April 5, 2009 – Palm Sunday Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Rev. Martha Koenig Stone Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 11:1-11

Today begins Holy Week, the most important week in Christian tradition. So, what’s it all about? Why is this week so important to us?

Sometimes we focus on the “bookends” of the week. It begins with the Palm Sunday procession and shouts of “Hosanna,” and it ends with the Easter lilies and “Alleluia!” These are two great celebrations, with lots of fun activities and traditions. But if we’re able to make it to the mid-week service, we also hear what happened on Thursday, the night before Jesus died, when he prayed in the garden and ate the last supper with his friends and was arrested and brought to trial. And if we take Friday off from work and come to worship, we may also hear about how Jesus was crucified, focusing on all the humiliation and suffering he endured.

Sometimes when Christians talk about this part of our story, we make it sound as though it is all a neat little equation: The world was lost in sin, God sent his Son Jesus, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, so God raised him up and forgave us, and now, if we just believe in him, we’re all fine forever. Hosanna! Alleluia! Thank you, Jesus!

But if we focus only on the energy of Palm Sunday and the suffering of Good Friday and the triumph of Easter Sunday, we’ve missed an important part of the picture: we’ve missed the part of the story that tells us “why.” Why was Jesus willing to do all of this? What could possibly have led him to act in this way?

So today I want to look at the about the beginning of Holy Week. What about Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday? What happened on those three days that led to the horror of crucifixion on Friday, and ultimately, to resurrection and transformed lives on Easter Sunday? According to Mark’s Gospel, what happened on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is important. Mark details much of what Jesus said and did during that early part of the week, and he even adds time markers like “the next morning,” to let us know how things progressed from day to day.

If we look closely at the events of those days, we can perhaps begin to understand what it was that led to Jesus’ death. We can get a sense of what Jesus cared about so deeply that he was willing to risk his life for it. So before we look at Jesus’ passion—his time of suffering—I want to look at his passion—what he really cared about, what he lived and died for.

Let’s begin, then, with Palm Sunday, and the text we read this morning. The story tells of Jesus getting ready to enter the city of Jerusalem. Before this time, most of his ministry has been carried out in the countryside. But here, Jesus is getting ready to go into the city that is the center of Jewish life, and also a major Roman stronghold. It seems that Jesus and his small band of supporters are preparing to carry out a carefully staged demonstration. After sending his friends to pick up the prearranged transportation, a donkey, Jesus enters the city. His fellow demonstrators put their cloaks on the road in front of him, like a red carpet, and some of them cut leafy branches to pave the way, and they call out, “Hosanna! Save us! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, and blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David.”

The people watching the procession could not have missed the contrast between Jesus and the Emperor Augustus. Augustus would have entered the city through the opposite gate, seated on a war horse, surrounded by armed guards, proclaiming himself as God and upholding a system of violence and domination over many different peoples. Jesus’ peaceful entry into Jerusalem, then, is a protest against the Emperor—against his claim to be divine, and against his oppressive regime. Jesus is passionate about non-violence.

In the days that follow, Jesus continues this protest with a series of provocative actions and conversations. On Monday, he enters the temple, where the money changers are running kind of banking system. For one thing, they exchange Roman coins for shekels, the currency used in the temple. But they also store personal and family treasures (think: safety deposit boxes). And they conduct other kinds of commercial and financial business as well (think: stock market). And so although the Temple is a religious institution, it is helping to prop up the Roman administration and its whole economic structure.

Jesus has seen the poverty that results from this system. During his travels around the countryside, he has met countless widows and beggars and disabled people, who just can’t seem to get a leg up. He knows that the current economy isn’t working for those folks. So he stages another protest, another public action: he strides into the temple and turns over the tables of the money changers, and says, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Jesus is passionate about economic justice.

On Tuesday, Jesus has a series of conversations with the religious authorities about several of the controversial issues of his day.

On Tuesday evening and Wednesday, Jesus makes a series of prophecies. He foretells the destruction of the temple, the persecution of his followers, the coming of the Son of Man, and even his own death. He uses language that is symbolic, difficult to understand and even alarming. But he also affirms that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Does he really know what is about to happen? Or is he just trying to be realistic about the dangers that political protestors are likely to face? Either way, we know that Jesus continues speaking his mind all throughout the week, regardless of the threats he faces. He is passionate about speaking the truth.

Peace, justice, equity, truth, loving relationships with God and one another; these were the values that motivated Jesus. God is to rule among us—not through money or power, not through trickery or greed or violence, but through love. Jesus was willing to give all that he had to affirm this simple, yet life-changing truth.

