It s nice, she replied. I just wish we would get as excited and as involved about academics and the arts.

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Evan Payne
5 years ago
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1 Let s Stop Keeping Our Hosannas and Our Hurrahs to Ourselves Preached by Mike Pulsifer, Interim Pastor, on Palm Sunday, March 16, 2008 at Ardmore Presbyterian Church When our oldest son, Sean, was in high school, he was the starting free safety on the football team. During his junior year the team won eight out of ten of their regular season games and the right to compete in the state playoffs. The day after the team had won a playoff spot I saw the mother of one of Sean s high school friends in the grocery store. I was excited, proud, and naturally said so. Isn t it great about the football team, I blurted out. It s nice, she replied. I just wish we would get as excited and as involved about academics and the arts. She had a point in fact, a very good and valid point and yet, to me, she also missed the point. A group of young men had done something good and great, something of excellence, something that hadn t been done at that high school for over 20 years, and it was time to celebrate it, to enjoy it not to qualify it, not to say, Yes, but, about it. Many times in his ministry Jesus receives this same kind of qualified, Yes, but, response. A woman anoints Jesus with a very expensive jar of ointment. It s an impulsive, enthusiastic, generous gesture of gratitude. Jesus is pleased. But, not everyone else is. In the background Judas mutters, What a waste. Just think how much money we could have sold that ointment for and given it to the poor. (Mark 14:3-9 and John 12:1-7) Friends bring a paraplegic to Jesus and for the first time in years, this cripple man walks! It s a grand, glorious, miraculous event. Some shout for joy and praise God. Others find fault. Did you hear what Jesus said to him? Your sins are forgiven. Why, only God can forgive sins. (Mark 2:1-12)

2 A blind man is healed just by the touch of Jesus hand, and yet many remain blind to this miracle. They can only see what day of the week it is on the calendar. It s the Sabbath, and its wrong to work or to heal on the Sabbath. (John 9:1-41) It s the Sunday before Passover. Crowds line the streets to Jerusalem waiting to welcome and to thank Jesus. Again, others are there waiting to qualify, to criticize, to try to rain on his parade. Listen now for God s Word to us as I read these words about the first Palm Sunday from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verses In her book, The Feminine Mystic, Betty Friedan writes, A good woman is one who lives passionately, has guts and passionate convictions, takes responsibility and shapes society. I am horrified by the word cool. Coolness is an evasion of life. Being cool isn t living at all. I d rather be hot and wrong. I d rather be committed than detached. This is what I admire about these first Palm Sunday Christians. They are hot, passionate, enthusiastic, involved. They are shouting, running, waving palm branches, taking off their coats, twirling them over their heads, and scattering them on the road before Jesus. They remind me of all those Naval Academy cadets throwing their white hats in the air after beating Army in football. Whenever I see all those hats go in the air, the practical, cautious side of me asks, Do they ever get them back? I wonder how much a hat costs? Well, that first Palm Sunday, there is no calculating the cost. Jesus is in town. Hosanna! Hallelujah! Hurrah! Now when was the last time you or I let out a hurrah for Jesus Christ? In a brief biographical sketch of Eugene Ormandy, I learned that he once dislocated his shoulder while conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. (Maurice Boyd, A Lover s Quarrel with the World, page 31) Reading that made me wonder, What symphony was he conducting? Whatever it was, he certainly gave it his all. I ve known people who have never gotten enthused enough about anything to dislocate even their necktie much less their shoulder.

3 Early one evening, a traveler stopped at a gas station in a small, isolated west Texas town. He asked the attendant if there was some place nearby where he could get something to eat. The man answered, Not really. There s a café down the road, but it closed at six o clock. What does everybody around here do for excitement? the motorist asked. Well, said the attendant, around here, folks try not to get excited. (Dynamic Preaching, June, 1994) Could this be said about any of us and our faith here at Ardmore? Well, at least for today I m going to loosen my necktie and remind us of some of the ways God is coming into our lives right now, and some of the things we can get excited about, shout Hosanna and Hallelujah about. For one thing, the church of Jesus Christ is unlike any other institution or organization in the world. What other place teaches our children about God and Jesus, and talks openly and unashamedly about faith and selfless love? Where else can we confess our sins and receive God s forgiveness? Where else are we given a piece of bread and told God loves us. loves us enough to die for us? Where else do we hear that life is eternal and that goodness and love are stronger than evil and death? Hurrah for the church universal and this church in particular! Hurrah for being a congregation who sincerely tries to welcome visitors and newcomers. I ve attended Rotary meetings that were friendlier than many churches I ve visited, but that s not the case here. Just last Sunday a couple attending worship for the first time told me this is the friendliest church they ve ever visited. Hurrah and thank you! Hurrah for this congregation s belief that our church building is meant to be used not only by us, but by others working for the common good. Right now this building is used by almost 20 community groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, AL-ANON, the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, and the Red Cross Bloodmobile.

