Matthew 21:1-11
I got an email from my brother, Dave, this past week. Dave, you might remember, is ordained also and is the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, in Pittston, PA, not far from where we grew up. He wrote this piece as a Lenten devotion and, since we are still in Lent, I’d like to read it to you:
“How many of us would rather just skip over Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, give passing regard to Good Friday and move from Palm Sunday right to Easter? Who needs the morbid and depressing thoughts of "ashes to ashes and dust to dust"? Or the thought of picking up our crosses and journeying to Jerusalem makes us want to go in the other direction? We believe that our crosses are the sum of our worries like rising gas prices, who to vote for and if our pants are too tight. And the prosperity preachers have us believing that the path to new life isn’t one that must first go by the way of death.
“This is not only true for us as individuals, but it is also true for us as churches. Our crosses in the church tend to be about financial concerns, grumpy members, and "what hymn will the minister pick this week that we don’t know!" Or we think that to solve the church’s problems, to remove our crosses that we bear as a community all we have to do is follow this plan, or reach out to those young people, or maybe sing the old time hymns. And through it all, we never think or believe that for the miracle of new life to happen, something must die.
“We in the church hold onto old patterns of doing, ways of thinking, and relating with each other out of comfort, control and power. The Holy Spirit isn’t allowed to move, let alone breathe new breath into us. As I have seen old patterns and ways of thinking and relating die, God has raised to new life people and possibilities in the churches I’ve served and worshiped with over the years. Folks have stepped forward to lead worship or teach Sunday School or serve that wouldn’t have if something hadn’t died. As old patterns of comfort, control and power have died, God has provided new life. We’ve tended to forget that God is the giver of life, new life, and that the church is God’s.
“I sometimes make the mistake of referring to Second PC as ‘my church.’ Usually shortly there after a humbling experience occurs and I am reminded that this is God’s church, not mine or even the folks who worship here. God is the one who is the author and giver of life, new life. But to experience the new life that God offers, death must come first. May your time of Lent as a church be one of bearing our crosses, going to Calvary, and then know the resurrection life of Easter.”
This is Palm Sunday, the end of Lent, the day we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem…on the back of a donkey. It’s the day that begins Holy Week for us; that week which commemorates Jesus’ last days on earth before his crucifixion and death. We see the approach of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The shadows of crosses darken our paths. We know what awaits in the coming days.
Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a donkey: a simple beast of burden; not the great steed of a conquering warrior returning to the adulation of the crowds. His entry was, though, in its own way, triumphant. Followers welcomed him in a procession in which they laid their garments on the road before him and waved tree branches. It must have indeed been quite a spectacle.
How we’d like to stay here. How we’d like to remain with the cheering crowds and remember the Jesus who heals those who need healing; the Jesus who associates with outsiders and outcasts; the Jesus who feeds huge crowds; the Jesus we’ve come to know and love.
But as my wise brother points out, we can’t. We have to face the events of this coming week, remembering with joy that entry into Jerusalem. For it is the start of the new life of which Dave wrote; the triumph, not dimmed by the events of this week, shines brightly, guiding us on.
The deaths we face--of Jesus, of things the way we like them, of our own ways of doing things, of oh so many things--are all necessary. For in those deaths there is new life. In Jesus’ death, we know we find the resurrection on the other side, though that is for next week. Don’t jump ahead too fast. We must go through this death thing first. Ignoring it will only leave us empty and with a feeling of shallowness inside.
As much as we might want to jump from Palm Sunday to Easter, we can’t and we shouldn’t even try. For the struggle involved in coming to terms with the events of this coming week are important to our faith. And in like manner, the struggles involved in becoming a new church, in transforming ourselves, are just as important. Some things must change. Some old ways of being have to go.
We may see light ahead, but we’re not there yet. We’re still up on this triumphal energy, much as some of us have become energized about Chalice over the past several weeks. We have to stay with it though and see it through, maintaining this energy in spite of what may change as we grow and become more faithful.
The events to come may want to sap us of energy. No doubt Jesus felt that way as his last week unfolded. Betrayed, denied, flogged, humiliated. That’s more than just flagging energy. We certainly won’t face such things in our lives. But we shall have things to overcome and work through. And it may not be easy.
Through it all, we know that God remains with us. Through it all, as we move towards new life, we will have the Spirit accompanying us on our journeys. And that will be a very good thing to keep in mind.
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