"The Acts of the Holy Spirit" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday May 21, 2023 – 7^th Sunday After Easter

Scripture:  Acts 1:6-14

 

 

Does anyone remember what the world was like, 3 years ago?  There was a global pandemic going on, for one thing.  We weren’t able to gather in-person to worship, so every Sunday Bertis, Ross, and I would meet up at Westfield to livestream a service.  Bible Study and meetings were happening over Webex.  At the beginning of each week, I flipped through the church phone lists and made myself a list of people I wanted to touch base with that week over the phone.  And it was around this time – late May – that we started gathering outside for our parking lot coffee hours so that we could see each other and have a conversation, even though our chairs had to be spread out.

 

And then there were the Facebook Live daily check-ins. Every day after lunch, just before 1pm I would go down to my basement and get my tablet set up, and hit the “Go Live” button on Facebook.  We would chat – me with my voice and everyone else using the comments section – as we waited for people to gather; then a few minutes after 1pm I would read a chapter of the bible, we would have a conversation about what we had read, and then we would pray together.  It was a great way to stay connected with each other and with God in a time when virtual gatherings were the most common way to gather.

 

We started in March reading our way through the Gospel of Matthew, which brought us up to Easter.  After Easter, we read the gospel of John, and then a poll on Facebook took us to Revelation for three weeks after that.  And just before Pentecost that year, we began to make our way through the book of Acts.

 

The full name of this book in the bible is The Acts of the Apostles.  It is a continuation of the story that began in the Gospel of Luke – if you were to read the very beginning of chapter 1, it references back to the first book which recorded Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.  And so now volume 2 picks up the story after the resurrection with Jesus’s ascension, followed by Pentecost, and then the rest of the book is filled with Jesus’s apostles – those who knew him when he was alive, and those who only came to know Jesus after his resurrection – all of them together carrying the good news about Jesus all around the known world.

 

There are some great stories in this book, but as we read it together 3 years ago, I suggested that maybe a better title for the book, rather than the Acts of the Apostles, might be the Acts of the Holy Spirit working through the Apostles.  The Holy Spirit’s fingerprints are evident all the way through the stories, as she equipped those first apostles for the work that they were given to do.

 

The story from Acts that we heard today comes from the very beginning – it is the story of the Ascension.  40 days after the resurrection, after spending 40 days with his disciples, Jesus ascends into heaven, telling his disciples to wait in Jerusalem, for very soon they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  (And if you want to hear about that story, come back next week for the celebration of Pentecost!)

 

As a side note, if you want to see some entertaining art work, do a google search for images of the ascension – my favourites show Jesus’s feet dangling through the clouds.  But it brings up a real point – how can we, with words or with images, convey the mystery of God and how God works?

 

But back to the story.  Before leaving them to return to the one whom he calls Father, Jesus also tells his friends, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  In other words, all of the work that they are going to do to be witnesses to Jesus – the preaching, the healing, the miracles, the teaching – they aren’t going to be doing it under their own steam, but rather it will be the Holy Spirit working within them.

 

I don’t know about you, but I find this to be a very reassuring thought.  The idea of needing to depend on myself and my own abilities to witness to who Jesus is and what God is doing in the world terrifies me; but when I can trust that I’m not the one who has to do it, but rather God will be doing it through me by the Holy Spirit – this sounds more possible.

 

Going back to our daily check-ins 3 years ago, I suggested that a better name for this book in the bible might be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Working Through the Apostles,” and I also wondered what book might be written titled, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Working Through the People of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge.”

 

This year, 2023, marks the 25^th Anniversary of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, even though I know that each of our three congregations has a much longer history than just 25 years.  If we were to look back on those 25 years with a lens of how has the Holy Spirit been working in us, what stories would we tell?  Would we tell the story of the time the Holy Spirit empowered us to become an Affirming pastoral charge? Would we tell the story of how the Holy Spirit inspired refugee partnership and sponsorship?  Would we tell the story of baptisms and communion services celebrated?  Would we tell the stories of the Saints who have left us, but whose whole lives were witnesses to the love of God?  Would we tell the stories of Official Board meetings and Church in the World committee meetings where the Holy Spirit nudged us to stand up for people who are vulnerable and oppressed and marginalized in our world?

