St Brendan's Anglican Church
 

Sermon: Palm Sunday April 5, 2009                                                                       St. Brendan’s Anglican Church

The Rev. Pamela Schmaling

GOD’S FOOLISHNESS

No matter how many times we hear the story of Christ’s Passion, even though we know the resurrection is coming, it still leaves us in an uncomfortable place. It leaves us waiting and it should leave us thinking deeply about Christ’s great sacrifice for us.

The Gospel account of Jesus Christ’s Passion is read every Palm Sunday. It begins with heightened joy and ends with a sobering, gut-wrenching, reality check at the foot of the Cross.

Today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, tells of the account of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus, humbly ridding on a donkey, is surrounded by followers shouting “Hosanna!” “Hosanna!” “Hosanna in the highest!” which, to the people with Jesus at the time, meant “Save!” or “Please save!” What they were actually saying was, ‘Jesus please save us.”

What was on their mind was that finally Jerusalem would be liberated from Rome’s oppression. Just as they, as a nation, had been saved from Egyptian slavery, they now would be set-free from Rome. How foolish they must have felt when Jesus wound up beaten, bloody, crucified and dead. He certainly did not look like a savior as he hung upon the cross that faithful day.

You can feel the disappointment they experienced. From “Jesus save us” and jubilation to complete loss of hope. If you have ever experienced losing hope you know that it is a horrible, bottomless feeling and that is what many people felt when they looked up at Jesus’ limp body hanging from the cross. In reality, to the greater number of the people, who even took the time to look, he just appeared to be a fool – a dead one at that.

And this is where the Palm Sunday readings leave us: waiting at the foot of the cross trying to understand what took place. We are not unlike the few disciples left kneeling and grieving beneath Jesus that day 2000 years ago.

There is a reason the readings stop here. It is intended to give us time to think about what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Today begins Holy Week and the whole point of Holy Week is to ‘make time’ or ‘create space’ or we might say, put our self into “time-out”, so that we give serious thought and attention to why He lived, suffered and died for us. Without the cross there would be no resurrection and, until we understand His great sacrifice for us, we cannot grasp the enormity of His great love for us.

Here, at the foot of the cross, we ask:  What did Jesus look like to me on the fateful day when he rode into Jerusalem?  A king or a fool? Remember, Jesus rode on a donkey. That would be like President Obama arriving at the Inauguration in a 1968 VW bus. Wouldn’t you think, “This is going to be the President of the United States?” Who will take him seriously? President Obama would look foolish in our eyes and his action would certainly not be fitting the President of the United States.

To many, Jesus looked foolish: A so-called king ridding a donkey. Naturally, they thought, “Who could take him seriously?” And so Jesus was gravely underestimated at the time.

This is not unlike the search committee of a large, prestigious church who received a letter from a person they could not take seriously. They had spent many months looking for someone smart enough, good enough, good looking enough, competent enough, with credentials enough, to be their new pastoral leader.

One night the committee gathered and one of the members said that they had received a letter of inquiry and resume and he said, “I would like to consider this person.”He then began reading the letter.

“I would like to be considered as your new pastor: I’ve only been in the ministry for a few years and I must admit that my years of ministry have been rather tumultuous. I did not grow up in the church but was drawn into the church as an adult through a rather dramatic religious experience, so dramatic that I was incapacitated for a number of days after I met Christ.

Then I quit what I was doing and began to roam about preaching the Gospel. Some people liked my sermons, but a lot didn’t. I have been arrested on at least four occasions and served time n three different jails. On one occasion, after one of my sermons, the congregation was so incensed that they dragged me out of the pulpit, beat me, and escorted me out to the edge of the town before dumping me.

In the churches that I have served, I think that I have been a loving pastor, but also a strict one. I’ve had to chase more than one member out of the church for immoral actions. I certainly don’t mind calling an ace an ace and a spade a spade when it comes to disciplining church members.

