Demonstrations, Marches, And Rallies / Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered, And Betrayed
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In this installment of The Immediate Word, we’re offering two main essays -- one focusing on Palm Sunday, and one on the passion narrative. For the Palm Sunday focus, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes the similarities between Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and contemporary demonstrations that are politically charged -- not only overseas against authoritarian regimes in Russia and Hong Kong, but also here in America with the massive women’s march that took place the day after the inauguration and the upcoming march for science slated to take place on Earth Day.
For the passion narrative, team member Chris Keating considers the twin themes of loyalty and betrayal at the heart of the story. The disciples pledge their loyalty to Jesus at the Last Supper -- and yet as events unfold Judas is not the only one to betray Jesus... even Peter denies his connection to Jesus three times. As Chris observes, loyalty is something that’s often expected yet easily ignored in our society -- whether it’s sports fandom or the party discipline demanded of politicians. Yet as we all know, that loyalty is easily betrayed when the powers that be find it expedient. In our world, superiors demand loyalty from their underlings -- yet that loyalty is rarely reciprocated. And like the disciples, we too find it all too easy to betray our Savior. But as Chris points out, our frail loyalty stands in contrast to the complete devotion Jesus offers to us... even to the point of dying on a cross.
Demonstrations, Marches, and Rallies
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 21:1-11 (12-17)
It is crucially important, especially in the light of ancient and enduring Christian anti-Judaism, to be quite clear that this [Palm Sunday] double demonstration was not against Judaism as such, not against Jerusalem as such, not against the Temple as such, and not against the high priesthood as such. It was a protest from the legal and prophetic heart of Judaism against Jewish religious cooperation with Roman imperial control. It was, at least for Christian followers of Jesus, then and now, a permanently valid protest demonstration against any capital city’s collusion between conservative religion and imperial violence at any time and in any place.
-- John Dominic Crossan, God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now (HarperOne, 2008), p. 132
In the News
For those of us who came of age during the Vietnam War, it’s (in the words of the famous Yankees catcher and malapropist Yogi Berra) “deja vu all over again.”
People have taken to the streets in marches, rallies, and demonstrations to air their grievances against or support of, well, just about anything and everything.
Within hours of the presidential inauguration, more than half a million women gathered in Washington DC and another 2 million turned out in 670 cities around the world to protest President Donald Trump’s self-described treatment of women.
In late January and early February, spontaneous demonstrations broke out at airports across the country when American citizens turned out to aid and assist refugees and immigrants who were being held as a result of Trump’s executive action disallowing, delaying, and in some cases banning altogether immigrations from six Muslim majority countries. Soon after, those spontaneous demonstrations became well-planned and executed, and included marches at Trump Tower in Chicago and Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s weekend home in Florida.
The past months have seen immigrant strikes and women’s strikes to demonstrate what the country would be like without them. Even more demonstrations, marches, and rallies are planned for the future.
On April 15, a Tax March will take place on the Ellipse in Washington DC and in 60 other cities to protest the president’s refusal to release his taxes as promised. Protesters will also rally against what they consider the illegitimate and immoral use of their tax dollars to support big business and big military while poor elderly people and children suffer.
The March for Science will be held on Earth Day, April 22, in Washington and other cities across the country, in response to Trump’s widely known skepticism about climate change and his sympathy for the views of vaccine sceptics as well as his cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (a department he plans to “abolish,” according to an aide).
A “People’s Climate March” will be held a week later in Washington.
An “Immigrants March” is scheduled for May 6, and the LGBTQ community will hold a “Pride March” on June 11. And on a lighter note, a “Juggalos” march will be held on September 16 to protest the fact that the FBI has classified the band Insane Clown Posse as a gang. About 4,000 people are expected to attend the event on the mall in Washington -- and this is not an April Fool’s joke.
All of these demonstrations will probably be peaceful, non-violent events with the police in attendance to protect the demonstrators as much as to control them. Not so in other countries.
Last week tens of thousands of angry Russians took to the streets in cities across the country to protest against government corruption. The police responded to these “unsanctioned” demonstrations with barricades, tear gas, and mass arrests. Over 700 of the marchers in Moscow, including leader and organizer Alexei Navalny, were arrested and jailed.
Also last week, just hours after Beijing’s hand-picked, newly chosen chief executive Carrie Lam vowed to heal Hong Kong’s deep splits and “unite our society,” police swooped down to bring charges against leaders of the territory’s democracy protests of 2014. Eight alleged leaders of protest groups were told to report to their local police stations, where they would be arrested for violating public nuisance and incitement laws in rallies that took place two and a half years ago.