I thought of these Holy Week stories when I read about the meeting of the G20 countries in London last week. Leaders from the twenty most prosperous nations of the world met to discuss the faltering world economy. These nations, of course, are quite different from the Roman Empire. For one thing, most of them are democracies. Still, their wealth, our wealth, is built, in part, on systems of exploitation and domination that circle the globe. And their power as nations is built largely on military might. We are learning more and more, as time goes on, how our economies depend on connections among our banks and our industries and our military operations and our social structures. But those systems have failed us, and they need to be set straight.

And so, as the G20 leaders were meeting, thousand of demonstrators came out to protest the inequities and injustices of our economic systems, and to highlight issues of poverty, climate change, war and unemployment. Like Jesus, planning his entry into Jerusalem, they staged a procession with 4 different streams of walkers coming from 4 different parts of the city and converging on the Bank of England. And because it happened on April 1^st they called it a “Financial Fool’s Day” or the “Fossil Fool’s Day” procession. The NY Times article I read listed some of the groups who participated in the march, including charities, unions, churches and other religious groups—Oxfam, Greenpeace, The Salvation Army. I’m sure I wouldn’t agree with all of their opinions and strategies. But I couldn’t help notice the parallel between this event and the Palm Sunday procession staged by Jesus and his followers. Like Jesus, these protestors were acting according to a vision of economic and social change.

Of course, I am sure that some of the world leaders who attended that summit share a similar vision, and are working toward it in their own way. And so I’m not trying to point a finger at any one person or government and say, “Bad, bad, bad!” But I am intrigued by the conversation between the powers of the world and the people of the world. And I wonder about the kind of passion that leads people to take action to bring about a more just and peaceful and prosperous world—not just for some, but for everyone.

What passions motivate us? What is your passion? What moves your heart and your soul?

Now take that a step further: How do the things you care about fit into Jesus’ vision of the coming kingdom of God?

Not all of us are community organizers or social activists, of course. And although we sometimes talk about “carrying the cross of Christ,” or “having a cross to bear,” we’re not usually talking about human sacrifice!

But we do know that each one of us has an effect on the world around us. What we say and what we do and how we live is part of God’s larger world. And so I see in the Palm Sunday story, and in the events of the days that follow it, an invitation for us to identify our passions—and to put them to work for God. I hear a call to work passionately with the gifts we have been given to build up of the realm of God. And if we are serious about following Jesus, that means that we’ll be looking for ways to use our gifts and our passions to hasten the day when systems of domination and oppression, excessive wealth and extreme poverty, extravagant waste and exploitation of resources, are transformed into systems of mutuality and cooperation and sustainable sharing by everyone.

So what might that look like for us, for folks who call ourselves Christians, and who seek to follow the life and teaching and spirit of Jesus?

Today after worship the confirmation class will be watching a video about a man named Nicholas Vujicic, who was born with no arms and no legs. His parents wondered, when he was a baby, what kind of life he could possibly have, given his condition. But they were passionate about their son, and determined to give him the unconditional love that they believed God has for every person. And so they set about looking for ways to do that. They designed special tools and chairs to help him learn and get around. They sought grants to help them with finances. They taught Nick to love God, and taught him that God loves him, just the way he is. And as he grew, that message of love took root within him.

But it didn’t happen all at once. He struggled mightily with issues of self-esteem. He lived through a lot of teasing and prejudice in his life. “You look funny. You’re stupid. I don’t like you. Go away, Nick…” He tells about a time in school when 12 different people had teased him in one day. He was just about ready to give up. And he said to God, “If one more person teases me today, that’s it, I quit.”

Then, just as he was heading for the car to go home, a girl called to him from across the playground. “Hey, Nick!” she called, as she came running over. “I just wanted to let you know that you’re looking good today.” It made all the difference.

Nick tells another story about a four-year-old who was going around and giving everyone hugs as she said goodbye after a party. But when she came to Nick, she froze. She wanted to give Nicky a hug, but he didn’t have any arms to hug her back. So she looked at him, thinking. Then she reached her arms behind her back…and she hugged him with her neck.

Nick has become passionate about sharing that message of God’s love, just as it has been shared with him. With assistance from his parents and many other caring people, Nick has become an internationally known inspirational speaker who visits schools and hospitals and prisons all over the world, just to tell people, “you are loved, and your purpose is to love others.” It seems to me that this is a message the world needs desperately to hear!

Nick isn’t a president or an economist or an investment banker, but in his own way, he is using his passion to bring forth the realm of God. And the Holy Week stories call on us to do the same. If we confine our joyous processions to the safety of the sanctuary on Sunday, then the rest of our week looks pretty bleak! But if we take our passion for the Way of Christ into every day, and share it with everyone, then we can participate with Jesus in the salvation of the world.

Hosanna! Save us, O God! Blessed is each one who comes in your name! And blessed is your coming realm! Hosanna in the highest!