Palm Sunday Sermon by Father Tom
03/29/10 04:22 PM
Palm Sunday C 4/1/10
Matt 21:1-11 (Palm Liturgy); Matthew 26:36-27:66 (Passion)
The Crowd that Cheers is the Crowd that Kills
Today is the liturgy of contrasts. Perhaps nothing captures that contrast more than comparing the crowd which cheers Jesus as he enters Jerusalem and the crowd which yells “Kill Him”. That is the contrast we have acted out this morning singing All Glory Laud and Honor as marched into church with palms and then speaking our part in the dramatic reading of the Passion: Crucify Him. Let his blood be upon us. Could it be that we are supposed to understand that some of the same people yelled both Hosanna and Crucify Him? Could it be that we are supposed to see ourselves as people quite capable of both cheering and killing him?
Yes, I think that is what we are supposed to see today. And if we don’t see it, we are in real trouble. There is the danger of anti-Semitism, of thinking it is Jews not people like us who try to get rid of Jesus. And there is the danger of underestimating Jesus, of weakening him, unless we see that he is so threatening to our normal way of doing things that people do want to get rid of him. If we preach a nice gentle Jesus, we have to invent nasty people to get rid of him.
I consider myself to be a pretty decent human being. By and large I am responsible, maybe even generous and kind. Am I also a killer? One of my strongest memories is of an incident which happened probably 40 years ago. I remember getting so angry at some one, that I realized I could kill him. I don’t remember his name. I certainly don’t remember what caused the anger. It must have been trivial. But I can see his face now. And my body still remembers that flood of adrenaline sweeping over me. I could be a killer.
My reading during Lent this year has included some things about the social and economic conditions in Galilee during Jesus’ lifetime. It was a time when small peasant farmers were losing their land because of debt. The rich were getting extremely rich and the poor were getting destitute. It was a time when both Jesus, who probably came from that peasant class, and his landless followers could have meant the Lord’s prayer literally. Give us our bread today because we can’t grow wheat anymore. Forgive us our debts or we will go under. And the landowners who heard that prayer would have heard it as a threat. Demand for bread. Demand to cancel debt. That’s revolution. I had been thinking about things like that and about some of the rhetoric of the current health care struggle in Congress. I stayed up to watch the final vote and some of the debate which led up to it. The political posturing was so intense that my blood pressure was high enough for me to stroke out. As one of the members cast his vote in support of health care, another shouted out, “Baby Killer!” This is on the floor of the US Congress!
That voting Representative was no more a “baby killer” than I am, nor was his vote a support for abortion. All of these things collide as politicians find expediency to position themselves with their constituencies to look good for the next election. I am beginning to think that none of them really care about providing healthcare to everyone – which I thought was original purpose. Now all the politicians are interested in is how their vote sets them up for the election. The big question in Washington is what is ‘expedient,’ not what is right or beneficial. For all I know, the guy that shouted “baby killer” might be a nice guy, a good guy, and loyal church member. How can such a good guy, or any of those politicians be so far from, at least in my understanding of the Jesus of the gospel?
Remember Thomas Jefferson? Perhaps the most talented President we have ever had. An architect, a scholar, a benefactor — and a slave owner. How could such a good man have been a slave owner? Well, some say, he was good to his slaves. Maybe, yet the fact is, that a good man was part of a bad system. And didn’t do much to change it.
Good people. Parts of bad systems. That’s us. It’s not that all people, or all politicians, are evil. That’s not what racism means. I have not personally caused hundreds of years of slavery and all its repercussions. But I am part of a system that profited from and still profits from oppression. I don’t like that. And I am a pretty good person. But I am part of something that continues to be terribly wrong in this country. That’s a fact. I can both sing Hosanna and be a killer.
So that’s why I need Jesus. Why all our systems need Jesus. We need somebody who is not gentle. We need someone more powerful than the human structures that trap good people. We need someone who was put on a cross by good people like ourselves. Someone put on the cross by a bad system made up of good people. We need someone that a cross could not get rid of. Someone still around to threaten and redeem us, and threaten and redeem our systems.