In other news, 2,000 years ago the city of Jerusalem was overcrowded with people celebrating the Passover when a protest demonstration was held just inside the city gate near the suburb of Bethany. In an obvious parody of the emperor, a local itinerant preacher and healer is said to have ridden a jackass into town, where he was greeted with shouts of “Hosanna” as though he was a conquering general. People were reportedly seen waving palm branches and throwing their cloaks on the road before the mock emperor.
The crowd dispersed before authorities could arrive, which is just as well since police were immediately called to respond to a near-riot at the Jewish temple in the center of town -- where an unidentified man was said to have attacked the money-changers in an attempt to drive them out of the temple.
Sources inside the temple guard said that “a certain Nazarene” had been identified as a person of interest in both incidents. A spokesperson for Roman governor Pontius Pilate would neither confirm nor deny the allegation.
In the Scriptures
Why Judea? Why Jerusalem?
Did Jesus always go to the capital city, the home of the temple and the center of all Judaism, for the celebration of Passover? Or was this his first and only time? The gospels do not agree.
Either way, this time it was an intentional decision with an intentional purpose.
Historian and theologian John Dominic Crossan says: “Jesus went to Jerusalem that one (or last) time because it was a capital city where religion and violence -- conservative religion and imperial oppression -- had become serenely complicit” (God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, p. 131).
The first demonstration was what we have come to call the “Triumphal Entry.” But it was triumphal only in the ironic sense that finds its expression in satire and parody.
Jesus knew that emperors, who often referred to themselves as saviors or messiahs, tended to enter conquered cities through walls destroyed in battle or through gates opened in surrender. Either way, they came riding in a war chariot or upon a war horse.
Jesus also knew that in about 400 BCE Alexander the Great had entered the conquered cities of Tyre and Gaza after bloody sieges, but Jerusalem surrendered and opened her gates to the conquering emperor.
The prophet Zechariah, writing out of his grief for the fallen capital, penned an oracle describing a new and different type of savior, a messiah that comes from God and enters the city with humility and peace and riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:1-10).
Jesus took those prophetic words as his inspiration when he staged his anti-triumphal demonstration, which mocked conventional thinking and offered a new type of triumph and a new type of king.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was no pious and sanctimonious affair. It was loud and raucous, it was irreverent and impertinent and even contemptuous. And it was dangerous. As with any demonstration, one of its purposes was to incite a reaction from the powers that be.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus leaves this demonstration and goes immediately to the next. Or maybe the mock parade ends up at the temple. Whichever it is, Jesus does not stop and think about things. He goes immediately to the money-changers and those who sell animals for temple sacrifice. These people would have been inside the outer wall, in the yard and on the portico surrounding the temple, in view of the public.
Running them out of the temple is a symbolic act, a staged event, a demonstration -- for it is not just the merchants and hangers-on that Jesus criticizes here. Listen to what he says. His verbal attack is drawn nearly word for word from the prophet Jeremiah, quoting Isaiah: “ ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”
The rich and privileged think they can go to the temple and worship according to the prescribed rituals and that will excuse their behavior the rest of the week. They can lie and cheat and steal and even plot murder with impunity because they go to church. They can do whatever they like, and then hide behind the rituals of proper worship.
But Jesus challenges all that. It is exactly that kind of thinking that has turned the temple into a den of thieves.
Crossan rightly points out that a “den” is not where robbers do their business of robbing but the place to which they flee so they can safely divide their ill-gotten gains. The collusion of official, traditional, conservative religion and violent, oppressive politics has turned the temple into a place where dishonest bullies gather to count the money they have stolen. It is a safe place for those who use their position and power to exploit the poor, the week, and the underserved.
And this collusion is the corruption which Jesus assails in this second demonstration.
It is the same behavior which Jeremiah preached against, preaching which nearly cost him is life 500 years earlier -- and it will, in a few days, cost Jesus his life.
In the Sermon
The Palm Sunday story is as contemporary as it is eternal, but only if we can separate it from the saccharine image that we have made of it in innocuous, uber-pious Sunday school lessons. This day can have power for us only when we are willing to see it as more than “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” being led by “gentle children, meek and mild.”