 

Looking back over the past 25 years, what stories would we write in that book entitled, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Working in the People of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge”?

 

But alongside looking backwards, it is also important to look forwards.  Last week at the Official Board Meeting, I invited the members of the Board to imagine Two Rivers Pastoral Charge 10 years from now, in 2033.  The world is likely going to be a very different place 10 years from now, just as the world is currently a different place than it was 10 years ago.  But I have every confidence that Two Rivers Pastoral Charge will still be here.  But how is the Holy Spirit going to lead us in the next 10 years?  What adventures will we be on together?  How is the Holy Spirit going to be inspiring the people of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge in 2033 to be witnesses to God’s love and to Jesus’s life and teachings?

 

It is interesting to look back on what has happened in the past, but I think that it is even more exciting to think about and imagine where we might go in the future.  For even though we haven’t celebrated Pentecost yet this year, we are living in Pentecost times.  The Holy Spirit is living and moving in the church, and equipping us for the work that we are called to do – equipping us for the work of being witnesses of Jesus Christ.  And may our ears be ever attentive to her voice; and may our lives be ever willing to follow her where she leads.  Amen.

 

 

One of the Parking Lot Coffee Hours in 2020

"Doing the Hard Things" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday May 14 – 6^th Sunday of Easter

Scripture Reading:  John 14:15-21

 

 

Can you think of a time when you learned how to do something that was hard?  Maybe you remember learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time.  Or maybe you remember learning how to swim, the first time you kept your face out of the water without panicking.  Or maybe you have learned to play a musical instrument, or maybe you have learned a new language.

 

When you think about learning something new, you probably didn’t do it all by yourself.  You didn’t decide one day that you were going to teach yourself how to play the piano, and a year later, with no help and no feedback from anyone go on a concert tour playing the complete Chopin preludes.

 

I remember learning how to quilt.  When I was in high school, my mother decided that she wanted to learn to quilt, so she signed herself up for a quilting course at the local fabric store, and then she shared what she was learning with me, and together we made my first quilt.  I still have that quilt, and I still love it, even though there are things about it that I would do very differently if I were to make it again today.  Then when I was on internship in BC, I brought a quilt I was working on with me, thinking that it would be a project to occupy my evenings; and when I got there I discovered that the community quilting guild met at the church every Tuesday during the day to work on their projects, and I was invited to join them. They were happy to share their knowledge and their wisdom with me to help me get better at cutting and piecing the fabric together to make the top of a quilt.  And now I get to sit around the quilt with the Summerville quilters, where people like Martha and Sue and Sandra have helped me to get better at hand quilting with rows and rows of tiny stitches… though I don’t think that I will ever be able to make as tiny stitches as Sue Gamble does!

 

I have had so many people to teach me about quilting and help me get better at it – the Summerville quilters, the Chetwynd quilting guild, my mother, my mother’s teachers…

 

Jesus, in his life, spent a lot of time teaching his disciples – teaching them about God’s love, teaching them how to love one another and love the world, showing them and teaching them all about healing, and feeding people who are hungry, and overturning tables of injustice.

 

The reading that _____ shared with us today, just like last week’s reading, comes from Jesus’s farewell discourse.  We are literally in Maundy Thursday at this point in Jesus’s story.  He and his disciples have celebrated the Passover meal together, Jesus has washed their feet, he has told them to do likewise, and he has given them a new commandment to love one another as he has loved them.

 

You get a really strong sense when you read the story that Jesus knows what is coming next.  He knows that he likely isn’t going to be able to leave Jerusalem alive.  He really is saying goodbye to his friends at this point.

 

And he knows that he has given them, given us, a mission – to carry on the work that he began, to abide in God.  But he knows that, like with all hard things, they, we, aren’t going to be able to do it alone.  Jesus’s disciples are going to need some help.

 

And so Jesus promises them, “I will not leave you orphaned.”  Jesus promises them the paraclete – an Advocate, a Companion, a Comforter, a Counselor, a Helper, a Friend.  This paraclete, this Holy Spirit, is going to be who accompanies all of Jesus’s disciples as they, as we, continue the work that Jesus began.  This Holy Spirit is going to be abiding in us and in all of creation; and because the Holy Spirit abides in us, we abide in God.

