somewhere on nearly everyone’s list.
A cheering crowd …
Jesus coming into the city …
people waving palm branches
and spreading their garments on the road …
hymns we get to sing only once a year …
it’s all kind of fun.
Almost like having a parade in church.
It’s kind of the last hurrah for Jesus and his disciples
before things turned ugly.
By the end of this week,
these very same crowds that shouted “Hosanna!”
are going to be screaming “Crucify him!”
But for the moment,
everything is great;
maybe the best it’s ever been.
And for them,
just like it would be for us,
it is so easy and so wonderful to get caught up in the moment,
To wish it could be like that forever.
Whether it’s a parade in the streets of Jerusalem,
or a special time with our family and friends,
or even quality time spent alone,
every now and then, we have those moments when life is so good
that we’d just like to hit the “stop” button
and keep things as they are, in that moment.
Maybe even rewind and replay,
to have the wonderful experience over and over again.
I’m sure that Jesus’ disciples
must have felt a little of this on that day long ago:
The welcome they received,
and the celebration of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem
were, in a real way, an affirmation of the choice they had made.
They had risked just about everything –
left behind the lives they had known in order to follow Jesus,
even though at times it was very difficult and very confusing.
People didn’t always want to hear what they had to say;
sometimes they were ridiculed;
other times their lives were threatened …
and sometimes, they themselves didn’t understand
what Jesus was getting at!
So, this day must have felt wonderful to them.
The temptation must have been strong for them,
to try to hold onto that experience
of that first Palm Sunday.
For all we know,
it may even have been something of a temptation for Jesus, as well.
He knew, better than anyone else,
how the story was going to end.
When he came into Jerusalem that morning,
even with the crowds cheering and waving all around him,
he knew his death was inevitable.
Sooner, rather than later.
It’s may even be that that’s part of the reason
that he waited as long as he did
to visit Jerusalem in the first place.
Once he was “on the turf” of the religious leaders,
sooner or later, they were going to get their hands on him.
So, wouldn’t it have been wonderful instead
to freeze the picture forever,
on this impromptu street celebration,
where everyone seemed to be happy,
and Jesus himself was on top of the world?
But he knew that he couldn’t stop the world and get off;
he couldn’t really even stop the donkey and get off;
it had already been set in motion …
and to his credit, he didn’t try.
We sometimes do try!
but it’s just as impossible for us, to stop in the moment.
And so, in light of what we know about the “rest of the story” of Jesus’ life,
we need perhaps to ask ourselves,
how do we respond when life goes sour?
How will we respond when the bad times come upon us,
sometimes quite suddenly, as they seem to like to do,
and the good times seem far away?
Will we react more like the crowds did,
turning fickle and fearful,
changing our minds about what’s important
depending on what’s in favor at the moment …
shouting “Hosanna!” one day
and “Crucify!” the next?
Or can we at least try to react more in the way that Jesus did,
who knew there were unpleasant things coming in the very near future,
but who nevertheless committed himself to God’s vision of the future,
and kept moving forward out of the good into the scary?
And not only that,
but who continued to give praise to God in all things?
In other words,
do we shout hosanna
only when life is good and all is well,
or is our whole life a hosanna of praise
offered to God?
Let me pause and say for a minute
what I don’t mean by that,
because this is easy to misunderstand,
and some people do it deliberately!
I am talking about finding ways to give praise to God in all things,
not necessarily praising God for all things.
That’s a subtle difference, but an important one …
in part, because there are well-intentioned Christians
who will tell us that we have to
thank God for everything that happens.
“Thank you, God, that I have to go to the hospital once again
because they can’t find what’s wrong with me.”
“I praise you, God, that another of my friends has died
and I have to go to the funeral.”
“Thank you, Jesus, that my grandchild got three tattoos
and had his nose pierced.”
That’s dishonest.
Do we really think we can fool God into thinking we are thankful
for things that even God probably isn’t thankful for?
There are some things that happen to us and the people around us
for which we can never give praise and thanks.
Yet even in times like that we can give thanks.