Hosanna. Crucify Him. His blood be on us. All Glory, Laud and Honor to thee Redeemer, King.
Matt 21:1-11 (Palm Liturgy); Matthew 26:36-27:66 (Passion)
The Crowd that Cheers is the Crowd that Kills
Today is the liturgy of contrasts. Perhaps nothing captures that contrast more than comparing the crowd which cheers Jesus as he enters Jerusalem and the crowd which yells “Kill Him”. That is the contrast we have acted out this morning singing All Glory Laud and Honor as marched into church with palms and then speaking our part in the dramatic reading of the Passion: Crucify Him. Let his blood be upon us. Could it be that we are supposed to understand that some of the same people yelled both Hosanna and Crucify Him? Could it be that we are supposed to see ourselves as people quite capable of both cheering and killing him?
Yes, I think that is what we are supposed to see today. And if we don’t see it, we are in real trouble. There is the danger of anti-Semitism, of thinking it is Jews not people like us who try to get rid of Jesus. And there is the danger of underestimating Jesus, of weakening him, unless we see that he is so threatening to our normal way of doing things that people do want to get rid of him. If we preach a nice gentle Jesus, we have to invent nasty people to get rid of him.
I consider myself to be a pretty decent human being. By and large I am responsible, maybe even generous and kind. Am I also a killer? One of my strongest memories is of an incident which happened probably 40 years ago. I remember getting so angry at some one, that I realized I could kill him. I don’t remember his name. I certainly don’t remember what caused the anger. It must have been trivial. But I can see his face now. And my body still remembers that flood of adrenaline sweeping over me. I could be a killer.
My reading during Lent this year has included some things about the social and economic conditions in Galilee during Jesus’ lifetime. It was a time when small peasant farmers were losing their land because of debt. The rich were getting extremely rich and the poor were getting destitute. It was a time when both Jesus, who probably came from that peasant class, and his landless followers could have meant the Lord’s prayer literally. Give us our bread today because we can’t grow wheat anymore. Forgive us our debts or we will go under. And the landowners who heard that prayer would have heard it as a threat. Demand for bread. Demand to cancel debt. That’s revolution. I had been thinking about things like that and about some of the rhetoric of the current health care struggle in Congress. I stayed up to watch the final vote and some of the debate which led up to it. The political posturing was so intense that my blood pressure was high enough for me to stroke out. As one of the members cast his vote in support of health care, another shouted out, “Baby Killer!” This is on the floor of the US Congress!
That voting Representative was no more a “baby killer” than I am, nor was his vote a support for abortion. All of these things collide as politicians find expediency to position themselves with their constituencies to look good for the next election. I am beginning to think that none of them really care about providing healthcare to everyone – which I thought was original purpose. Now all the politicians are interested in is how their vote sets them up for the election. The big question in Washington is what is ‘expedient,’ not what is right or beneficial. For all I know, the guy that shouted “baby killer” might be a nice guy, a good guy, and loyal church member. How can such a good guy, or any of those politicians be so far from, at least in my understanding of the Jesus of the gospel?
Remember Thomas Jefferson? Perhaps the most talented President we have ever had. An architect, a scholar, a benefactor — and a slave owner. How could such a good man have been a slave owner? Well, some say, he was good to his slaves. Maybe, yet the fact is, that a good man was part of a bad system. And didn’t do much to change it.
Good people. Parts of bad systems. That’s us. It’s not that all people, or all politicians, are evil. That’s not what racism means. I have not personally caused hundreds of years of slavery and all its repercussions. But I am part of a system that profited from and still profits from oppression. I don’t like that. And I am a pretty good person. But I am part of something that continues to be terribly wrong in this country. That’s a fact. I can both sing Hosanna and be a killer.
So that’s why I need Jesus. Why all our systems need Jesus. We need somebody who is not gentle. We need someone more powerful than the human structures that trap good people. We need someone who was put on a cross by good people like ourselves. Someone put on the cross by a bad system made up of good people. We need someone that a cross could not get rid of. Someone still around to threaten and redeem us, and threaten and redeem our systems.
Hosanna. Crucify Him. His blood be on us. All Glory, Laud and Honor to thee Redeemer, King.