From Palms To Passion

Transcription

1 From Palms To Passion Rev. Christy McMillin-Goodwin and Rev. David Brown March 20, 2016 Palm/Passion Sunday From Palms (Rev. McMillin-Goodwin) The year was The number of copies he sold was disputed was it 2 million or 20 million copies? Was it translated into 15 languages or 42 languages? Whatever the numbers were, Norman Vincent Peale s book, The Power of Positive Thinking was a sensation. Who wouldn t want to believe that if they just thought positively about their life situations, then things would work out for them? Peale taught that self-analysis, forgiveness, character development and growth were what we needed to be happy people. He said, Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. In Peale s office, he used a common form of hypnosis to help people think positively about their lives. Fast-forward 60 some odd years and we find preachers across the US who are preaching a form of faith called the prosperity gospel. Joel Osteen is preaching to thousands in Texas. He, among others, preaches that financial blessing is the will of God and that faith and positive speech will increase one s material wealth. Prosperity theology or prosperity gospel emphasizes the importance of personal empowerment and happiness for all people. If we are reconciled with God, sickness and poverty, which are viewed as curses to be broken by faith, will be eliminated. Did you hear that? If we are reconciled with God, we will never suffer again! And if we have faith, God will deliver on God s promises of security and prosperity. Have you heard the term full solar Christianity? According to Barbara Brown Taylor it is when people stay in the light of God around the clock, both absorbing and reflecting the sunny side of faith. She says you can usually recognize a full solar church by its emphasis on the benefits of faith, which include certainty of belief, divine guidance in all things and reliable answers to prayer. Members strive to be positive in attitude, firm in conviction, helpful in relationship, and unwavering in faith. This sounds like heaven on earth. Who would not like to dwell in God s light 24/7? (7-8) To me, all three Norman Vincent Peale, Joel Osteen, and the full solar Christianity folks sound like cheerleaders for God. I was the mascot for my high school for my senior year. I was the Dreher High School Blue Devil (funny prediction of my future career!) My job was to cheer with the crowd and encourage

2 them to rout on our blue devils. Even when they were not winning (which was often!) I was to keep smiling and cheering and acting crazy even when there wasn t much to cheer about. There were two and a half million people in Jerusalem that day. People had arrived from all over the Mediterranean Basin for the Passover Feast. This was the World Series, the Super Bowl, and March Madness all rolled into one. They knew the mysterious healer was nearby and they knew what he could do. Many expected that he would proclaim himself Messiah. Earlier he had grabbed imaginations by healing a blind beggar and cleansing ten lepers. With Jesus in town, this was going to be a Passover to remember. His disciples had borrowed a colt for his ride into the city. That alone told the people that he was a man of peace and that he was not in the mold of the Roman generals who always rode into town on a warhorse. He was a servant. As he rides into the city of Jerusalem on a borrowed colt, the people crowd the streets to hail him Messiah: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven! All around people are taking off their jackets and coats and spreading them over the road to keep the dust from flying. It was a sign of respect and a sign of royalty. It was what they would do for a queen or king or a long-awaited Messiah! This was theatre--theatre on a grand scale. It was a parade. It was a street party. Jesus is finally getting the praise and recognition he deserves. But then things change. No matter how much positive thinking, no matter how many tears Jesus will shed over Jerusalem, no matter how much prayer Jesus could pray the crowd still leaves him. The crowd still turns their backs. The crowd still yells, Crucify him. You see full solar Christianity, the power of positive thinking and the prosperity gospel all fall short when bad stuff happens. When my dog dies, when my girlfriend dumps me, when my parent abandons me, when the house floods, when my husband dies, when I lose my job, when depression strikes and won t let go when any of these things or countless other horrible, despicable things happen, where is my faith now? What do we do when everything is going wrong? What do we do when everyone is against us? The Power of Positive Thinking and the prosperity gospel - these help us to feel good while evading the difficult issues of life. God becomes a master psychiatrist who will help us get out of difficulties. God and Me - we can do anything. The prosperity gospel tells folks that if you follow seven easy rules, you will become president of your company. It makes a cult out of success. Powell Davies, pastor of All Souls' Church in Washington D.C., adds his view. "It has sort of a drug effect on people to be told they need not worry. They keep coming back for more. It keeps

