Mark 11:1-14
When they were nearing Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany on Mount Olives, he sent off two of the disciples with instructions: “Go to the village across from you. As soon as you enter, you’ll find a colt tethered, one that has never yet been ridden. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say, ‘The Master needs him, and will return him right away.’”
They went and found a colt tied to a door at the street corner and untied it. Some of those standing there said, “What are you doing untying that colt?” The disciples replied exactly as Jesus had instructed them, and the people let them alone. They brought the colt to Jesus, spread their coats on it, and he mounted.
The people gave him a wonderful welcome, some throwing their coats on the street, others spreading out rushes they had cut in the fields. Running ahead and following after, they were calling out:
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!
Blessed the coming kingdom of our father David!
Hosanna in highest heaven!
He entered Jerusalem, then entered the Temple. He looked around, taking it all in. But by now it was late, so he went back to Bethany with the Twelve.
I am really enjoying our daily readings book* that we are using this Lent. The various reflections truly do touch me and make me think and, occasionally, convict me. I read it first thing in the morning, even though I am not one who leaps out of bed all smiley and ready to greet the day. I’m a slow starter usually - so I get up, make my cup of tea and sit down to read and enter the day – slowly. Most days my response to the reading is something like, oh, that was nice, but one day last week a somewhat innocuous seeming reflection sat me back on my heels and ended up completely re-writing my understanding of the Palm-slash-Passion Sunday readings.
It was last Tuesday, with a reflection titled Stay Put, written by Mary Luti, a UCC pastor, that started this process. Her writing had nothing to do with Palm Sunday, per se but that is where my reflecting went immediately. I’d been tossing Palm Sunday around in the back of my mind all week looking for something new to say to you this year, so it was there and ready to be impacted.
I’ve mentioned to you before that this Sunday is probably my least favorite of the year because the readings instill such guilt in me. I leave church convinced that somehow everything bad thing that happens during Holy Week is all my fault, especially if I choose the Passion readings with their crowd cries of, “Crucify him!” Even the Triumphal Entry reading from today makes me feel bad because I know how fickle we humans can be - to praise one minute and condemn the next. This particular scripture translation makes that pretty clear when it tells us that Jesus took in all the hoopla "but by then it was late, so he went back to Bethany,” as if he were well aware that all that adoration wasn’t going to last long.
Anyway – Rev. Luti’s reflection on Tuesday had to do with sitting quietly and waiting for God to find us - rather than rushing around in six directions at once trying to find God. And that was my moment of revelation. I have always been an active Christian – doing the work of the church, trying to do the work of Christ, serving, helping, teaching ..... and with this reading it occurred to me that just maybe some of my “doing” was simply me rushing around trying to “fix” things – so I don’t have to feel guilty anymore.
Now I realize that this has all been a lot of sharing about me so far – and I apologize for that – but it has been necessary as the lead-up to what I actually want to share with you about Palm Sunday and all the events to come this Holy Week.
What if – just what if Holy Week really isn’t about “guilting” us into changing our behavior? What if God really doesn’t ever want us to change because of guilt? What if it really is – as we always say it is – all about love?
OK - I admit - it has taken me awhile to figure this out. I had issues as a child and I am still struggling with many of them no matter what my grown-up mind understands. Lessons learned in childhood are devilishly hard to get rid of. They don’t go away easily, I don’t care how old you get to be. I suspect I am not the only person here who has ever suffered feelings of guilt – whether truly earned or not. So much of the teaching of the church, for centuries, has been specifically designed to foster that guilt in us - especially during Lent. Jesus suffered and died and it is all your fault! and all that.
Now – I do believe it is important that when we have done wrong, when we have harmed another, we acknowledge what we have done and take responsibility for it and do whatever we can to undo the damage. And we ask God to forgive us and – as in last week’s message – we ask for a new, clean heart so we can start in all over again to try to get it right this time. I absolutely believe that. And there is going to be some guilt in there. But hopefully as we grow and mature as followers of Jesus, the harmful, sick-making guilt is going to shrink as a motivator and our strongest motivating force is going to become love – just love. God’s all-encompassing love for us and our steadily-growing, ever-widening love for God.
I do not for a moment believe Jesus died to somehow “pay for” my sinfulness. What kind of monster parent would demand that price? Only humans could come up with that explanation. Instead, everything I’ve learned of Jesus in scripture and in my life experience tells me he lived the life he chose out of love for us all – not payment. And he died because of the way he lived.
Those in authority, having left love behind them in their rush to power, could not begin to understand that someone would choose to live a whole life based on caring about others – and because they did not understand they felt threatened, and because they felt threatened, they killed. That’s what we do. Sometimes literally, with a cross or a gun. Sometimes with a look or a word. We kill each others’ hope and dreams and self-respect ... and we try to kill love itself.
But ..... Jesus knew this about us and loved us anyway. Loved us enough to live his life his way, and loved us enough to die, still living his way. And if we can learn anything here it is to choose to live our lives that way, too. We can look at the inconstancy of Palm Sunday, and the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, and the jeers of Good Friday, and the awful grief of absence of Holy Saturday – and we can find, not guilt, but love.
