Listen to Readings and Sermon

Palm Sunday

The Good News Written

Psalm 47.6-8 (NRSV)

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our [Sovereign], sing praises.
⁷For God is the [sovereign] of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.
⁸God is [sovereign] over the nations; God sits on a holy throne.

Charles Fillmore, The Revealing Word

“Palm trees [symbolize] realizations in the physical of [an] unlimited resource of strength.”

John 12:12-16 (NRSV)

¹²The… great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the [Leader] of Israel!” ¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: ¹⁵“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your [sovereign] is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” ¹⁶His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010.

Mahalia Jackson sang, “I’ll walk in Jerusalem, talk in Jerusalem, sing in Jerusalem, shout in Jerusalem when I die.” And that’s fair enough, but let’s not forget, we get to enter into Jerusalem while we live! In fact, isn’t that what spirituality is really about? To help us live with joy and peace and fulfillment.

I grew up thinking religion was fire insurance. I honestly was a full grown adult before I came realize that religion could be practical… it could and should help us live with hope and joy and empowerment right here and right now. Being religious to get into an after-life heaven or to stay out of an after-life hell isn’t very noble… that’s a very self-serving motivation. Religion should move us beyond CYA. I think that makes a mockery of grace and paints God to be little more than a cosmic dictator demanding obedience… offering rewards to those who comply and punishment to those who don’t.

Once I truly came to believe that God is love and love excludes no one, least of all for their honest opinions, then I was free to allow religion to be a tool for me to use, rather than a weapon to be used against me. It’s been 25 years since I used religion as fire insurance; now it is something that builds me up and that I can share with others so that they can be lifted up, here and now.

God, divine Love, is eternal and will hold us eternally… so why wait. Let’s enjoy the benefits of the divine presence in our lives here and now… the world beyond will also be God-filled, as is this one (“there’s not a spot where God is not”). Knowing that it is in God that we live and move and have our being, we can enter into the gladness that such truth offers here and now. I believe our gospel story invites us to do just that!

Jerusalem – holy city, city of God… it symbolizes God’s presence.
We see the palms. Palm branches traditionally symbolized military victory. The palms represent empowerment. We see people living in the shadow of Roman military rule holding symbols of victory… Rome can seize their lands but can never take their hearts.
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in God’s name!” is a refrain we find in Psalm 118… a psalm of ascent people would recite on their way to Jerusalem. Those who are going to celebrate God’s presence in their lives sing “Hosanna! Blessed are we who are trusting the divine presence.”
In the name of = on behalf of, in the way of , in the nature of… in the name of God, or the Lord… is in the awareness of the divine omnipresence.
We’re told Jesus sat on a donkey. Donkey = for Balaam in the book of Numbers, the donkey was the seer of angels, speaker of truth… the one favored by God; we see also in Zech. 9.9, “your leader comes gently riding on a donkey.” The gospel writers borrow that passage and apply it to Jesus.

Jesus’ entry into the city of God (the presence of God), called in the name of universal, all-inclusive divine Love, riding gently on a simple, humble donkey but praised and affirmed by a joyous and hopeful community using words from an ancient psalm that had been used to bless pilgrims to Jerusalem for centuries. This is the imagery  we have today.

As followers of Jesus, that’s what we are meant to do… help people make their joyous entry into the awareness of divine omnipresence… affirming their sacred value; but of course, we can’t give what we don’t have. To give that kind of affirmation, we must have affirmed ourselves first. Loving ourselves, we love others. Believing in ourselves, we believe also in others.

Christianity has traditionally insisted that Jesus was both fully human, fully divine. If we are too narrow, too literal with that, it becomes incomprehensible, because we know that two things can’t occupy the same space at the same time. I can’t be happy and sad at the same time; I can’t be mean and kind at the same time. What does it mean to be human and divine at the same time? How is that even possible? And so we tend to make Jesus “only” human or we mythologize him (making him only divine), but whether he is for us the face of God, or a human prophet called by God, in either case we are Christians because we follow his example. And by following him, we come to realize that the truth is we are all incarnations, expressions of the divine omnipresence.

To say Jesus is human and divine is to say that he is FULLY human, in the divine image, and to follow his example is to wake up to the truth that we are FULLY human, in the divine image. When we are most human… kind, generous, optimistic, justice-seeking, compassionate… we are our best selves, which is to say we are expressing our divine humanity; we are following in the footsteps of our wayshower and older brother, Jesus. We are Children of God, made in God’s image, filled with God’s spirit, part of the wonderful creation that God calls very good! To be human and divine is to be fully human, made in God’s image… which is what Jesus was, and what we are. He may have expressed better than we usually do, but that doesn’t exempt from trying.

So let me ask you,
Where are you not living out your full, glorious humanity?
Where are the places that you tend to forget that you are made in the divine image?

Where do you need healing in your life today?
Where are the scars of betrayal?
Where are the scars of regret?
What are the burdens you have been carrying for far too long?
Where are the fears that need to be healed?

Where is the sense of not-enough-ness, of separation from your divine source that needs to be removed by the acknowledgment that it is in a loving, divine presence that you live and move and have being?
What is keeping you from entering into Jerusalem and believing in your sacred value today?!

Today, let’s not only give Jesus our lip-service… that’s the far too easy habit the church has promoted for far too long. It is too easy to sing his praise rather than follow his example. It is easier to praise him than to accept that we are also praiseworthy, especially when we allow ourselves to be our best selves.

This Palm Sunday, let’s do something different.
Instead of singing Hosanna TO Jesus, let’s do what our spiritual ancestors did… sing Hosanna on OUR way to the city of God, to full communion with our living, loving, eternal source.

Let’s make our own triumphal entry into the divine presence, and so live our divine-human wholeness, in Jesus’ name who showed us just how to live with such radical integrity, courage, dignity, and power.

Let’s so hear the affirmation that we who are traveling in the name of an all-loving God are blessed and we are blessed to be a blessing. When we live as if we have entered Jerusalem, then by our very lives we are actually helping others make their entry into the divine presence where hope, wholeness, peace, and joy are waiting for them.

God, divine Love, is right where you are… and that Love can heal a broken heart.
That Love can comfort a  weary body.
That Love can raise you up on eagles’ wings, allowing your spirit to soar on currents of joy and empowerment.
That Love can help you overcome the mistakes of the past… Behold I make all things new!
Divine Love can bring peace where there was anxiety, hope where there was fear, second-chances where there has been disappointment.

Those who become aware of the divine Presence with and within them know they are an individuation of infinite wholeness, a particular expression of everlasting goodness.
In the name of the divine-human Jesus, embrace and celebrate your divine-human wholeness. Hear that great cloud of witnesses shouting to and for you… Hosanna! Blessed are YOU who come in God’s loving name and nature!

When we joyfully enter the holy city, that is the divine presence of our own souls, we discover that we have Resurrection Power that WILL see us through the dark night of Golgotha and raise us up to new possibilities whenever we fall.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
There will be time enough for Easter reflections… today we are simply doing what makes Resurrection possible… we are entering Jerusalem, hearing our sacred value affirmed, knowing that we are created fully human in the divine image and miracles are in store for us. This is the good news!

The Good News Affirmed

I’ll talk, sing, and shout in Jerusalem!

I’m entering Jerusalem today!

And all is well.

Amen.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100328_1.mp3)