Until He Was Glorified

Biblical Text: John 12:12-19, Matthew 27:13-26, Refrain verse: John 12:16

It was Palm Sunday or these days also the Sunday of the Passion. The service is actually a bit of theater starting with a procession of palms. But soon after the service switches gears to the reading of a longer passion account. I’ll be honest here, the hymns of Palm Sunday carry it all. You can open with Jubilant All, Glory, Laud and Honor and continue in the same vein with Hosanna, Loud Hosanna. After you’ve read the passion sits a wonderful modern hymn No Tramp of Soldiers’ Marching Feet that makes that transition itself. Close with Ride on, Ride on in Majesty which ends on the eschatological notes that this sermon does. “Bow thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, thy power and reign.”

The sermon is a study in contrasts. I like this one. Which honestly is rarely true. I’m too much of a perfectionist on somethings, but being an every Sunday preacher – and in lenten season much more than every Sunday – you can’t give each one the polish you might otherwise. But the inspiration comes from a note that John gives “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.” Each of the contrasts of the procession of Palms and the Passion underscores the divine irony. The disciples don’t understand, Pilate doesn’t understand, the chief priests don’t understand, the crowds don’t understand, and there were are with all of them. We don’t understand, until we see him glorified. It was all written about him. It all happened to Jesus. But it is only after the resurrection that we might understand.

There is more in there as the sermon develops each contrast. And there is the final eschatological move. What we might foolishly have hoped for in that first kingly procession yet awaits. And that is the power and glory that we today so often dismiss. But that awaits for tomorrow. Today, the king comes humbly. Today, his throne is a cross. Today, he comes heart by heart in grace.

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Who is This?

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Biblical Text: Matthew 21:1-11

First Sunday of Advent. The text is always the Triumphant Entry – Palm Sunday. Now it could just be a replay of the previous Sunday’s sermon from Christ the King, but that misses the import of this procession. It is Christ presenting himself to his people. And I think parts of the opening of John’s gospel are a reflection on this. Historically, the King presented himself and his own would not have him. Christ continues to present himself to his people. And those who believe he gives the power to become children of God. What the procession does is show us just what kind of King this one is. The sermon does this by looking at three movements of the story: the donkey, the procession and the answers to “who is this?” The answers to that question are in the actions, and they are in the names. And then it is left on our hearts. Will we have this king?

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The King’s Peace

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Biblical Text: Luke 19:28-40

This is the first Sunday of Advent and the Gospel text is always Palm Sunday – the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The theme or motif of the day is the Advent or Coming of the King. What this sermon takes up is our distance from even the idea of a King. What does it mean to have a King? What are successful Kings? And how is the Kingdom of Heaven different from all those?

The core of being a king is to reign. But there are many ways that reign is established, justified and judged. The Reign of Jesus is specific in two ways called out by the crowds. It brings peace and it brings glory to the highest. This sermon develops how we live in that peace and how we can recognize and join in the glorification.

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Return of the King

“And this the name by which it will be called: The LORD is our righteousness.” – Jeremiah 33:16

The first Sunday of Advent always seems out of place to me and I’m not exactly sure why. The primary gospel lesson assigned has always been Palm Sunday. It is the Advent of the King. I think it might be because the Pastor I had growing up always switched the lesson up. If my memory is still working, I tend to remember a couple of Apocalypse Sundays. And there is an alternate text given. It could also just be that as an American, speaking about Kings seems foreign, maybe traitorous. We are citizens, not subjects. But the Advent Palm Sunday is about all the legends of the Return of the King and a dwelling of peace.

In the Old Testament you can talk about three covenants. (Well, there is a 4^th, but that one with Noah is something of a prefigurement of the three. Noah receives the promise of no more floods which can only be received by faith. And immediately after men have no faith and start building the Tower of Babel. Noah also receives a bit of the law in regards to killing men and animals (Genesis 9). And according to the apocryphal book of Jubilees that Noahide law had six of the 10 commandments.) The three primary covenants are the one of Faith through Abraham, the law of Sinai through Moses, and the promise of a King with an eternal throne through David. The old testament reading for this Sunday (Jeremiah 33:14-16) reminds of all three covenants. “At that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

We have a natural sense of justice. Those Noahide laws, the 10 commandments, are a revelation of the natural law. A major part of the purpose of a King is to execute justice. But a King is also called “Your Grace.” Not only executing justice, the King is to execute righteousness. And it is that grace, that righteousness which is tougher. We have no true innate sense of righteousness. We only know it when we see it. And even then in our fallen condition don’t always see it let alone desire it. Because right now, to fulfill the law and justice, the cross is our righteousness. Our King took his own punishment. The LORD is our righteousness that he might treat us by his grace.

On that first Advent the King came to execute righteousness. “In those days Judah will be saved (Jeremiah 33:16),” But we await the return of the King. “In those days….Jerusalem will dwell securely.” We know the law, but the devil the world and our flesh are still too much with us. Our righteousness and salvation are sure in Christ, but what we will be has not yet appeared. We walk in danger all the way. The stewards can be faithless. Tragedies befall kingdoms of this world. We long for the righteous branch. We wait for the King to approach Jerusalem once again. And to enter that heavenly city, where the righteous might dwell securely under the eternal throne.

It’s Camelot and Gondor and Rome and Constantinople and Shang-Ri-La and Atlantis and Avalon and every legend, but made real. The LORD becomes incarnate. The LORD has raised up a righteous branch for David. The LORD keeps his promises. His covenants are true. The King shall come when morning dawns. And he shall execute justice and righteousness. And we shall dwell securely under his throne.

