Sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025

Luke 19:28-40+Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Isaiah 50:4-9a+Psalm 31:9-16+Philippians 2:5-11+Luke 22:14-23:56

Last week, we heard the story of the anointing at Bethany, when Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, poured a bottle of perfumed ointment on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. It was outrageous, risky, and way out of the ordinary, but as I told you then, God has a way of doing the most unexpected things through the most unexpected people.

Listening to the story of the Last Supper, Jesus' arrest and sham trial, the reaction of the disciples and the crowd, and finally the crucifixion as told through All Saints' youngest voices highlights just how unexpected all of this is, at least for those who were there and, if we are paying attention, for all of us.

A little while ago, we were all shouting "Hosanna!" and waving our palms, and in a matter of minutes, we shouted "Crucify him!" In the context in which it happened, there is a slow, steady build-up in the action, but none of it unfolds in the way his followers thought it would. This was their guy, coming to show Rome and the religious authorities who was boss. And Jesus did do that, but not at all as they hoped or expected.

What mighty king rides on the back of a colt and weeps over a city?

Instead of going directly for those in power, he immediately goes after the merchants and moneychangers, small fry in the great scheme of things.

He spends the next couple of days teaching in the temple and sparring with the scribes and Pharisees instead of gathering around him an army, or at least a horde of people who might challenge the Romans.

Jesus spends his last night sharing a meal with his friends, knowing that one of them was going to hand him over, but he shared that Last Supper even with Judas.

He knows Peter is going to deny him yet shares the meal with him, too.

As soon as supper was over, the disciples decide that it's a good time to argue over their privilege, which one of them is the greatest.

He is arrested and tried, first by the religious authorities for claiming that he was God, and then by Pilate who passes him off to Herod. No one seems to want to do the deed in Luke's telling.

But they do. He is convicted, rejected by the crowd that shouted those hosannas a few days before, and executed in brutal Roman fashion.

How can this possibly be the life story of the God of the universe? What kind of God goes and gets crucified and rejected by so-called followers, and then forgives all of them?

Unexpected, outrageous, unbelievable.

But that's what love does. Martin Luther wrote, “God’s love does not love that which is worthy of being loved, but it creates that which is worthy of being loved.” In allowing God's self to be beaten and spit upon and tortured to death, God showed just how far love would go to win us so that we might be worthy of such a gift.

Unexpected, outrageous, unbelievable.

As we make our way through this week, find yourself in this story. Maybe you're one of his closest friends wondering if you can stand firm against the fear and terror. Or maybe you're just a bystander who can identify who's who among the throng of people. Maybe you're a Pharisee who just wants Jesus not to rock the boat and imperil everybody. The thing about a good story is that we can almost always find ourselves in there somewhere.

What role do you play as we travel through this week we call Holy?

What unexpected work is God doing in you as you follow Jesus to the cross?

Whatever it is, no matter how much of it you do or do not understand or even believe, the Passion of Christ shows us just how deep and broad and high is God's love for us. It may not turn our as we hope or expect, but the promise of this week we call holy is that it will turn our as we need it to.

So come along. The stage is set.

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Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025

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Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 6, 2025