Expectations Palm Sunday online April 5

4/5/20  Palm Sunday - online service

PALM SUNDAY  

     Have a candle to light on the table or near you at the start of worship  

     Gather something green to wave from outside OR make your own!!!

CALL TO WORSHIP    (Read the bold print together)

We come to prepare for the holiest of weeks. 
We will journey through praise, with joy on our lips; we will travel through betrayal and death, cradling hope deep in our hearts
Jesus leads us through this week, and we will follow, for he is the life we long for, he is the Word who sustains us.
We wave palm branches in anticipation, we lay our love before him, to cushion his walk.
Setting aside all power, glory, and might, Jesus comes: modeling humility and obedience for all of us.
Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the One who brings us the kingdom of God.

(Wave our palm branches and say “Hosanna! Hosanna!” as much as you want!)

CENTERING PRAYER  (Read together with Pastor Becky)

World leaders enter the gates with a parade of force and power; but you, who are the creator of all that is, enters on an ass.  World leaders are preceded by a show of troops and armaments; but you, who are the savior of the world, are preceded by branches of trees and cast off clothing. World leaders are greeted with shouts of domination and nationalistic pride; but you, who are the Ruler of the universe, are greeted with cries for salvation. World leaders are feared for their power; we greet you, O God, with the love of our hearts. 

Scripture     Matthew 21:1-11  

        (Be ready to wave your palms again at the right place – its underlined)

21When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” ⁴This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, ⁵“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” ⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” ¹⁰When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” ¹¹The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Children’s Time Reflection – talk with each other and/or type in some answers on your screen.

Imagine you are there in that crowd (and not having to stay home):

What might you See?   Smell?  Hear?             How might you feel – Excited?  Scared?

SERMON

As I thought about what the Scripture of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem might say to us in our context and time, and prayed for the Spirit to guide me, the word “expectations” came to me.  That’s usually the way the Spirit works with me - nudges, or something “coming to me” after I’ve actually remembered to ask….or some times the Spirit grabs me kicking and screaming, because sometimes I’m just slow on the uptake.  This time, thankfully, the word “expectations” just floated into my thinking about this Scripture.  

My daughter, at the younger ages of 4,5,6,7,8 - several years in there - wanted to throw big parties for her birthday.  And every year she ended up crying in her room because it wasn’t turning out like she expected and wanted.  She got SO excited, inviting friends, planning decorations and games and food!  I don’t know exactly what would go wrong - maybe somebody was late, or in a mood, or didn’t have the party spirit, or tried to take over the game or make other rules - kids get to feeling their oats sometimes, personalities rub….my daughter has a personality that likes details, which makes her a careful artist and a good planner - and has had to learn how to cope with the ebb and flow of how people actually are in person.  Hmmmm...wonder where she got that trait!  It took her a few year’s worth of parties to learn to just let it go and enjoy it in the present.  Her expectations, so specific in her mind, had to make allowance for the unexpected.

Isn’t that human?  As we go through life, don’t we all have expectations that aren’t met?  We have certain expectations of a boyfriend or girlfriend, then have to learn to know the actual real person.  Often they’re not a bad person, just different from our expectations - or they had different expectations of us! (Other times, they really are not a good fit…)  we have expectations of our spouses - how a marriage will be, what the partner is “supposed” do, how they are “supposed” to treat me.   Premarital counseling can help us start to think about these things, although it’s the living together that really tests it. 

We have expectations of what churches are supposed to be like, and what members are supposed to take on.  We have expectations of what a minister is supposed to be like - and ministers have their expectations of what their congregation is supposed to be like, too!  At least when the minister is younger, before she learns...we have certain expectations of what our government leaders are supposed to be like, especially based on their campaign promises, which we actually need to learn are just ways to get votes and get elected - what they are able to do depends a lot on many, many other factors.  Of course, there are some standards that do need to be met, and job responsibilities outlined in contracts and agreements that are to be met and maintained.  We have lots more secret expectations, though, personal expectation, hopes and longings we want fulfilled.  These are the expectations I’m talking about. 

When our expectations aren’t met, we get angry, or disappointed, which can easily turn into anger.  We want out - this wasn’t what we bargained for.  Sometimes we make do, and settle for what there is, and work with it.  Sometimes the disappointments and angers are too basic, too bottom line, to bear.  Sometimes we leave, and sometimes we are left. 

