Saturday, April 12, 2014

Sermon for Palm Sunday, 4-13-14

Mark 11:1-11 
Common English Bible (CEB) 

  11 When Jesus and his followers approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. Jesus gave two disciples a task, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘Its master needs it, and he will send it back right away.’”
   4 They went and found a colt tied to a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. 5 Some people standing around said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them just what Jesus said, and they left them alone.
  7 They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes upon it, and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields. 9 Those in front of him and those following were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessings on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest!”
  11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. After he looked around at everything, because it was already late in the evening, he returned to Bethany with the Twelve.


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I'm sure you've noticed all the campaign signs around us this time of the year. We're all aware of different races for positions here in Hamilton County. In a few short months, campaigns for the fall elections will kick into high gear, and it won't be too long until the race for the 2016 presidential campaign is in non-stop mode. We'll be hearing constant analysis of who had lunch in Iowa and who might or might not run. It gets to be a little much.
Think about a presidential election, though, whether it's the last one or the next one. When it comes to presidential elections, we all have an expectation. When we think about our preferred candidate, we have a certain expectation about what life will be like if that person is elected. We expect that they will help our country prosper and that we, as a part of that, will prosper, too. We expect that we'll have more money, be healthier and happier and have a better job in a better economy. We expect all these things from our president, and from all our elected leaders. We expect them to make this life better now. When they don't, we're disappointed and vent about it on Facebook.

The problem is that we use these same expectations when we think about Jesus Christ. The first century Jews certainly did.
It's a bit strange when you stop and think about it. Jesus Christ was the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting centuries for. The last thing you would expect would be for them to shout for his crucifixion when he came to save them. They were longing for his presence, because they were laboring until the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. They understood that the Messiah would come and liberate them from the Romans. They expected that he would come and raise an army, if he didn't come with an angelic army, and then drive the Romans from their homeland. He would then institute his kingdom, and they would all be healthy, wealthy and happy for the rest of their lives.
For many of us, we have started to expect this from Christianity. We expect that Jesus will make us happy, that he comes to make us healthy and wealthy. It just seems natural that if we follow Jesus, our lives in the here and now will be better off.

So we need to talk about how Jesus did not live up to the expectations of the Jews. And then we need to talk about how he might not live up to our expectations.

Friends, when we talk about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we're talking about an event that may have misled the crowds. Jesus had spent 3 years disappointing those who expected the Messiah to come and overthrow the rule of Rome. He's spent three years disappointing those who expected him to set up his throne in the temple and rule from on high. Jesus spent three years wandering the dusty roads of the greater Jerusalem metropolitan area, healing lepers and casting out demons. They make for amazing stories, but these are not the sort of displays of power that the people wanted to see. They were amazed, and some believed, but many others, including much of the leadership, expected something grander out of Jesus, something that demonstrated power in this world, something that would elevate their lives and the lives of those around them. They wanted to see some material displays.
But Jesus wasn't here to make people powerful. He wasn't here to overthrow the Roman Empire. He was after something much greater than that.
See, Jesus' Kingdom is one that will last forever. Of his kingdom, there will be no end. So the Roman empire isn't exactly a big threat. In fact, our entire lives are not very long when compared with the time frame of eternity. So Jesus' first priority isn't to make sure that we're all happy and comfortable here. Jesus' biggest priority is to rescue people from their sins, to turn their hearts away from the false idols that have been deceiving them and back to the God who created them and loves them and wants to spend eternity with them. In order to deliver us from sins, to purchase us back from the domain of sin and death, a price needs to be paid. You can't redeem a people from sin without a sacrifice, and the only acceptable sacrifice to sin is one that hasn't yet experienced sin. Enter, Jesus Christ, Son of God, wholly God and wholly man, who is able to be that sacrifice. In doing so, he buys us back from sin and death, redeeming us, and making it possible for us to live with God forever. The God who cannot dwell with sin can now dwell with us, because in Christ we no longer are subject to sin and death.
Christ is doing something so much more than building an earthly kingdom, but so much of it is beyond what the eye can see. Because of that, because it wasn't a tangible kingdom that could be read about in the newspapers and easily understood in a world where money and power are the two primary currencies, the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus. They had him killed, confidant he was a fraud, because he wasn't living up to their expectations.
When Jesus rides into Jerusalem, people gather and worship because they think that this may be the moment when he transforms his movement into a political steamroller, changing the world forever. Well, Jesus changes the world, but not in the way these folks imagined. Their disappointment led to anger, and their anger was poured out upon him, and as his blood was poured out, their sins were forgiven, and the door to eternal life was thrown open, that all who believe may enter in.

So let's talk about our own expectations. There is a lot of really bad theology out there, and while we don't turn to Jesus in anger when our expectations aren't met, I think we can easily wind up disappointed, and this can lead us to indifference.
There is a loud choir of Christians out there claiming that following Jesus will make you healthy, wealthy and happy in this life. It's often called the prosperity Gospel, because we think that Jesus came to make us prosperous. This is often done by taking certain passages of Scripture, including things Jesus said, and focusing on them alone. We can believe that if we pray hard enough, if we submit long enough, God will notice and give us prosperity in some form the world can understand. We have this idea that we need to be able to see it, to grasp it, to call it a blessing. We have the idea that, if we are sick, Jesus will heal us if we pray hard enough, and that if we aren't being healed, we simply aren't praying hard enough.
Friends, Jesus Christ called us to imitate him. He also rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, knowing that he was riding to his eventual death. He lived a hard life, and he suffered at the hands of sin and opposition. He was not wealthy, and he died young, despite being perfect.
Now, if we expect that Christianity will make things easier, what happens is that we become disappointed when following Christ doesn't yield material benefits. When we are sick and are not healed, we become disappointed. We wonder if God's love is actually real, if God really cares for us, if God notices us. We distance ourselves from the God who disappoints us, and in so doing we stop paying attention to him. It's not outright rejection, but it is a rejection in that we choose to lavish our attention and resources on material things that reward us more immediately. We opt for short-term pleasure, exchanging long-term growth in Christ because of how distant and intangible it seems.

The Christian life, when lived faithfully, is one of sacrifice and challenge. We're called consistently to turn away from the temptations of the world. God isn't interested in seeing you prosper just for the sake of your comfort. God blesses us so that we might bless others. God calls us so that we might call others. God calls us out of comfort into growth, into challenge, into new life. It's not easy, and if we believe that it will be easy, we'll be very, very disappointed.


So may we embrace Christ for who he is, rather than who our humanity wants him to be. May we expand our understandings and expectations to recognize that the kingdom he is establishing is beyond what we can grasp or understand in this world, and that reality should call us to let go of our ideas of prosperity and recognize that true prosperity lies only in the arms of God, who alone can meet our any and every need. In him do we find rest. Let us trust completely the God we find in all of Scripture, who reaches out to save and to love. Let us pray

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