First
Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN
(Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 19:28-40)
“Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Two thousand tears ago the angel of the Lord appeared
to shepherds and said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am
bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day
in the city of David (Bethlehem – house of Bread) a Savior, who is the Messiah,
the Lord...” and suddenly the multitude of heavenly host heavens appeared
“praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and
on earth peace among those whom he favors!’” (Luke 2:10-11;13-14)
About thirty years afterwards
that newborn baby is now a grown man entering Jerusalem, the city he lamented.
Its name means “the Foundation of Peace.” Everyone knows he is coming to
fulfill the promise to God’s favored people, the Hebrews. They shout, “Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the
highest heaven!” When the religious police, the Pharisees,
ask him to quiet the crowd he said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the
stones would shout!” ...These are words of the power of faith.
Notice the angels at his birth brought the message,
“Peace on earth among those God favors,” but the people in Jerusalem say,
“Peace in heaven and glory to God.” The people seem to be voicing thanksgiving and
faith in God anticipating peace in the great victory over Rome and the forces of
oppression by Christ. (We know the end of the story sand see the irony.)
Having Christian Faith in God is what we have been
talking about the last few Sundays. It seems all too easy to view faith in a
God with our own idea of power, like the crowd that hailed Jesus as he entered
Jerusalem. But, given the problems
caused by the powers of the world we really don’t have an alternative option to
putting our faith in the power of a trustworthy God.
We love the power of victory. In various ways we all do, in our
relationships with others, in our business relationships, some times even in
our families, and almost always we seek to control our own fate. Like the Hebrews
welcoming the Messiah, we want to be in control whether it is of our country’s
destiny and victory over its enemies or our own life as self-made people. But any
of us who have lost a loved one know there is a futility to that desire. We
know how it ends. Death is the great equalizer.
We look around today and in spite of all the power we
have with science and technology, our military, our government, even the
sophistication of our civilization, yet with all our hope, power and sacrifice we
see very little peace in the victories of power.
When we look closely at the world we see far more
discord than peace. We read in the city newspaper of young men killing other
young men over girl friends, drug deals or out of purely evil meanness. We read
about the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We probably know or have friends
or family who have spent tours there or made the ultimate sacrifice. Now, as our
allies and we pull out, we see the fragile semblance of peace and the sacrifice
of our young people crumble before our eyes into the factional fighting of a
reality as old as the Bible’s history.
Many of us remember the war in Viet Nam either
fighting there as soldiers or at home arguing one side or the other, and some
did both. Many of us remember the
stories of our parents who fought and sacrificed in the Korean War and World
War II in Europe, Africa and the Pacific.
We have all seen the horrifying images of inmates in
the Nazi concentration camps. My father was part of the infantry that
“liberated” Nordhausen one of the more horrendous camps. He never was able to
say a word to me about it, I found out among newspaper clippings he left after
his death a few years ago.
Lest we think that kind of genocidal violence is
behind us, we have seen the pictures of slaughter among the Tutsi’s and Hutu in
Rwanda. We know of the systematic extermination of millions in Cambodia by the Khmer
Rouge, not to mention the purges of Stalin in Russia, and who knows what transpires
within China.
Even when we expect civility, we see that our
representatives in Congress can’t find enough of it to sit and cordially find a
solution to our national strife. Someone said it must be like it was in Nero’s
court while Rome burned, listening to him play the violin. In our personal
lives, perhaps we have harsh words lingering in our ears of a fight with our
spouse, sibling or child.
It really is not a pretty picture if this was what Jesus’
ride to victory means on this Palm Sunday.
What do we understand from the discord in the world? We do have the critical testimony of generals
and leaders who waged wars. Just a few examples: Benjamin Franklin said, “There
was never a good war or a bad peace.” Thomas Jefferson said “I’ve seen one war
and never wish to see another.” Sherman said, “War is hell.” President Eisenhower said, “After my
experience, I have come to hate war.” Jimmy
Carter said, “War may sometimes be a
necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil.” Maybe President Carter is right.
As much as
we desire a just victory we loathe sending our sons, and now daughters, to war;
but we do it anyway. It is as if we are unwillingly locked in a death spiral embracing
conflict in spite of all the evidence of the cruelty of war that surrounds us. Plato
the famous Greek philosopher said, “Only the dead see the end of war.” We hear the
words, but seldom understand or find a way to escape them.
