Sermon for Palm Sunday 2015 Wetley Rocks

Palm Sunday 2015 Wetley Rocks

A farmhand named Fred was overseeing livestock in a remote part of the Derby Dales when suddenly a brand-new BMW 4x4 advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the farmhand, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?'

Fred looks at the man, obviously a ‘city type’, then looks at his peacefully grazing animals and calmly answers, 'OK, Why not?'

The ‘city type’ parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 mobile phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. 

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.

He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the farmhand and says, 'You have exactly 896 cows plus calves.'

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my animals,' says Fred. 

He watches as the young man selects one of the animals and looks on amused as he stuffs it into the boot of his car.

Then the Fred says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you what your job is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'

'You're a Civil Servant or some such thing working in a government department', says Fred.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the ‘city type’, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required.' answered the farmhand. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a flock of sheep.  

Now give me back my dog.

There is a long history of a certain kind of rivalry between rural dwellers and city types.

Jesus was a rural dweller, from the North as well.

Remember these words spoken by Nathaniel;

‘Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth?’

So perhaps we should see the Palm Sunday story in this light. Crowds of pilgrims would have been flocking into Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, one of the obligatory pilgrimages to the Temple for all male Jews.

We can easily imagine the crowds hustling and jostling in the hot sun, fractious camels, overladen donkeys, and kids running hither and yon. We can see groups of pilgrims who on approaching the city would lift up their voices singing the ancient Songs of Ascents from the Book of Psalms. A veritable riot of colour, smell and sounds.

And the Roman Soldiers, hands held close by their gladius, the short swords that could be used to great effect, watching nervously for any sign of trouble. 

And here is Jesus, riding on a donkey. The only time we have any record of him having done so. Those from the North know this man well, he is one of theirs, and so it is easy for them to get caught up in the triumphal shouts that are soon bouncing off the city walls. Hallelujah, correctly translated as ‘save us.’  This is one of their own.

But the sophisticated city types are not best pleased about this and call for a halt to it all. Jesus knows exactly what he is doing; he knows how this riding on a donkey was powerfully symbolic.

‘If they keep quiet,’ replies Jesus, ‘these stones will start shouting.’

Remember the forerunner, John the Baptizer, he had said, ‘Do something to show that you really have given up your sins. Don't start saying that you belong to Abraham's family. God can turn these stones into children for Abraham.’

Some years earlier someone else had ridden into the city, in all probability mounted on a splendid horse, he came at the head of an army and marched right up into the city and into the Temple causing a huge affront.

Although he grudgingly backed down and removed the Roman Standards from the Temple precinct.

We are reaching the peak of a titanic struggle, the clash of two kingdoms. The kingdoms of the world represented by Imperial Rome and the Kingdom of Heaven, represented here by Jesus. We will watch this drama unfold as both Pilate and Jesus come toe to toe.   

This cheering crowd of rough Northern folk who welcomed Jesus will be prevented from entering into the courtyard where only the right people are allowed in – the right people who want nothing to do with this Northern messiah – ‘can anything good come from Nazareth.’ Easy enough for them to pick up the cry ‘crucify him, away with him.’

So, let me ask you this morning, to which kingdom do you give allegiance?

If you haven’t given that much thought before now, then you ought to do so, and now is a good a time as any.

Imperial Rome may have long gone, but new worldly kingdoms have arisen that demand our alliance, obedience, demand our time and money and energy, our efforts.

Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

Perhaps it is time we began to really shout out – Hallelujah, save us! Save us from our madness that puts profits before people. Save us from a world in which we have child soldiers killing adults, very often their own parents.  Where young girls from our own schools are lured away to join a fanatical extremist group bent on murder and mayhem. 

Save us from a world where we still have hundreds of people in slavery and being trafficked.

But save us not by airlifting us out of it all. Not by taking us away to some dreamy heavenly realm with clouds, harps and angels.

But rather save us by indwelling us with your mighty power – the power of the Holy Spirit.

Save us by our wholeheartedly welcoming you not into Jerusalem but into our hearts and lives.

Save us that we may partner together with each other and with God that we may evidence a realized Lord’s Prayer, where God’s Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven!

It is time to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Hallelujah indeed! Lord save us!