All Saints' Millington
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • Clergy & Staff
    • 100 Years And Counting
    • Spiritual Connections
  • Worship
    • Becoming a Member
    • Sermons & Reflections
    • Words of Faith
    • Baptisms
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
  • Music & Choirs
  • Outreach
  • Giving
  • Calendar
  • E-Letter

Followers, Not Fans

4/20/2011

0 Comments

 
“Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”   Matthew 21:9-10

Who is the biggest star that you can think of?  Who is the person that you would fall all over yourself to be able to snap a photo of if you could be there when he or she stepped out of the limo and onto the red carpet?

A singer? An actor? A sports hero? Maybe Peyton Manning or LeBron James or Lindsay Vonn? Anne Hathaway or Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp or Natalie Portman or Daniel Radcliffe? How about Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers or Lady Gaga?

Whoever your favorite star is, think about what it would be like to be close enough that you could have his or her picture on your cell phone. Even if you’ve never been to one of those red carpet events, we all have a pretty good sense of what they are like – excitement, anticipation, noise, cheers, cameras flashing as the crowd tries to match the fabulousness of the occasion.

That’s what the first Palm Sunday was like – Jesus’ triumphal entry in Jerusalem.

Jesus rode that donkey down from the Mount of Olives, across the mile and a half of the Kidron Valley and up to the eastern gate in the city wall, the disciples close around him like the security detail for a political leader or a rock star. As they went they gathered more and more people, and the group became a parade, and then this parade surged into Jerusalem, already stuffed with visitors and tourists for the Passover holiday.

Tensions were running high as the Roman troops were on alert in case any Jewish patriot should try to take advantage of the religious fervor of the holiday in an attempt to create a political or military uprising – as we’ve seen so recently in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

And as Jesus rode through the streets up to the Temple itself the parade became a crowd, perhaps even a flash mob with people calling out Hosanna! – a term of adulation and praise, but also meaning “Save us” or “Help us, I pray”. The group, which became a parade, which became a crowd teetered on the edge of becoming a mob that day – but hopes were high that maybe, at last, God’s Messiah, God’s king and warrior and rock star would do for the people what they could not do for themselves – would do what only God could do.

No wonder the word spread like fire – Jesus the rabbi and healer, the one who spoke so penetratingly and persuasively and intimately about God was headed for the Temple. It seemed like all Jerusalem wanted to be there to see and hear whatever was to be seen and heard. They shouted “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” – a line from Psalm 118, one of the great Passover psalms from the entrance liturgy into the Temple, recalling God’s deliverance of the people from bondage in Egypt and from exile in Babylon. The crowd was upping the ante – God would once again act decisively in their midst and on their behalf; the sky seemed to be the limit.

And who would you have been on that first Palm Sunday, at that triumphal entry?

Would you have been one of the disciples, sticking close to Jesus, feeling protective of him, but also bathing in the glory that seemed to be coming his way? Would you have joined the parade early on, while they were crossing the Kidron Valley, eager to see what Jesus was going to do, whether he might gather enough strength to stick it to the Romans? Would you have been part of the crowd, pushing and jostling to see the famous rabbi from up north, the one people said was a prophet? Were you a Roman soldier, nervously surveying the crowd, your hand at the ready on your sword handle? Were you one of the Temple priests, informed by a messenger that the troublesome teacher from Galilee was on his way and had the whole city with him?

We each would have had a place in those events, we could not have gone unaffected by what was happening in Jerusalem. Like the disciples and the followers and the crowd we might well have shouted “Hosanna!” and offered Jesus our loyalty and support – come what may.

But here, today, from our vantage point, we know what happened next; we know the crowd became a mob later in the week, and we know loyalty was the furthest thing from their minds. And here, today, right now, we are in the crack, in the hinge between the exaltation of Palm Sunday and the anger and betrayal of Jesus’ passion.

And actually, this is where most of us live – in that hinge or crack or gap between professing our loyalty to Jesus and actually living it day-to-day. We offer God our prayer and our praises and our best intentions, and then we fail to live up to what we have professed when faith becomes too hard or too inconvenient or too public.

Back in the 1960s John Lennon created a huge media flap when he said at a press conference that the Beatles (undoubtedly the best known rock group there ever was) – when he said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. We should not be surprised – because Jesus does not want fans, he wants followers. And that’s hard.

Jesus wants us to be followers and disciples and workers and members of his Body – living his life, doing his works, speaking his message, taking on the job of being Jesus’ team in a world that is so much in pain and yet so ignorant of its needs. There is no popularity in this, no prestige, no wordly glory or recognition in being a Christian.

But there is a path that leads to life and wholeness and the sustaining presence of God. It takes us through many hard and difficult places, but always accompanied by the power of God and the strength of God’s goodness and mercy.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest!   Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
Palm Sunday
April 17, 2011
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Sermons & Reflections

    Sermons and reflections from clergy and lay leadership at
    All Saints' Episcopal Church, Millington, NJ.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    Categories

    All
    12 Steps
    Aa
    Advent
    Arizona Shooting
    Art
    Ascension
    Authority
    Baptism
    Bread
    Church History
    Common Good
    Community
    Community Of Faith
    Commuting
    Death
    Demons
    Desert
    Diakonia
    Discipleship
    Distractions
    Doubt
    Easter
    Easter Eve
    Episcopalian
    Episcopal Vocation
    Eternal Life
    Evangelism
    Fans
    Ferguson
    Foot Washing
    Humility
    Independence Day
    Invitation
    Jesus Finds Us
    Justice
    Kingdom Of God
    Lazarus
    Lent
    Liberty
    Lordship
    Love
    Mark's Gospel
    Mark's Gospel
    Marriage
    Mary Magdalene
    Maundy Thursday
    Mercy
    Money
    Oppression
    Ordination
    Outreach
    Palm Sunday
    Parenting
    Patriotism
    Peace
    Prayer
    Questions
    Racism
    Reflection
    Religion
    Resurrection
    Samaritan Woman
    Seeds
    Selfsufficiency103ee8a392
    Sermons
    Service
    Spirituality
    Stewardship
    Surprise
    The Binding Of Isaac
    Trust
    Truth Telling
    Truthtelling00f726273f
    Violence
    Vocation
    Worry
    Worship

    RSS Feed

All Saints' Episcopal Church

 15 Basking Ridge Road, Millington NJ 07946    phone: (908) 647-0067    email: allstsmill@hotmail.com