Tell the story. Dance.

• Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11
with Psalm 118:19-29

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• Everybody loves a parade, amiright? Palm Sunday is a parade.

Psalm 118 is a parade.
(Open the gates, I will enter & will praise the God of my salvation! The rejected cornerstone made by God… Rejoice! Hosanna! Lord, save! Bless and celebrate! Hooray! Grant your people success! Bless the Lord! The Lord is God! You are my God, Lord, and I will give you thanks!”

• If only we had ticker tape… (First ticker tape parade was the dedication of Statue of Liberty, 10/28/1886. Notable ticker tape parades have celebrated generals like Eisenhower or MacArthur.)

We DO have a local war hero, Woody Williams, who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in Iwo Jima, 71 years ago last month.
Do you know about his foundation and the Gold Star Families monuments they seek to build? To honor those who died in service – Woody’s heroes – not just soldiers but their families. Each monument is built in negative space: the stone has the outline of a soldier who is not there anymore. Keep telling the story.

• Something of a story in negative space in today’s triumphant entry reading. People are getting ready to celebrate Passover, remembering release from captivity, even while they are in a kind of captivity. Jesus comes in, a king foretold and hoped for, and yet on a donkey, not a warhorse.

I say it’s a story in negative space because remember what Jesus said in this reading? Not a word. I think he knows what he’s headed for. Sure the crowds are singing praises right now but the passion is coming soon. This parade is going to end in pain. In less than a week the praising crowd will be the stirred up mob seeking Jesus’ death.

We knew it was coming. Matthew reminds us in verse ten hearkening back to Jesus’ birth and Herod and Jerusalem (2:3).
The crowd is right in recognizing Jesus as king,
but wrong in what they do with that information.

• And Jesus enters anyway. In silence. In a parade that will end in his pain.

• In the praises, tell the story celebrating Jesus.
In the suffering, tell the story of Jesus who knows suffering.
Though the march be to death, be the voice of hope, even if it means you going silently into chaos. Go into the chaos. Tell the story.

• Hymn 261 Lord of the Dance tells the story. 1962 Londoner Sydney Carter invites not just to hear the story but to dance, to participate.

Matthew 21:1-11  (CEB) Palm Sunday 03/20/16

21 When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. ² He said to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anybody says anything to you, say that the Lord needs it.” He sent them off right away. 

⁴ Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said,
⁵ Say to Daughter Zion, “Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey’s offspring.”^{[Isa 62:11 and Zech 9:9]}

⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them.

⁸ Now a large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” ^{[Ps 118:26] 10} And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. ¹¹ The crowds answered, “It’s the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16 (CEB) Passion Sunday 03/20/16

26 When Jesus finished speaking all these words, he said to his disciples, ² “You know that the Passover is two days from now. And the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

³ Then the chief priests and elders of the people gathered in the courtyard of Caiaphas the high priest. ⁴ They were plotting to arrest Jesus by cunning tricks and to kill him. ⁵ But they agreed that it shouldn’t happen during the feast so there wouldn’t be an uproar among the people.

¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and said, “What will you give me if I turn Jesus over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ From that time on he was looking for an opportunity to turn him in.