Jesus Christ is Lord

April 1, 2012 Jesus Christ is Lord Isaiah 50:4-9 Philippians 2:5-11 Year B Palm Sunday The suffering Servant Song In Isaiah 50 – The suffering servant is speaking. This is a part of his song, he speaks of his call from God, he speaks of what he must do to save his people, he speaks of what he endure in his service to God. Isaiah 50:4 says The Lord God has given me to tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. The tongue of a teacher – one who speaks, not what the people want to hear, but what God instructs. Teaching what the world wants to know In his autobiography, Up from slavery, Booker T Washington talks about how many people chose to become teachers, because they discovered that it was an easy way to make a living. Many were not about getting rich quick, but needed some way to make a living. Booker T. Washington talks about such a man who went from town to town teaching. He would be paid for his services, and he would move on. In one town, before allowing him to teach, the town interviewed him. They asked if he taught that the world was flat, or the world was round. He informed them that he taught whichever the crowd wanted to hear. He didn’t get the job. Other translations use the term instructive tongue, or the tongue of a disciple. We have the freedom to speak, but we must also listen towhat God is telling us. Teaching what God wants us to know The lesson of Philippians is to let the same mind be in you that was in Christ jesus. Christ was exalted, once again not because of his personhood, but because of his relationship with God. Today we celebrate palm Sunday. When Mark speaks of this event, he want to show us that jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. A palm parade was reserved for royaltly. Matthew speaks of the king humble himself in the parade. Yet in Mark, jesus rides triumphantly ahead, allowing those on the sideslines to honor him. Allowing us on the sidelines today to honor him. He was entering into a journey not to be led to victory, but to be led to the cross. Not for his salvation, but for ours. In his suffering, he brought our freedom. The cost of our salvation We are like a slave in the antebellum South named Tom. His owner allowed him to take jobs off the plantation at night, on holidays, and on weekends. He worked hard for his owner and then would walk fifteen miles into town, work there, and return home. After two hours of sleep, he would repeat the action. This went on for years, and he saved every penny. He refused to marry but spent every waking hour working. After he saved a thousand dollars, he went to his owner and asked how much he was worth. The man said that most slaves brought from between 8 hundred to 12 hundred dollars. However, since Tom was getting old and did not have any children, if he wanted to buy himself, the owner would let him go for 6 hundred dollars. Tom thanked his owner and went back to his cabin and dug up his money. He fondled the cash and remembered how long it took to get it. He put it back into his hiding place and went back to his owner, and said, freedom is a little too high, I am going to wait until the price comes down. On this palm Sunday the price is still too high. Next week the price will be lower for us. Next week we will not have to pay anything because Jesus paid it all for us. Palm Sunday is a day of victory, palm Sunday is also a day of historical significance. Historical Palm Sunday April 9, 1865 the civil war ended. It was on that day that Robert E Lee called a meeting with Ulysses S. Grant and signed a peace agreement. I just read a biography of Abraham Lincoln recently. And if I remember correctly, General grant notified the president of what was going on. So even though the president was not there, he was certainly there in spirit waiting for this momentous occasion. The fighting was over, and the war was over. April 9th of that year was palm Sunday. – I tell you that fact, because even though the war was over, that was by no means the end of the story for our nation. Freedom for us, salvation was not that easy. Five days later, was good Friday – And our good president prepared himself to relax a little bit after the long war and to attend a play with his wife. He was mortally wounded on good Friday, and on holy Saturday he was dead. There was no salvation for our nation on palm Sunday. The war was not over, there was no peace. As a matter of fact, the journey of healing had just begun. Why am I telling you that story – because it is palm Sunday 2012. We wave palms, we celebrate, we sing we worship, we praise, we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our lord. We sing Hosanna – Lord save us – Save Us When we wave our palms and boldly cry out, "Hosanna," do we dare imagine what we really want God to save us from? Save me from anger. Save me from cancer. Save me from depression. Save me from debt. Save me from the strife in my family. Save me from boredom. Save me from getting sent back to Iraq. Save me from the endless