“When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.*’ 4This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd* spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ 11The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’”  Matthew 21:1-11 (NRSV).

How many of you got up this morning and said, “It’s Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week…I hope my theological understanding will be increased through my participation in the various liturgical observances offered this week.”

The root words for “LITURGY,” are “people” and “work” –  liturgy is the form or ritual for public worship - which is the “work of the people.”  (The person not preaching is designated as the liturgist.) Worship is what we do together.  Worship is not a “spectator sport.” Worship calls for the complete involvement of our head and heart and our physical being.  In our tradition liturgies incorporate litanies and lectionaries…which now leads me to Palms, Parades and Passion.

For most of us it is not our first Palm Sunday or Holy Week.  As in every service of worship we want to gather in the expectation that God’s Spirit will fill and energize every “liturgical observance.”

As we worship on this Palm Sunday I would like us to keep two questions in mind:

• “How does the Passion (capital “P”) of Jesus shape my life?”
• “How does the passion (small “p”) of Jesus shape my life?

When we proclaim, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” we are once again remembering Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, not a war horse.  Palm Sunday is not about a victory parade for a warrior king - Jesus came in peace - it is a time for us to reflect about the nature of Jesus’ earthly ministry, about those things that Jesus was passionate about, which resulted in his Passion – Christ’s agony and suffering following the Last Supper and his death on the cross.1

A word of encouragement: if at all possible, make plans to worship on Maundy Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Noon on Good Friday. This will make the Easter Sunday celebration of Christ’s resurrection so much more meaningful. May our services overflow with God’s Spirit, may each of us overflow with God’s Spirit— not just have “liturgical observances,”  but genuine encounters with the Spirit of the living, resurrected Christ.

In their book, The Last Week: The Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write:  “Easter without Good Friday risks sentimentality and vacuity. It becomes an affirmation that spring follows winter, life follows death, flowers will bloom again, and it is time for bonnets and bunnies. But Easter as the reversal of Good Friday means God’s vindication of Jesus passion for the kingdom of God, for God’s justice, and God’s ‘no’ to the powers who killed him, powers still very much active in our world.   Easter means God’s Great Cleanup of the world has begun – but it will not happen without us.”

The First Question, “How does the Passion (capital “P”) of Jesus shape my life?”

The Lenten season, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter unfold for us the very real path for personal transformation and renewal—the path of dying to self and rising from the dead, of being born again to a new way of life centered in Christ.  We see this path in the Passion (capital “P”) of Jesus – his agony, suffering and death on the cross. We are called to die to old ways of living. We are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.  We find ourselves then rising with Christ to new life – to a new way of being and living.2

It is apparent that things are not right in the world, that things are not right in the human heart. We see and hear the evidence around us every day…there is great need to be different; that this is possible as we are transformed in Christ. The apostle Paul clarifies this for us, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Christ's work is not work of condemnation, but rather of salvation.

During April I will be preaching a four-week sermon series on “Practicing the Positive Presence of Jesus.” “Christ in us” (Colossians 1:27) makes it possible for us to live in the positive energy of the Spirit, to be alive in the present moment and to allow God’s light & love to shine forth in our world.

Presently in our culture there is a great interest in “spiritual enlightenment” and how we can “awaken to our life’s purpose.” We can learn much from this interest as we explore the dimensions of being one with God in Christ

May this Palm Sunday be the day when each of us appropriate (and keep appropriating) into our lives the very presence of the living Christ - the gift of new life that Christ offers us.  Just as Jesus entered Jerusalem, may Christ enter our hearts and lives anew this Palm Sunday.  May the gates of our lives be unlocked to welcome the One who comes in the name of the Lord.

The Second Question: “How does the passion (small “p”) of Jesus shape my life?

The Christian life is not just about personal transformation. God calls us to be passionate about the things that Jesus was passionate about. The Passion of Jesus cannot eclipse for us the life and ministry of Jesus - showing us that Jesus was passionate about the reign and rule of God – the kingdom of God. Jesus’ passion led him to his Passion.

Jesus was passionate about justice and mercy, about serving the poor and the outcasts of society.

• Jesus called his followers not to trust or worship the things of this world: wealth, power, violence – but to center our lives on doing justice and loving kindness and walking humbly with God. 
• Jesus called for loving and forgiving enemies and putting away the sword as an answer to conflict.
• Jesus endorsed the prophets’ vision of a world where there was abundance for everyone, where the lion would lie down with the lamb, where compassion for all was the norm.
• The things that Jesus was passionate about brought him into conflict with powers of the time, the same kind of powers that are active in our world today.

On this Palm Sunday I see Jesus “riding into our lives” -  calling us:

• to renewed worship with heartfelt, “Hosannas!” - where we experience the Spirit of the living Christ.
• to ongoing, personal, spiritual transformation – growing in our faith, wrestling with the questions of our faith.
• to public acts of social witness, justice and service to those Jesus called “the least of these who are members of my family,” – growing as a church that includes all of God’s children.
• To go into our world living out the “Hosannas” we proclaim.

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!

1 See the New Interpreter’s Bible, “Reflections” p. 708, G.R. O’Day.

2   See Borg & Crossan, p. 210. The content, direction and inspiration for this sermon came from Borg & Crossan’s book, pp. 190-216.