Home

Contact Us

Choose Your Parade                        Palm Sunday                   March 16, 2008

Don't you just love parades? I must admit, I do. And I don't think I've ever met anyone who isn't at least drawn to them, like them or not.

Parades can be defining events. Think New Orleans and the Mardi Gras Parade, Pasadena and the Rose Parade, Midtown New York and the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Wall Street and the Ticker Tape Parade or our own Philadelphia and the New Year's Day Mummers Parade.

Actually, it could just be that the best parades are those that celebrate great victories. I still remember taking the Market/Frankford El Train down to Center City Philadelphia in 1976 to watch the Flyers' Stanley Cup parade - and again in 1980 to watch the Phillies' World Series parade. Even though I was a newly transplanted Philadelphian, in those days - not a natural-born fan - the excitement was contagious. You just had to be there.

If we step back in time, this morning, and picture ourselves as citizens of Jerusalem on a spring day in the year 30 or so - on the first day of the annual Passover celebration - you and I would have had two parades to choose from on that particular day.

From the east, on that spring day, Jesus was riding a donkey down the Mount of Olives, cheered by his followers.

Jesus, as we know, was from the peasant village of Nazareth, his message was about the kingdom of God, and his followers, mostly, came from the peasant class. They had journeyed to Jerusalem from Galilee, about a hundred miles to the north, a journey that is the central focus of the gospel accounts. The gospel writers' story of Jesus and all of Jesus' teachings about the kingdom of God that these writers have recorded have been aiming for Jerusalem, pointing toward Jerusalem. And he has now arrived at his destination. The grand procession - the parade - has begun.

But while this parade was happening, on the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea and Samaria, was also entering Jerusalem, and his parade could aptly be described as a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers.

Peasants would not have been comfortable at this second parade. One scholar describes it this way: It was "A visual panoply of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold." Pretty intimidating.

The contrast was intentional on Jesus' part. His parade proclaimed the victory of the kingdom of God; Pilate's proclaimed the power of The Roman Empire. And the two parades highlight the central conflict that led to the events of the week ahead - of the week that we call Holy Week or Passion Week - of the week that led to Jesus' crucifixion.

Jerusalem, the site of both of these parades, has been described by some as a place that was marked by two central characteristics:

1. Political oppression - the many were ruled by the few, and
2. Economic exploitation - wealth was concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and powerful

The message of Jesus, you see, was - and is - consistent and clear. No serious reader of his teachings or careful observer of his actions could mistake his central point - the Kingdom of God, he taught, is nothing like the Kingdom you observe when you look around you.

Oppression and exploitation and the persecution of the under privileged many by the privileged few are not a part a God-centered world, Jesus taught. He said, on the contrary, that the order of things would be turned upside-down - that servants would be at the top of the food chain.

The people in Pilate's parade wanted to maintain the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few, while the people in Jesus' parade wanted to celebrate the end of that kingdom and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The question, then, is this: Which parade would we have been in? Or, putting it in the present tense, which parade do we want to be in today?

On the surface, this decision is an easy one. Of course, we want to be in Jesus' parade, not Pilate's.

In practice, however, the decision is anything but simple.

Saint Paul points out, in our Epistle Lesson for this Palm Sunday morning, how difficult this decision can be. Addressing the Church in Philippi - most likely from prison - he writes about what it means to join Jesus' parade. About what it means to follow the one who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on that particular spring day. About what it means to be the Church.

The life of Jesus, Paul writes, is the model for our life. "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ," he tells his readers, "who could have exploited his equality with God for his own comfort - who could have grabbed power and influence and all manner of wealth - but who instead humbled himself and became a servant - a servant who accepted suffering and death in order to bring about the Kingdom of God. A servant who gave up everything, including his life.

This is indeed a hard message to swallow. This is very tough stuff. Setting aside our own desires and embracing the humility and love of Christ for everyone - as well as Christ's vision for the future - is no easy task.

Yet - there it is right in front of us in the scriptures. This is not one of those esoteric, difficult to understand scripture lessons that needs the wisdom of brilliant scholars to explain. This is not spiritual rocket science.

"Get your act together!" Paul writes to the members of the Church, "Think like Christ! Love like Christ! and be humble like Christ!"

It just doesn't get much clearer than that. Easy to understand, this directive from Paul. And extraordinarily difficult to follow.

It's difficult to even think about saying no to self and yes to loving absolutely everyone, much less do it. And it's equally difficult to refrain from focusing all of our attention on the constant quest for the brass ring. Some would say it's downright un-American. But it is possible. Possible because, as Paul continues: "... it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

This is the good news, friends: We can't succeed in being of the same mind as Christ. But God can. The difficult task is not doing it on our own, but rather having the wherewithal to get out of the way and let God make the necessary changes in us.

One author put it this way: If we are to be of the same mind as Christ, we need to "write a blank check for God to work in our life."

That still doesn't make it easy.

It is a natural part of being human to yearn for prestige, recognition, and status. Just look at the images flashing across all the TV screens in America today - images that emphasize the good and comfortable life. The pursuit of comfort and the accumulation of stuff are the dual desires held out to us today by our popular culture.

And it is a natural part of being a citizen of our Western culture to find ways to grow our wealth - and to support policies that aid our quest for wealth, even if they do real harm to those who are not as fortunate as we are.

If we look at Jesus, however, and strive to follow his lead - to have the same mind that was in him - we see clearly that following those natural yearnings is not what we are called to do. Following Jesus is simply not a path to wealth, fame, or popularity in this world. Nor is it a path that allows those who walk it to turn a blind eye to the ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest.

So here, then, is the threefold message for us to take from our Palm Sunday observance today: First, we are called to follow a leader whose parade is heading in a very specific direction. We are called to recognize that following Jesus means having the same mind that was his. We are called to follow him to our Jerusalem, so that we, like him, can confront the current version of the domination system that Jerusalem symbolizes - rule by the few, economic exploitation by those that have over those that have not.

Second, it is a call to free ourselves from our natural human desires - the ones so effectively embodied in our popular culture - the desire to dominate and the desire to accumulate.

And third, it is a call to recognize that we can never succeed in accomplishing either of those things on our own. To et where we need to go, to find a place in Jesus' parade, we first must have the willingness to get out of the way and allow God to direct our lives.

Two parades entered Jerusalem on a particular spring day in the year 30 or so. The palm we received when we entered our Sanctuary this morning is a symbol. A symbol that you and I have chosen to be a part of Jesus' parade.

May it also be a reminder - to each one of us - that participating in this parade is much more than standing on the side lines and shouting Hosanna! It is a commitment to having the same mind in us that was also in Christ. It is a commitment to allowing God's Spirit to work in us and through us.

Our parade will take us, this week, on a path that leads to a cross and to a horrible death. But in the end, It is a victory parade. One that lifts our spirits and causes us to raise our voices in song. Let's do just that, now, as we stand and sing one of the great hymns of the church, "Lead On, O King Eternal! The day of march has come. . .

Go Back To Sermons