WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:10.480 Well, we've got uh Jesus arranging for this uh processional uh that um they're going into Jerusalem. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:21.839 And for many, yeah, it was probably a really hope-filled time, especially those who are dissatisfied with the way things were. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:30.239 They weren't feeling that they were treated well, that they were affirmed appropriately, that life was correct, how God would want it. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:34.079 And so they wanted this overthrow. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:47.520 So the the to have a parade was just what they would have in mind, and it was uh this subversive stuff was pretty um probably exciting for them as well, right? 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:52.479 He comes in on this donkey uh and actually it says donkey and a cult. 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:57.200 Hopefully you didn't ride both because it looked a little circus-y, I think. 00:00:57.920 --> 00:00:58.399 Right. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.600 But it comes in the donkey and a cult, as we're mentioned. 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:20.079 Uh, some scholars think differently, but generally it's either surrender or we just don't want to fight, is what you would do when you were in battle if you showed up on a cult or a donkey were saying, Hey, I'm coming here to chat, or basically not get beat up is uh what you were looking for. 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:26.319 But for Jesus, it's this message of the kind of king he was looking to be. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:32.480 He wasn't looking to conquer in the ways that many people would think he was looking to conquer, right? 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:40.560 I would imagine the people who are there and they're laying down palm branches, even the palm branches are a little bit subversive. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:51.760 A king would come in on this stallion and a horse, and people would come and they would lay, they would lay like really fine fabric to show how much they respected this king. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:52.239 Right. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:59.040 And here we're laying palm branches, palm branches that can be picked most anywhere back then. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.359 Some were laying their clothing. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:04.959 You know, that you can see some of the subversive message here. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:07.200 This isn't going to be about top-down. 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:14.080 This is going to be kind of a bottom-up thing because they got God working on their side. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.280 So you can see that they're excited. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:32.879 But if we were to dip into their thinking right about now, I wonder if they are seeing a different kind of king than Jesus is intending to be. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:33.759 Right? 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.759 They're into it for right now. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:51.199 You know, they don't uh uh um like how the world is going at the time, but they are ready to accept that he's not uh, but are they ready to accept what that he is not quite what they had envisioned? 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:57.599 Can they give up the idea that might Jesus might not be going to do it in their way? 00:02:58.479 --> 00:02:58.800 Right? 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:00.960 You can do it your way, JC. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.280 Just fix the really bad stuff first, then I'm right with you. 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:08.000 All right, then you can do it your way. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:14.479 It's a question of aren't are they fully on board or even fully understanding? 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:18.080 Anybody find it interesting? 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:24.400 Does it catch your attention that this parade just seems to kind of end? 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:26.560 Right? 00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:28.719 It just sort of piffles out. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:31.199 You know, there's not this grand celebration. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:44.080 One might have even thought there'd either be some sort of big conflict that came from it, or or the coronation of Jesus, and yet it just sort of piffles out. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:52.080 And those of us here, we have the advantage of knowing how it actually plays out, right? 00:03:53.199 --> 00:04:00.400 We know what really happens is kind of the opposite of what a lot of people were hoping. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:08.080 So, our theme for Lent, the journey to faith. 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:11.360 How in the world does it land here? 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:14.080 How does this even connect? 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:17.680 You'll remember we're we're kind of like this baby in a basket. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:21.519 Remember, Moses, he's this baby, he's going to be given up to be saved. 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:43.839 He's a baby in a basket rolling down the river of different influences and tides, and God comes to us, maybe in a burning bush, if you're lucky, usually in some other way, but offers some better way of doing things, at which point it's open to us to make that commitment of faith, to open ourselves to what God wants for us. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:05:01.120 And then we learn that the journey, moving from some of those lower gods to the God we understand, capital G, isn't as easy as we'd hope, or kind of pulled to some of that old stuff. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:04.240 But God along that journey provides for us. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:12.000 We get manna, we get quail, we get water, and finally we get some structure. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:17.199 These ten commandments, along with the other law, their structure now. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:20.720 Do we need any more than that? 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:25.759 Have we stabilized in our faith now that we have all of those things? 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:28.160 Thanks, God, for those ten commandments. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:29.439 Now we're good to go. 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:35.519 Do you feel like that solidifies your faith and gives you everything you need to go? 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:40.160 My guess is not quite yet. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:43.759 I need a little bit more. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:54.160 Part of what we learn on Palm Sunday is that this is not a journey with a beginning and an end. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:28.480 You know, many scholars believe that many of the people who are there praising Jesus as he comes into Jerusalem, laying out palms and celebrating, singing Hosanna, praising Christ, that they will be, at least some of them, the same people who will be there on Friday night, yelling, crucify him, crucify him. