Sunday, March 28, 2010

Palm/Passion Sunday
Luke 19:28-40
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: Save me in thy lovingkindness.

It is springtime in Texas. It is spring everywhere, but it is looking a lot like spring here in Texas. The temperatures have been warm and lovely. The sun is shining and the world is beginning to look green again. But most of all, the wildflowers are beginning to bloom. Now, blooming spring flowers are not unique to Texas. After all, I can remember the delightful smells of the lilac bushes and the brilliant white of the dogwoods in Pennsylvania. I’ve seen fields filled with daffodils and poppies. I know that Washington is incredible in sight and smell when the cherry trees are in bloom.

But those of us who live in Texas are pretty proud of our wildflowers. People go out for Sunday drives to see the fields of color like they do in the Northeast to see the changing leaves. The Texas Department of Transportation even has information available about the best places to see the wildflowers in bloom. Other websites give recommendations, wildflower identification listings and up to the day reports of sightings around the state. Reports even make it to the evening news.

We have lived in Texas for six years and we’ve never managed to go for one of those drives. We’ve seen wildflowers blooming along the roads, and these fields can quite lovely. There’s a house up the road that usually has a spectacular display of bluebonnets, a favorite of wildflower hunters, in their front yard. I’ve stopped to look at small patches of wildflowers and to take pictures of them, but I have never gone out with the sole purpose of seeing the wildflowers in bloom. I’ve never done, until yesterday.

Each year we talk about taking a drive, but then life gets busy (especially since the wildflowers bloom around Easter) and we never manage to get out. When we finally have a free day, the wildflowers are well past their peak. It hasn’t helped that the wildflowers have not been very good in the past few years. The wildflowers, though wild, require certain environmental conditions to burst forth in spectacular color. We’ve been in drought conditions for a couple years, so the seeds have been unable to break through and take root. In the past few months, however, conditions have changed from bad to perfect, giving us the possibility of the most incredible wildflower season in years.

I decided I could not let the season pass without a chance to photograph the splendor. We are still hoping to take a Sunday afternoon drive, but I went out on my own to scout for fields. I took a suggestion from a friend and started driving. I saw patches of color along the way, but they were often in places I couldn’t stop. They weren’t much more than I’d seen before, so except for the possibility of close-up shots with my camera, it wasn’t worthwhile. Then I got to the area which was recommended by my friend and I was amazed. Large fields were washed in color, bright reds, blues and yellows.

The fields were often in the backyards of people’s homes, so I didn’t stop and intrude on their world. I did eventually find a place I could stop to take pictures; a cemetery. The cemetery had lots of room for growth, green fields surrounding the graves, although they were covered in red, purple, yellow, blue and white flowers. The wildflowers had even worked their way into the gravesites, honoring the dead with natural offerings of flowers. It was absolutely beautiful.

I found myself wandering through the cemetery, reading gravestones and thinking about the lives of those who had been buried there. Since it is a small town cemetery, who plots of land were devoted to families, with graves from generations for the past hundred years. I thought about people I knew with the same last names, wondering if they were somehow related, and I thought about those old friends. I found myself praying, not for the dead, but in thankfulness for their lives and for the living whom I remembered along the way.

I found one gravestone from 1880, for a baby that died the day he was born. All death is sad, but it is especially sad when you discover a life that hasn’t had the chance to be lived. The gravestone was particularly well maintained, though the plot was covered in wildflowers. It was obvious that no one had visited the site for a long time. I was heartbroken for the life lost, but I was also reminded that this is what Easter is all about.

As we look at the world through our human eyes, ideas and expectations, we see people as the crowds saw Jesus on Palm Sunday. They saw a leader, someone who would save them. But the salvation they sought was in this world. They wanted a king. They wanted a messiah that would defeat their enemies and make their world a better place. They wanted an earthly end to their suffering and they thought Jesus would be the one to give it to them. He did do good things for people. He did heal the sick and cast out demons. He did feed the crowds and offer forgiveness for the sinner. But that was never His purpose. He came to die.

We begin this Sunday’s worship with the triumphant march of Jesus into Jerusalem. The people are happy and excited about this king whom they expect will restore them to their place in the world. They are gathered in excitement, honoring Him as one who will defeat their enemies and rule in their world.

We’ll hear the story of the passion from Luke this year, following His footsteps through the week as it is read or portrayed dramatically. Most pastors won’t present a sermon on the texts, and though we are all familiar with them, the Old Testament, Epistle and Psalm for the day won’t get much attention. We focus on Palm/Passion Sunday on the story of Jesus’ final week. If we followed Him day by day, we would see Him in prayer, teaching, casting the moneychangers out of the Temple and sharing those final moments with the people He loved.

It didn’t take long for the crowds of Palm Sunday to turn into the mob of Good Friday. Jesus didn’t present Himself as the conquering hero they expected from Him. He didn’t call the troops to arms or confront the Roman leaders who were oppressing them. Instead He confronted the priests and religious practices, attacking the piece of their world they thought was right. They willingly supported Barabbas, a Jewish insurrectionist who was in Roman custody. Instead of choosing Jesus as their Messiah, they chose the man they through would fill their expectations.

Those who believed in Jesus did not follow the crowd, but they did nothing to help Jesus, either. Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied Jesus. The rest of the disciples went into hiding. The excitement of Palm Sunday quickly disappeared as their world began falling apart. Jesus was not what the crowds expected, so they turned to another. Jesus did not fight the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, so they were disappointed and confused. When He died, they didn’t know what to do. Where would they go? Who would they turn to? Jesus was everything. They forgot everything Jesus taught them about the Messiah, like the words we hear in the passage from Isaiah and the Psalm. They didn’t believe what Jesus said about His passion and death. They wanted to stay in the Triumph of Palm Sunday, but instead their world was falling apart.

God does not allow us to wallow in the triumph of our expectations, because our expectations are all too often not His will for us in this world. Haven’t we all felt defeated at some point in our lives? Just when we thought everything was going our way, something happened to make it fall apart? Have we known anyone who has died in the prime of their life, leaving behind disappointed and confused loved ones? The stories for this week leave us scared and confused, just like the disciples. Why did this have to be? Why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn’t God find another way? Why do children die before they even live?

Just when we think our world has fallen apart, God bursts through with new life. But that’s a story for another day.

***Since the scriptures for Palm/Passion Sunday are the same each year except for the Gospel lesson, I have not done a text study as I normally do for Midweek Oasis. If you are interested in my thoughts for this day, feel free to visit the past writings which are linked below.

2003, year B, Mark
2004, year C, Luke
2005, year A, Matthew
2006, year B, Mark
2007, year C, Luke
2008, year A, Matthew
2009, year B, Mark