"Savior, Have Mercy On Me" March 24, 2013

Isaiah 50:4-9 Luke 18: 35-43 & 19:28-40 Our words and actions, postures and relationships, as well as the things which go unsaid, define what we truly believe. Throughout the last Century, the Church has said very little about Salvation. Following the War Between the States, the War to End All Wars, the Great Depression, and the simultaneous Wars against Hitler and in the Pacific, the Conflicts in the Korean Peninsula, Viet Nam, Central America, Croatia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq, people came together thankful to have survived, thankful to God to be alive. We shifted to become a people focused on What we could accomplish, Industrial expansion, Growth, Each person having the right to what they might become. Increasingly, we have embraced competition, dominance, control, as ways of life. Even our entertainment is focused on “Survival,” “Deception,” “Revenge,” “Scandal”. The concepts of “Mercy” and “Salvation” rarely are spoken of, and never would attain public ratings. Salvation is belief in more than the here and now, faith in a greater battle, Spiritual values other than survival. Salvation is not about keeping up with our neighbors, our responsibilities, Facebook, power or reputation. Salvation is war between good and evil, where the ends never justify the means. Ultimately, salvation requires recognition that this world, life itself can never be conquered by us, because this reality is not all that there is. Salvation requires faith in God. ALSO, because Salvation is foreign to us, Salvation embodies other goals than wealth, power, dominance and control, that we would need A Champion who could extend Mercy to us, could give us what we could acquire no where else. Mercy is not an intellectual ideal, the only way to learn mercy is to experience mercy from another when we are in hopeless need. Palm Sunday is about Salvation. Thousands of years ago, long before Jesus of Nazareth, the Old Testament Prophet Zechariah prophesied that “One Day, there would come a Savior, a Champion, who would also embody humility and righteousness with God. He would ride into Zion, Jerusalem, the City of King David, and the people, all creation would cry out to him: Hosanna... Have Mercy, Son of David.” What I have always thought ironic, was that before Jesus entered Jerusalem, before the children began singing and the people shouting Hosanna, the last scene as Jesus was exiting Jericho, Jericho the city where the People of God entered into The Promised land with Joshua, as Jesus was exiting Jericho a blind beggar cried out to him: “Have Mercy, Son of David” and everyone told this one to be quiet. But in the midst of the crowd, with all the noise and all the people, the rush to enter into Jerusalem, Jesus heard the man and had mercy and restored his sight. And where over and over, Jesus had told those whom he healed “Tell No One” this one he does not, and from there on, through the ride into Jerusalem and through Easter morning, there is the recurrent theme: “Have Mercy on me, Son of David.” Life is consumed in details. The score of the Game. A Storm. The Power goes out. Computers crash. Getting homework done. Being prepared for the test. Making lunch for the kids. Being worried about a sick family member while trying to be creative and responsible. Fixing dinner and washing dishes. Trying to put away a little each month, each year so one day, one day maybe we can have our mortgage paid off and retire. Salvation, Spirituality, Faith are consumed with details as well. We often make the assumption, that faith is about a lack of details and responsibilities, about not worrying. The truth is that Spirituality requires discipline, Faith requires practice. The point of Salvation is not a lack of details, but rather attention to other details than we have been looking at. This is why we pray, why we sing, why we share the Psalms. The word: “Liturgy,” listening and reading the Bible and praying, singing psalms and hymns, literally means “the work of the people”. Creation is God's Work. The sermon is the regular routine of the preacher. The work of the people is paying attention to different routines, retraining our selves, from the details of our realities, to look for and listen for Salvation. When Jesus was summoned to the home of Jairus the leader of the Temple, because Jairus' daughter was dying, Jesus was not concerned about the details of time. Along the way, a woman was afflicted with a chronic disease she had suffered a dozen years already, and he stopped to respond to her. Jesus was not concerned with details about wealth or having enough, even about survival. In the Sermon on the Mount, he described that by worry you cannot control the color of a single hair upon your head, so be like the lilies of the field, the sparrows of the air. Jesus was not concerned with reputation or being liked. The Pharisees and leaders of the Synagogue routinely told him how he was supposed to behave, what was culturally appropriate, but he and his disciples had other priorities. Jesus concern was for the details of fulfilling the prophecy, fulfilling the Covenant with God, that not even death would separate Creation from God. Jesus could have walked with the disciples into Jerusalem but instead he told them exactly where to go, and which colt to get, even giving to them the words to say if and when the owners challenged what they were doing. Jesus was focused on the details of entering Jerusalem, the City of David. Jesus was focused on the details of where and how they would celebrate the Passover. Jesus was focused on the details of how he would take up the cross bar of his execution and carrying his cross through the same city. Jesus was focused on completing the details of this life. Actually, there were two Triumphal Entries of Champions into the City of Jerusalem that day. From the West, from Rome, came Pontius Pilate, the military representative of the Emperor. Before him, had come come Legion of battle ready soldiers, foot soldiers and officers on horseback. Every soldier equipped with sword and shield and spear, dressed from head to toe in armor. And finally, as the supreme power came Pilate riding an immaculately trained stallion. Pilate did not even need to hold the reins, a shift of his weight a squeeze of his thighs and the horse responded, so he could hold up his arms to receive the Empire's glory. Everything done in demonstration of power and dominance, everything done to strike fear into this crowd. The Roman Empire knew the prophesies of the people. The Roman Empire knew that Jerusalem being an outlying territory of Judah often had political disturbances. Pilate had paid attention to every detail of power as his parade entered Jerusalem from the West. At the same time, from the East, came Jesus riding upon a foal that had never before been ridden. Instead of being strapped and bound in armor, people were taking off their coats and robes to lay on the ground for Jesus to walk on like a carpet. Instead of fear and battle cries, children were singing and people were shouting “Hosanna, Have Mercy on me, Son of David.” When Jesus' procession entered the city, the leaders told Jesus to quiet his people, that they were making a scene. Jesus reply that “If these were quiet, even the rocks would cry out!” is description that for hundreds of years, the blood of people who could not defend themselves, could not help themselves, had been poured out on these rocks. One was a parade of Dominance and Power, enforcing the Imposed Peace of Rome. The other was a procession in humility and righteousness, where the children and the masses and all Creation received the entry of one who invited them to live in peace. Attention to detail, when Jesus entered the City of David which is Jerusalem, the songs which were sung “Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace” are the same words which were sung by the angels to the Shepherds announcing the coming of the Savior. The question of Palm Sunday, the question of Salvation, ius nto whether we have a palm, or whether we can fold it into a cross, even whether we know what Hosanna means... but whether we know to ask for God to save us.