Scripture/Sermon of the Day

29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,

I. You never know where your mind will go after you read a passage from the Bible. Saturday morning, when I wrote this, after reading these passages my mind went straight to the New York Yankees. Probably Jesus riding into Jerusalem makes you think about about the yankees too.

II. Because, their second game on March 29 was one of the biggest blow-outs in the history of baseball. It was historic. They beat the Milwaukee Brewers 20-9. But in the past week, they can’t hit the ball! They hit 15 home runs their first three games and are scoring 0 now. What’s happening? And why’s this like Palm Sunday.

III. Because we may try to practice the way that Jesus teaches us — but we have good days and days when maybe the most loving thing we can do is force ourselves to be quiet when we really want to curse someone. Aaron Judge hit three home runs in one game two weeks ago — now he can’t even hit a fowl ball! That describes the Christian life. We go up and down. Father Richard Rohr says to stay humble, we should pray for one humiliation a day. You know what the Good News is? We don’t need to pray for a humiliation, because it will happen anyway! That’s good — it means God loves us. Humility keeps us grounded.

IV. I had a good humiliation last week. Last Monday, spiritually, I was having a good day. That evening, Janet and I went to her mother’s to have dinner with her. We shared a meal, we talked and had some laughs, I cleaned the dishes afterwards, and we drove home. On the way home, the light changed from yellow to red pretty fast and I kept going, cutting in front of a car that had the right-of-way. That person honked at me, really leaning into their horn — it was a hoooonnnnnnkkkkkk!!!! Instead of feeling sorry and repentant for my impatience and rude behavior, I wanted to jump out of my car and slash their tires. Janet said to me, “We’re not in a hurry.” I said, “I AM IN A HURRY!” So much for my glorious spiritual day. I felt like the New York Yankees killing it in week one and then falling on their face in week two.

IV. Today, being a special day — Palm Sunday — I included three readings. One of them causes me nightmares! “LET THE SAME MIND BE IN YOU that was in Christ Jesus….who took the form of a slave….and became obedient to the point of death.”

Because who wants to be a slave? EVEN FOR JESUS! I want to say, “Jesus — I love you — I’ll work for you. BUT ON MY TERMS BECAUSE NOBODY, not even you, is GOING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

But look — Jesus TOOK THE FORM OF A SLAVE BY CHOICE. HE CHOSE TO GIVE HIS FREEDOM TO GOD!!!! Like Martin Luther King, Jr., like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, like Alexi Navalny. King was assassinated. Mother Teresa lived the final decades of her life in poverty, illness and chronic depression. And Navalny, after the third attempt, was finally successfully murdered. We tell God, "Here is my freedom. I love you." And God says, "I love you too. Here is the cross."

V. Palm Sunday reminds us that choosing God, following Jesus, is a gradual process of giving up our freedom — giving it to God — and becoming, like Jesus, God’s slave. THIS IS SO UN-AMERICAN!

ACCORDING TO THE GOSPELS, To have the mind of Jesus, to love everyone as he did, we have to give up our freedom and become God’s slave, and nail our egos to the cross. THAT’S THE GOOD NEWS OF PALM SUNDAY.