3 their minds on a superficial level and encourages emotional dependency. It is an escape from reality. People under stress do one of two things; seek shelter or respond to harsh reality by a deeper recognition of what they are up against. The people who flock to the 'peace of mind' preachers are seeking shelter. They don't want to face reality." How nice it would be if our answers to all of our questions of faith were black and white answers all wrapped up in a beautiful package! How nice it would be if we could be prosperous, wealthy and happy if we only had faith and believed. The crowds that day had bought into full solar Christianity. They enjoyed the beauty and goodness of Jesus life. They loved how he healed others and preached words of love and acceptance. They were ready for a leader who could promise them their lives would be better. But remember, the crowd was fickle. They went from celebrating Jesus arrival to yelling to crucify him a few short days later.. As they left the roadside on that day, their coats have been trampled and their palm branches are crinkled and wilted. The parade is over. The party has finished. What will happen next? To Passion (Rev. Brown) Learning to Walk in the Dark has been our theme for these past six weeks of Lent. We ve been looking at and learning from a number of episodes in scripture where God is present and people are transformed, in the dark. So, I hope that you are not surprised to find that some of the most significant, most intimate, most soul-searching moments of Jesus' last week the week we call Holy Week happen in the dark. As night approaches on Thursday, Jesus sends two of his disciples, from the Mount of Olives, where they have been staying for Passover week, into the city of Jerusalem to prepare a place for the feast. Luke simply says: when the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table (22:14). But how, exactly, did Jesus get there? As the sun was setting, Jesus set out from the Mount of Olives, dropping down the steep and winding path into the Kidron Valley. As darkness fell, he moved through the valley, with the imposing walls of the Holy City to his right and thousands of white stone tombs to his left. Since Jews would not bury their dead inside the city walls, Jerusalem is surrounded by tombs, some large and elaborate, others simple rectangular boxes. Many of these tombs were freshly carved from the hillside during Jesus lifetime. As he moved through the Kidron, walking in the dark among the tombs, Jesus must have thought about this final meal he was about to share with his disciples. When he took his place at the table, he began the meal by saying I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you

4 before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Around the table, Jesus shared the Passover with his friends, transforming it in to the meal we have come to know as Communion. In John s gospel, Jesus issues a new commandment that they should love one another and then he embodies that command as he takes off his robe and washes their feet. On that final night with his friends, in the intimacy of a candlelit meal, Jesus reveals to them the core of what it means to be his follower, and he paints a beautiful picture of God s great love. A love that washes the disciples feet, overlooks their petty posturing for a place in the kingdom, dips his bread into the same bowl as the one who would betray him, loves and teaches and pours himself out even to the end. After the meal is over, they go out into the night. Jesus and some of the disciples travel back down through the valley, past the tombs, and on to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Kneeling in the darkness, Jesus struggles with what he must do. He knows the great cost of remaining faithful to his mission, and as he prays in the darkness of Gethsemane, he finds strength to move forward. There in the garden, he is betrayed by the kiss of a friend, arrested by a mob of Jewish clergy, bound and led away. Once more, Jesus walks among the tombs, this time certain that one will soon be needed for him. The temple guards lead him back through the Kidron, up the stone steps into the city, and to a holding cell at the chief priest s house. And there he passes the rest of the night, blindfolded, beaten and mocked by his captors. On the path that ultimately would lead to life, Jesus had to walk in the dark, among the tombs of the Kidron. Resurrection, Jesus knew, only comes through death and the cross. Even at noon on crucifixion day, Luke tells us, darkness falls on the land for three hours the sun s light fails. Full solar Christianity does not know what to do with the suffering of the cross. And yet it is precisely through that suffering that we are given resurrection life. If we do not experience the depths of pain and darkness that happen on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, how can we fully experience the depth of joy that comes on Easter Sunday. We cannot wave our palms and shout Hosannas on Palm Sunday morning, and then show back up on Easter to sing Hallelujah, without spending some time living with the darkness in between. That s the difference between the cheap grace of full solar spirituality and the costly grace of a faith that has learned to walk in the dark. In the darkness that settled on the land as Jesus breathed his last, surprising role reversals are revealed. From the cross beside Jesus, a dying criminal asks Jesusto remember him, and Jesus responds that they will be together in paradise. A Roman centurions praises God and proclaims Jesus innocence. Even the mocking soldiers ironically confess Jesus as Messiah, King of Jews. All the while those who should know best, those who have been with Jesus all along, scatter in the darkness. Even the women who stayed with Jesus to the hill of the crucifixion, now watch from a distance.

5 So, where do we find ourselves in this story? Do we scatter at the first hint of darkness, running from the pain and difficulty, fearful of the uncertainty? Or can we find a way to follow Jesus though the dark valley, among the tombs of the Kidron, knowing that we cannot experience transformation, we cannot experience resurrection without learning to walk in the dark. Amen.