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:31.519 Doesn't that seem odd? 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:37.120 That wild, wild swing, how could anybody switch so fast? 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:53.519 Well, the thinking is that these people of great, great faith, or at least a a lot of hope in Christ, but they begin to look for something a little bit more substantial from him. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:07:00.240 You know, if he's really God, then why isn't he just taking over? 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:03.439 Why isn't he fixing things? 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:08.399 If he's really God, then maybe we should see a little evidence. 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:16.399 You know, put it before we put it all forward, before we make a total commitment. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.720 I mean, if he's really God, he shouldn't die anyway. 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:22.240 Right? 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:29.519 Boy, if Jesus put something forward here, if we try to crucify him and he lives, this will be great. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:33.120 I will have a stronger reason to have faith. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:37.279 And all the people who don't have faith will have some evidence. 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:40.480 They'll have a reason to follow. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:52.639 Can you see a little bit of how that pathway gets carved between praising Jesus to yelling, let's see what you got. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:55.759 Let's see what you got, Jesus. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:10.639 It turns out that this journey of faith that we have been learning about through Exodus, this journey of faith really is fairly cyclical. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:19.279 There will be times in which we feel like uh we have everything we need to follow in faith. 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:21.279 I'm helping the poor. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:22.720 This is great. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:27.040 Everything in Bible study makes perfect sense. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:28.959 Have you been there? 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:30.800 Ah, this is it. 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:36.399 When I walk through the garden, all of the words of God are so clear. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:40.799 I'm in there taking notes like I'm getting groceries or something, right? 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:41.840 Have you been? 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:45.200 Where it just feels like you are just in step. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.679 Everything is great, my faith is so deep. 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:57.200 There's even, there's even just that littlest, littlest space in our heart for the people that we hate. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:00.480 Just a little one, though. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:02.960 Haven't you been there? 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:11.039 And then Jesus shows up on a donkey and we think, yeah, we're gonna do this grace and peace style. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:12.559 This is how we're doing it. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:13.759 Me and Jesus, right? 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:19.279 We're gonna lay down palms, we're thinking, you, me, Jesus, right? 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:20.799 Let's do this. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:22.879 My faith is strong. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:38.799 And then there are times, and we've known these times, when it's not so deep, when the doubt is much more strong. 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:49.759 When the social justice need, the human need that is around us, that's engaging us, just feels so strong. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:53.679 I remember talking with Nancy just this week about that. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:56.480 We're like overwhelmed by this need. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:02.240 And we read through our Bible and it it's just it's just not clicking. 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:19.360 In the Bible study this week, in Exodus, in our scriptures, we learn that if the master beats the slave so much that the slave dies right away, then he will be punished. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:25.120 But if the slave lasts a few days before he dies, then he'll be forgiven. 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:27.120 That's in your scriptures. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.159 That's Levitical law. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:33.440 What do we do with that, God? 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:48.559 We walk through the garden where God used to speak with such clarity, and now it just feels quiet, but not a good quiet. 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:52.799 And we think, okay. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.559 Maybe it's time, Jesus. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:01.600 Maybe it's time, Jesus, for you to give us a little bit more to follow. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:07.840 I got all these eggs in this basket of you being the way and the truth and the life. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.200 Maybe it's time you give us some proof. 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:13.919 Show us your way works. 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:16.080 Show us you don't die. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:22.240 Show us that you and that all you represent are eternal. 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:26.879 Show me that my work for the poor matters, God. 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:30.639 Tell me how scripture makes sense, God. 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:33.120 When will the world be fair? 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:38.960 God calm this anxiety in my heart. 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:40.639 God. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:45.759 Enough of this, enough in this place. 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:52.159 And aren't we right there with those others on Friday night? 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:57.120 Yelling, prove yourself, Jesus. 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:03.600 We think of a journey as going from here to there. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:09.039 But the journey of faith really moves more in cycles. 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:19.360 Cycles of deep, deep faith and trust all the way to instability life in that wilderness. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:25.440 I called this message today last stop being human. 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:30.559 Only there really isn't a last stop for us. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:36.000 At least as far as we're aware of in this life. 