April 10, 2022 Palm Sunday
First Lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18
12 But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters,] to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; 13 esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. 15 See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you
Second Lesson: Luke 19:28-40
28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
When Kate Bowler, a seminary professor and young mother with stage four cancer, was afraid she was dying, she agonized over what her son would remember. She hoped he would recall their time under the sheets when they laughed at their dreams from the night before. She wanted to know that she was part of him, her love and her hope for her son, were part of what he would remember. Her therapist said, “Kate, you’re in there. The foundation is the part that doesn’t show.” She writes, “Whether it is our parents, our teachers, mentors, friends, churches, or neighbors, people have been pouring into us. We are standing on a foundation. Our job is to build on what we’ve been given…even our gifts we can trace back to the creativity, generosity, and foresight of others. Thank God we are a group project” (Good Enough, P. 53).
We are a group project and we are created for interdependence. Yet we often try to go it alone and only discover our real need when we are facing a trial or hardship.
Jesus too might have worried about dying- at least his human part. He knew what awaited him in Jerusalem. He offers the disciples a group project. He sends two disciples looking for a colt, then adds the colt owner, and then the crowd grows as he journeys past the Mount of Olives, from where the Messiah was to come (Zechariah 14:4). This big crowd waving palms and laying down their coats is celebrating his kingship, his power, and triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They were celebrating their hero, the one who would save them and who could do miraculous things. The one that even the stones would praise. Unknowingly they are also supporting Jesus, the man who needed comfort, as he makes his way to his death.
Jesus tells the disciples, “The Lord needs it.” A simple and revealing statement. Yes, he is asking for a colt, but maybe he is asking for his own need, as well. It got me thinking about other times Jesus needs something and I can’t think of any. He asks the disciples to pray and stay awake. Jesus needs to pray and does so faithfully. But other needs? So, Jesus saying these four words, “The Lord needs it” as he is approaching his own death, helps me to admit my own need for support, my own need as part of a group project.
How often do we have a stiff upper lip and not let people know when we are hurting? We go it alone, rather than resting in the love of this community. Kate Bowler writes, “Part of our identities as people of faith is found in community. We are not islands, but reliant on one another to remake us, pull us towards God and be a soft place to land” (Good Enough, P. 80). I pray we can admit our needs and gather into this community as a soft place to land.
Because just as Jesus needs a colt, we need each other.
Diana Butler Bass writes, “If you have ever lived in a community struck by sudden tragedy, you have probably experienced how quickly people discover how much they share with their neighbors. The power of a storm, an extended period of being without electricity, being the victims of a crime — these terrible events draw us together and often bring out the best in us. People rise to the occasion, helping one another grieve and recover, and find that empathy, sympathy, and compassion are among our greatest human assets…. Sometimes we only understand this when something — or someone — gets lost. It would be wonderful to remember neighborliness in times of plenty as well as times of challenge (The Cottage 4.4.22).
We have all been through a two-year isolation challenge known as COVID. Add to that the recent war in Ukraine and we long for empathy, sympathy and compassion. We wonder how have things gone so far off track? An article in The Atlantic describes it this way, “We are moral beings to the extent that we are social beings,” Émile Durkheim wrote. In the past two years, we have stopped being social, and in many cases we have stopped being moral, too…. The pandemic loosened ties between people: Kids stopped going to school; their parents stopped going to work; parishioners stopped going to church; people stopped gathering, in general. Sociologists think all of this isolation shifted the way we behave. “We’re more likely to break rules when our bonds to society are weakened,” (said) Robert Sampson, a Harvard sociologist. “When we become untethered, we tend to prioritize our own private interests over those of others or the public” (Olga Khazan, Why People Are Acting So Weird).
We have seen this with fights over masking on airplanes, violence at our capitol, and the war in Ukraine. But our democracy calls us to be a united people. Our world citizenship calls us to rally toward our common humanity. Our Christian faith calls us to support those in our community and world. We are a group project. We need each other. We need to be vulnerable with each other and care for one another. Paul urges the church in Thessalonica
Encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient
Allow no one to repay evil for evil. (That’s how you build community, then we get to …)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks for all things.
We are in this together. We get to care, even when it is hard to watch all that is going on. We get to be part of the solution even if that means simply opening our hearts to all the suffering and do our small part to make it better. Marcia McFee writes, “We are about to make a turn into Holy Week. As we do, we remember the suffering of that week is not simply located in the time and place of Jesus. Suffering continues. Oppression is not eradicated. There are lonely, scared, hungry, homeless and despairing loved ones that are part of the “group project” that is humanity. And so we enter a time of prayer that parades of protest will turn one day to parades of joy” (Worship Design Studio).
Humanity is a group project: a place we get to care, love and share our hope, as we walk along side of those who struggle to get by. But we also need to remember that we can only keep up our efforts if we too are being supported and fed.
I close with this story. “A certain parishioner who had previously been attending services regularly, suddenly stopped coming to church. After some weeks, the minister decided to visit the absent member. It was a chilly evening, and the minister found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair by the fireplace, and waited.
The minister made himself comfortable and said nothing. In grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, he took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow, but then its fire was no more and it was cold and dead. Not a word had been spoken since the initial greetings. But as the minister rose to leave, the host said, “Thank you so much for your visit—and especially for your fiery sermon. I shall be at church next Sunday” (Sermons.com Brett Blair).
Faith is maintained in fellowship. Apart from the fire, the ember cools and dies. So does faith – apart from the fellowship which nurtures and sustains it. On this day of waving palms and welcoming our Lord into Jerusalem may we also reignite our commitment to this community, acknowledge our needs and allow these people of faith to minister to us. So that this group project, known as humanity, will be strengthen and renewed. Amen.