 

For the Holy Spirit is always transforming us into who God created us to be.  It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are able to say “yes” when God calls us.  It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are able to do the hard things that we are called to do.  God reaches into humanity in the person of Jesus; but then the Holy Spirit is almost like a bungee cord that Jesus attaches to us, that pulls us into the life of God, that pulls us into the dance of the Trinity.

 

God does ask us to do hard things.  Feed the hungry.  Be bringers of healing.  Overturn tables of injustice.  Be peace-makers.  We are called to do hard things, but we don’t have to do them alone.  The Holy Spirit who abides in all of us equips us and empowers us to do the work that we are called to do.

 

The Holy Spirit is always there, and we are continually getting little micro-doses, little infusions of the Holy Spirit.  It happens in our baptism.  It happens when we worship together.  It happens when we share the bread and the cup.  It happens when we pray together.  It happens when we accompany another through difficult times.  We have so many opportunities to be freshly infused with the Holy Spirit, so that we can continue the work we are called to do.

 

And that is my prayer for all of us – that we might not despair at the challenge of the work that God has given to us, but rather that we might trust in the Spirit’s abiding presence, for that is how we abide in God, and that is how we can do the work.  And may it be so.  Amen.

 

 

That first quilt, not long after it was completed.

Photo Credit:  John Edwards (aka my Grandad, who was

very proud of what his granddaughter had done)

"Our Map to God" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday May 7, 2023 (5^th Sunday of Easter)

Scripture Reading:  John 14:1-14

 

(In our Story for All Ages, we talked about maps. Maps show us how to find a place. Just before his death, Jesus told his friends that they/we would know the way to the place he was going. How can we find our way if there is no such thing as a map to God? Jesus says, "I am the way." Jesus is our map. By looking at Jesus and by doing what he teaches us to do - love God and love our neighbour - we will find our way to God.)

I don’t know about you, but to me this bible passage is most familiar from funerals.  John, chapter 14 is probably tied with 1 Corinthians 13 (“the love chapter”) and the 23^rd Psalm for the most-requested passage to be read at funerals.  And so to me, it is a bit strange to dive into this chapter at a not-funeral setting.

 

This passage comes from Jesus’s “Farewell Discourse” in John’s gospel.  John is structured a bit differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, because Jesus spends 4 chapters here towards the end of John’s gospel saying goodbye to his disciples, and leaving them with his final teachings.  We are literally days away from Good Friday at this point in the story, and Jesus seems to know that this is going to be his last opportunity to get his message across to his disciples.

 

Jesus’s disciples tend to have a reputation of not being able to understand what Jesus is all about – when we read through the gospel of Mark in bible study, the refrain that we kept coming back to was “Do you get it yet?”  We hear a bit of it in the reading that we heard today – Philip asks Jesus a question and Jesus responds with, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and still you do not know me?”

 

But I have to confess that I have a sneaking sympathy with Jesus’s disciples.  Especially with this reading!  This reading leaves me with more questions than it answers.

 

For example:  Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name.”  But what about all of the prayers that seem to go unanswered, or prayers where the answer is no.  Should Jesus’s promise have come with an additional clause? “I will do whatever you ask in my name… as long as it’s something that I was already going to do.”

 

And then there’s Jesus’s statement:  “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”  Um, Jesus, you walked on water and raised the dead and multiplied the loaves and fish.  I don’t think that I’m able to do any of these things, and yet you say that if I believe in you then I would be able to do all this and more?  Because I can't walk on water, does that mean that my faith isn't enough?

 

And finally, there is the way that this passage has been used to exclude people.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  And there are times when people have twisted these words to mean that unless you believe exactly the way that I believe, then you can’t get into heaven.

 

But I can’t believe that this is what Jesus intended with these words.  After all, he says that in his Father’s house there are many dwelling places. (Or “in my Father’s house are many mansions” or “My Father’s house has room to spare” or “There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home” depending on what translation you read.) There is lots of room in God’s home for everyone, an abundance of room!  There is room enough for everyone who wants to be there.