It is so much more than the harmless little pageant we re-enact each year when we walk self-consciously around the sanctuary waving limp palm branches and singing tepid hymns. Its impact is so much more powerful than agreeing to boycott a company that we probably aren’t going to patronize anyway.
These two demonstrations that Jesus deliberately undertook on that Sunday long ago were loud and raucous. They were offensive to those who benefited from the status quo. They challenged all who just assumed that this is the way it has always been.
And the really amazing thing is that, if we understand and apply these stories correctly, they still challenge us more than 2,000 years later. They call us out of our lackadaisical submission to the status quo. They seize us by the lapels and shake us and demand our attention and our action.
Educator, author, and activist Tom Head offers five reasons why protest demonstrations and events are not a waste of time:
1. Protest events increase the visibility of the cause. Policy decisions can’t be treated as abstractions when real people are standing out in the cold or heat to bring them to the public’s attention.
2. Protest events demonstrate power. Large, loud groups of people simply can’t be ignored, and neither can small groups of loud people.
3. Protest events promote a sense of solidarity. Protests make the cause feel more real to participants, and as we become more emotionally engaged in an issue it becomes even more important to remain intellectually honest about it.
4. Protest events build activist relationships. Protest events give activists a chance to meet, network, swap ideas, and build community. Most activist organizations, in fact, got their start with protest events that united and networked their founders.
5. Protest events energize participants. Good protest events have an almost religious effect on people, charging their batteries and inspiring them to get up and fight again another day.
Two thousand years ago Jesus applied these very contemporary insights to his demonstration against the unholy marriage of conservative religion and political/military oppression, a marriage which still today must not be tolerated or accepted, especially by any people who consider themselves the People of God and the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
To do so for even a moment would mean the destruction of our nation and the obliteration of our religion. So from time to time it is to the streets we must go, as Jesus did, to call for change in our church, in our government, in our world, and in ourselves.
Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered, and Betrayed
by Chris Keating
Matthew 26:14--27:66
Betrayal seems to be flying off the shelves these days. Loyalty to the tried and true comes at a cost, and lately betrayal seems to be a hot seller -- in everything from football to national security secrets.
Just ask the fans of the Oakland Raiders. Correction: make that the Las Vegas Raiders. Or ask (the former) St. Louis Rams or San Diego Chargers fans.
“Buh-bye” is often translated “buy-buy.”
Raiders fans feel betrayed by their teams trading away loyalty for the promise of a “world-class” stadium in Las Vegas. Yet that’s just sports, it’s not personal. Thankfully, our political leaders don’t act like greedy NFL owners.
Oops.
In Washington, where there are more leaks than a season of This Old House, it seems plenty of folks are willing to trade on their loyalties. The cost of betrayal is more than the 30 silver coins Judas extracted from the high priests, however. For some it is promises of immunity, while others could be hedging their bets on their political futures.
Even President Donald Trump, who wrote the book on negotiating, learned a huge lesson about loyalty in the wake of the failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The president, who had invested serious political capital in repealing Obamacare, tried to shrug off the cost of defeat as a learning experience.
But the cost of politics as usual was steep, leaving the fledgling administration feeling betrayed by members of their own party. To paraphrase an old Rodgers and Hart song, no doubt they felt bewitched, bothered, bewildered, and betrayed.
Betrayal is at the heart of the gospel’s passion narrative. Judas trades away his loyalty to Jesus before the oil on Jesus’ hair had a chance to dry. Judas cut his deal early, but as the week unfolds it will become apparent that all the others were willing to fall away as well.
Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered are they -- but also betrayers. In contrast, Jesus will pay an even higher price as he pours out forgiveness and demonstrates the true cost of loyalty.
In the News
NFL owners are obviously willing to try their luck in Las Vegas. They’ve placed their bets that owner Mark Davis’ Raiders will flourish in a town better known for casinos, showgirls, and mega-buffets. It’s a gamble not popular with Oakland’s deep fan base, but one that will certainly mean a jackpot of winnings for the league’s fantastically wealthy owners.
Davis’ betrayal of his hometown fans means big bucks for other owners. Each team will share in any earnings generated at Las Vegas’ proposed dome stadium, in addition to splitting a relocation fee of nearly $400 million.
But that’s just the starting lineup. A glittering Vegas stadium will be a likely candidate to host a Super Bowl, and will add to the massive entertainment offerings in the desert city. Additionally, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will benefit. One of Jones’ companies has secured the marketing and hospitality contracts for the new stadium, just as it did for the Rams’ new home in Los Angeles. No wonder Jones is smiling -- he stands to win no matter how well the Raiders play.