Expectations of Jesus are part of what explains the wild mood swing of Holy Week to me - the change in the crowds around Jesus from Palm Sunday to Good Friday.  Christian theologians have gone back in the Jewish Scriptures and found places that support the idea of a different kind of Messiah, a different kind of savior.  I don’t think those were obvious - the more obvious portrait of a Deliverer blessed by God is of one who, through faithfulness, beat the enemy, restored the tribe to leadership and land, and was a success militarily. Wisdom and faithfulness to God are in there, yes; but the idea of a wounded healer has never been popular or in the forefront of expectation - except for martyr’s, I guess.  And martyrs are not really “winners” in a worldly sense, especially while they are living. 

A commentator who has studied 1st century culture in Jerusalem notes that when important and successful civil leaders came into town, they came on pure white stallions with lots of color and gold and ceremony, with cheering crowds and flanks of soldiers marching before  them to show their power.  We’ve seen those kinds of parades on tv and movies - tanks and more tanks, soldiers all stepping in time with guns held firmly in place, flags flying, great ceremonial processions.

Contrast this with what we call Jesus’ triumphal entry - I think the name is rather tongue in cheek, myself.  He rides a donkey.  He maybe has his disciples with him.  He DOES have the cheering crowds, probably the poorer folks though. No red carpet - they throw their coats on the ground for him, though.  No waving flags - although they wave tree branches at him.  Evidently waving palms was a tradition at some Jewish feast days at other times of the year. 

Jesus is obviously contrasting himself to the worldly leadership, the military leadership, the governmental leadership, with their pomp and ceremonial bragging of greatness.  Yet I think the expectations and hopes placed on him had a more worldly tinge, then ----and even now. 

I mean, look at how we rate our churches - how big they are, how many programs they offer, how much money they take in, how skick their tv presence is….look at how we rate our clergy’s success - if she brings in lots of new people, if he is asked to pray at local festivities, if he builds a bigger building, if she is published in major religious magazines and asked to speak at large gatherings.

Look at the way we get mad at God if our wants are thwarted, as if God failed us.  We’re really no different from the folks in 1st century Jerusalem, are we?  People say God didn’t save my sister - so I quit church.  I hear the hurt at the loss, I hear the grief there - I don’t deny that.  I don’t deny the feeling that God didn’t turn out to be the kind of God the person hoped for, sparing their loss and doing what they asked.  The real loss is that they gave up on wrestling in prayer with their expectations of God, and haven’t yet worked through their false expectations. 

I hear people say that the church is full of hypocrites, and that they quit. Yes, the church is full of humans who have faults - we are all (hopefully) still learning and growing and becoming better people.  The expectation that all church folks would be perfect 100% of the time and respond perfectly 100% of the time is a false expectation. 

And as we are not 100% perfectly developed as Christ-followers, we are going to have unhelpful ideas of God - we are not going to understand the whys and hows of God working with humanity and the world.  The challenge is whether we fall away, yell “crucify him” and be ruled by our false expectations and hopes - of if we enter into that wrestling in prayer, bring to God our feelings of hopes betrayed, and seek to push through to a new understanding.  God has not changed -God’s nature is love and life and salvation for the world.  God is there for us, always has been, always will be.  Sometimes it's us that have it wrong....  And it’s difficult to let go of those hopes and expectations to see what is true. 

So when we remember and share in the greeting of our Savior Jesus, Jesus the Christ of God, who it is that we are greeting.  We are greeting the Sent One, the Anointed One, who takes away the sin of the world - and who is misunderstood, reviled, betrayed and killed - and who is then vindicated by being raised from the dead as the first of a new humanity.  Jesus is not a world ruler like the rulers we see around us.  Jesus did not start a new nation and establish himself as Dictator For Life, as Calvin and Hobbes used to joke.  Jesus was not a Rock Star. 

But Jesus is the savior of the world.  AMEN. 

GIVING     

Please continue your practice of giving during this time.  We are checking the mail for written checks, recording, and depositing them as usual.  There is also a button in the BREEZE dashboard now that says “GIVE NOW.”  All it takes is your bank’s routing number and your account number (these are protected), and an offering is done electronically.  Our treasurer Rob Shallish can also help to set up an automatic withdrawal if you wish. 

PRAYER   (You may type prayer requests on your screen, or send them ahead of time to

            Pastor Becky by text or email.)

(Silence)

Pastoral Prayer   and Lord’s Prayer (say in your house with Pastor Becky)

CLOSING BLESSING    (Wave those branches again!!!)

Blessed are you, Holy God, for in Jesus Christ you came to rule in our lives, not as a king, but as a humble servant, riding on a donkey. Enter into our hearts this day with your glory, that we may greet you with shouts of praise; through Christ, our Sovereign and Savior