We can choose to do the work of the church, we can choose to serve and help – not to expiate some sin – but because that is where love leads us – because, by love, we can look at each other and see each other with Jesus’ eyes of love -- even those who seem to go out of their way to be unlovable. Especially those who go out of their way to be unlovable -- because they, after all, are the ones who need our love the most.
So let us go into Holy Week -- not crushed by guilt – but set to love this bruised and angry world we live in – open to seeing it as Jesus sees it – set to love it as Jesus loves us.
Amen.
*re-lent: Lenten Devotional 2015 – The Stillspeaking Writers’ Group, United Church of Christ, Cleveland, OH
It was last Tuesday, with a reflection titled Stay Put, written by Mary Luti, a UCC pastor, that started this process. Her writing had nothing to do with Palm Sunday, per se but that is where my reflecting went immediately. I’d been tossing Palm Sunday around in the back of my mind all week looking for something new to say to you this year, so it was there and ready to be impacted.
I’ve mentioned to you before that this Sunday is probably my least favorite of the year because the readings instill such guilt in me. I leave church convinced that somehow everything bad thing that happens during Holy Week is all my fault, especially if I choose the Passion readings with their crowd cries of, “Crucify him!” Even the Triumphal Entry reading from today makes me feel bad because I know how fickle we humans can be - to praise one minute and condemn the next. This particular scripture translation makes that pretty clear when it tells us that Jesus took in all the hoopla "but by then it was late, so he went back to Bethany,” as if he were well aware that all that adoration wasn’t going to last long.
Anyway – Rev. Luti’s reflection on Tuesday had to do with sitting quietly and waiting for God to find us - rather than rushing around in six directions at once trying to find God. And that was my moment of revelation. I have always been an active Christian – doing the work of the church, trying to do the work of Christ, serving, helping, teaching ..... and with this reading it occurred to me that just maybe some of my “doing” was simply me rushing around trying to “fix” things – so I don’t have to feel guilty anymore.
Now I realize that this has all been a lot of sharing about me so far – and I apologize for that – but it has been necessary as the lead-up to what I actually want to share with you about Palm Sunday and all the events to come this Holy Week.
What if – just what if Holy Week really isn’t about “guilting” us into changing our behavior? What if God really doesn’t ever want us to change because of guilt? What if it really is – as we always say it is – all about love?
OK - I admit - it has taken me awhile to figure this out. I had issues as a child and I am still struggling with many of them no matter what my grown-up mind understands. Lessons learned in childhood are devilishly hard to get rid of. They don’t go away easily, I don’t care how old you get to be. I suspect I am not the only person here who has ever suffered feelings of guilt – whether truly earned or not. So much of the teaching of the church, for centuries, has been specifically designed to foster that guilt in us - especially during Lent. Jesus suffered and died and it is all your fault! and all that.
Now – I do believe it is important that when we have done wrong, when we have harmed another, we acknowledge what we have done and take responsibility for it and do whatever we can to undo the damage. And we ask God to forgive us and – as in last week’s message – we ask for a new, clean heart so we can start in all over again to try to get it right this time. I absolutely believe that. And there is going to be some guilt in there. But hopefully as we grow and mature as followers of Jesus, the harmful, sick-making guilt is going to shrink as a motivator and our strongest motivating force is going to become love – just love. God’s all-encompassing love for us and our steadily-growing, ever-widening love for God.
I do not for a moment believe Jesus died to somehow “pay for” my sinfulness. What kind of monster parent would demand that price? Only humans could come up with that explanation. Instead, everything I’ve learned of Jesus in scripture and in my life experience tells me he lived the life he chose out of love for us all – not payment. And he died because of the way he lived.
Those in authority, having left love behind them in their rush to power, could not begin to understand that someone would choose to live a whole life based on caring about others – and because they did not understand they felt threatened, and because they felt threatened, they killed. That’s what we do. Sometimes literally, with a cross or a gun. Sometimes with a look or a word. We kill each others’ hope and dreams and self-respect ... and we try to kill love itself.
But ..... Jesus knew this about us and loved us anyway. Loved us enough to live his life his way, and loved us enough to die, still living his way. And if we can learn anything here it is to choose to live our lives that way, too. We can look at the inconstancy of Palm Sunday, and the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, and the jeers of Good Friday, and the awful grief of absence of Holy Saturday – and we can find, not guilt, but love.
We can choose to do the work of the church, we can choose to serve and help – not to expiate some sin – but because that is where love leads us – because, by love, we can look at each other and see each other with Jesus’ eyes of love -- even those who seem to go out of their way to be unlovable. Especially those who go out of their way to be unlovable -- because they, after all, are the ones who need our love the most.
So let us go into Holy Week -- not crushed by guilt – but set to love this bruised and angry world we live in – open to seeing it as Jesus sees it – set to love it as Jesus loves us.
Amen.
*re-lent: Lenten Devotional 2015 – The Stillspeaking Writers’ Group, United Church of Christ, Cleveland, OH
RSS Feed