On Pentecost Sunday I preached at the Linary Church of Christ in Crossville, TN. Below is the link to the sermon.

Sixth Sunday in Lent: Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday remembering Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Read Text Luke 19:28-40—Imagine with me the choir singing the two songs that frame Jesus’ ministry. You enter the cathedral, you walk down the middle aisle, and in the choir loft, the chancel, on my left you have Heaven singing— on my right, you have the earth respond.

Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus arriving in Jerusalem. This is the moment the second choir begins singing.

This past week Laura and I have been entertaining our 5- and 3-year-old grandchildren. Our three-year-old granddaughter, Emily, is enchanted by the movie Encanto. I went to iTunes to buy the soundtrack which has several tracks that have no words. The score is mostly made up of background music. Emily asks, “I want Family Madrigal, ” whenever one of those tracks plays.” Or “We Don’t Talk about Bruno.” Whomever Bruno is.

• Imagine again with me that we are on the road with Jesus to Jerusalem. Jesus began this journey to Jerusalem in 9:51. All along the road, on the way to Jerusalem, can you hear the choir singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace among those whom he favors!”?
  • The story of Jesus on the road even begins with the Sons of Thunder wanting to call down lightning down on the Samaritans. Can you hear the choir singing in the background?
  • Do we hear the background music as the parable of the persistent widow or Good Samaritan is told?
  • Do we hear the background music when Jesus meets the rich man, the ten lepers, Zacchaeus, or the blind beggar?

The triumphal entry lives for just an instant.  Palm Sunday will soon turn to Easter Sunday. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem will lead Jesus to the temple and the cross—The longest week in the Christian Year. All four Gospels spend more time on this one week than any other aspect of Jesus’ ministry.

• The last week begins in Matthew 21.
• For Mark, it begins at chapter 11
• John starts the story even earlier at 12:1.
• And here, the last week begins at Luke 19:28.
• And the second choir begins their song, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

And Pharisees say “STOP”! They demand the choir stop their singing – “Do not proclaim peace.” You see, peace is a political word.

• Are they afraid for Jesus’ own safety as in 13:31 where you have a small glimpse of compassion? Maybe.
• More likely, they were afraid of Rome, and that the disturbance in the city might call down retaliation.

And Jesus responds, “the Stones Would Cry Out if the choir is silenced!”

• Some things simply must be said. The church must always proclaim peace.
• The disciples are expressing the ultimate truth. In Jesus Christ, PEACE is proclaimed in the heavens and on the earth.
• Peace is proclaimed as humanity is reconciled back to God.
• Peace is proclaimed as the strife and fighting between peoples of every tribe, language, and nation is established.
• Peace is proclaimed when our own heart finds the peace the passes all understanding.
• Truth cannot be silenced.
• God will provide a witness of peace though every mouth be stopped.

So, the chorus keeps singing, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

The story takes a dramatic turn. A twist in the story occurs when we least anticipate it. Just after Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for saying “Silence the choir!” Jesus now stops the choir himself.

So, when to road finally reaches Jerusalem (Luke 19: 41-44) Jesus weeps and both choir lofts are silent. Jesus sees a Jerusalem that will not see peace. Jesus sees Jerusalem that will not recognize God’s visitation. The chorus proclaims peace, but Jesus weeps for there is no peace.

The choir sings peace, but there is no peace, and the choir has stopped singing.

• Like a boy on the playground who scrapes his knee. “Mommy, blow on it!” But she washes his knee with soap and water. “Mommy, blow on it.” And she takes the iodine and treats his wound.
• Peace, Peace, but there is no peace.

Jerusalem

• At Jerusalem, the visitation of God is rejected.
• Jerusalem will call for Jesus’ blood.
• Therefore, Jerusalem will be besieged by enemies. There is no peace.