It’s another example of how owners can stick it to their fan base.
Not long after the announcement was made, Davis made his way through the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. He soon ran into Godfather Griz Jones, a diehard Oakland fan and leader of Forever Oakland, a fan group. Davis told Jones he’d like to have a conversation about the team’s future.
“There is no future,” Jones said, rebuffing Davis’ outstretched hand.
As the Raiders close out their storied history in Oakland, the town will face the additional burden of being stiffed with continuing to pay for $100 million worth of stadium improvements they used in 1995 to lure the team away from Los Angeles.
It’s another example of how the bewildering game of loyalty and betrayal is played. For much of the world, both loyalty and betrayal can be bought and sold and can command exorbitant prices. That’s pretty plain in the bravado and swagger of an NFL owners meeting, and it is even more evident in the halls of government. It’s a whole different league in Washington, where the deals and stakes are even higher.
When the Republican attempt at repealing and replacing Obamacare failed, President Trump said it had taught his fledgling administration a lesson in loyalty. It’s a remarkable statement, especially coming from someone who exacts loyalty at any price.
But the defeat of the healthcare legislation revealed a fracture in the president’s assumption that he could demand loyalty from Congress. Faced with a barrage of political pressures from within his own party, Trump’s insistence at replacing the Affordable Care Act quickly withered. “We all learned a lot,” said Trump. “We learned a lot about loyalty.” Clearly, he was bothered by Congress’ notions of loyalty.
Trump’s fierce outsider approach to corralling Washington dealmakers didn’t work on his first major legislative effort. As Republican support weakened, it became apparent that Congress would return to conducting business as usual. In other words, loyalty, even to one’s one political party, may cost a lot more than a stay at a swanky Trump hotel.
Trump may also be learning that enacting policies and legislation, like relocating football teams, often feels like bewildering betrayal to fans. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been interviewing Trump loyalists in Oklahoma who are finding that many federal programs they have relied on for years may be cut to provide money for building a border wall or increasing funds for defense.
Many are upset by proposed cuts, Kristof notes, though few have actually changed their opinion of the president: “Some of the loyalty seemed to be grounded in resentment at Democrats for mocking Trump voters as dumb bigots, some from a belief that budgets are complicated, and some from a sense that it’s too early to abandon their man. They did say that if jobs didn’t reappear, they would turn against him.”
As an executive, the president is known for demanding loyalty among aides, a policy that is making it difficult to hire staff for several cabinet secretaries. In one case, a pick by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for a senior legal advisor was nixed by Trump aides who noticed the lawyer had shared tweets that were critical of the president. The irony is that as a businessman Trump often insisted on loyalty, but often did not reciprocate.
Last summer, Politico journalist Michael Kruse noted that while Trump had branded himself as a decisive executive, the reality is that he is often a mix between a “micromanaging meddler and can’t-be-bothered, broad-brush, big-picture thinker.” Kruse cited former Trump staff members as describing Trump as:
...both impulsive and intuitive, for better and for worse. He hires on gut instinct rather than qualifications; he listens to others, but not as much or as often as he listens to himself. He’s loyal -- “like, this great loyalty freak,” as he once put it -- except when he’s not.
His unpredictability in the boardroom is not a quirk but a hallmark, according to those who’ve worked with him for years. He is on the job around the clock, and expects those on his payroll to be the same way, but also resists a rigid schedule -- he is, in other words, an unstructured workaholic. The way he manages his people and properties, too, is a reflection of his abiding conviction in the value of unfettered competition -- between his own staffers, between himself and his staffers and vendors and contractors, and ultimately between himself and the rest of the world.
According to Kruse, Trump built loyalty in his company by hiring inexperienced persons and giving them terrific opportunities. Trump company employees were motivated by a mix of praise, fear, money, and titles. He’d come up with ideas, and expect staff to turn them into realities. Demands and loyalty went hand-in-hand, with a notable exception. Loyalty to vendors and contractors was often non-existent.
It seems that loyalty is more costly than betrayal.
One former Trump company executive said these were the loyalty lessons he had learned from Trump: never make people your heroes because you’ll always be disappointed, and always be concerned about yourself because you can’t count on the loyalty of others. Even though the former executive had been sued by Trump for violating a non-disclosure agreement, he insisted that Trump would make a good president.
