Jeremiah 31: 31-34
Psalm 51: 1-12
Hebrews 5: 5-10
John 12: 20-33

We Wish To See Jesus!

I listen to CBC radio almost exclusively. I listen to the same hosts so often that I feel that I know them, though I would not be able to pick them out in a crowd, since one can’t see who is speaking on the radio. Of all of the changes that CBC has undergone, the show I miss the most is “Morningside” with Peter Gzowski. Of course Gzowski has since died so it would not be possible to bring it back. After years of listening to him, seeing his picture was no surprise at all. Somehow the gravelly voice went with his bearded, slightly rumpled look and sleepy eyes.

Sometimes though, when I see the pictures of some of radio hosts I am quite surprised; they look nothing like what I imagine when I listen to their voices. One of my Sunday afternoon rituals, whether I have an afternoon service or not, is to listen to Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café, especially the “Dave and Morley” stories. I saw Stuart’s picture the other day, in connection with his visit to Moncton. I am not sure what I thought he would look like, but his picture was a surprise.

We go might go to the office of the local politician and ask to see that person. What we mean by ‘see’, of course, is that we want to talk to him or her, to persuade her or him of the justice or rightness of our cause. We usually go when we want something done or when we want to prevent something from being done. We want to have that person agree with us and follow our wishes. Unfortunately for the politician, at least the next dozen people coming in that morning, each has his or her own agenda and his or her own list of thing on which action is demanded, some of them mutually exclusive. The politician must make decisions based on funding, party policies, how much influence this person actually and, some would argue, how close it is to an election.

In order to understand the gospel passage a little better we have to place it in its context in the gospel of John. Most of John chapter 11 deals with the rasing from the dead of Lazarus. This caused such a stir that Jesus had to leave town and hang out in the wilderness. He had become very popular. The religious leaders were worried that the people being all stirred up would cause the Romans to renege on their tacit agreement to leave the people alone provided that the peace was kept. They had carved out the best possible existence given the circumstances, and they were certain that Jesus wasn’t about to ruin it for them. They were quite prepared for him to die in order to keep the status quo. So, ironically, it seems that Jesus has 2 problems: both growing popularity and growing resentment.

The 19th verse of this same chapter has the Pharisees throwing up their hands and reiterating their fear that “the world will soon be following Jesus!”

The gospel passage today begins with a note that some Greeks, in town for the festival, wished to have an audience with Jesus. The nationality of these people is not really important except to say that they were not from Israel. Wait a minute, didn’t I just say that the religious leaders were afraid that the world was going to come to Jesus’ doorstep. Well, its staaaaaaart ttttting!!!!! If you were reading the gospel of John as a novel, and for the first time, the sense of suspense would be steadily rising. We know that something is sure to happen, and it ain’t gonna be pretty!

We know. We know that now that the world has come to Jesus doorstep there is no turning back, Jerusalem is his destination. Interestingly the gospel never tells us if the Greeks actually see Jesus, or if they are still waiting and hoping that he will speak to them.

But what did these Greeks want? Who or what did they expect to see? What kind of conversations or questions were they anticipating? This leads us to question what it was that all of those who followed after the Lazarus miracle expected. Did they want a person who could bring their dead relatives back to life.? Did they want someone to defeat Rome? And of course it leads us to ask the question of ourselves, “What do we expect from Jesus and from our encounters with him?”

As far as John’s gospel is concerned this request prompts Jesus to spring into high gear as to proclaiming to his mission and his ministry. His time is short. The things he emphasizes in this speech are the paradoxical things about the gospel. He did not come to give people worldly power or to take it for himself; he came to die, like a grain of wheat must die in order for it to bear fruit. He came to proclaim the paradox of hating life and finding true life and to proclaim that serving him and following in his ways was serving and following God. He did not come to be popular, he came to proclaim the good news of God.