And Peace is hidden…

• In the midst of tensions all around, for example, pandemics and the war in eastern Europe—peace is hidden. The invasion of Ukraine is a stark reminder that fears dark realities beset us. The threats represent real opponents to peace.
• In the midst of tensions in marriages, wars within our own families, cultural wars, political wars, school board infighting, and political gridlock—peace is hidden.
• In the midst of foreclosures, mounting medical bills, unemployment, and all sorts of financial unrest—peace is hidden.
• And even here at church where we also experience a lack of peace. Church history is filled with stories where the church participated with the hiding of peace more so than the proclaiming of peace.
  • But our age is not the only age. You could look at almost any age and see how fear and death have reigned. Fourteenth-century Europe, for example, experienced devastating famines, waves of pillaging mercenaries, peasant revolts, religious turmoil and a plague that wiped out as much as half the population in four years. The evidence suggests that all this resulted in mass convulsions of anxiety, a period of psychic torment in which, as one historian has put it, “the more one knew, the less sense the world made.”[1]
  • Fears and anxieties press all around us. As an author once described America, “we are in the midst of a full-blown panic attack.” National Institute for Mental Health reports— nearly 20 percent of Americans experience an anxiety disorder each year; over 30 percent experienced an anxiety disorder over the course of their lifetimes.
  • Generalized anxiety disorder, per the DSM-5 list of symptoms, includes the rise to both restlessness and fatigue; both lapsed concentration and profound tension of the muscles. In this conflicted state, the mind and body team up to deprive the sufferer of sleep and induce irritability.
  • Peace is hidden!
• Jesus rides on a colt, not a horse that is 16 hands high bred for battle, but a colt that had never been ridden before. Even though peace is hidden, Jesus rides a colt through it all. [2]

Listen. Do you hear the choir? It is reaching a crescendo in Luke’s story. “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

Palm Sunday is a day when the songs are about peace on earth and peace in heaven. BUT Palm Sunday ALSO remembers the day when Jesus weeps over Jerusalem because he finds no peace.

Lent is a season of waiting.

• Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday is the longest week of the Christian Year.
• Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week.
  • Early in the week there are several encounters in Jerusalem and the temple where Jesus’ authority is questioned. Jesus cleanses the Temple, witnesses the widow’s mite, and is questioned about taxes.
  • Luke’s winding road through Jerusalem takes us to an Upper Room on Thursday. We recall the Last Supper and the Washing of Feet. Thursday is a long day. Jesus prays on the Mount of Olives, Jesus is betrayed and arrested, Peter denies Jesus. He is betrayed and arrested. He experiences two trials and is sentenced to death.
  • But the longest night of the Christian Year is Friday.
  • Afterwards, you have the long night of silence of Saturday. I cannot imagine the choirs singing.

Will there be peace on earth? Will there be peace in heaven? Will the choirs ever sing again? We will have to wait until next Sunday. But until then, we come to the table.

Until next Sunday, may the peace of God be with you all.

[1] Some thoughts and insights about the phrase “Age of Anxiety” come from the web, for example, https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/its-still-the-age-of-anxiety-or-is-it/ and https://newrepublic.com/article/153153/age-anxiety

[2] “Halfway down the Mount of Olives, there is a small chapel in the shape of a teardrop. It is called Dominus Flevit (Latin for “the Lord weeps”) It is the traditional location where Jesus wept over the city. Pilgrims gather there to share the Eucharist as they move toward Jerusalem. As they view a city still divided, with people of different faiths squabbling over the same real estate, they pass the bread to the words, “this is my body, broken for you.” Then they share the cup of wine, saying, “this is the new covenant in my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins.” It is a moment to recall the great cost of reconciliation, as God sent Jesus into the world to [bring peace]. Sometimes we are clueless when it comes to peace. However, for those who continue to share the body and blood of Christ, it is common to say, “the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” How does each of us respond? With the words, “And also with you.” William G. Carter, “Luke 19:28-40,” Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 2, pg. 156.

Now that I have children living in the metroplex, I realize how different Fort Worth is different from Dallas. Both are part of the metroplex but are very different places. Different places mean different contexts.

Churches have context. Albany is not Anson and is not Clyde. Churches just down the road from each other can differ significantly.

• • Our churches
    • Some are thriving
    • Some are tired
    • Some enjoy their common fellowship
    • Some are bickering all the time
    • I knew a church in a small town with five distinct factions. On my first Sunday to visit, I was informed that this would be the last Sunday for about twenty members who were leaving. What do you preach when a church is about ready to split again?
    • Churches have a context.