“This is Donald just being Donald,” he said. “Welcome to Trump world.”
In the Scriptures
Jesus, as he passes under the “Welcome to Jerusalem” sign, soon confronts the bewildering forces of loyalty and betrayal. The texts begin with the reminder that everyone has their price, though they conclude with Bonhoeffer’s critical observation that only a crucified Christ can save. Jesus’ pathway through Palm Sunday to Golgotha is a reminder that God subverts the usual notions of loyalty, grace, and betrayal.
Judas makes his move at the beginning of the Passion Sunday gospel reading. While much of the text focuses on Jesus’ instructions regarding the Passover meal he will share the disciples, Matthew provides a fitting prelude to the passion at 26:14-16. Judas, perhaps the most complex figure in the entire New Testament, has fixed in his mind a plan to betray (literally, “hand over”) Jesus. Judas’ motives are unclear, and have often led to Christians expressing anger against the “Jews” and other unchecked expressions of anti-Semitism.
Suggestions that Judas is in it for money seem exaggerated, especially since the sum of 30 pieces of silver was not much, representing the required payment for injuring a slave (see Exodus 21:32). Commentators point out that the chief priests and leaders had sufficient grounds to arrest Jesus without Judas’ betrayal.
What emerges, however, is the contrast between the extravagance of the unnamed woman in Bethany who anointed Jesus (26:6-13) and Judas’ greedy unfaithfulness. For Judas, betrayal has a price, even if it is not much. The unnamed woman, who is not counted as “one of the twelve,” pours out her gift in lavish abundance. While the priests keep their plans secret, the woman who anoints Jesus becomes an instrument of witness to the world.
Thus the contrast: grace which is expensive and lavish, is poured out in love. Betrayal of one’s loyalty is sold for a measly 30 pieces of silver.
The contrasts continue in the meal Jesus shares with his disciples. It is an intimate setting, and clearly identified as a Passover seder. The twelve, including Judas, are gathered. As they share in the table fellowship recalling God’s gift of liberation, Jesus tells them he knows that one will betray him. If deserting Jesus is equivalent to betraying him, then in truth each of the disciples is culpable. Yet only Judas will “hand him over.”
But before that happens, Jesus offers to each the bread and the cup. He shares these as signs of a new covenant, a sign of God’s forgiveness. Judas has betrayed Jesus, but like the others he is included in this meal of grace.
The meal, as Anna Case-Winters discusses in her commentary (Matthew [Westminster/John Knox], 2015), is a gathering for sinners. Matthew places the story between Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. “Here we are reminded,” writes Case-Winters, “that we are all deniers/betrayers/deserters. Yet God’s grace is extended to us nevertheless. At this table we share not only bread and wine but also forgiveness.”
The distinction is key. The twelve, hand-picked by Jesus, will quickly fail in their mission. They have a price attached to their loyalty, in greater or lesser degrees. But Jesus does not; his loyalty remains even as he is handed over to die.
In the Sermon
Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday offers a teaser of the week that is to come. As the cheering crowds depart, as the palm branches dry up in the street, acts of betrayal are afoot. This day is so much more than an Easter warmup. The liturgical richness of the day invites our congregations to find themselves in the midst of the bewildering confusion of betrayal.
The lengthy readings are hard to parse, but there are ways of structuring the service and liturgy so that the congregation can move from the moments of joyful adulation (Hosanna!) to desperate betrayal. The sermon in particular could faithfully explore the shifting loyalties in Jerusalem. Note how the crowd moves from adoration to accusation. The architects of Jesus’ death stir them into a frenzy, whipping them into a furor where loyalties are easily forgotten and betrayal comes cheap.
Compare Judas’ betrayal with the betrayals we encounter: promises that are broken, relationships that are betrayed, confidences that are not held, friendships torn apart. Think of church members who have felt betrayed and isolated. How can our participation in the meal of Christ point us toward acts of reconciliation?
Note, too, the way Judas moves in and out of these narratives. The church’s tendency to denigrate Judas into a symbol of anti-Semitism is unfortunate -- and lacking in biblical support. Jesus identifies the betrayer as the one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with him (26:23). The point is that each of them has shared in the meal, and all are offered forgiveness. While Judas’ protesting is different (others have said “Surely not I, Lord,” while he changes to the less familiar “Rabbi”), each of the twelve will be scattered.
