Palm Sunday - 2007
March 25, 2007
(Isaiah 43:16-21, Ps. 126; Philippians 13:8-14; Luke
20:9-19)
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church,
MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE
MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH
AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN
In our Christian lives ... our Christian year we can point to
several critical days. Certainly Easter
is central to Christianity ... but Easter is not possible without Good Friday
... and Good Friday grows out of Maundy Thursday.
Palm Sunday has equal importance but in a different way. It is less WHAT happened on that original
Palm Sunday and more about how it explains the actions.
Crucify Him ! ... We shout
it out as part of the dramatic reading ... but WE would never have actually
said such a thing! After all, WE know
what God was doing ... don’t we?
I have on occasion received some friendly criticism ... actually
I have received lots of criticism over the years but on this point it has been
friendly! .... When I kneel before the children, hand them communion, and
say: ”God loves you !” ... then turn to
the next adult and say: “The body of
Christ, the bread of heaven”, that adult on occasion asks: “What’s wrong? Doesn’t God love me too?”
That got me thinking. I
realized that the phrase: “the body of
Christ, the bread of heaven” means
“God loves you” — but that is so easy for us to forget. We are supposed to know all the meanings and
implications of the words we use, but all that is so easy to forget.
For example, we say Jesus was the “true paschal lamb”. And
every service I say: “Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us” ...to which you respond: “therefore let us keep the feast” ... frequently with a few
“alleluias” thrown in.
All of that is central to our theology ... our belief in God but
we so seldom think about it. The
Passover celebration remembers the time when the people of God were in bondage
in
When it reached the point that the first born, men and animals,
were to die, God told the Hebrew people, our ancestors, to sacrifice a lamb and
place the blood of the sacrificed lamb over the doorway. That sign would protect that household — the
danger would “pass over” the house.
Hence the term “passover”.
We declare that was a great mystery and great gift from God ...
but you know, those lambs were not particularly happy about it! So when we call Jesus “the true paschal lamb”
... and we say “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” we are linking back
to that earlier event. However, the key
difference is that unlike the lambs, Jesus and God could make a choice! Unlike the lambs, the choose to take this
dramatic step and be sacrificed for our benefit.
(Set aside the “why” question – “Why this all had to happen.” I will touch on that question next week.)
God so loved the world that Jesus was willing to be the Paschal
lamb.
When we receive the bread and wine that should be part of our reaction: to remember what was done for us. “Take them in remembrance that Christ died
for you, and feed on Him in your hearts, by faith, with thanksgiving.”
That
statement, another one we have a tendency to just let drift past us, has LOTS
of meat in it.
“Christ died for you” – this is both the singular and the plural
you. For each of us individually and for
the world as a whole.
“feed on Him” — gain strength, courage, dedication from Jesus.
“in your hearts” — our heads, our intellects are important, but
you know, ultimately our hearts are what cause us to move forward. If we don’t have the courage, the conviction
we won’t do anything, in the secular world or the spiritual, even if our
intellect tells us to do so.
“by faith” — guess what?
Try as we might we will NOT understand it all! We will not be able to explain it all. Some of it - sure -- but not everything so we
must move forward with faith.
“with thanksgiving” — very important. Not out of fear. Not out of obligation exactly, but with
thanksgiving ... with joy.
You may have noticed I skipped over the first part of that
declaration ... that statement of belief.
I did so because for me it is the
God loves you ... us. For
that reason we are the people of God,
and can receive the gifts of God.
AMEN
We have
previous sermons on our website. To read
an earlier sermon just enter: www.st-christopher.org/sermondate. For example, the July 16, 2006 sermon can be
found at:
www.st-christopher.org/sermon06-16-06
CLICK HERE TO RESPOND: I would enjoy reading your comments about this sermon. Please feel free to discuss content or presentation. (If you wish to use another email system send your comments to: ken@st-christopher.com)