John’s gospel tells us that it was on this occasion, as well as Jesus baptism, that Jesus is affirmed by a voice from heaven. This voice is not understood by the people even though, according to Jesus, it was intended for them. Again an allusion is made to last week’s episode of the snake in the desert; a reference to both his crucifixion and his resurrection. The message is clear: death is imminent for Jesus, but be warned, his death will only be the beginning. His death is seen as a necessary part of his mission. His death will not defeat his mission, as the religious and political leaders hoped, but it will unleash the very power of God and nothing will be able to stop it.

This is the kind of faith first envisioned by the prophet Jeremiah, where law will be a thing of the heart, a thing seated deep within a person, and not just written in books. It was the kind of relationship with God envisioned by countless generations of prophets and teachers since Moses lifted the serpent in the desert and called the people to place their trust in God instead of letting their lives be governed by disappointment, fear and defeat.

While this passage is filled with a sense of urgency, it is also filled with a sense of peace. Jesus knows that the end is near but he also knows that for those who trust in God there is no real end, just a continuation of what was begun in faith and trust.

(Pause)

So we have come here to see Jesus, haven’t we? We have come here to experience the holy. What kind of Jesus have we come to see? What do we expect him to do for us? What we find here is a challenge and a promise. We are challenged to give our lives over to that paradoxical truth: that it is in giving that we receive, and in dying we are born to eternal life. As we journey ever closer to the cross we are called to examine our own lives, and allow the truth of the gospel to penetrate our hearts. We do not do this so that we can feel condemned though, we do it so that we can feel the healing and redeeming power of God in and through this same Jesus of Nazareth.

No matter what we are going through, God understands; God is with is. No matter who we are or what we have done, God loves us. No matter what our past, our God calls us into a future where we can discover the joy and freedom of service; where we can plant our seeds of hope, faith and love and trust that by God’s grace they will bear wonderful fruit.

And yes, others come to this place looking for Jesus. A question for us to ponder is: What do we say to them and how do we embody the Jesus we follow?

Let us go forward from here as we draw ever nearer to holy week, sure that we are following the Jesus who calls us out of ourselves into greater service. Let us go from here sure that we follow the Jesus who embodies the very power and presence of God. Let us go from here in faith and trust for we do not go alone.

Amen.

Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29
Mark 11: 1-11

Everyone loves a parade! Somehow the going early to stake out the best spot, the sitting in either the blazing sun or the freezing cold, and the cajoling of small children to be patient, “for just a little longer”, is all taken in stride, and is seen as “ part of the event”. There are many kinds of parades: scheduled annual parades such as the famous Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California, or the almost as famous, Gold Cup and Saucer in Charlottetown, PEI , and those contingent upon success in some kind of endeavour, such as the parade of a liberating army, or a hero who has just completed some great feat never before attempted or achieved! Last week I watched a special on the US space program and it showed the enormous ticker tape parade that went with John Glenn’s historic space flight. From the mood of the crowd on that day, it seemed as if he could have asked for the moon and been given it! Everyone loves heroes. Everyone loves a parade. People get caught up in the moment. The excitement is practically contagious. One can’t help but be affected by it!

Maybe it never actually happened, but as the story goes, Sir Walter Raleigh was walking along in the company of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, when they came to a puddle. Sir Walter, wishing to protect her dainty royal feet from becoming wet or dirty, spread his coat on the ground so that Her Majesty could walk through the puddle without getting her feet wet. I guess that it was the kind of chivalry that was expected of English Knights in the 16th century. It’s the kind of thing royalty expected too!

Today is Palm Sunday. The hymn tells it all. “Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang”. We are told that on that day the children sang hosannas. Hosanna is a word that means something like, “save us now’. The connotations were more political than religious! It is a word that might be shouted at anyone who might be seen as someone who could free them from their political and social bondage. We are also told that some people waved palm branches, torn from nearby trees, and expressed devotion by spreading their cloaks on the road. It was a welcome fit for a king. Jesus was riding on a donkey as he entered Jerusalem and he was being given a hero’s welcome, if not a king’s welcome. It was a day of pure celebration but also a day of great expectations.