Jesus embodies a different sort of loyalty. His love poured out in the cup and broken in the love represents God’s continuing commitment that shall not be broken. It is not broken by the cross, nor shattered by the tomb. Jesus’ unending love is different from ever-moving human loyalties.
The week ahead is bewildering. We are bothered by our own acts of betrayal and lack of loyalty. Sure, we will lift our palm branches high and shout our “Hosannas!” But come Friday, we may well find ourselves bewitched, bothered, bewildered -- and even betrayed.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Loyalty in the Face of Danger
When being in Jesus’ presence becomes dangerous, his disciples struggle with staying loyal to him. Carl Wilkens faced a similar quandary when he lived in Rwanda during the years of the genocide. Wilkens’ wife and three children were airlifted out of the country with other Americans, and Wilkens made the hard choice to stay behind. When American citizens were evacuated, U.S. diplomat Laura Lane describes the struggle to get every American citizen out alive. She remembers: “I was the political security officer at the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, and I remember calling all the Americans and saying here’s your evacuation point ? here’s where you need to go, and I remember making the call to Carl and he said, ‘Laura, there’s people here, they’re depending on me. I can’t go.’ ”
Carl recalls: “You know, right there in front of me was our house-girl who’s a Tutsi. Worked for us for several years. I knew as soon as we left she would be slaughtered. There was a young man who was our night watchman. A Tutsi. He’d be slaughtered. And there was no way convoys were letting anyone take Rwandans with them. And at the time my family was evacuating we lived on a dirt road, and I watched my family drive away down the road. I walked back up to the gate. Closed it and locked it, but as I went back up there and knelt down on the floor with our house-girl and night watchman, and we prayed for the safety of my family, it was a pretty empty feeling.”
He hid some of his neighbors in his home, which added to his danger. Carl explains: “People in the neighborhood knew we had Tutsis in house. They’d seen them and threatened us. ‘Next time your white man comes out we’re going to kill him. We know he’s keeping people there.’ For three weeks we didn’t leave our house.”
Almost three weeks after the genocide began, Carl Wilkens was able to leave his house. “Finally the government said, ‘Heads of organizations can leave their houses, come to government headquarters, and get a permit to travel around the city.’ From that point on, we moved about the city finding food, water, and meds for the orphans.”
Damas Gisimba ran an orphanage which had become a place of refuge for adults also. “This American showed up at the orphanage,” says Gisimba. “He said he was just stopping by to see if anyone here needed help. I told him what we needed most was water. Carl Wilkens promised to come back the next day with water and anything else he could get his hands on. I kept wondering, ‘How will this stranger get past so many checkpoints?’ And besides the checkpoints, there were bullets flying everywhere.” Carl surprised Damas.
“Carl came back the next day with water and lots of goodies. And the next day, and the next day. There were some days he could not reach us because the militia blocked him or let the air out of his tires, but Carl kept his promise. He was fearless.”
Loyalty in a time of danger is a rare and precious gift.
*****
The Staff that Wouldn’t Leave
When the assisted living facility Valley Springs Manor closed abruptly, the management company stopped paying the staff, and most of them -- understandably -- left. Maurice Rowland and Miguel Alvarez decided they needed to stay with the elderly residents, even without being paid. About 16 residents were left behind, and Rowland, a cook, and Alvarez, a janitor, found themselves passing out medication, giving baths, and making meals. For three days they did everything that needed to be done at the facility.
Rowland said: “[W]e had like people that had dementia. I just couldn’t see myself going home. Next thing you know, they’re in the kitchen trying to cook their own food and burn the place down, you know what I mean?... Even though they wasn’t our family, they were kind of like our family for the short period of time.”
Alvarez said his own experience prompted him to make the choice he did. “I will only go home for one hour, take a shower, get dressed, then be there for 24-hour days.... You know, you feel sad but you don’t want to show them you’re feeling like that, you know? My parents, when they was younger, they left me abandoned. And knowing how they going to feel, I didn’t want them to go through that.”
When everyone else, including the management company, abandoned the residents, these two employees showed a great deal of loyalty and care, the kind that Jesus asks of all of us.