I’m about to break one of the cardinal rules of preaching:
(so don’t tell the other preachers who are out there this morning …)
I’m going to use someone we all know as a sermon illustration.
As I have watched Wayne and his family this last week,
going through some of that with his father,
I have watched them in some amazing ways
able to be thankful to God in that whole experience.
No one is happy that Dan Davis is gone,
But I continually have heard from them,
number one, a profound thankfulness
that their dad had been clear about his wishes,
that they didn’t have to make up his mind for him.
I have heard continued thankfulness
for medical care that was not only competent but compassionate.
Thankfulness for the really good memories they have of life with their dad,
some of them hilariously funny.
Thankfulness that in this time sadness,
family members who haven’t spoken to each other in years
are coming together and supporting one another.
We don’t thank God for a loved one’s loss –
but we are thankful that in that loss,
there are ways in which God has been acting and healing and nurturing us,
and helping us to see the road ahead.
You know, in the book of Job –
I don’t know if you’ve ever read it cover-to-cover –
but Job is frequently heard to say,
“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
For a long time, I thought Job was a real wimp for saying that …
Do you remember the story?
God has allowed Job’s children to die;
his flocks and herds are gone,
his land is destroyed.
His so-called friends tell him he’d better repent
‘cause he’s obviously done something Really Bad;
His wife tells him to curse God and die,
because any God who would let this happen to a righteous man
is obviously a jerk.
Yet, there Job sits on the ash heap,
saying to his wife and his friends,
“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away;
blessed be the name of the Lord.”
It occurred to me only recently
that you have to hear a quiet “nevertheless” in there:
“nevertheless, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
That is how it is that we give thanks in all things,
even if not for all things.
That is how we make our lives a hosanna of praise.
Now please understand;
that is not something that’s easy;
it’s a discipline.
(Some of us hate that word!)
We have to practice it over and over again.
Those of you who are better about going and getting your exercise than I am,
know what a discipline that is.
You can’t just do it when you feel like it;
you have to make it a habit,
a pattern in your whole life.
Eventually it becomes easier,
then it seems natural,
and maybe even someday you enjoy it!
But for most of us,
it doesn’t start out that way.
So it is with the spiritual exercise
of giving thanks to God in all things,
and making life a hosanna.
The first part of it is –
sounds easy, but it’s a little deceptive –
The first part is, to remember to give praise to God
when things are going well.
Because it’s easy, when life is good,
to kind of drop God out of the picture
and praise ourselves for being so clever,
or so prudent, or so lucky.
Yet those are precisely the things
for which we need to give thanks to God.
Those things in which there are no “neverthelesses” needed!
Thank you that my family is healthy.
Thank you that my pantry is full of food.
Yes, my heating bill was high,
but thank you that my house is warm.
Whatever!
When life is good,
are our lives a hosanna?
The second part is the harder part
that we’ve talked about already:
giving praise and thanks even in moments when life has lost its joy.
Sometimes it helps to have a sense of humor …
As I was putting this together, I remembered a time,
years ago, now, when I was in San Angelo,
one Sunday morning during the “joys and concerns” –
we didn’t have cards, but people would stand up and say things –
and one of them stood up and said,
“I’m thankful that the thieves who broke into the church this weekend
were too stupid to take the computer.”
A sense of humor help …
But sometimes, even that won’t get us there,
and it’s then that the need for discipline becomes clear.
If, over time,
we’ve gotten into the habit of giving thanks,
it’s not quite so hard to do
when things aren’t going as we would wish.
When our lives become a hosanna of praise,
we become more and more like Christ.
Not only do we give thanks in all things …
we even become able to do wonderful, crazy things like
forgiving our enemies,
giving away our money and time generously …
and also, when that happens,
other people start to see God reflected in us.
Is your life a hosanna?
It won’t come about overnight,
but it’s not ever too late to make it happen.
The world needs us,
to show what kind of God, God is.
May our lives show that praise,
and give that glory.
Amen.
© 2002 Julie
Adkins (e-mail: Drjadkins@aol.com)