I write this letter to you while I am in jail. I hope to be released from jail sometime soon, but I have found that when it comes to jail time, one never really knows. However, I hope that you will consider me as your new pastor. As soon as I get out of prison, I would certainly like to have gainful employment.”

Well, the committee was incensed. One of the members couldn’t help but say, “You’ve got to be kidding! How dare someone write our church, with a presumption that we would ever be desperate enough to hire somebody like that! What a fool! This has to be a joke!”

Another member asked, “Who the heck is this guy?”

The person holding the letter said simply, “It’s signed, St. Paul of Tarsus.”

Who was foolish?

It was St. Paul who was the great missionary to the Gentiles, the one who journeyed tirelessly to found Christian churches, created Christian theology and devoted his entire life to spreading the Gospel, was one who openly boasted that he was a fool for the sake of Jesus Christ.  (1 Cor. 4:10) How could do otherwise when Jesus Christ risked being thought a fool to save St. Paul and all believers.

Paul boasted that the wisdom of the world is pure foolishness from the Christian point of view. He said that Jesus dying on the Cross, seemed to many nothing more than some fool who tricked others into thinking He was something He was not, when in Truth, He was the true wisdom of God and the pure love of God.

In all this talk of foolishness, there is a warning. When we gather together on Sunday morning to worship God everything appears so dependable, so comfortable. We take for granted that the building will be standing, the altar beautifully set, the worship predictable and pleasing to God. But, all this can be just an illusion and a trap.

If we are not careful, our faith can become so comfortable, so predictable, so privatized, that we feel no need, no sense of urgency to tell others about Our Lord. We can lapse into feeling no need to be concerned for people who don’t know that Jesus Christ lived, suffered and died so they could be forgiven of their sin and that Jesus will wash them clean and then, they can start life all over again as they are made new into the image of Christ.

We get comfortable thinking that God will overlook our feeling uncomfortable when it comes to telling others about Jesus’ great sacrifice on the Cross for us. We can get comfortable thinking God will overlook our being afraid that the people we tell might laugh at us, scold us and tell us that we are total fools to believe such crazy nonsense?

When we become uncomfortable sharing Christ with others, we might do well to think: Who do I see when I look at Jesus hanging from the cross?

A King who came to save humankind or a fool?

Do you see a foolish man or do you see The Christ who willingly, out of pure love, risked looking a fool, in order to save us from our foolish lost self; Do you look at His tortured body and see the Truth, the Way and the Life; the Savior of the World; the Wisdom of God; the Love of God poured out upon us through the wounds of Christ who gave himself even to horrifying, degrading, death?

I am convinced that our love for Christ is in direct proportion to our understanding of His sacrifice for us. Jesus went to the cross on our behalf for a specific purpose. He went there to do something decisive, final, world shaking and life changing in our behalf. He went there to take upon Himself your sin – my sin – and the sin of all those who believe in Him so we might be set free from the power of death and given new life.

Today, we are here because of His sacrifice on the cross for us. We are here today because the Church came into existence for Christ and through Christ. The Church is His living body and it was created to be the reflection of Jesus Christ in the midst of a broken world.

Jesus did not make disciples and go to the cross so that the Church would hoard His message of love and hope proclaimed in the Gospel. As we gaze upon Jesus looking down to us from His cross, we might ask, “Out of pure love, how far am I willing to go for you Lord? Am I willing to look like a fool to many in order to share your message with others?”

Am I willing to be a fool for you, Lord?

Let us pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, you humbly entered Jerusalem a king to some, a fool to many: Come and reign in my heart and in my soul as King and Savior. Lift me up when I fall following you to the Cross. Give me grace, sweet Jesus, to despise the praise of this world along with the courage to be a fool for your sake and for the sake of the gospel. I ask this not on my behalf only but, on behalf of all my brother and sister disciples throughout the world.  May your Cross be our source of strength and grace, our guiding light this day and forever. We ask it in the name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Hosanna! Amen.