Today IS Palm Sunday, but it is also Passion Sunday. Now, its not the kind of passion we normally think of – it’s not the kind from soap operas or tv shows which have a disclaimer about younger viewers because of ‘adult content’. Nor is it the kind of passion that drives people to succeed or excel at a certain thing. When we refer to this as ‘passion’ Sunday we mean it in another sense of that word. This meaning of the word ‘passion’ comes from the Latin for suffering. It is on this day that we look ahead to the rest of Holy Week and to the cross, on which Jesus died a criminal’s death.

Wait a minute. There is something wrong with this picture, isn’t there? On Sunday we have folks shouting ‘Hosanna’ and we have the SAME folks shouting ‘Crucify Him’ on Friday morning. IT doesn’t make a lot of sense!

Why? How could things have changed so quickly? Well, first of all we need to consider the nature of mobs, or crowds. Perhaps it was simply the mob and the heat of the moment and the need to be ‘part of something special’ that prompted that first Palm Parade. It may not really and truly have meant all that much to many of the people. It may simply have been the case that ‘everyone was doing it!’. The cries for his crucifixion could be explained in the same way. Once a few started shouting for his death, the rest joined in.

Another factor is related to expectations. The people expected a ruler who would free them from the tyranny of Roman occupation and restore the Davidic throne. The passages to which the gospel writers refer were ones which did express this very real, very concrete hope, for a new reign of God over God’s own people. When it became clear that Jesus was not interested in this view of the role of the Messiah, they dropped him like a hot potato. If he was not going to play by their rules, they would just let the authorities deal with him.

Once the opposition seemed to be building few people were willing to say otherwise. The disciples, who could hardly hide their association, ran away and hid themselves; after all, their leader was being tried for sedition and crimes against God and the state. The plain and simple answer is that they were afraid. We might remember that despite his initial protests to the contrary, Peter denied even knowing Jesus, so great was his fear that he would be tarred with the same brush.

Yet it was for these fickle crowds and these fair weather friends called disciples that Jesus died. It was for these people that God’s great love in Jesus was shown. The story of Holy Week is primarily about the love and grace of Almighty God. The love and saving power of God was poured out for a people who did not deserve it, for a people who didn’t even know they didn’t deserve it, and for a people who couldn’t have cared less. The love and grace of God made evident at the cross was poured out for people just like us!

As a people of faith we are called to stand up and be counted. We are called to proclaim where our loyalties lie. Today, in St. Andrew’s, we have three young adults professing their faith in Jesus and a couple promising to raise their child to know and love the God revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. As a church community we will pledge to support these people as they go about their Christian journey.

As we contemplate this great task we know that they faith we have at one time of our lives is not the same as it is at another time of our lives. We also know that there will be times for many of us when what we profess to believe is contradicted, if not by what we say, certainly by what we do. We know that sometimes our inaction shows that we do not believe what we say we do. The simple fact is: we are human. Not unlike those folks of long ago, we become caught up in taking the easy way. We become caught up in the way of the crowd. We become caught up in trying to keep up with the Jonses. We go through periods of genuine struggle when our faith ceases to make sense and we look for something else with which to replace it.

Yet those same fickle disciples were able to find the love and presence of God once again. They were able to know the love and grace of God. They learned that they were not beyond hope because of one mistake, or even a series of mistakes, or because of the circumstances of their lives. They learned that God was with them, no matter what happened and the message of the cross was primarily a message of love and grace, not one of condemnation and hopelessness.

When we realize that the judgment of holy week falls on us, we can begin to accept deep in our hearts that the boundless grace of God also falls on us. For we must remember that it is no cheap grace, administered without any real thought to what hurts have been caused, opportunities missed and loyalties betrayed. It is no cheap grace because it has been paid for by the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.

Let us continue from this high point of palm Sunday and into Holy Week knowing while the journey will not be easy, that our God goes with us and shows us boundless grace and love.

Amen.