Tell them to Stop!

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
March 28th 2010
Palm Sunday
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 19:28-40
“Tell them to Stop!”

With all the joy and excitement of the day it is easy to forget that Palm Sunday was highly organized and was intended to send a clear message. Palm Sunday is a day where the ethos of God and the ethos of empire come into direct conflict. In other words, it’s a fight, a clash of ideals and ideology. And, the values being expressed in the parade may not be of this world, we are expected to live them in this world.
Picking up the palms means we are saying yes to the ways of humility over hubris. We are saying no to hubris, pride, and arrogance. Picking up the Palms means we are saying yes to the ways of honesty and no to the ways of deceptive or misleading speak. It means we are saying yes to the ways of love and no to the ways of domination, violence and even rhetoric that leads to violence.
It has been quite a scary week if you are a legislator in this country, particularly if you are a Democrat who supported the passage of healthcare. Here are a few examples of the rage that is erupting. A gas line was severed at the home of the brother of a representative from Virginia. Windows have been smashed and graffiti was painted in congressional offices. Pictures of nooses were sent to white and black legislators by fax, white powder was sent to another with threatening messages inside. Threatening phone calls have been made and the death threats are piling up. A man was a victim of road rage in Nashville because of his Obama/Biden bumper sticker, and here Saint Louis a coffin was placed out front of Russ Carnahan’s home after he voted in favor of the health care bill. There is clearly something going on around us that is getting out of control.
What began as an angry response to myth and misinformation fed by the flames of a bad economy is now threatening to swallow up even the people who fanned those flames. Over the last week and weekend some of the rhetoric that found voice came from other legislators. Leaders of the opposition party said: "America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power." They also said that what happened was the beginning of Armageddon and that the speaker of the house should get “ready for the firing line this November.” Missouri’s own Todd Akin did his part to fan the flames by saying: Today Americans are reacquainted with the danger of an arrogant all powerful government, a deadly enemy within, a clear and present danger in Washington.” I am sure no coffin showed up on his lawn. And two other congress people have called for revolution saying it was time to water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots. And a former governor said now is not the time to “Reload.”
It is easy for these legislators to claim they are not inciting violence. Their rhetoric is just that, words. But, as people of the book, we know that words matter. Words have the power to shape reality. And despite the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” we all know that is not true. Today we celebrate the king who taught us that if we have hatred in our hearts for others, that we are responsible for murder. So to our brothers and sisters who are legislators, it is time we call them out, on the right and the left. But even more importantly, we must own the anger that resides in our own hearts. Today is just the day to do it. By picking up the palms and shouting our Hosannas we are recommitting ourselves to the way of the king who would not resort to violence.
It was the celebration of Passover. And by way of refreshing your memory, Passover is the Jewish commemoration of the release from the slavery of the Egyptian Empire by God. Deuteronomy 6:20-22 sums it up quite nicely:
When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.
It is a celebration of the event and a claiming of that event in ones current setting. It is about aligning ones life to the story of faith which begins with freedom from slavery and ends with a life meant for serving God alone.
In first century Judea, the Passover celebration was always a cause for concern among the religious and political leadership. It was not good for the security of the Empire for the people to gather and celebrate freedom from oppression. As a result, each year during the Passover celebration an entire Roman Legion was ordered to “keep the peace” in Jerusalem. Their job was to prevent any riots or uprisings from occurring and to brutally end them if they did. That is how the ‘Peace of Empires’ is always maintained. So, it was into this religious and political powder keg that Jesus enters Jerusalem.
When the religious leadership comes to Jesus and orders him to quiet the crowd they are fearful of the crowd and of those brought in for crowd control. They know too well that once a crowd is stirred up only blood will satisfy. Once the people are stirred into a frenzy someone is going to have to die. If Jesus will not bring this crowd down then they will make sure he will pay. And at the end of the week Jesus will pay with his life.
Jesus will pay with his life because he will not play by the rules of the religious authorities. Neither does Jesus bend to the will of the crowd. Instead, he offers everyone a different way of acting and living in the world. To the religious leaders he demands authenticity and integrity. To the political leadership he shows the way of real power. And to the crowd he offers liberation and hope. But for all, he exposes that which each group does not want to face. He does not exploit the anger of the people. He does not use his faith to gain power, and he will not play by the rules of Rome. On this Palm Sunday, as we give all glory laud and honor to King Jesus we are saying no to the rhetoric which leads to violence and to all other claims upon our life. The question that remains for us is as chilling is it liberating: “Will our hosannas lead us to embrace the cross, or will we finally feed our own desire for justice and retribution and blood thirst that resides in every human heart?”