Sermon

One of the big difficulties of days like today, is connecting annual Lectionary readings about Palm Sunday, which you have all heard before, with the stuff you came in here today worrying about!

Okay, so Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey 2,000 years ago. That’s great, but, you say, I'm worried about paying the electricity and food bills just to survive here in Ilkley!

Okay, so the people were all excited about Jesus and they waved palm branches at him. That's a nice image, you say, but I'm more concerned about how much the TV Licence and car tax will be going up!

I believe, in fact, that Palm Sunday, maybe even this Palm Sunday, has a message for us all. In fact, I am hoping that this Palm Sunday may be the one you look back on as having been decisive in your life.

You see, Palm Sunday meant one thing for those shouting, "Hosanna!" and something very different for Jesus. The disciples and bystanders were caught up in the excitement and thrill of the beginning of Passover and the potential new leader Jesus, who might free them from Roman rule.

For Jesus, on the other hand, his entry into Jerusalem was the beginning of an all-or-nothing divine plan to break the back of an understanding of God which was keeping people from God and keeping them stuck in their sin. It was the first step in his final course of action to reconcile humanity with their Creator. 

From the time of his childhood when his relationship with God began to dawn he had been moving toward this day. Palm Sunday. The die was cast. As the Gospel writer Luke put it, " ...he set his face to go to Jerusalem". It was Palm Sunday. The time had arrived.

Palm Sunday was the day when a slow burning vision of obedience began to take its final form. Palm Sunday was the day when a string of events began that would change Jesus' life and the life of the world. Palm Sunday was the day when obedience won out over any hesitation or doubt, though there may well have been lingering, human fear of what obedience might bring in pain or suffering. But it would be worth it, to say the least.

Jesus was unique in his relationship with God and with his sacrifice for all of humanity. However, Jesus also was part of a long line of heroes of the Bible who had been obedient to the call of God in their lives.

Abraham heard the call of God: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Surely he had some doubts and wondering if this was really God. But finally it was his Palm Sunday, and obedience was the only way. And he went, not knowing where he was going, totally depending on the Lord.

The prophet Isaiah had an overwhelming experience of the power and majesty and glory of God while worshiping. At the end of that experience he uttered those words which have been said in a variety of ways by countless faithful people of God over the centuries. "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here am I! Send me' ". And he went. For him, it was his Palm Sunday.

We Protestants tend to ignore one of the most faithful persons in our religious history, the mother of Jesus, Mary. After she was told she was going to have a baby, out of wedlock and by the power of the Holy Spirit, even with all the questions lingering in her mind, Luke reports: "And Mary said, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word' ". It was her Palm Sunday too.

Then there were others who were faithful but needed a little more encouragement. Remember Jonah, the reluctant prophet. Called by God to speak words of warning to the sinful city of Nineveh, he instead fled by ship, found himself in the belly of a whale, and was rerouted to -- you guessed it -- Nineveh. It was his Palm Sunday, albeit with a big diversion on the way to his obedience.

And there was Paul. Before he became Paul he was Saul, the Christian hater. But to Paul's credit, he really was trying to do the will of God. He thought this Jesus was a blasphemer and his followers were heretics. He had a mid-course correction, however, and his Palm Sunday occurred on the way to Damascus, in the northern part of Palestine.

Paul's conversion must be an important story because Luke tells it three times in the book of Acts. It was Palm Sunday for Paul, and he became the first and greatest missionary of the gospel who ever lived.

And now, there is you. And there is me. And there is today, Palm Sunday. Is there anything in your life that you feel God has been calling you to do, or to be, perhaps for years -- perhaps for a few months, or weeks or days?

This could be your Palm Sunday. It could be mine.

Let us listen to Paul again. The scripture we read today helps to put Jesus' actions on Palm Sunday into context.

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

The amazing Holy Week equation that we see in Jesus is that, when it comes to doing the will of God, less is more. Jesus, according to Paul, "emptied himself" and thereby became obedient. Jesus did not fill himself up with pride and drive and determination. Rather, Jesus emptied himself, and allowed his spirit and mind to be filled with God.

Here is the meeting place of Palm Sunday, A.D. 33 and Palm Sunday 2025. It is making a conscious space in our minds for the Mind of Christ in order that we might be eager to do the will of God. It is in the emptying of all that would get in the way of God so that it becomes possible to think thoughts that lead us to paths of righteousness and holiness and joy.

Think how important that is. Remember the words of the prophet Isaiah:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Paul wrote to the church in Rome. "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind ..." 

To have the mind of Christ is to have an empty head -- well, sort of. At least there is the intent of leaving room, the intent of filling it, or making it available for God's thoughts, not just our own.

So what is it for you today? If we stay in A.D. 33 and wave palm branches, but don't make the connection of our obedience to God's will today, then this will have been a hollow event, an empty diversion on a gorgeous day.

You've thought about it. You've prayed about it. You intend to do it for God. It's Palm Sunday. For you and for me. It could be the most important day of our lives.  AMEN