Sermon - 2020-04-05- Palm Sunday
Normally Palm Sunday is filled with palm branches swaying back and forth. People milling around and greeting one another. We are handed palm branches and as good Lutherans, we have no idea what to do with them. We hold them close to our chest so as not to hit the other person. We apologize when our children, or children at heart, start to use them as swords. However, today, we do not have any of that. Most of us are in our homes and the halls of the church are empty. However, just because that is the reality that we are facing does not mean that we do not have an occasion to celebrate. Rather today, we are reminded now, more than ever what that Palm Sunday really is all about.
Now yes, we can point back to the account of the Gospel that was read at the beginning of the service. “Pastor, didn’t you listen to yourself? The people used Palm branches and so do we.” Yes, I understand but why did they use Palm branches in the first place? When the people in the Gospel laid the branches down before Jesus, they did so for a very important reason. They laid those branches out so that Jesus would not have to journey upon the filth of the road.
Now think about this for a moment, there were animals running around, no sewer system, no garbage collection, and things really only got cleaned when a slave was told to do something or it rained. So the palm branches that were being laid down were a barrier between the filth of this world and the arrival of the Messiah among them. A place in which the Messiah could travel with honor and celebrate for who he was and what it was they were hoping he would do for them. In our own modern times, it would be walking down the red carpet.
Yet there is an irony there. The barrier that you have in your hand, the barrier that we use to celebrate is often so much like our own lives. For we have within our own lives, our own filth and sins. Yet we do not always bring them to God. We think that we can take them on ourselves, that we can overcome them because God does not give us more than He has given to us. Yet the Palm branch in our hands is like a blanket trying to cover the sins of our lives. The smell still gets through, the lumps are still present, and the sins are still there. Yes, the expectations that we have of God in our life may be doing the same covering that the palm branches are. The barrier of what God is doing for us and what we are allowing God to do through us is fully present because we put it there.
However, for many this is the final barrier that we must overcome, ourselves. The acceptance of God’s Love, the acceptance of the forgiveness, and the acceptance that God enters into the filth of our lives to declare these things directly to us. So today, we celebrate that is before we understand the full gift of this season and this week. So today, take some time to reflect upon your own life, what barriers do you have between yourself and God. Then join us for the service on Maundy Thursday to continue to hear the message and gift that this week has to offer. Amen.
Now yes, we can point back to the account of the Gospel that was read at the beginning of the service. “Pastor, didn’t you listen to yourself? The people used Palm branches and so do we.” Yes, I understand but why did they use Palm branches in the first place? When the people in the Gospel laid the branches down before Jesus, they did so for a very important reason. They laid those branches out so that Jesus would not have to journey upon the filth of the road.
Now think about this for a moment, there were animals running around, no sewer system, no garbage collection, and things really only got cleaned when a slave was told to do something or it rained. So the palm branches that were being laid down were a barrier between the filth of this world and the arrival of the Messiah among them. A place in which the Messiah could travel with honor and celebrate for who he was and what it was they were hoping he would do for them. In our own modern times, it would be walking down the red carpet.
Yet there is an irony there. The barrier that you have in your hand, the barrier that we use to celebrate is often so much like our own lives. For we have within our own lives, our own filth and sins. Yet we do not always bring them to God. We think that we can take them on ourselves, that we can overcome them because God does not give us more than He has given to us. Yet the Palm branch in our hands is like a blanket trying to cover the sins of our lives. The smell still gets through, the lumps are still present, and the sins are still there. Yes, the expectations that we have of God in our life may be doing the same covering that the palm branches are. The barrier of what God is doing for us and what we are allowing God to do through us is fully present because we put it there.
However, for many this is the final barrier that we must overcome, ourselves. The acceptance of God’s Love, the acceptance of the forgiveness, and the acceptance that God enters into the filth of our lives to declare these things directly to us. So today, we celebrate that is before we understand the full gift of this season and this week. So today, take some time to reflect upon your own life, what barriers do you have between yourself and God. Then join us for the service on Maundy Thursday to continue to hear the message and gift that this week has to offer. Amen.
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