Matthew 21:1-11
“Where Are You Headed?”
Preached Sunday, April 2, 2023
Next week I will stand before you and preach Resurrection.
Next week we will sing Easter hymns.
Next week, the sanctuary will be filled with flowers, lilies - signs of Spring.
Next week we will shout Alleluia and we will celebrate.
And this week, this last Tuesday, as I read the news from Monday’s shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, I closed the door to my office and I sobbed.
I sobbed for Hallie Scruggs - she was 9 years old and a pastor’s kid,
I sobbed for Evelyn, William, Cyntha, Katherine, and Mike.
I sobbed for Uvalde.
I sobbed for Sandy Hook.
I sobbed for a country that keeps on letting kids be murdered because we worship at the altar of guns.
I sobbed for my daughter and I sobbed for myself - as much as I kiss her to sleep and hold her close after tragedies like this and I pray, “Not my kid” - there is another voice inside of me that always says, “It doesn’t work like that.” Our prayers aren’t an amulet against violence.
And so, I sobbed - knowing my tears were nothing to the tears of the parents mourning their children, the classmates who watched their friends get murdered, the tears of all who are victims of gun violence.
Next week…I will stand before you and preach Resurrection.
And today we will pray for the families of dead children.
Doesn’t there seem to be this deep chasm, this gulf, this insurmountable difference between here and there. How do we get off the path of death and onto the path of life?
And that’s the question that we are asking this Palm Sunday, as we continue our Lenten series of questions - questions asked of God, of others, and of ourselves: Where are we headed?
Jesus was on a path that first Palm Sunday - a parade path. But as palm branches were waved and he entered Jerusalem on a donkey, there was another parade happening on the other side of town. Jesus would have entered the east gate. But at the west gate, Pontius Pilate was also entering town, entering in a parade with an imperial guard and swords and horses and a huge display of power and might. Pilate went to Jerusalem during the Passover to remind the Judeans that they were under Roman rule, a rule that would squash them if they tried to rise up.
The Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity portrays the juxtaposition of these two parades in this piece of artwork entitled Power Play. In her artist’s statement on this piece she says this:
“This image is a meditation on these opposing processions and the embodiment of power. Pilate processes with a pompous display of armor, accompanied by soldiers. For him, power is displayed by superiority, elitism, and weaponry. Later in the week, he will use his power to satisfy the crowds willing Jesus to be crucified, despite not finding any offense to justify it …He uses his power for violence, to appease the status quo.
Jesus enters the city on a donkey with her young colt in tow. He wears no armor, only soft linens. In this image, I imagine if the composition were expanded, Jesus would be kneeling, humbling himself before his disciples as he washes their feet. In Jesus’ processional, members of the crowd lay down their coats as a display of humility and honor. This foreshadows the way Jesus will take off his outer robe and tie a towel around his waist to wash his friends’ feet. Jesus embodies power through a posture of vulnerability, through caring for those who desperately need love.”
Two paths. Two parades.
One, a path of power and might and superiority and status quo and violence.
The other, a path of peace, of humility, or service…and yes, a path of strife too. And sacrifice. And not an easy path - change never is. A path of life.
The Rev. Garrity ends her artist statement with this question and this challenge: “Which parade you would join in Jerusalem has a lot to say about your definition of power. If you are quick to place yourself in Jesus’ parade, I encourage you to pause and consider these questions honestly: When have you aligned yourself with systems or people who have used their power for violence or to uphold the status quo? When have you embodied power through vulnerability and love for your neighbor?”
As I was thinking of these two parades in Scripture this week, I pictured two parades in my head, two parades happening in our world:
One, a funeral march. Where there are caskets holding the bodies of young children killed by gun violence. Or the bodies of LGTBQ teens who have committed suicide - lgbtq teens are four times as likely to commit suicide. Or the bodies of all who are society pushes to the margin. All who are sacrificed to the idol of the status quo - so nothing needs to change. And in this parade people are weeping and tearing their clothes and crying out Hosanna - Save us, save us, save us. Save us from this path of death. This parade is a funeral march - and it is a protest. Just as Jesus’s “triumphant” entry into Jerusalem was a protest - a protest against the other parade.
The other parade in this question, much like Pilate’s parade into Jerusalem, is a parade of power and might and superiority and status quo and violence. It’s made up of gun lobbyists and congressmen who will do nothing. It’s made up of sensational newspaper headlines and talking heads who seek to pit us against each other and divide us. It’s a parade of the status quo that relies on violence and fear of the other to keep up our semblance of normalcy.