*****
Betrayed -- and Redeemed
On a trip to the circus when she was eight, Courtney Seiberling was chosen, out of all the kids there in the huge tent, to pet a unicorn. She remembers: “As I walked towards the magical beast, I knew I was looking into eyes that knew all the answers of the universe.... White dust began flaking off onto my hand, and I wondered what kind of powers I might absorb as the music started up again. The sparkly assistant took my hand, and we began a procession behind the unicorn, circling the arena that had a sweet-hooved aroma. I searched the crowd for my mom’s purple sweater and found her and my dad in it. I could tell they were proud. After the parade, the ringmaster handed me a certificate, and the audience clapped. I waved a final wave, and my dad came down to the rim of the audience to snap a photograph.”
The next week, she shared the story for show-and-tell. “I waited to go last, until all my classmates had shared their new toys or lost teeth. When it was my turn, I walked to the front of the classroom wearing my pink Barnum & Bailey t-shirt and prepared for the rounds of applause that would surely follow. I framed myself between the chalkboard and hamster cage, delicately holding the ivory parchment paper so I wouldn’t wrinkle it. My classmates quieted and looked to me. I was serious, and they knew I had something special to share. ‘Okay, Courtney, go ahead,’ Mrs. Hughes prompted. She was old and curt and probably had no business being an elementary school teacher. Allowing a delicious pause to permeate until it created the dramatic effect desired, I announced loud and clear: ‘I got chosen to pet a unicorn.’
“ ‘Oh honey, that wasn’t a unicorn,’ Mrs. Hughes sneered. ‘That was just a goat with a horn glued on its head.’ My heart plummeted to my stomach like a failed paper plane. I was mortified. Confused. It couldn’t be, I thought. I’d felt Lancelot with my own hands. Seen his horn with my eyes! I took a good look at our teacher’s face and contemplated what she just said. Bonding a horn to something that already existed did seem more probable than capturing a legendary creature. Standing up in front of all my classmates, I realized I’d been duped. The bell rang, and I stuffed the certificate into my backpack. I ran home and changed my shirt, swearing I’d never wear it again, and then cried and beat my fists into the soggy bed. I buried the certificate in a drawer and left it there for all of eternity.”
Before she went to college Courtney’s father died, and life lost its color for her. It took a long time to remember that there was still grace in the universe. “We put my father in the ground on the top of a hill by a tree overlooking other hills and trees. It’s a special place with a sky 20 times as high as that circus tent, and I’d visit his grave whenever I needed to feel him. By November, the dirt had hardened. Snow was starting to fall outside the windows of my high school, and people had stopped asking me how I was. This is the unfair part of mourning. Of course, the death itself is unfair, but just as I was beginning to grieve, everyone else was back to talking about normal things. There were no longer fresh-cut flowers delivered or ready-made casseroles in the fridge, just a lot of empty space that my father used to fill.”
Finally, as she remembered her dad, “something started to happen. My dad came to me. Instead of in the stiff earth, he appeared in a Neil Young song on the radio. Rather than beneath a glossed stone, he showed up in the way I preferred my coffee. Today, he’s often a nudge of encouragement for everything that is possible or a reminder of all that isn’t. Things end. But something else always begins. There’s a magic to it all.”
The disciples, and the crowds, betray Jesus, but redemption awaits -- for them, and all of us.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Psalm 31:9-16
Harrison Ford is known to collect and fly vintage airplanes. On February 13, he was involved in a near-miss collision at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. He said he was distracted by the turbulence from another plane when he mistakenly landed on a taxiway instead of Runway 20L. In his landing approach, he flew over an American Airlines plane, with 116 people on board, that was on the taxiway. The radio transcripts of the incident have just been released. Upon landing Ford called the air traffic controller and said, “I’m the schmuck who landed on the taxiway.”
Application: We are taught in Psalm 31 that life can have many problems.
*****
Philippians 2:5-11
In a Born Loser comic strip, Rancid Veeblefester and Brutus Thornapple are standing at the office water cooler. Veeblefester, the president of the company, is known for bragging about his wealth, while Thornapple, an employee, is known as the born loser. Veeblefester says to Thornapple, “I love my new wine cellar! I don’t know what I would do without it!” Then he says, “How about you, Thornapple -- do you have a wine cellar?” With great pride Thornapple says, “I have a beer basement!” The look on Veeblefester’s face clearly shows that Brutus did not understand the social and economic gulf that separates the two of them.
Application: Our lesson from Philippians teaches us about equality.
