Rev. Jennifer Whipple
Congregational Church of Brookfield (UCC)
Palm Sunday
April 5, 2009
"Open the Gates"
Psalm
118:1-2, 19-29
Mark
11:1-11
Prayer:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our minds and
hearts gathered together this day be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our
Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Have you ever played the game telephone?
For those of you who may not have had the pleasure it goes like this.
The players sit in a circle, and someone begins with a sentence.
That person whispers the sentence into the ear of the player next to
them. That person whispers it into
the ear of the next person, and so on and so forth around the circle.
If you want to be adventurous you do not allow phone-backs – meaning
that you cannot ask for clarification, and you have to share what it is that you
thought you heard. As a child this
game could fill any empty moments and land a group of friends in hysterics
because inevitably the sentence always changed – either on its own or because
there was some kind of joker in the middle who made it a little bit more
elaborate or interesting. For
instance, the group could start with the sentence, “Jimmy was thirsty so he
drank a coca cola.” And by the end
“Jimmy was thirty at a luau with a drunken koala who performed the hula in a
tutu…at the circus.”
But where telephone was an innocent childhood game, we all as adults also
understand how stories are told or gossip is spread.
And with each go around it seems to get more elaborate or interesting.
In the case of Jesus Christ, it may just have been what landed him amidst
a crowd at the entrance to the city of Jerusalem, as they waved palms and spread
their cloaks on the road to lead the way. As
hindsight is 20/20 we know that what would ensue in the next week of Jesus’
life was part of a grander plan, but back in that time, people did not know –
or at least did not understand that. They
were hoping that Jesus would enter that city and proceed to turn the world as
they knew it upside down for their betterment.
They so wanted him to be the king who would lead them out from under the
oppressive thumb of the Roman empire – who would storm the castle, so to
speak, and turn the world right again. Little
did they know, that he was going to turn the world right again, but in a
distinctly different way – giving his life to save them from all of the sins
they had committed – from all that separated them and us from God.
Two interesting things happen in Mark’s account of Jesus’ triumphal
entry into Jerusalem as it has come to be called, as we celebrate Palm Sunday
each year.
First, Jesus sends the two disciples on into the village to find the
unridden colt of a donkey. This is
not much different from the other accounts of this day, at least of those in
Matthew and Luke, but I read an article that helped me to see things from the
perspective of those two disciples. The
article, called “Donkey Fetchers” by Thomas Long speculated about those two
disciples. Jesus had been sharing
with his disciples before this day that something huge was going to happen –
that he was going to be glorified. So
you might imagine that the disciples, having done what he asked – having left
their homes, followed him, and shared his message – figured that they might
have a pretty big role in all of this. Grabbing
a donkey and explaining that Jesus needed it was probably not what they had in
mind. We tend to romanticize this
event too, picturing the donkey laying outside of a house – almost as if in a
scene from an old western movie where the horses were tied outside the saloon.
But when we think of the reality of donkeys, one might imagine that
closer to the truth would have been the need for the disciples to make their way
through some mud and muck to get to it. And
all Jesus would let them wear was sandals – quite unpleasant.
Again, knowing what we know now, they were helping to fulfill the
prophecy that had been foretold by Isaiah and Zechariah.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter, Jerusalem! Lo,
your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a
donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
So what is the message for us in this first discovery?
Perhaps it is that, just as on our bulletin we all are listed as
ministers, the most everyday, average things we do can be ministry if we are
willing to open the gates to our minds and hearts and allow them to be.
If we act from the depths of our being, from our faith in God, we can be
certain that ministry will be done, lives will be changed, and we may just grow
in our relationships with others and with God as well.
Whether it is a card written to a loved one, friend, or stranger serving
overseas; a casserole made for someone who is experiencing a time of difficulty;
an afternoon spent counting the offering or an opportunity to help clean our
community – if we do them in faith and hope for a brighter tomorrow, we may
just be helping to usher in the kingdom of God – just as the two disciples who
trudged through the muck were able to do, little did they know it.
The second interesting thing that happened in Mark’s account of
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is one that I had never noticed before.
In Jan Richardson’s reflection “The Temple by Night,” she points
out that no one else seems to enter the city, or at least not the temple, but
Jesus. The scripture says, “Then
he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.
He looked around at everything. Then,
as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
Mark is the only gospel account of Jesus’ entry that allows Jesus time
– time to really experience the temple at night – in the seeming quiet after
everyone had left and before it was closed for the night.
In the other accounts, Jesus immediately goes in to the temple to throw
out the moneychangers or to heal the blind and lame.
Only in Mark, does Jesus get some time to think back on all that had
happened in his past temple experiences, to reflect on what just happened with
all of the people who expected so much of him, to think about what was to come,
and to prepare himself for his sacrifice – a sacrifice that he would make out
of an unconditional love for those who would turn on him sooner rather than
later. Only in Mark does Jesus get
some time to breathe – some space in between things to really collect his
thoughts and to spend time with God.
I don’t know about all of you, but it seems that this Lent has been
more intense than others in recent experience.
Perhaps it is because of what is happening with our economy – knowing
and hearing about so many who have lost jobs and homes. Perhaps
it is because we have been very busy in this place – adding extra programs
like our Health and Wellness Challenge, our book studies, Bible Study, Lenten
Lunches and so on. It is in those
opportunities on our own and together that we have been truly challenged to
spend time at the feet of God, to see the Way of the Cross, to challenge our
faith and talk with others about our experiences and our beliefs, and to grow.
Perhaps it is because we are a community that feels everything together,
and right now we are in mourning with an emotional week ahead of us as we look
to our gatherings on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
Perhaps it is because we are so trying to hold on to the hope of Easter
and what it means – our forgiveness and the knowledge that we are God’s
children. Perhaps it is because of
all these things that I have wanted more often than not lately to lock myself in
my office and put up the “do not disturb” sign – to take some time like
Jesus to collect my thoughts and center myself in God.
It is no coincidence that the scripture passage I have on the side of my
computer is also from the gospel of Mark. It
says, “Come away with me, my beloved, and rest a while.”
It is in times like these when we need to take at least a few moments of
our precious time to open the gates of our hearts and minds – to listen for
who it is that God is calling us to be in these days and weeks ahead.
The people outside of Jerusalem who welcomed Jesus that day were
shouting, “Hosanna!” “Save
Us!” We find ourselves saying that
again today. Save us from all of the
pressures and weights that are on us. Save
us from the things of this world that seem to break us down.
Save us from our own busy-ness.
My hope and prayer for us as we head into this Holy Week and the end of
our Lenten Season is that we will allow ourselves to be saved – that we will
make time to go into the temple at night – to enter the spaces that call to
us, invite us in, and ask us to open up. That
we will take the time to reflect on our own relationships with God and the ways
that we do minister to one another and the world through what may seem like the
simplest of things. And that we will
open the gates of our hearts and minds to an opportunity to grow as disciples
and to share our faith with others. Amen.
On-Line Article
References:
Thomas Long, “Donkey Fetchers” from http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3389.
Jan L. Richardson, “The Temple by Night” from http://paintedprayerbook.com.