cycle of violence. Save me from humiliation. Save me from staring at the ceiling at three a.m. wondering why I exist. Save me from bitterness. Save me from arrogance. Save me from loneliness. Save me, God, save me from my fears. In viewing Palm Sunday from that angle, we can begin to see the potential for some real depth in this celebration, for embedded in our quaint pageantry is an appeal to God that originates in the most vulnerable places inside of us; and it bubbles, almost beyond our control, to the surface. "Hosanna." "Save us." Please God take the broken places that will tear us apart and make them whole. We beseech you, God, jump into the water and drag our almost-drowned selves to shore. "Save us." "Hosanna." Scott Black Johnston, Save Us Just because we are asking to be saved, and Jesus hears us, and rides triumphantly into you lives, that does not mean that we are saved – yet. The salvation story has just begun, five days from now will be good Friday – where Jesus will die on the cross for us. again. The truth is, someone else is going to lose their life again, on April 6, 2012. Palm Sunday is not about history it is about now. People are still in pain, people are still dying, people are still suffering, people are still in need of a savior. What is Palm Sunday? Maybe another way to approach that question is to ask another question: what if the gospel story ended with Palm Sunday? Like the disciples, we maybe would like it if the gospel could conclude right here. After all that the disciples had been through, and with their own secret hope that Jesus would be a political success on whose coattails they would ride to prominence, the disciples looked at the Triumphal Entry and thought, "Now this is more like it!" They probably wanted to capture and bottle that festive atmosphere. It was rather like Peter's reaction to Jesus' transfiguration when Moses and Elijah also appeared with Jesus on the mountaintop. Peter piped up and said, "Let's build some tabernacles right here so we can keep this great thing going forever!" So also on Palm Sunday: if they could have hit the pause button on the remote control of life, this would have been a wonderful image to freeze frame. The problem is that there is no salvation for anyone on Palm Sunday. The people cried "Hosanna," which means "Save us!" But given the world we are in, there could be no salvation from that kind of happy parade. That festive atmosphere, though in one sense befitting the true, deep-down royalty of Jesus as God's Son, still all that hoopla just doesn't fit our world. It doesn't address the problems that need solving. And maybe at this time of war and carnage, of terror and multiple threats of violence all around us, maybe we preachers don't need to work very hard to convince anyone of this point. If we look back upon history, we see that human sin has resulted not in one long string of happy parades but rather in a series calamatis, one long and sad parade of calamity and sorrow. Instead of a festive throng, history shows us things like the Trail of Tears on which Native Americans tramped into exile. History shows us boat-loads of black people in chains, taken from their native country and brought to a place called "America," then paraded before potential buyers, not of their services, but of their very lives. History shows us long lines of Jews marching not in some victory parade but shuffling along toward Nazi gas chambers in Auschwitz. History shows us the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the death squads of Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These are the real parades of human history. Carnivals of sorrow, festivals of death. Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations Preparing for this Palm Sunday In my faithfulness to God and to my task of being a pastor, in my mind, I have to work on two sermons at a time. So I planned what to do for palm Sunday two weeks ago. And once I pick the scripture, my task is to look, not at what I want to say, but what the scripture says. Usually on palm Sunday – I have a reading of the passion story so that we can hear the story for ourselves. Sunday is the only day that all of us are together as a group. So if we don’t focus on the passion of Christ on palm Sunday, most of us will not hear the story at all. This year rather than deal with the passion of Christ – I was led in a different direction. Isaiah and Philippians don’t deal with the passion of Christ they deal with his character as one suffering and yet obedient to Christ, and in his suffering, he entered into our suffering, and he became Lord of our life. Living palm Sunday this year I chose to go in a different direction, because I want to extend an invitation to all of you to not just listen to the story this year, we all live the story of pain, suffering, redemption, and victory every day. But I want us all to do more than live it, I want to invite you to experience it for yourselves. This is the beginning of holy week, and every day there is a