 

I wish that I could offer neat and simple answers to all of the questions that I have for this text, but I’m afraid that I can’t.  I’ve heard it said that as soon as we think that we can understand God, then we don’t understand God.  For God is mystery.  Jesus reveals God to us, but there is still mystery.  I don’t understand why some prayers seem to go unanswered, and I probably won’t understand in this life.  I don’t understand the miracles of Jesus, and how all of Jesus’s followers are to do the same.  I don’t understand how Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 

But I trust that Jesus is the Way.  Just as we read last week about how Jesus is the gate into the sheepfold, that we pass through Jesus into the community of God’s people, Jesus is our Way to God.  Jesus is our map to God.  I don’t understand how this Way works for other people, but I have to trust that the Way to God is there for all people; because, after all, there is room for all in God’s house.  And as for me, what I need to do is keep myself grounded in Jesus – the Way that he shows to us – for he is our Way to God.

 

Did anyone else get up early yesterday to watch the coronation?  I was watching it through my church geek lenses, because the Church of England does liturgy and ritual so very well.  And did you notice how the service began?  A child welcomed the king “in the name of the King of Kings” to which King Charles replied, “In his name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve.”

 

No matter your feelings about the coronation or the monarchy, I thought that it was a powerful reminder that all of us, no matter who you are, whether you are a king sitting on a throne in London or whether you are sitting here today, all of us are called to ground ourselves in Christ, who is the giver of life and the way to God.  For this same God became human in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is nudging us, drawing us, accompanying all of us along the Way of Jesus so that we all become part of the life of God.

 

And may all of us be grounded in the Way of Jesus, so that we can serve the world as he did, so that we might put our trust in the truth of God, and so that we might be drawn into the life of God.  Amen.

 

 

 

“I welcome you in the name of the King of Kings.”
“In his name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve.”

"Beyond Life to Fullness of Life" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday April 30, 2023 – 4^th Sunday of Easter

Scripture:  John 10:1-10

 

 

Chapter 10 of the gospel of John includes one of my very favourite statements of Jesus, and this week I looked it up in different translations to see how different translations of the bible word it:

 

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (NRSV)

 

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  (KJV)

 

“I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (Message)

 

“I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness.” (Good News)

 

“I came so that they could have life – indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.”  (CEB)

 

This fullness, this abundance of life is what Jesus is all about.  He’s not just about the simple biological life – a heart beating, breath moving in and out of the lungs.  Instead, Jesus is about every single person… maybe even all of creation… being able to fully live into who and what God created us to be.

 

It's interesting to look at where this teaching of Jesus comes in the overall bible story.  This passage comes right after the story of Jesus giving sight to a man who was born blind – one of the stories we read just a couple of weeks ago in the season of Lent.

 

If you remember that story, there was a man born without sight.  Jesus saw him; Jesus spit on the ground and mixed his spit with the dust; Jesus smeared the mud he made on the man’s eyes; Jesus told the man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash his eyes there.  And when the man came back to Jesus after washing, he could see for the first time in his life.

 

This is the story as told by someone watching the events unfold.  But I wonder what this experience was like for the man who was born blind.  We are told that he was a beggar and so I picture him sitting alongside the road, hopeful that someone passing by would be generous enough to drop a couple of coins in his basket.  Maybe he was hungry, or maybe yesterday’s generosity meant that he was able to eat today.  And all of a sudden, he hears some voices that he has never heard before.  And these unfamiliar voices are talking about him.  And then he feels mud being smeared on his eyes – I like to think that Jesus told him what he was doing, and asked permission first – but mud is smeared on his eyes, and this unseen voice is telling him to go to a local pool to wash the mud off.

 

These unfamiliar voices belong to strangers, and yet there must have been something in Jesus’s voice that told this unnamed man that the voice came from someone who was trustworthy.  What did he hear in Jesus’s voice that made him do what Jesus told him?

 

He didn’t know Jesus’s voice, and yet he knew Jesus’s voice.

 

And at the end of this story, just before Jesus’s teaching about sheep hearing the voice of the one who tends them, this man has moved into a deeper, fuller, more abundant way of living.  I picture him standing straighter and moving through the world with increased confidence now that he can see where to place his feet.  Maybe now someone will hire him so that he no longer has to sit beside the road with his beggar’s bowl.  Maybe he now lives his life with generosity and compassion towards the people he used to beg alongside.