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:50.399 It's simply this continual cycle of life in which we try to maintain and strengthen our faith and our confidence in Jesus and the way of love and the way of peace and the way of faith. 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:56.559 It's a process in which we move from being at one with Christ. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:00.399 I like to put it up here, where we're at one with Christ. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:14.320 And then as we move forward, a separation begins to happen, usually out of our own hubris, thinking, I don't necessarily need God or God's way. 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:16.879 I can do this on my own. 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:21.360 And we start moving into more of a separation, right? 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:28.639 And then ultimately we get to a point of helplessness, of vulnerability. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:33.600 We've tried it so long in our own way, without the ways of Christ. 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:39.200 And finally we reach that bottom where we're we're willing to listen again. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:41.440 We're willing to trust again. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.720 We're willing to live out that love again. 00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:51.039 And through that process, God is able to work with us towards some restoration. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:54.399 So again, we get back up with God. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:58.000 We are at one again with God. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:04.720 The beauty of this process is in the way that God is able to bring us back to that restoration. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:13.679 With God, we are able to move from the separation, the brokenness, to growth and restoration. 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:30.159 In fact, I would say our growth relies on that separation because it's in that vulnerability, it's in that openness that we are able to allow God in, that God's able to work with us. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:46.720 In fact, sometimes even when we are at one with Christ, if we are going to move any further, it's because we're willing to let that go a little bit, to really wrestle with something that we've been wrestling with. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:53.279 Richard Rohr is uh somebody I've been uh working with. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:55.039 And I've got a couple of quotes here. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:10.639 I think we're uh ready for them, but uh, I've also invited you, if you uh are reading the emails Fridays and Sundays, to join me in uh working through the devotion that comes from his center for action and contemplation. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.840 He really says it in a great, great way here. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:21.360 I'm gonna quote him Our brokenness is the raw material of God's restoration. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:26.240 Let that sit for a little bit. 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:31.600 Our brokenness is the raw material of God's restoration. 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:37.759 That brokenness that we let God into is what allows God to help restore us. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.519 It is the occasion and opportunity for God to love. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:51.200 Our brokenness, weakness, limitation, and hurts are taken into God's hands and there begin to reflect the glory of God. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:16:01.279 To paraphrase the words of the Apostle Paul, where our brokenness increased, the grace of God increased all the more. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:34.879 In many ways, our task is to live in this place of praise and trust without falling into some abyss of frustration, pain, and bitterness, sometimes enough pain and doubt, that we're taken all the way in front of Pilate, yelling, crucify him, prove yourself Jesus. 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:44.960 We're trying to work those cycles in a way that we don't go so far down that it's hard to get back up. 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:50.559 So far down that pain and bitterness are what are making all our decisions for us. 00:16:50.720 --> 00:17:03.360 Listen, as he fleshes this out further, when religion cannot find a meaning for human suffering, human beings far too often become cynical, bitter, negative, and blaming. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:12.000 Healthy religion, almost without realizing it, shows us what to do with our pain. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:16.640 With the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:21.599 If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it. 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:29.279 If we cannot find a way, make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably give up on life and humanity. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:37.920 I am afraid there are bitter and blaming people everywhere, both inside and outside of the church. 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:48.960 This is the cautionary tale of this journey of faith that is so cyclical. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:18:11.039 This movement of grace, this movement of growing in our faith, the cautionary tale is that we allow ourselves to go to that lowest point where we are living in the pain and bitterness and cynicism that often the world around us is pushing us toward. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:28.000 In this journey of faith, which hopefully we're realizing is this series of cycles, we're hoping to move through those times of trial and doubt into growth. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:40.960 We're trying to make the wounds that we are feeling, both the wounds that have been done to us, but also the wounds we have self-inflicted, they become sacred wounds. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:47.039 Points of being able to understand God and God's grace and God's love. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.240 A grace that we can share. 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:56.400 There's an invitation that comes with Holy Week. 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:11.839 Obviously, the light at the end of the tunnel is Easter and new life, but the pathway to that new life, it goes through Holy Thursday and Good Friday. 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:34.720 This is when we focus on that brokenness and that pain, and we look to see where God may be working us through it, giving us a context for it, it that doesn't tear us apart, but actually helps us build ourselves back together. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:47.680 The invitation is for you to bring that separation, that brokenness or that bitterness, and to give it to God in vulnerability and trust. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:58.640 To allow yourself to become the raw material of God's restoration that Richard Rohr celebrates. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:13.680 In this way, new life might not just be something that Jesus experienced two thousand years ago, but it's something you might experience today. 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:19.039 And through this week, and then beyond.