lesson about our salvation to learn, every day we have a chance to get closer to the cross. Not all of us are going to come to bible study this week and talk more and expound upon the scripture. Not all of us are going to attend the Maundy Thursday supper, some of us are going to come to good Friday service to hear Rust sing, or to hear our district superintendent preach, some of us are going to have a real light day on Saturday, and some of us are going to be running around like a chicken with our head cut off, most of us if God allows will be hear again next Sunday with bells on. The thing is, if we just come hear together on Sunday, without reading the scriptures during the week, you miss the heart of the story. You will come here next week and know that you are saved, with no idea of how you got there. I want to invite to set some time aside this week to read the scripture for yourself. If you read scripture all of the time, take it a step further and reflect on it and ask how God is speaking to you. Wherever you are in your faith journey- go one step further this week. Experience the passion story for yourself. Salvation is not just for Sundays it is every day. Pain and suffering is not just in the bible, it is in the world, it is in our lives, it is in the lives of those around you. As Jesus goes from the upper room, to the garden in earnest prayer for his life, to mount calvary, to the grave, to the glory of God, let us also journey into the landscape of our lives, to the places and people who bring us comfort and joy, to the places and people who challenge us, to the people who bring our the worst in us, to the places in our lives that are in pain, to the places that are in need of healing, to the places that are in rebellion, to the places where God is taking control and making you a new person. Your journey will not look like my journey. The way in which God speaks to you will not be the same way that God speaks to me, the things that I am dealing with are not the as the things that you are dealing with, your testimony of how Jesus is your Lord and savior is not my story. Our week will be totally different. Our journey to the cross will be different. Just as Mark, Matthew Luke and John speak of the same events in different ways, so will we. Imitate the suffering servant 1. Here...during the Lenton Season... we turn our focus upon Christ... but we also must reflect upon ourselves as well... We have been called, like Christ, to be obedient... 2. Just like Christ was obedient in speaking... We are to be obedient in speaking... do we speak to people? do we share the Gospel message? do we encourage others with our words? Or do we use our words to criticize? and judge? and tear down? 3. Just like Christ was obedient in listening to God and others... We too are to be obedient in listening to God’s voice and to other people... During our prayer time... do we pray..."God help me with this... Help me with that... Help me get more money... help me ...me...me...me..." Or do we actually close our mouths for a moment... and open our ears... so that we can hear what He wants to tell us? Do we listen to others...like Jesus did? Or when people talk to us... do we just kind of look in their general direction... and let our eyes glaze over... while our minds are thinking about everything else BUT listening to that person? 4. Just like Christ was obedient in suffering... we are to be obedient if we face suffering for our faith... When we start talking about crosses... and criticism... many people will turn away... but Christ Isaiah encourages us to have the tongue of a disciple. To have the courage to speak and to act in the name of Christ. To speak not just what you have to say, but to speak based on your relationship with God. To speak the truth, knowing that it wont be accepted by everyone. But we are to speak, listen, suffer and obey all in the name of what Christ has done for us. Palm Sunday is just the beginning of the story of our salvation, let the events of this week speak for themselves, until we meet again next Sunday. Finally, I want to share this story about Christ triumphant entry into our lives and our salvation on palm Sunday. Without Jesus we are just ordinary people The colt which carried jesus went home to his village the next day after palm Sunday. He went to the watering hole and expected the other horses to cheer – they pretended not to even see him. He entered into the village expecting palms to be waived in his honor, still no one paid attention to him. Finally he said yesterday, was palm Sunday – you gave me so much attention, kneel to me now. He went home devastated to his mother, telling her that he did not understand what was going on. She explained, yesterday you had Jesus with you. You were in the service of the master. Today – without Jesus you are just an ordinary colt, just like everyone else. May you carry the cross of the Lord, may you carry the joy of the lord, may you carry the salvation of the lord with you as you go into this week.