Matthew 21:1-11
Rev. Deborah Church Worley
Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020/4th Sunday of COVID-19
White Rock Presbyterian Church
As many of you are aware, I’ve been doing a sermon series during Lent, called “Claiming Our Belovedness.” As I’ve said before, my intent is to offer each week one thing that we can do that would help us move just a little closer to fully claiming our identity as God’s beloved children, at our core, and then live from that place…. I’ve been focusing on that because I am deeply and utterly convinced that that–that knowing ourselves to be God’s beloved, knowing ourselves to be, at our most fundamental level, deeply and unconditionally and eternally loved by God–that makes all the difference. All the difference in how we see and understand ourselves, which in turn profoundly affects how we see and understand each other, which in turn profoundly affects how we live and move in the world. I am deeply convinced that knowing yourself to be beloved by God is transformational, not just of yourself but ultimately, of the world. And that it is one of the greatest gifts faith has to offer. That is, in fact, the single most important reason why I do what I do–in the hopes of offering more opportunities to more people to experience and claim more fully their fundamental belovedness.
So, anyway, that’s been the focus of my sermons during this season of Lent! I’m not going to review the previous five specific sermon topics this time…but if you’d like to check them out, they’re all available on our church’s website: wrpchurch.com, either in audio or, more recently, video form.
But let’s jump in with today’s passage, one that is very familiar to many and tells one version of the story of Jesus’s final entry into Jerusalem, at the beginning of this week that we Christians call “Holy Week,” a week that begins today and ends next Sunday, with the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection from the grave. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For today we’re just going to hang here with Jesus, and his disciples, and the surrounding crowds, as he enters Jerusalem one.last.time.
One of the things that struck me as I was reflecting on this passage was the seeming calmness in Jesus’s spirit in the midst of kind of a lot of chaos…. For one thing, he knew that he was walking–or in these moments, riding!–straight to his death. He knew it was coming. He knew he would not be leaving Jerusalem alive. He knew his crucifixion was not far off; and he had even said as much to the disciples as they were all on their way to Jerusalem. “…[The] Son of Man will be handed over to the chief preits and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified…,” he had said to them (cf. Matthew 20:18-19). And yet here he was, willingly, and seemingly calmly, riding into town.
In addition to these thoughts that could very well have been causing some chaos within Jesus, there were also things going on around him to add to that–a crowd had gathered as he had approached, and these people were rowdy! They were taking off their cloaks and spreading them on the road in front of him, jostling for position, perhaps, wanting to make sure their cloaks were actually in his path. Others had pulled out their pocket machetes 🙂 and were cutting branches from the trees lining the roads, and were putting those branches on the road, being jostled in the process by the ones who were trying to lay down their cloaks! I can imagine that it was chaos….
And that wasn’t all! All of these people, whether they found themselves following behind Jesus, or walking alongside him, or going in front of him and making a path for him–all of these people, according to our passage, were shouting! They were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (cf. Matthew 21:9)
It was a party! It was a celebration! This man Jesus was a celebrity! And there he was, among those people! Right in their midst! I’m pretty sure, had cell phones been around, there would have been lots of selfies being snapped that day! 🙂
But in the midst of all of that…Jesus remained calm.
In the midst of the internal chaos, brought about by his unshakeable awareness of his own impending violent death, Jesus remained calm.
In the midst of the external chaos, brought about by these crowds of people around him, throwing down their cloaks, cutting branches from trees, shouting words of praise and acclamation as they all jostled about him, Jesus remained calm.
In the midst of all kinds of chaos, Jesus remained calm.
It seems to me that maybe, even more than on Palm Sundays past, given our current global situation, just maybe, we could learn something from him…do you think?
How do we, faced with the increasing internal chaos of anxiety, and fear, and confusion, and grief, and anger, and frustration, and disappointment, and impatience–and did I mention anxiety? And grief?–how do we, faced with all of that internal chaos, remain calm?
And what about the external chaos of our lives? The chaos of closed places of work? And closed schools? And closed places of worship? And the resulting chaos of so much structure and routine suddenly taken away?? The chaos of closed restaurants and stores? The chaos of statistics, more and more alarming? The chaos of so many different authorities, telling us so many different things? How do we, faced with all of the external chaos of our daily lives in this “new normal,” remain calm?
How did Jesus do it?
How did he remain calm in the midst of the chaos of that last journey into Jerusalem?
I think he was able to remain calm…because he remained centered.
Grounded.
Focused.
Locked into who God had called him to be and what God had called him to do.
And no amount of either internal or external chaos ever changed that for Jesus, throughout his life and ministry, not just on Palm Sunday.
Jesus was able to listen for the whispers of God’s spirit in his heart in the midst of the shouts of the world in his ears.
Whether the crowds around him were shouting, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” as they were on this day…or, as they did just a few short days later, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Jesus listened for God’s voice speaking to him in his spirit…and remained grounded in who God had called him to be.
Whether the turmoil in his spirit provoked feelings of frustration or heartache or profound grief, Jesus listened for, and was able to hear, God’s voice whispering to him in his spirit…and he remained focused on what God had called him to do.
I don’t mean to suggest that it’s simple to remain centered in God and who God has called us to be and what God has called us to do.
I’m not, in any way, shape, or form, suggesting that it’s simple.
In fact, let me say straight out that It’s not simple!
It’s incredibly difficult!
There are so many voices, both internal and external, that shout at us, that clamor for our attention, that demand we turn our focus toward them, that demand we listen to them. So many voices…and more now than ever.
Loud voices, powerful voices, confident voices, contradictory voices…
Voices that tell us that they know the answers, they can tell us what to do, they can teach us how to be…so that we won’t be afraid, so that our struggles will go away, so that everything will be okay…
Voices from our past, voices born out of our anxiety and doubts, voices that seem to speak with great authority…but that lead us to greater fear rather than greater freedom…
So many voices, both internal and external, shouting in our ears, and more now than ever.
They make it so very hard to listen for God’s voice…
And yet, that’s the very reason that we need to listen for God’s voice.
That’s the very reason we need to listen for God’s voice, whispering to us in our hearts.
God’s voice isn’t necessarily loud.
God’s voice isn’t necessarily powerful.
God’s voice is often gentle, more like a murmur…and can be hard to hear. Unless we’re really trying to listen. Unless we have ears to hear. Unless we are being still and tuning in, with our heart and spirit open….
But when our hearts and spirits are open, when we’re being still, when we’re listening, then we just might hear God whispering to us….
And what might we hear God say?
I think we might hear things like, “I love you…” and “You are enough…”
I think we might hear things like, “You are completely and utterly forgiven…” and “You are eternally accepted, just as you are…”
I think, if we listen with open hearts, we might hear God whisper a question to us: “Why aren’t you being the wonderful person I made you to be? Why aren’t you being you?…”
I think we might hear God assure us, “There is nothing you can do to make me love you any more, and there’s nothing you can do to make me love you any less…”
If we can listen for the whispers of God in our hearts, in the midst of the shouts of the world that echo relentlessly in our ears, I think we just might hear God saying, “You are my beloved….. Please go out and live like it.”
And if we can remain centered in that truth, we will remain calm in the midst of the chaos.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
Rev. Deborah Beloved Church (aka "Pastor Deb") 