But we are different from the crowd that welcomed Jesus
to Jerusalem. We have the luxury of freedom and we
suffer under no tyrant like an emperor. Are we really much unlike the crowd shouting
loud hosannas? The people two millennia ago on the street of Jerusalem thought Jesus
was about to bring them total victory over Rome and peace. Ultimately all we want is peace on earth… but
we really don’t have much of it.
The
reality is we are helpless to achieve peace in our own right. Our only recourse
is our faith in God to grant it to us. To
ask for it we must understand what the peace of faith really is.
The people at the gate the city of the Foundation of
Peace were blind to the peace Jesus was bringing to them. 2,000 years later many eyes are still blind
and ears still deaf to understanding that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is a call
to faith in a different kind of victory. As long as we are blind to Christian Faith,
we will repeat the past and join the crowd shouting for victory over the powers
of this world as it crucifies our prophets.
Is it any wonder that Peter was so seduced by this dream
of a Messianic victory in the air that he could stand up and protest, “I will
never deny Jesus!” Did he forget all Jesus had been repeatedly telling the
disciples what was going to happen? Peter knew victory was at hand, he just did
not understand victory.
You and I remember last week Jesus wept over his
impending death before he raised dead Lazarus after four days. Why didn’t Peter
and the other Apostles remember and understand?
Don’t they remember Mary anointing the feet of Jesus, the aromatic smell
of the nard of faith and Jesus deflecting the protest of Judas, saying she is doing
a good thing preparing him for burial?
It would seem to me that the gaiety and celebration of this crowd ought
to evoke consternation and fear knowing what Jesus had said and done on those
two occasions. Yet they joined the cheering crowd and professed absolute
loyalty to Jesus.
You know Jesus has a place in his heart for Isaiah.
Isaiah tells us God is about to do a new thing (43:19) and that God said his
ways are not our ways (55:8-9). Don’t the disciples hear the scriptures read in
the synagogue? Don’t they remember that Jesus said understanding his parables
and his own purpose will not come
until Isaiah’s prophesy was fulfilled?
That
prophecy: (Isaiah 6:9-13) reads, And the Lord said to Isaiah, 9“Go
and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking,
but do not understand.’ 10Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut
their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their
ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” 11Then I said, “How long, O
Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses
without people, and the land is utterly desolate; 12until the Lord sends
everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.”
Now that victory is at hand. The King has entered the
city of Jerusalem to shouts of joy and expectation of victory. Unfortunately,
things begin to take an unexpected downward turn under the shade of this
prophecy. Jesus confronts the power of
Rome and the power of the religious establishment with humility (a servant’s
virtue) as the ultimate statement of God’s power. That establishment intends to crush Jesus but God
is about to do a new thing. God is about to open eyes and ears to a message about
a new kingdom breaking into this world.
It is a kingdom that cannot be quieted or defeated for
the sake of worldly peace and good political order. It is a kingdom that cannot
be tethered to the schemes and plans of the priests and politics of Rome or any
nation. It is a kingdom in the world but not a kingdom of the world. But for
now blinded eyes and stoppered ears do not understand.
Before those eyes and ears are opened his disciples
will scatter, one will die by his own hand, and every friend will run and hide
quivering in fear, except for the women of faith who will stand on the hill as
sentries to his Passion.
God-fearing terror and loss of all hope will lay them
all low… until that stone rolls away from the door of an empty tomb. Then the
stones of that tomb shall shout the words Jesus spoke to his disciples and they
will understand, “But blessed are your eyes, for they
see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and
righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear
what you hear, but did not hear it. (Mt 13:15-20)”
Even today, we
are at war with our own doubt and lack of understanding. We cannot see this new
kingdom of God and therefore really harbor doubt about it. We doubt there is an end to discord, strife, and
war. We all seek to bring about the Kingdom of God with our human institutions.
When I
read that prophecy of Isaiah and consider the stumbles of my own life, it
brings tears to my eyes. I think that is what repentance is about. No
matter how hard we try to find peace, that single question always comes to our
lips, “How long O Lord, how long?” And the stone of the empty tomb shouts to
our stopped ears and blind eyes, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
The message of the palms is “Peace is at hand if you
only have faith.” The sign of faith is believing and acting, always striving to
match this love of Christ who walked to the cross for our sake. “How long O lord, how long shall we wait for
a peace?” We wait until we find a quiet place to pray, to confess and to listen
for the Holy Spirit that moves us in the faith to know, “Jesus is Lord and
giver of peace.”
Friends, I wave this branch proudly and declare to you
with surety, have faith we are going home.
“Blessed is He
who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest
heaven!” AMEN.
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