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Palm Sunday 2010
| 31.03.2010, 09:38 | |
| Rev. Tatiana Cantarella Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 19:29-40 Palm Sunday, 2010 "What is the highest power? What is the highest authority?” Before I begin the sermon I’d like for us to listen to a fragment from the Moscow version of the rock-opera "Jesus Christ, Superstar. This part is called "Hosanna” and it gives a good idea of the atmosphere of the Triumphal Entry, the event we celebrate on this day. On the screen there will be both characters and their words to help us better understand what is happening. (The Crowd and Jesus): Hosanna hey sanna sanna sanna o Sanna hey sanna o sanna Our teacher, turn this way Shine on us, bless us, Superstar! (Simon): Your authority has reached its height, the flame will start, it only needs a spark. Throw off the cursed Roman yoke under which the nation suffers. Let all of those who stand against faith o God, taste of your justice! (Judas): But this is strange! (Simon): Let all of those who stand against faith, o God, taste of your justice! (Judas): You’d just have to give them a little push and they’d pulverize everything around them, Pulverize it all. They are waiting for you to once again split the world into the clean and the unclean, the sinners and the saints. And each of them wants to become clean, to be made holy by someone else’s efforts, As if atonement could be paid ahead of time. (Simon): Hundreds of thousands are prepared (Judas): Lunatics! (Simon): To go into battle under your banner. (Judas): They’re spellbound by the authority of your proud phrases. (Simon): You have but to say the word (Judas): Fanatic! (Simon): and each would raise their sword against Rome. (Judas): He will be the death of us all! (Simon): Let mercilessness for enemies Sound in their prayers, In this righteous battle the world will fall at your feet! You will crown yourself with glory forever and ever and ever! You will crown yourself with glory forever and ever and ever! Forever and ever and ever! (Jesus): You who seek honors, grasping at authority, the slave thirsting for freedom, the scholar, the wiseman, the freethinker, the tyrant, None have the ability to comprehend, What the highest will is, What the highest glory is, What the highest power is, What the highest power is. When I leave Jerusalem forever You will be able to find the way in my name. In order to understand the mood surrounding the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem we have to remember the story of the Old Testament. Israel, whose King from the very beginning had been God Himself, starting looking around at other nations and felt envious that they didn’t have an earthly king like everyone else. Despite the futility of making such a step, God respected their freedom of choice and gave them an earthly king. From that day, however, Israel was repeatedly defeated and ravaged by other nations, kings, and armies. That is what always happens when people put their hope in powerful armies and strong chariots. We always think that everything will work out just fine if only we could get the strongest army and the fastest chariots. That is we always think like that until that strongest army and those fastest chariots knock down our own door and tell us to get out with all of our possessions... Unfortunately, despite various periods of exile, the fall of Jerusalem, the loss of families and homes, the destruction of the Temple, all of which Israel was forced to go through because of their stubbornness, the people did not come to their senses, did not return to God as their sole King and Lord. Instead they continued to wait and pray for a new, strong king that would rule with authority; they continued to hope that "terrible regiments with banners” would appear among them, regiments that would help them confirm that they were right. They thought: "If only a stronger leader would come, then everything would be okay. If only a king with real power ruled over us, if only our nation could muster more might than other nations, then everything would be okay. If only we could somehow fortify our strength, stock up on stronger weapons and faster chariots, then nobody would dare touch us.” But none of that happened. Instead, for the four hundred years that passed between the last Old Testament prophets and the announcement of the birth of Jesus, God was silent. God stopped speaking, and all the while the people thirsted for a king that would rule with strength and power, who would earn glory through his power; a king, whom all other nations would fear. And then after 400 years the silence was broken by a birth in a small town, in the simple family of the newborn whom they called Jesus. As he grew people began to realize that he wasn’t a simple, ordinary person, that He was the Messiah, the King of kings. They started to ask questions: is this really the one who will bring long-awaited salvation to our people? Many started to follow Him, but He called twelve people in a special way, and they were with him day and night for the three years of his ministry. The expectations grew: could this be the One whom we’ve waited for so long, could He really be the One He says He is? He heals the sick, He dines with sinners, and he even forgives sins. Is it possible that this Jesus really is the long-awaited Messiah, the King of the Israel? The King of Israel... What do we mean when we say "king”? What do we imply when we say that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords? What do we expect from Him? As a rule we believe that a King is one who rules with a strong hand, with power, with authority, right? Kings sit on thrones and ride around on thoroughbred chargers or armored limousines. People give kings whatever they want; everybody worships them. Kings order other people to do stuff. A king demands peace... and gets it. But then we look at the life of Jesus and we understand that He isn’t the kind of King that we’re used to imagining. Notice how he rides into Jerusalem on a young donkey that had never been ridden before, borrowed from some random person. He triumphantly enters Jerusalem, but only His followers worship Him: religious leaders protest Him and His procession. They are sure that a real king doesn’t hang out with sinners and outcasts; a real king spends time with the elite. A king should ride on a sleek charger, one specially trained just for him. A king doesn’t have to run around looking for what he needs. A king has subjects that break horses for him. A king is worshipped by everyone, not just his closest followers; kings don’t call people to peace, they take it by force! That’s how kings should be, and that is how they are, as a rule, and peace turns into a kingdom of violence and oppression, hidden behind slogans of peace and justice. But that’s not how Jesus came. