{"id":505,"date":"2021-03-29T13:38:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/?p=505"},"modified":"2021-03-29T13:38:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T17:38:20","slug":"sermon-march-28-2021-palm-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/2021\/03\/29\/sermon-march-28-2021-palm-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon, March 28, 2021 – Palm Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We resumed in-person services on Palm Sunday. We hope to be streaming services from the church in the near future. In the meanwhile, here is a transcript of Father George’s sermon from this past week.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minding the Gaps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palm Sunday (RCL Cycle B)\/28 March 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is Palm Sunday and marks the beginning of the holiest week of our Christian year.\u00a0 It\u2019s also known as Pasion Sunday because the seminal event is a reading of the Passion narrative \u2013 this year from Mark\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Either way, it is a day which pulls us in many directions at the same time leaving us unsettled and confused as we try to make sense out of this week.\u00a0 The events of Holy Week are necessary in order for us to begin to comprehend the wonder of Easter.\u00a0 There is no skipping over the week \u2013 we have to go through it in order to arrive at Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While traveling on trains, we are often reminded to mind the gap. It is a cautionary statement; to be careful of the distance between spaces, the holes and cracks where one might fall, trip, or be injured. I think this warning is implicit in the text, even while Paul warns explicitly of evil workers in this letter. Growing to be more like Jesus can be filled with pitfalls. When we do not have the mind of Jesus, we are likely to behave in ways that do not glorify God. When we do not have the mind of Jesus, there is discord, confusion, and destruction. How, then, do we keep our minds stayed on Jesus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday, as if Jesus suddenly coming to his senses, enters Jerusalem, hailed by crowds who want to make him into the triumphal king who will save them from Rome. Jesus doesn\u2019t care. He is already walking away from our shouts of hosanna. He\u2019s moving toward the meal he most longs for, the last one, when he\u2019ll kneel down like a servant to wash his friends\u2019 feet. He\u2019s walking toward our angry shouts of \u201cCrucify him!\u201d and toward our betrayals, as one by one we abandon him to torture and death; he is walking toward the edge of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of it can stop him. He jumps off the edge, on to the cross; and into God\u2019s time. Life, eternal. The life we are living today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which means, in a pretty unsettling way, Holy Week can\u2019t be about a story that took place in the past, or a mere remembrance, or a historical re-enactment. It\u2019s about the kind of life Jesus makes possible for all of us right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That life demands a different mind than the one I generally use. My own mind wants to shout hosannas in a happy crowd waving palms, and later on be able to blame that other crowd, the Jews, for all the bad stuff that happens. My own mind wants to claim Jesus as my friend and me as his personal favorite and pretend I won\u2019t betray him, later, like his other friends. I want to act as if I\u2019m somehow separate from all the other suffering, sinful souls Jesus pours himself out for: disciples and executioners, cheering and jeering crowds; each one of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s really hard for me to walk with Jesus in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Sure, I want forgiveness; but I don\u2019t necessarily want to admit how violent my impulses can be, how capable I am of yelling \u201ccrucify.\u201d Sure, I want new life, but I don\u2019t want to sit abandoned in a garden, be humiliated and hurt and killed, to get there. I want to hang on to my own power, and save myself, rather than empty myself like Jesus. I know Palm Sunday\u2019s exciting, but I also have a feeling it\u2019s going to get pretty dark over the next week, before it\u2019s time for Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except \u2014 except that we\u2019re on God\u2019s time now. And it turns out I don\u2019t have to jump off the edge of the world alone, because Jesus already has. His abiding love is everywhere. The good news is that there\u2019s nothing left for me to do through my own anxious efforts at self-improvement. There\u2019s nothing left for any of us to do. God is always moving all humanity closer to God, with the endless love of our friend and savior Jesus lighting the way for us, from the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palm Sunday serves as a reminder that a triumphant beginning and ending is possible, indeed inevitable, though the journey between these places will be difficult. These seemingly impossible moments present us with opportunities to practice being humble and obedient, to extend forgiveness, and to have a willingness to change so that we can become more like Christ. Let us mind the gaps and not fall for things that would separate us from God or from each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this Holy Week, as we journey with Jesus to the cross, let us walk mindfully, being concerned about what concerns him. In this particularly challenging moment, let us be reminded that the God who meets us at the cross is the God who will give us resurrecting power. The Psalmist puts it: What is humanity that God is mindful of us? (Psalm 8:5)  But perhaps the question that we should carry with us is how we can be mindful of God as we follow Jesus and mind the gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We resumed in-person services on Palm Sunday. We hope to be streaming services from the church in the near future. In the meanwhile, here is a transcript of Father George’s sermon from this past week. Minding the Gaps Palm Sunday (RCL Cycle B)\/28 March 2021 Today is Palm Sunday and marks the beginning of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-father-george","category-worship-service","tag-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediatormicanopy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}