4 Hurrah for all of you who work behind the scenes teaching Sunday School; counting our offerings; preparing beautiful music to help us to praise and worship God; meeting every Sunday after worship to pray for us and others who need God s help and healing. Hurrah for you who serve as elders and deacons; lead our youth; repair our building; visit the homebound; go on mission trips to Mississippi and Guatemala. Hurrah for all of you! Thank God for you! Hurrah for our church staff. They are a great team of people. To a person, they are individuals of talent and faith. They give more of themselves, their time, and their love, then anyone could ask. Hurrah for this church s Preschool for embodying this teaching of Jesus, Let the little children come to me. (Mark 10:14); for being unashamedly a Christian Preschool; for 60 years of care and education of countless children; and for consistently being one of the finest preschools on the Main Line, attracting many young families to this congregation. Several years ago I became reacquainted with a Seminary classmate who had changed professions after serving as a pastor for 25 years. I asked him what it was like to be back in the pew again. He replied, I now have a lot more respect and appreciation for laypeople, since I ve experienced for myself how tempting it is to stay at home on Sunday morning. Hurrah and Hallelujah for you, for your commitment to worship and your faith and friendship with Jesus Christ. In this period of transition and uncertainty between permanent pastors, your loyalty to Christ and to each other has not wavered. Your worship attendance has remained steady, and your response to last fall s stewardship appeal was magnificent. Our giving is up nearly 20%. Thank you! Hurrah for you!

5 Hurrah for God who is behind, beneath, over, and within each of us; who knows not only each of our names, but even the number of hairs on our heads and the hurts in our hearts; who loves us enough to live among us, to suffer with us and to die for us. Yes, we all still have our troubles, worries, and sorrows, but we also have God to help us learn from these troubles and to give us strength to get through them. Now, that s something to be grateful for, to get excited about, to sing Hosanna and shout Hurrah about! A veteran student of business management, Saul Silverstein, writes, When people join the ranks of management, they have zero experience and one hundred percent enthusiasm. By the time they retire, their mixture is usually just the opposite: one hundred percent experience and zero enthusiasm. Please, let s not allow this to happen to us and to our faith. Let s not allow all our years of experience with God and the church To blind us to all the good God is accomplishing among us and through us; To dull our enthusiasm; and To stifle our Hosannas and our Hurrahs. Soren Kierkegarrd s parable about a flock of barnyard geese has always intrigued and challenged me. In this parable, every seventh day the geese parade to one particular corner of the barnyard and listen to their most elegant orator I guess you could call her the head goose. Week after week she speaks to them about the wonders of being geese and how generations of geese before them have dared to mount up on wings and fly all over the sky. She praises their creator for giving them wings and the ability to fly. Every week the other geese nod their heads and honk softly in agreement. The one thing they don t do is fly because the corn is good and the barnyard is safe. Is there anybody here today who feels like a grounded goose? who has forgotten the joys and the excitement of flying? who doesn t even look up any more to see others fly?

6 Well, if this is so for you or me, it doesn t have to be this way. All we need to do is to stop saying, Yes, but and It s no use, and choose to renew our commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Then with God s help, let s try to fly, and just see if some strong breeze some mighty wind doesn t surround us, fill us, lift us up, and give us reason again to shout Hosanna, Hallelujah, Hurrah!

"When Satan Speaks Up" Revelation 10:1-11

When Satan Speaks Up Revelation 10:1-11 "When Satan Speaks Up" Revelation 10:1-11 In Revelation chapter 10, (as chapter 7), in the middle of the tribulation, God gives us a break, an interlude. When does Satan speak up? Well, Preacher, at our