 

This man has heard Jesus’s voice, he knew Jesus’s voice even though he had never met him before, knew that he could trust Jesus’s voice, and now he has passed through Jesus and into the sheepfold.

 

Today’s reading from John must drive English teachers crazy with its mixed metaphors.  Is Jesus the shepherd who protects the sheep?  Or is he the gate in and out of the sheep fold?

 

I would answer both of these questions with a yes.  Yes and yes.  The beautiful thing about using metaphors – images that are both like and not-like – is that when we use multiple metaphors to describe God we can draw a more complete picture of God.  We are limited by our human language when we try to talk about God, but the poetry of metaphors maybe lets us get a bit closer.  Jesus is the one who guards the sheep AND Jesus is the gate.  Jesus is the one whose voice, whose call is trustworthy AND Jesus is the entry into abundance or fullness of life.

 

Which brings me to the biggest question that I’ve had to struggle with this week, related to this reading.  If Jesus is both the shepherd and the gate, who is the thief or bandit in this metaphor?  If Jesus’s purpose is to bring fullness or abundance of life – life that goes beyond simply existing – who or what is stealing or denying this abundant life?  What are some of the ways that the world has denied this abundance of life?  Or even closer to home, what are some of the ways that the church has denied the abundance of life?

 

I think of all of the situations where there is biological life without the fullness of life.  Our LGBTQ+ siblings who are living in places where their existence is illegal, and if they lived as God created them to be, they risk being punished even up to the point of death.  People who are forced to give birth but who are denied accessible health care or any sort of social support system or network.  People who are trapped in generational systems of poverty.  People struggling with addictions who are imprisoned rather than supported with treatment programs.

 

There are so many places in the world where there is life but not the fullness or abundance of life.

 

And I think that this story should be a very powerful call to the church.  Our mission needs to go beyond sustaining life and on to promoting the fullness of life.  We contribute to food banks which is important because they sustain life, but what can we do to make sure that people don’t need food banks in the first place.  We support the benevolent fund which again helps to sustain life by doing things like paying power bills and giving out grocery gift cards, but what can we do to promote the fullness of life so that people don’t need to ask for help in the first place?

 

(If you are looking for some ideas to get you going, I encourage you to look on the United Church of Canada’s website for information about the Guaranteed Livable Income campaign.  Or look for the ways that the church is pushing back against climate change.  Or listen to the Minute for Mission that we share each week for ways that the wider church is working towards not just life but abundant life.)

 

For Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance.”  And may this vision come soon for all of God’s creation.  Amen.

 

 

 

The church advocating for fullness of life for all!

 

300 paper bags, each containing a tart and closed with a sticker

that has a rainbow flag and the words “God Loves You!”

Given away in front of Westfield United Church on Pie Day (March 14).

"Hallelujahs, Tinged with Tears" (Easter Sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

April 9, 2023 (Easter Sunday)

Scripture Reading:  Matthew 28:1-10

 

 

I need to say, right from the beginning, that with one part of my heart it doesn’t quite feel right to be celebrating Easter with so much grief floating around our churches these days.  It doesn’t feel quite right to be singing our Hallelujahs with joy and excitement while some of our friends, some of our neighbours, some of our siblings in Christ are still living through their Good Fridays of grief and fear and dread.  Some of our friends, some of our neighbours, some of our siblings in Christ are still living through Holy Saturday, that day of emptiness, of waiting, of in-between-ness.  How can we celebrate Easter with so much Good Friday and Holy Saturday still around us?

 

And yet when I read the stories of the first Easter, I notice that they also aren’t full of joy that is uncomplicated by grief or fear.  I think that Easter is maybe a bit more complicated than we sometimes make it out to be.

 

Think of those women going to the tomb at sunrise – Matthew names them for us, Mary Magdalene and another Mary.  They are deep in grief at the loss of their friend.  And when they get to the tomb, an earthquake shakes the ground under their feet, and an angel descends in front of them.  And here, I invite to you picture something a bit more dramatic than the usual artistic depictions of angels.  I invite you to picture wings and eyes and flames and lightning flashing around them, clothing so dazzling bright that you can’t look at the angel.  The big burly Roman guards that have been posted to guard the grave are terrified, shaking in their boots and paralyzed with fear.

