Palm Sunday

Just this past Monday, I participated in a video conference with a handful of pastor’s scattered across the US.  Our topic of discussion was Announcing the Kingdom of God.  As we spent time in our conversation, one of the other pastor’s said:  How would people answer the question:  what does your life announce?  Jesus lived his life to announce the Kingdom of God.  What do our lives announce?  And I responded to him, thank you so much for that question, you have given me my Palm Sunday Sermon. 

            Palm Sunday is an announcement.  The crowds gather, the people cheer and sing, they wave palm branches and lay their cloaks on the road in honor of the one that comes.  The one that comes in the name of the Lord.  The people have lived in dark times and finally, finally, their king has come.  Hosanna in the highest, he is the One that comes in the name of the Lord. 

            Although I, personally, am not a fan of parades, we as people seem to be drawn to them.  Parades are held to commemorate people or important events.  Parades announce something that we feel is important to share such as  Memorial Day parades and Fourth of July parades.  Parades help us mark the transition in time: such as the Thanksgiving Day parade.  Parades can be held to celebrate victories such as for the Superbowl or the Rose Bowl Parade.  But they each announce something. 

            On this first Palm Sunday, the people are announcing their hope that Jesus is indeed their king.  That he has come in the name of the Lord to deliver them from Roman rule.  But Jesus announces something completely different.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem not on a horse fit for a king, but rather on a humble donkey.  His life is one that consistently announces the Kingdom of God, so although he has the ability to become the king of Israel, he has the ability to take a political stand against Rome, he is always pointing his life towards obedience to God, and his calling as one that shares the good news of God’s love, compassion, justice, mercy, healing and wholeness. 

            Jesus’ life, in a sense, was determined hundreds of years before he was born.  The prophets speak of the Messiah, the branch of Jesse, the eternal Kingdom of King David.  The angels announce his birth to both Mary and Joseph, he will be the Savior of his people.  Those that come to his birth announce his future role as a leader of God’s people.  That he will be the light that shines in the darkness.  The people had been waiting a long time for God’s anointed one to come to them, and now that he was here, now that they had seen the teachings of their prophets come to fruition, they were ready to celebrate. 

            And so as we celebrate Palm Sunday, as we celebrate the one that comes in the name of the Lord.  The one that announces that the kingdom of God is near.  How do we respond in the world today?  How do we live as disciples?  How do we embrace his life and allow it to be a part of who we are?  How do we announce ourselves to the world? 

            So, as I spent time thinking about this question, I came across a handful of videos that I was viewing for completely different reasons.  One video really inspired me.  There are two young ladies that live on the island of Bali.  While in school, they learned how plastic bags were deeply impacting the environment of their precious island.  At twelve years old, these two girls decided to make a difference and started a movement to end plastic bags altogether throughout their island.  They shared how difficult this journey was, but they were persistent and others wanted to be a part of this too.  Their movement grew and after several years of education, writing letters, and taking the steps to get the government behind them, the island is now plastic bag free for shopping.  These girls were passionate about something and dedicated their young lives to making a difference, the announced their lives for a better future for their island. 

            Just yesterday, people gathered throughout our nation to announce through their lives that they have had enough with school violence.  People may wear some sort of symbol or item to announce to others who they are.  There was a movement last year of people wearing safety pins as a way to announce to others that they are a safe person, that they support immigrants in our communities.  The rainbow has become a symbol for announcing to the LGBT that they are supported and safe in that specific place.  Teachers have put the rainbow sticker on their classroom door, or people have it on their car or churches have put them on their sign, announcing that if you are LGBT you are welcome here. 

            What do our lives announce?  Do we announce our love for God?  Do we announce the Kingdom of God?  Do we announce compassion, justice, mercy, and love?  I often find these Holy Spirit moments, because also this last week, I was reading a book for a book study group and the author writes: what if we lived out Matthew 25.  What if the church of today embrace this teaching: to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, to visit the sick and those in prison.  And I thought, well, we are doing pretty good at that, but are we announcing it?  Does the greater community know our commitment to Roxbury Social Services and Habitat for Humanity?  Does our own congregation know our growing call to Family Promise and Faith Kitchen.  Just embracing those four ministries and announcing ourselves to the greater world that this is our calling gives us meaning and purpose. 

            What does your life announce?  What does your faith announce? What might our church announce?  So, this is a slight detour, but I do think that our meeting of the congregation today is a part of what does our church announce.  Outward appearances do speak, and so as we seek to restore our steeple, we are making an announcement.  We are announcing that we are proud of our history, we are announcing that we care about our building, we are announcing that we believe in ourselves and our future viability as a dedicated group of disciples here in this place.  Our steeple announces to the greater community that we are here.  As I did a bit of research on steeples, the steeples house the church bell and they needed to be up high to help the sound travel throughout the region announcing to the community it was time to gather for church.  This was before people had watches of their own and they needed a way to know how to be on time.  The bells were used for other things in the life of the community announcing danger or meetings that have long been replaced by other forms of communication, but we still ring the bell every Sunday just prior to our worship service, announcing to the greater community we are here, and we are called to worship God.  As we leave this place, as we go out into the world, our lives are to be the bell that announces to the community we are called to serve.   Amen.