(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 04/01/07)

INTRODUCTION:

There’s an old saying about the hymns people sing in church: People know what they like, and they like what they know.  It used to be that when Lutherans went to church on Palm Sunday they would almost always see the same three numbers on the hymn board – 160, 161, 162 – because that’s all there were in the Palm Sunday section.  Now the numbers have changed and there’s only one new Palm Sunday text in this hymnal and one more coming out next summer, but they’re on the board today, the holy trinity of Palm Sunday hymns: All Glory, Laud and Honor; Hosanna, Loud Hosanna; Ride On, Ride On in Majesty.

Most people know them, most people like them, and all three sound rather majestic as they are sung on Palm Sunday.  They seem to do a good job of re-creating the festive atmosphere of what it must have been like for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem receiving the praise of the Palm Sunday crowds.  So for one Sunday out of the fifty-two that we have each year, we’re singing those three hymns again. 

Where does that leave you?  I’m not asking if you like them.  They’re joyful, majestic songs of praise to Jesus.  Where do hymns like that leave you today – standing on the sidelines, hearing the hymns, seeing Jesus ride by, watching the palm branches waving, but still stalled and stuck in your own little world, too concerned about what’s happening at home or what’s happening at work to join in or get excited about this??  To those who saw nothing to sing about and who actually tried to put a stop to it, Jesus delivered a pretty powerful warning – if people don’t praise him, the stones will cry out.  There must be something good here.  Let’s see what it is so that for the two hymns that are left in this service we all have books open, minds engaged and hearts that are expressing praise to the man on the donkey.

The Highest Praise Be To Jesus!

Matthew, Mark and Luke all went into quite a bit of detail in talking about how Jesus made arrangements to get himself an animal to ride into Jerusalem.  That certainly has to do with fulfilling the Zechariah prophecy that we listened to today, but just the way Jesus went about it sends a clear message.  He knows right where the animals are and he can make it happen that the owners release their animals to people they had likely never met.  Whichever of the disciples carried out the task, they must have gotten the point – here’s more proof that Jesus is divine.

But that’s what makes this all the more striking.  What’s the divine one doing on a donkey?  And why would he make a splashy entrance into the city where his sworn enemies are dead set on ending his life?  He’s on a mission, he always was, but now it’s time for things to go down.  That has everything to do with the people who have gathered for church at Sola Fide today.

We don’t often picture heaven as a place that’s preparing for war, but today we do because that thought is in the gospel lesson.  The machines of war were revving up in the halls of heaven.  The fighter jets were scrambled, screaming off the decks of the aircraft carriers.  The rifles of the infantry were locked and loaded and the nuclear warheads were activated.  God was on his throne and his right index finger was an inch away from the red button that would deploy the arsenal of heaven’s fury against the inhabitants of the earth. 

Why?... Because he was sick of what he’s been seeing.  Homes filled with arguments instead of encouragements.  Hearts filled with resentment instead of forgiveness.  People actually attached to green paper more than to God.  People with so much concern for their own lives and their own well-being that every adjacent apartment and every next door neighbor could be headed straight for hell and they didn’t know about it and wouldn’t care if they did.  The inch wide gap between God’s finger and that red button was closing fast.

Down on earth were Jesus and his followers.  As they approached two little towns on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Jesus was noticeably in the lead and giving directions.  He would ride into this town where dozens of people were organized for the task of and madly intent on killing him.  He would paint himself as the target for heaven’s assault.  He would let his enemies take him.  He would put himself at the center of the strike zone, a cross on a hill outside the city.  He would dial in the coordinates so that the weaponry of heaven would be trained on him.  And he wouldn’t resist in the least as the finger of God made contact with the red button that deployed heaven’s arsenal, and the smart bomb of God’s fury would take out not the inhabitants of earth but one humble innocent man instead, the beloved Son of God the Father.

In all of that might there possibly be found a sincere hosanna or two rising up from the people gathered for church at Sola Fide today?  You know what an understatement that is meant to be!

We don’t need to think of heaven as a place that’s preparing for war because the King of Heaven traded out a throne for a cross.  Instead of making his way to earth on the clouds of heaven to give people what they had coming, he made his way into Jerusalem on a beast of burden to intercept what people had coming, and as he did, the Palm Sunday crowds sang about the remarkable stand down that took place where God lives.  Peace in heaven!  The arsenal is as empty as Jesus’ grave would be seven days after Palm Sunday.  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

Your role in the events of this day is not to be that of an innocent bystander.  The peace that prevails in heaven because Jesus rode on in lowly pomp to die is the peace that gets you out of being stuck and stalled in your own little world.  It’s the peace you have with God from the fact that through this Jesus God has completely forgotten the ugly damning guilt of your past and has promised to do nothing but the same for you for all of the future.

The festival hymns for Palm Sunday are posted.  We have two down and two to go.

The Highest Praise Be To Jesus!

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