King of Kings

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Biblical Text: Luke 23:27-43

I don’t think we moderns understand what the word King means. The last Sunday of the church year is often called Christ the King Sunday. King is one of the three offices that are ascribed to Jesus – prophet, priest and king. But we don’t know what that word means anymore, especially if we are basing it off of our images of the modern British monarchy. This sermon attempts to think through what King means and how it might effect our lives.

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Three Ring Failure

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Biblical Text: Luke 23:1-56

It was Palm Sunday which has morphed into the Sunday of the Passion. The Triumphal Entry is the Gospel of the Day in Advent 1. Maundy Thursday (the institution of the Lord’s Supper) and Good Friday (the crucifixion) have their own days, so I try to preach on the arrest and trials of Jesus. And I have to be honest that 15 years ago I don’t know if I was just naive or if things were really different, but these trials always felt like a different world. But with the number of polically motivated trials and refusals to prosecute that we’ve seen in the past few years, they have become much more real. This sermon meditates on how Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’ three trials: Chief Priests, Pilate and Herod represent three modes of failure to do justice: venality, cowardice and cynicism. How we often succumb to those failures. And How Jesus overcame them and deserves the crown.

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What Child is This?

Advent 3 at St. Mark’s is the Children’s pageant. On the old calendar it would be Guadete Sunday meaning rejoice. It would after be a mini-Christmas or feel like it. You light the pink candle on the Advent wreath. If you were at the Cathedral they might even have rose altar cloths and stoles. Not being the Cathedral we have a pink candle. And given societal changes, like an entire family not being in one congregation any more whether due to moves or disruptions, things that put demands on families need to be done outside of prime time. So while my childhood pageants were on Christmas Eve, ours are on Advent 3. My message before the children does some of that reflecting – a bit of nostalgia – before hopefully putting a good frame on the kids presentation. What Child is This was the theme. The answer is king and savior, but also ours. We can proclaim Christ, but it does no good if we don’t welcome him in our hearts.

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Receiving The King

Biblical Text: Luke 19:28-40
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The image and the reality is all over the new and old testaments. We pray for it constantly in the Lord’s prayer. But moderns have no idea what the world King means. We don’t have a good concept what it means to receive one. And even the examples that we have, like the Queen/King of England, are not what we are talking about. When those places use the world or the thought King they don’t mean a statutory figurehead. They mean a real one. One like a lion, however nice they might be at play, all you can think is “those claws, those claws”. This sermon is an attempt to recover some of that meaning. It is also an attempt to understand how this King is still different that all the others. And finally it is an attempt to understand how we receive a king – here in time and their in eternity as Luther would explain the Lord’s prayer petition.

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Old Cat

Biblical Text: Mark 15:1-47
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The Sermon is for Palm/Passion Sunday, so the service starts out with those Hosannas and the Palm procession, it moves through Pilate’s palace, and ends at Golgotha and the tomb. There are a myriad of subjects possible, but the with Mark’s text what stood out to me this week was Pilate’s repeated pawing, “The King of the Jews”. He’s having perverse fun with the Chief Priests, and the crowds, and even with Jesus. He’s abusing his office for entertainment. The sermon compares it to an old cat and a mouse. The irony is that Pilate, the de facto king of the Jews, actually has the King of the Jews before him. And all throughout Jesus is nothing but truthful. The test is can we see that. Can we see the King not just in his purple, but also in His suffering? Old cats grow blind, all tyrants fall, but the King shall come when morning dawns. Can we see it?

Worship note: I’ve left in a verse or two of several of our hymns today. The hymns of Palm Sunday are such a big part of the experience.
We fade in with the choir processional – Hosanna
In between the split reading is No Tramp of Soldiers Marching Feet verse 2 (LSB 444)
At the conclusion of the readings is Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted verse 2 (LSB 451)
The conclusion is Ride On Ride On in Majesty (LSB 441)
All of these hymns in their fullness deal with seeing the King on the Throne which is the cross.

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Messiahs – Tyrants and True (Palm/Passion Sunday)

Biblical Texts: Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday Matthew 21:1-17, Matthew 27:32-66
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Have you ever been in a situation where you knew exactly what was going to happen, what was going to happen was a travesty but the desires of everyone involved are just too set in stone? Every action and reaction is a cruel inversion of the claims of those doing them? That is Holy Week. The desires of the Galilean crowds, the desires of the Jerusalem priests and the desires of Rome are locked into a danse macabre . The thing about the dance of death is that it reveals all of our follies. All of our false pieties and crass ambitions are laid bare and open for us to see. Those groups dancing 2000 years ago desired messiahs not very much different from those we often desire. Jesus exposes them, and defines what the messiah is. The sermon explores our false messiahs and how they tyrannize us, and the freedom the true King offers us.

Worship note: I’ve left in a bunch of music this time. The hymns for Palm Sunday are probably the greatest in the hymnal. Between the palm and passion lessons the choir sings a pretty arrangement of the Palm Sunday Hosanna. The Hymn of the Day was LSB 444, No Tramp of Soldiers Marching Feet, a modern hymn which keys off of Pilate’s ironic words in the gospel of John “behold your King”. Truer words were never spoken that came off a tongue so false. The closing hymn, LSB 441, Ride on Ride on in Majesty, also beautifully connects the Palms and the Passion.

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