 

The first thing that the angel says to the women is, “Don’t be afraid.”  They need to let go of their immediate terror to be able to hear the good news that Jesus isn’t there in the tomb, but rather has been raised from the dead.

 

As Mary and Mary are running back into the city to tell the other disciples, they run into Jesus himself.  And just like the angel, Jesus greets them with, “Don’t be afraid.”

 

Between earthquakes and angels and a beloved friend who was dead but who is now standing before you… the first Easter wasn’t a simple joyful celebration of new life.  It is often said that the only two things you can count on are death and taxes, and now you can’t even trust death any more!  Resurrection was something new, and anything new feels unsafe, even when it is ultimately good.

 

And so I’m starting to think of Easter as something new… as something that is going to be ultimately good even if we can’t see the goodness at the beginning.

 

This week I was thinking of a tree that I saw back a couple of years ago.  I was visiting England in November 2019, just before Covid shut the world down, staying with a friend in a small village in the county of Devon.  The church in her village dates back to the 1300s, but the age of the building isn’t what is special about it.  What this church is famous for is a yew tree growing out of the roof.

 

Nobody is quite sure how old the tree is, but the best guess is that it is at least 250 years old.  Nobody planted it there – a seed likely fell from the beak of a bird flying overhead.  Maybe the seed found a bit of soil up there on top of the tower, maybe there was a patch of moss that it landed in.  The seed germinated, sending out fragile roots and a tender stem.  I wonder how long the tree was there before the first person noticed it?  How long was that tree there, growing and strengthening, without anyone being aware of its existance?  I think of those early years of the tree, drawing water up through its roots from the rain that fell.  Soaking up the sunlight in its first leaves.  New life was growing on that roof, likely for years if not decades before anyone became aware of it.  New life is beginning all around us, even when we can’t see it yet.

 

For Mary and Mary and the rest of the disciples, despite their terror and grief that Easter morning, resurrection has begun. Their beloved friend is back and a new sort of life is now here for all of us.

 

And this is why I think that we do need to celebrate Easter, even when we are in the midst of Good Friday or Holy Saturday times in our life.  This is why I think that we need to celebrate things like baptisms like we had at Summerville this morning, and a new life beginning.  The seeds of new life have already been planted, even when we can’t see them yet.  The seeds of new life have already been planted, and because we trust in that new life, we celebrate.  Even when our Hallelujahs are tinged with tears, even when our Hallelujahs are tentative, we sing them anyways.  For the tomb is empty.  New life is here.  Christ is risen.  Christ is risen indeed.  Hallelujah!

 

 

The Yew Tree on top of All Saints Church

Culmstock, Devon

"A Bit of Street Theatre" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday April 2, 2023 (Palm Sunday)

Scripture:  John 12:12-19

 

 

I want to invite you to imagine what it might have been like to have been there, to have been part of that procession that entered Jerusalem.  If it is easier for you to imagine with your eyes closed, then I invite you to close your eyes.

 

At this time of year in Jerusalem, we are in the middle of the short spring season.  The heavy rains of winter have passed, though there might still be some showers, but we haven’t yet come to the hot, dry, dusty days of summer.  The wildflowers have started to bloom, and there are poppies blowing wildly in the wind wherever you turn; and the almond trees are blooming, filling the air with their sweetness.

 

We are just days away from the Passover, the major festival in the Jewish calendar.  People have traveled from all over the known world to celebrate the Passover – offering sacrifices in the temple, and sharing in the communal Passover meal as they re-tell the story of how God had helped them to escape from slavery in Egypt.

 

The streets are crowded – there are normally 40,000 people living in the city, but this week there are 200,000 extra people here.  The officials are starting to get nervous with all of these people here.  They have heard rumblings of revolt – rumours that there are people who want to overthrow the Roman rulers here in Israel.  Tensions are starting to rise, so that any large gathering of people is seen as suspicious.

