Palm Sunday Homily

As a friend said on Facebook , this is the perfect service for this weekend: “Welcome to the King of Kings!  We will honor you forever!  April Fools!!”  Every year this service jars me – the immediate movement from Hero Worship to Crucify Him - this year it took us 32 minutes to get from there to here.  This morning we get the Cliff notes version of the story, but throughout this week, we will actually get to see and experience what comes in between - the What that Happens between there and here.  On Thursday, Friday and Saturday we will see how we got from there to here and beyond.

And we know how it will end.  So why bother?  Jesus knew how it would end also.  Why did he bother?   He bothered because he loves us. 

God has been singing a love song to us all though Lent.  Have you heard it?  It was no accident that we spent the first four Sundays of Lent reviewing the different Covenants between God and the people – we learned out history with God – we learned who we are to God – that we are Beloved.  We've had a different verse of that song each week:  In week one, we heard "I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth" as God made a covenant with Noah. Week two was "You shall be the ancestors to a multitude of nations" as God made the covenant with Sarah and Abraham.  Week three was "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Week four, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Last week was "I will put my law within them and I will write in on their hearts – I will be their God and they will be my people."   Today we had the words directly from Jesus "I am the Messiah, the Son of God" - he gave himself up.  This week we will add: By this shall the world know that you are my disciples. And we will have the examples of foot washing and the institution of communion.

 Jesus already knew what would happen – and he loves us enough to show up and ride a colt.  He loves us enough to be an example of being non-violent in the face of injustice.  He loves us enough to feed us every single week – week in and week out – with his own body and blood.  He loved us enough to walk among us, because without Holy week, that cute baby is just a cute baby - the wise teacher is merely a wise teacher, the miracle healer is just a healer - This Week changes everything.  Without This week, This Story is just another story. 

Come this week to walk with Christ and the disciples – Come hear and experience different versions of the same story.  You’ve come this far: Remember that you are Dust and to Dust you shall return.    Come - Finish your Lent this year with a strong understanding of who Christ is – for you, for this community and for the world.  Come and let God sing you the rest of this love song.