2018-03-25 – Rev. Dr. Ryan Sato
“BUCKING EXPECTATIONS”
Mark 11:1-11
The worshipping & liturgical life at FBC is filled with joy and sorrow…with exuberance and celebration (births, baptisms, weddings)…with sadness and mourning (funerals, sufferings, losses).
The contemplative catholic priest and writer Henri Nouwen captured this well when he would say that “life is an inseparable swirling together of sadness and gladness, mourning and dancing.”
Palm Sunday is an example of celebration mingled with somber realities.
Jeremy and I were reflecting on this passage this week and if this were a movie scene we imagined a slow motion “Jesus entering the city” scene…
Jesus sitting upon the “never been ridden” donkey, his posture is not high and haughty like a roman elite statesman…it is simple and unadorned…the look upon his face is stern and thoughtful…and then the camera scans across the crowd…the jubilant Passover party-ers…yes, they are here for the religious celebrations, but it is a city overflowing with humanity, “spirits” and revelry…and some of these celebrators have caught wind that the budding prophet and lowly carpenter’s kid has got his posse together and is entering the city…
Their faces are jubilant and anticipatory . . . could this be the king who takes away their sorrows and up-ends their roman oppressors!? Focus on their faces full of hope…see them with their fingers crossed as they dream of the roman legions getting creamed by this peasant warrior of theirs.. HOSANNAH! They cry out…
But the soundtrack is somber…the long zinging of the minor key strings (have you seen Sicario?)
Ziiiiiiiiiiiing goes the soundtrack with intense, haunting, tones…
Again, I offer a Henri Nouwen reflection… in his book “Road to Daybreak” he shares his meditations on the 14th C wooden sculpture “Christus Auf Palmesel” (see front of church bulletin)…
“As he rides into Jerusalem surrounded by people shouting ‘hosanna’…Jesus appears completely concentrated on something else. He does not look at the excited crowd.
He does not wave. He sees beyond all the noise and movements to what is ahead of him:
an agonizing journey of betrayal, torture, crucifixion, and death. His unfocused eyes see what nobody around him can see; his high forehead reflects a knowledge of things to come
far beyond anyone’s understanding.”
Today we find ourselves on the edge of another Holy Week…a time for us to take the final steps of the Lenten path and embrace the images of this story as they are revealed to us…
Imagine this peasant donkey-rider in our midst…
Some of us throw our cloaks on the donkey to make the little foal look brighter, flashier…colourful cloaks provide a makeshift throne on the donkey, tattered, older coats are placed on the ground to allow for a softer ride for the Nazarene hero.
Many of us our rural folk and we’ve brought leafy branches with us from our farms & fields . . . but we sense there’s some kind of dramatic uprising occurring so we lay some of our branches on the ground, preparing the way for this upstart prophet to ramp up this pomp and prestige “wow factor”…. as he enters into the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem…
Some of the extroverts in the group start shouting to others…Praise God!
Save us!
Praise God!
Save us!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!
Save us…Praise God…Save us!
* * * * *
Save us? Hosanna?
If we step back from this unfolding drama, we might ask:
Do these people even know what they need to be saved from?
If they really stopped to think about it…is there any way that this no-name, nowheresville, carpenter’s kid could really topple the Roman Empire?
It seems like they were wanting to channel the line of David for sure…
A little bit of David VS Goliath reboot?
But Jesus doesn’t have a reputation for flinging stones.
In fact, the rumour is that when that prostitute got caught in the act of adultery, and the religious leaders demanded a stoning, he turned the whole scenario upsidedown and in the end no stone was thrown!
And this scene…ends in a very anti-climactic way too…after walking 2 km with this red carpet revelry…once Jesus gets to the temple courts, he hops off of the donkey and doesn’t say a “go get’em” speech… he looks “around at everything”… gathers up his inner circle of 12 disciples and calls it a night in the outskirts of the city.
Whaaaaaaa?
—It’s almost as if Jesus is saying… “Boys, you have no clue what kind of week it’s going to be…come with me…and rest up your bones…cuz you are going to get turned inside out in the days ahead.”
* * * * *
How are y’all feeling on this Palm Sunday?
We’ve “lented” pretty hard in these 30+ days of Lent, we’ve felt lots of emotion, we’ve stripped down some of the hype and hallelujah of our usual worship, and we’ve invited you to be more contemplative…to remember that you are dust…and to dust you shall return.
So, the good news that I’d like to encourage us with in today’s Palm story is that…
–y’all should just chill….life is hard…
–and know that by shouting harder, or praying more fervently, you ain’t gonna get Jesus to be more victorious…in your own life, in the life of our community, in the life of the world!
–BUT….Jesus will march on. Jesus will press into the powers and the schemes of darkness, betrayal and brutality… HE will lead the way. He will get the job done.
And we will encounter suffering along the way, (it seems to be an integral component of the way of those who lose their life to keep it; those who are the last who end up being first)
in the midst of the hurt, or the heartbreak, in the midst of the struggle and pain and darkness…God is at work… Jesus is making a way for us…
And he WILL SAVE US.
So, my reflection Q for you/us this week….
What do we need to be saved from?
Pour out your prayer of salvation.
And believe that Jesus will save you…will save us…
And lead us in the way of life.
He’ll take the dead stuff, the dreary stuff, even the happy-clappy stuff.
And he will make things new.
The Thomas Merton prayer (see insert) is fitting here….
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
As we enter Holy Week, let’s pause and reflect on what we need to be saved from…or saved for…
–“Lord save me…”
–“Lord save us…”
This might be a cry out to the Lord…
“Up-end the forces of evil and threats in our world!”
“Save me from the things that undo me…”
“Save us from ______ . . . and form us as a people of forgiveness, mercy and compassion”
~ What is your cry of salvation?
~As a community of faith, how will we cry out in faith, and how might the world around us be saved as we follow in the path/ways of Jesus?