I want to pause here and say, I know for us at Grace, and for many, we are weeping in that funeral march. Our tears acting as a protest against our powerlessness, our tears begging for us to get off this path of death that we are all on as a country. With our tears we cry out to God - Hosanna, save us! Save us from this path of violence and death. Save us from apathy that leads to children dying, over and over again. Save us.
“Where are we headed?” And how do we change paths? How do we get those with power to change paths? What does the future hold?
Next week I will preach Resurrection.
This week we sob for dead children and pray for their family.
How do we get off this path? Something has got to give.
I wish I knew the answer. I wish I had something profound to share with you today. I wish that with a simple sermon or with my tears I could change the minds of all those in power who allow the status quo of violence to continue.
What I do know…is God weeps with those who weep.
That our God always chose love over hate.
Service over oppression.
Humility over elitism.
Peace over violence.
Two paths. Two parades.
One, a path of power and might and superiority and status quo and violence.
The other, a path of peace, of humility, or service…and yes, a path of strife too. And sacrifice. And not an easy path - change never is. A path of life.
The Rev. Garrity ends her artist statement with this question and this challenge: “Which parade you would join in Jerusalem has a lot to say about your definition of power. If you are quick to place yourself in Jesus’ parade, I encourage you to pause and consider these questions honestly: When have you aligned yourself with systems or people who have used their power for violence or to uphold the status quo? When have you embodied power through vulnerability and love for your neighbor?”
As I was thinking of these two parades in Scripture this week, I pictured two parades in my head, two parades happening in our world:
One, a funeral march. Where there are caskets holding the bodies of young children killed by gun violence. Or the bodies of LGTBQ teens who have committed suicide - lgbtq teens are four times as likely to commit suicide. Or the bodies of all who are society pushes to the margin. All who are sacrificed to the idol of the status quo - so nothing needs to change. And in this parade people are weeping and tearing their clothes and crying out Hosanna - Save us, save us, save us. Save us from this path of death. This parade is a funeral march - and it is a protest. Just as Jesus’s “triumphant” entry into Jerusalem was a protest - a protest against the other parade.
The other parade in this question, much like Pilate’s parade into Jerusalem, is a parade of power and might and superiority and status quo and violence. It’s made up of gun lobbyists and congressmen who will do nothing. It’s made up of sensational newspaper headlines and talking heads who seek to pit us against each other and divide us. It’s a parade of the status quo that relies on violence and fear of the other to keep up our semblance of normalcy.
I want to pause here and say, I know for us at Grace, and for many, we are weeping in that funeral march. Our tears acting as a protest against our powerlessness, our tears begging for us to get off this path of death that we are all on as a country. With our tears we cry out to God - Hosanna, save us! Save us from this path of violence and death. Save us from apathy that leads to children dying, over and over again. Save us.
“Where are we headed?” And how do we change paths? How do we get those with power to change paths? What does the future hold?
Next week I will preach Resurrection.
This week we sob for dead children and pray for their family.
How do we get off this path? Something has got to give.
I wish I knew the answer. I wish I had something profound to share with you today. I wish that with a simple sermon or with my tears I could change the minds of all those in power who allow the status quo of violence to continue.
What I do know…is God weeps with those who weep.
That our God always chose love over hate.
Service over oppression.
Humility over elitism.
Peace over violence.
That our God was brought to the cross and intimately knows the depths of our human depravity and despair. God doesn’t just know of the suffering of this world. That through the suffering of Jesus, God experiences all of it. That Jesus wept and continues to weep at our violent world and the paths of pain and death we are on.
And still, Jesus chose peace and vulnerability and love and life…
And we are called to follow Jesus - and choose the path of peace and vulnerability and love and life…serving God and serving neighbor - with all that we have - even if, at times, all that we seem to have is our tears.
With all that we have - including our tears - let us follow Jesus on this path of love, the path that leads to life.
Amen.
And still, Jesus chose peace and vulnerability and love and life…
And we are called to follow Jesus - and choose the path of peace and vulnerability and love and life…serving God and serving neighbor - with all that we have - even if, at times, all that we seem to have is our tears.
With all that we have - including our tears - let us follow Jesus on this path of love, the path that leads to life.
Amen.
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