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem doesn’t coincide with our ideas about a real king. We have become accustomed to understand authority as dictatorship, as coercion and the use of personality, whether it be on the part of governmental structures, school teachers, or parents at home. We don’t see how great the difference really is between the Kingdom of Caesar and the Kingdom of God, as revealed by Christ! For centuries even the Christian Church acted according to the conviction that the only possible type of power is the kind established through victorious violence. That conviction is what led to forced baptisms and the Crusades. Valerii Kuklin writes in his novel True Power: "But you just can’t accept what true power really is. You are used to seeing it in its representations of so called power structures or in the persons of presidents, chancellors, and kings. They command, domineer, and, in the end, yell.” That is exactly what showing authority is for us Russians: showing authority means to know how to pound a table with your fist, to shout loud enough to get everybody else to shut up, to bring about your plans by physically coercing your subordinates. But that type of authority, which is far from Divine, is unstable and in order to cover up that instability it controls others, it needs slaves in order to feel like a god, in order to see immortality in its mortality. In the fourth century Saint Augustine (in The City of God) pointed out the human bondage between our secret powerlessness and the violence we put out there for others to see, violence that we take for power. And then, when we see "true power,” authority that never imposes itself on others, but waits until others come of their own accord, we wave it aside, dismiss it as weakness. What are we looking for, what do we expect when we come to Jesus as the King? Today we are part of the procession of His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Today we remember the life of Jesus, anticipating the events of His death and resurrection and before us today is the same dangerous temptation to receive Christ in the same way the crowd that gathered in Jerusalem received Him. They bowed down to their hero, but we also bow down to our "superhero,” "superstar,” as the called him in the musical. What did they expect from Their Hero? "Throw off the cursed Roman yoke under which the nation suffers. Let all of those who stand against faith, o God, taste of your justice!” meaning "all of those who aren’t part of us.” "Let mercilessness for enemies sound in their prayers, in this righteous battle the world will fall at your feet! You will crown yourself with glory forever and ever and ever!” Maybe some of you have seen the new Superman movie. Superman is invincible; they call him "savior.” He helps those in need, fights against even forces. He is quicker, more agile, and stronger than everyone. Isn’t that how we often imagine Jesus, even today? We wait for Him to burst into our life and conquer everybody who isn’t on our side, to show his power so that nobody would dare touch us... But can we hear what He says on that day to the crowd, blinded by their own conceptions and expectations? "None have the strength to comprehend, what the highest will is, what the highest glory is, what the highest power is.” He is a completely different King and His Kingdom is completely different. This King’s strength is not based on His ability to take life away from the unfaithful, but on his ability to give his own life. His reputation is not measured by the accumulation of earthly wealth and status, but by a readiness to loose all of that, to give it up for the sake of God’s Kingdom and Its values. He doesn’t rule by means of a fortress and strength, not with orders from above: in His vulnerability He shows His inner strength of character. That inner strength is able to take on responsibility and to get others to follow not by ordering them to do so, but by a simple invitation "follow Me.” The people who came to Jesus that day were looking for "peace,” they were looking for salvation and deliverance. But the peace that Jesus brings is impossible to establish by strength or military might. The peace of Christ is brought about through vulnerability and mercy; it is given to those who are ready to surrender their lives to Him. His peace is not about bringing chaos under control, but about transforming chaos and healing, restoring broken lives. Peace isn’t about veiling life’s disappointments, putting on a front and pretending that everything is okay -- something that we’re very good at doing here in Russia. God’s peace, the peace that King Jesus brings, is about transforming our life to the point that peace truly reigns in us, and not just the illusion of peace. According to the Gospel, true power, as is revealed soon after Jesus arrival in Jerusalem, is the power of God crucified: the power that so desires change for someone else that it allows itself to be killed in order to give someone else resurrection. The sovereign power of God in Christ will be revealed in the absolute gift of Himself, in the sacrifice that gives people life and lays a foundation for their freedom. Jesus reveals the power of God, Who "lays down His life for His friends” and prayers for those who persecute Him. The true power of God the King is the power of Love. The true King is the King of love. Today we tend, like those first followers, to celebrate Jesus as a King according to the ideas of this world, according to what this world values. Let’s admit that we want to see Jesus with our own eyes, through the prism of what we think a King and Savior should be. But today the Scripture reminds us that in Christ came a Kingdom that in its very root differs from our concept of a kingdom and power. This is a Kingdom in which the King rules without defending Himself; this is a Kingdom in which peace is not achieved by strength, but is given freely, where life is obtained not through the taking of someone else’s life, but the giving of one’s own. That is the kind of King that Jesus came to be, that is the kind of Kingdom he came to establish. Today we celebrate this King, this Jesus Christ, and this Kingdom -- the Kingdom of God. But I fear that we will miss Him, just as so many missed Him when He walked this earth. They were looking in the wrong place, they were expecting the wrong thing... and they missed not only Christ, but also the call to participate in this new strength, in this sacrificial and saving power. When God created people in His own image, He blessed them and said, "Fill the earth and subdue it, rule” (Genesis 1:27-28). God gave humans that sovereign power, but not in our fallen sense of the word, not in the sense of violence: He gave us the power to transform. That is what it means to be made in the image of God: it means we have been endowed with a good, life giving power to transform. Who will see in Jesus today the true Kingdom, at its root differing from our fallen concepts of power? Who will hear today the call to participate with Him in this power of faith and humility, power which manifests itself in service? "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, humbled himself, became obedient to death, and then God affirmed His true power and gave Him the name that is above every name!” I pray that we would know Christ, the One who rides into Jerusalem on a young colt, Who brings the Kingdom of God through love and forgiveness instead of the strength of a sword and the swiftness of chariots. For if we are truly resurrected with Christ, if Death, having drowned in the waters of baptism, has no power over us, and then we no longer need neither slaves nor enemies upon whom to project our fears and desire to be a god. Rather, in humility we become Him. In Christ we receive the ability to love; in Christ we "have the strength to comprehend what the highest will is, what the highest glory is, what the highest power is.” And the peace of God will be with us because we ourselves will become peace for others. | |
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