April Fools Palm Sunday Sermon

Chuck emailed from Sudan this morning, he will be arriving Monday at 3:25am rather than Tuesday afternoon, as planned...
DON in Group 3 also emailed saying that he cannot find where Chuck hid the Epinephrine pens...
Throughout recent years, there has been a standing competition between the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches over parking. The Episcopal Church has none, so assumes all street parking including in front of the Presbyterian Church, is theirs. On my way into the Church this morning, April 1st 2007, I took our traffic cones and lined both sides of the street for two blocks...
How can you tell the difference between a practical joke that is appropriate and one that is not?

Throughout history, every great faith has emphasized the need to be surprised, to not take ourselves so seriously, as well as a willingness to bear the brunt of being the scapegoat for others.
No matter how humorous we imagine, using power against the powerless, degradation, is not fun. While causing the powerful to see themselves as human, can be.
We, none of us see ourselves as being as intimidating and threatening as others may. There is still something of the animal in each one of us, that fights for survival, for dominance, for control, even when we do not try.
April Fools, is an ancient effort for us all to imagine, we are the same as everyone else.
To laugh is a gift, to be humble enough to laugh at ourselves is the GRACE of an April Fool.

The Prophet Isaiah names the FARCE of PREACHING. God has given me the gift of knowledge the tongue of one who is taught, but people only want to listen to what pleases, what puffs up and tears others down, each kindling their own hurts and passions and desires, rather than faith in God and communion with others. We have got to stop the gossip that too easily spreads in this village.

The classic example is the story of the Prophet Jonah.
The Bible tells the story almost like a scandalous joke. The WORD of the LORD GOD came to God's Prophet Jonah saying GO DOWN to NEW YORK CITY, that Great City and prophesy.
But Jonah says, I know God is forgiving and loving. I don't wanna go to NYC, so instead of going down, he goes up, to OSWEGO! But God is not easily deterred. A storm comes up, and Jonah is thrown into the sea, where he goes down, down, down into his own depression, until swallowed by a fish. This creature of of God takes him deeper and deeper, to the very foundations of life itself. When Jonah finally accepts “I am only a human creature, and God needs to be God.” Immediately the fish vomits him up and Jonah finds himself standing in New York City/ Ninevah.

There is a difference between humbling one's self, being humble and being humiliated.
The other Gospels go to great lengths to describe Jesus' humbling himself making preparations by having the DISCIPLES borrowing a donkey and bringing palm branches to Jerusalem, cursing the fig tree, weeping, preparing the Upper Room. John is not writing a firsthand history, John is like us, years later trying to understand what meaning and significance there is to Jesus having been the Messiah.
Did he truly forgive the sins of the world?
Did his passion on the cross atone for all that had ever been done, and cold ever be?
What does it mean, that the babe born in a stable because there was no room for him,
should become the Great Teacher and MiracleWorker, who died on the Cross?
At what point in is life, did Jesus become the Christ?
The difference for John, is that the whole Gospel is integrated, such that Jesus humbled himself by becoming human, and being humble rode the donkey as a King of Peace and Righteousness.
If we read John's Gospel literally, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, one of the miracles that caused people to believe he could do anything. We can also understand that Jesus' Good friend, the brother to Mary and Martha, had died and his absence, love for him, was just as palatable as if Lazarus were mortally alive. I keep expecting the phone to ring, hearing Betty Tanner asking for a ride; we cannot sing “O'er All the Way Green Palms and Blossoms Gay” without thinking of Doc Nichols and Annie. We witness the new Fire Station and Ambulance building and are reminded of Carl Fisher and Fred Eisenberg who served as Mayors of Skaneateles and Marcellus.

The IRONY, the April Fools Joke is that in BEING HUMBLE, Jesus is GLORIFIED. By being VULNERABLE he becomes not only immortal, but invincible, that no power, nor height nor depth can separate us from his love and God's love through him.
That is a rare gift, one of the GRACES, to live all of life humble and vulnerable. The story is told of Mother Theresa, who along with the Sisters of Mercy were ministering for years to colonies of Lepers. Cardinals from the Vatican came to witness what she was doing and were in awe. They offered, we would like to build for you a large modern hospital, provide washers and dryers for clean linens to make your lives easier. AND Theresa smiled and said “All those things we do not need, we are devoted to caring for the poor, what we do need is for someone to share with us communion.”

I have told the story before, that years ago, when there still was a Soviet Union, I had the privilege of traveling with a group of lawyers and judges meeting religious leaders and judges there. On the final day, we met the Highest Appellate Court Judge in the Juvenile Court System. After a series of questions, she asked, as a Christian minister if you knew of a child taking their life what would you do. I tried t describe that I would have known the child and her family. I would have hoped to have seen the signs and tried to intervene to stop her. But if not, I would go to her family and weep with them for the loss to us all. The Judge said, You need to understand that in the Soviet Union, you would have broken the Law because priests can only recite the liturgy, you could not leave the grounds of the Church, because that would be proselytizing. Then she paused, and the Judge said, and I think the ones who have been denied the most by this, are the children for whom the Church cannot intervene or weep for their loss.

Years later, I had a confirmation class, and one of the girls in the class 15 years of age, became pregnant. How tragic, that when the State says it is against the Law for the Church to provide pastoral care and ministry we desperately recognize the loss. When we are allowed, we take life and our relationships with one another for granted, so we rarely do intervene and minister.

The great APRIL FOOLS JOKE is that the crowds had shouted “HOSANNA, HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST” which is taken from Psalm 118, a Hebrew Word meaning HAVE MERCY, HAVE MERCY TO THE GREATEST EXTENT, yet the crowds of disciples were unaffected, and days later were the same ones who cried out CRUCIFY HIM.