 

There is also a rumour going around that something is happening just outside of the gates of the city.  There is this preacher and healer and miracle worker named Jesus, from Galilee up there in the north, who has come to Jerusalem in time for the Passover.  People are saying that he can cast out demons, that he walks on water, and that he has even brought people back from the dead.  They’ve started calling him the Messiah, the anointed one, anointed like our kings in the past were anointed.  The rumours say that he is the one who is going to overthrow the Romans, and that he will be our king instead of them.

 

We make our way slowly to the gates on the eastern side of the city.  We have to move slowly because the streets are so full – everywhere you turn there are people – people on foot, people with animals, people selling things, people buying things.  It is crowded, noisy, chaotic.  A cacophony of languages fills the air from the pilgrims from every corner of the world.

 

When we leave the gates of the city and start to travel along the road towards Bethany, we can see this Jesus, surrounded by his little band of followers, but the crowd has grown so that there are hundreds of people gathered around, maybe even a thousand people.

 

It’s almost like this Jesus is organizing a show for us – a bit of street theatre.  He’s sent a couple of his followers to find a donkey for him, and now he is riding towards the city gates like a conquering hero… except he is sitting on a donkey instead of a war horse.  We can join the parade, and as we go, the crowd is getting noisy.  They are shouting and waving palm branches that they had cut from nearby trees. 

 

And then a group of people starts to sing, and they are singing one of the psalms of our people – Psalm 118.  It starts with just a small group, but then more and more people join in until it is more like a shout than a song:

           Hosanna!  Save us!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

           Hosanna!  Save us!

 

I wonder what Jesus is trying to say with this parade?  What is his message?  What is he trying to accomplish?  Usually street theatre is a tool that marginalized groups use to speak truth to power – “Oh, no, you can’t get us in trouble for saying that – it’s just a play!”

 

It is a celebration for sure, but it doesn’t feel quite right.  People are excited that something new is coming.  People are confident that this Jesus can save them.  People are willing to risk being part of a crowd in a time and a place where that is a dangerous thing to do, just in order to be part of this procession.  And yet there is a tension in the air, like something big is coming that we don’t quite understand yet.

 

I also wonder about the crowds who joined the parade that day.  All through this season of Lent, we’ve been reading stories about individual people who encountered Jesus and how they were changed by that encounter, but today we have a whole crowd of people.  And I wonder how they were changed by participating in this parade.

 

I wonder if there were people in the parade that day who became disciples, who joined the group of Jesus’s followers.  They don’t have many days left to learn directly from Jesus, but they can learn of his teachings from his other disciples, and then go on to share Jesus’s message with others.

 

I wonder if there were people who were a part of the parade that day who went home that evening and said to their spouse, “Well, that was fun”; and then never gave it a second thought.

 

My wonderings also take a more serious bent.  We’re told that some people in the crowd that day were part of the crowd that saw Jesus raise his friend Lazarus from the dead; and we’re going to encounter another crowd in just a couple of chapters.  I wonder if anyone who was part of the Palm Sunday crowd was also part of the crowd that shouted “Crucify!” outside of Pilate’s palace?

 

Just as there are multiple faces to the crowd that day, I think that each of us has an opportunity to choose how we will respond when we encounter Jesus.  Do we choose to stop and listen to his message, and allow ourselves to be changed by his message, and then go on to be part of his message?  Or do we encounter Jesus and hear his message and then file it away under “interesting, but not relevant to me”?  Or do we encounter Jesus one day, then turn around and deny him the next day, in our words and in our actions?

 

For almost 6 weeks now, we have been journeying through the season of Lent, hearing these stories of people who encountered Jesus and how they were changed because of it.  Now we are on the threshold of Holy Week.  As we journey through the days ahead of us, we are going to encounter tender moment, painful moments, grief-filled moments, fearful moments, empty moments, before we can get to next Sunday and the empty tomb.

 

As we stay by Jesus’s side all the way to the cross, how do you want to be changed by your journey with Jesus?  My prayer for all of us, as we stay close to Jesus this week, is that the Holy Spirit might work in all of our hearts and lives, transforming all of us so that we might be more and more like the one whom we follow.  That the faith, the peace, the courage, the love of God that Jesus shows to us might bloom in all of our hearts and our lives.  And may it be so.  Amen.

 

 

“Entry into the City”

John August Swanson

Used with permission.