The Galatian churches had a context

• And while their faith began full of hope, Paul was fearful that some Jewish missionaries messing with the very heart of the Gospel would pervert their faith.
  • Three pillars of practice exemplified that preamble: Jewish Christians equated dietary laws (Gal. 2:11–14), circumcision (Gal.  5:6; 6:15), and Jewish holidays (Gal 4:9–10) as boundary markers for their identity. These three practices were identity markers that Jewish Christians embraced. And these practices were not wrong for Jewish Christians; but very wrong for Gentile believers.
  • It is like a multivitamin, merely a supplement, but yet lacking the power to cure a disease.
  • I read an article about how taking too much Vitamin D is harmful. I looked at the various supplements I was taking. Whoa! I was taking way too much. Sometimes adding more is harmful. Adding to the Gospel is harmful, Paul says.
  • Gospel + // A bundle like TV + Internet + Phone = new contract. And suddenly, I’m trapped again for two more years). The objection Paul has is that bundling the Gospel with Jewish practices is not essential for Gentile Christians.
  • And such bundling had social implications. In Galatia, as in Rome, those implications were ethnic. In Corinth, those implications were socio-economic. Social implications can play themselves out in a wide variety of ways in how people relate to others who are not part of their group.
  • Brad Braxton states it this way about the Galatians, “[The Gentiles] could not enjoy the blessings of God’s covenant unless they abandoned their ethnic identity and assumed another. If Gentile believers adopted another ethnic identity, they would deny that God saved them as Gentiles.” [1]

So, what does Paul preach to churches like those found in Galatia?

Galatians 1:1-5  —What is the Gospel?

• The gospel is not of human construction. It comes from God (1:1, 3-4).
• Grace is embodied and made effective by the self-giving of Jesus on the cross (1:4). Jesus’ death atones for our sins and releases us from the oppressive power of “the present evil age.”
• The self-giving of Jesus is in accordance with the will of God (1:4). Therefore, we have “grace and peace” that comes from God (1:3). Therefore, the death of Jesus is an act of God.
• God is our Father (1:1). We are God’s children and members of God’s family. Rooted in God as your Father (1:1, 3, 4). 3xs
• God raised Jesus from the dead. God has power over death and delivers us from the grip of death.
• A message that was revealed by Jesus. You see, the message, the messenger, and the origin of the message are bound tightly together.
• God breaks into this age in order to usher in a new age (1:4).
• • In order to “set us free.”
  • What you believe affects what you do.

So, Paul offers a doxology (the only time in a Pauline introduction). If Galatians is read in church and functions like a sermon, will the hearers say the “Amen” at the end of verse 5? 

The Gospel is all about Jesus

• Jesus
  • Who chose to come to earth, born a human in a manger.
  • Who chose to associate with tax collectors, sinners, Samaritans, Syrophoenicians—the poorest of the poor, outcasts, and folks who were unclean.
  • Each story you read in Matt, Mark, and Luke; each turn in the road; each city he entered; each conversation he had; was in obedient faithfulness to God.
  • And that faithfulness took him to the cross.
  • Paul summarizes this story in Gal 1:1-4; and concludes with doxology 1:5.
• And if we look elsewhere in Gal, Paul says it in compact ways with memorable statements.
  • 2:16 Knowing that one is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, …
  • 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
    • “Faith of Jesus Christ” (2:16a, 20; 3:3, 5, 22)  and by the effectiveness of the message.
    • “Faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16b; 3:26)

And this is the Gospel!

No matter what the context. No matter what is going on right now in a church. No matter what the issues, you are saved because of the faithfulness of Jesus. You are part of God’s covenant family because of the faithfulness of Jesus. You are here! You belong! Look around this room…everyone here belongs because of the faithfulness of Jesus. And look around your neighborhood, this community, this county, and State. No one is excluded from the Gospel. No one is excluded from the waters. No one is excluded from the Table.

This is the Gospel (2:16).

[1] Braxton, “Galatians,” 334.