*****
Philippians 2:5-11
In a Beetle Bailey comic strip, Beetle and “Killer” Diller are watching Miss Buxley walk by. Miss Buxley is known to be an extremely attractive woman who all the soldiers at Camp Swampy chase after. Killer is known as a ladies’ man, and of course Beetle is the perpetual goof-off. Killer asks Beetle if he ever thought about marrying Miss Buxley, and Beetle of course answers “yes.” Then Killer says, “Would you really marry a girl who would marry someone like you?”
Application: Our lesson from Philippians teaches us about equality.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In a B.C. comic strip, the character B.C approaches an attractive cavewoman. He is representing a group of men who want to know what she looks for in a man. She replies, “Someone who isn’t constantly thinking about sports.” B.C returns to the group and reports, “Impossibly high standards.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
Ballerina Misty Copeland has just published a book titled Ballerina Body. In her book, she takes issue with the idea that many people think dancers are not athletes. In response to this accusation, she writes: “We work just as hard as athletes, if not harder, because we are also actresses and actors onstage. We are not competing to win, but we’re competing to be ourselves, our best selves.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In Misty Copeland’s recent book Ballerina Body, she answers many of the false impressions that people have of dancers. One false impression is that all dancers suffer from an eating disorder. This is not the case, Copeland contends, as she often eats a box of Krispy Kremes like others do. It is just that she focuses on the disciple of being observant and disciplined over the long haul. She writes: “The mental discipline is so much a part of it, feeling strong, feeling in control.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In a Frank & Ernest comic, a caveman is relaxing in a lounge chair with a big smile of contentment on his face. Behind him are a number of items, including a wheel, a spear, and a plow. His wife says to a friend: “Then he invented the easy chair and that was the end of his inventions.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
The Trump Institute was an educational seminar offered by Donald Trump to share with enrollees his secrets of real estate success. The seminar cost $1,997.94 to attend. It was discovered that most of the material presented at the seminar was plagiarized. In the seminar handbook that Trump published in 2006, at least 20 pages were lifted verbatim from a book published in 1995 by Success magazine called The Real Estate Mastery System. The seminar’s handbook never attributed the information to the original source.
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the understanding of what is truth.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In a recent article, the New York Times’ Christopher Mele offered suggestions to those individuals who wish to disappear from social media. Mele cautions that it is not really possible since most people have been on social media for much longer than they realize. Also, many sites retain an inactive file of your information. Mele writes, “In the long run, removing 100 percent of references to yourself from social media is highly improbable.”
Application: In Matthew’s gospel, we read of a number of individuals who would like to erase their actions during Holy Week.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
The former president of Penn State, Graham Spanier, was recently convicted for failing to stop the child abuse perpetrated by the university’s former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Though Spanier maintained his innocence, an e-mail he sent in 2001 revealed that he was very aware of what was taking place in the shower room at the university. Spanier decided to confront Sandusky directly, rather than report the incidents to the police. In the correspondence regarding his participation in the cover-up, Spanier wrote: “The only downside for us is if the message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we become vulnerable for not having reported it.”
Application: In Matthew’s gospel, we read of a number of individuals who acted irresponsibly.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give thanks to God who is good.
People: Give thanks for God’s faithful love.
Leader: God’s faithful love lasts forever.
People: God has shined a light on us.
Leader: This is the day that God has acted!
People: We will be glad and rejoice in it.
OR
Leader: Come and celebrate Jesus the Messiah!
People: We bring our palm branches and cry “Hosanna!”
Leader: Jesus comes among us to redeem all creation.
People: We will join him in this work and mission.
Leader: The darkness is deep and the way is rough.
People: We will follow, knowing that the light will come.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Glory, Laud, and Honor”
found in:
UMH: 280
H82: 154, 155
PH: 88
AAHH: 226
NNBH: 102
NCH: 216, 217
CH: 192
LBW: 108
ELA: 344
W&P: 265
AMEC: 129
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“What Does the Lord Require?”
found in:
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
“Be Thou My Vision”
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
“Lord, Speak to Me”
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 531
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“Lonely the Boat”
found in:
UMH: 476
PH: 373
“Majesty”
found in:
CCB: 37
Renew: 63
“Sing unto the Lord a New Song”
found in:
CCB: 16
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to redeem all of your creation: Grant us the courage to face all evil with your love so that your reign may fully come among us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, as you come to redeem all of your creation. You made us to be in communion with yourself, and you do not rest until you have accomplished this work. Inspire us to fully engage in your works of reconciliation so that all creation may sing your praises together. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially trying to keep our faith out of our everyday lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We love to be Jesus’ followers, especially on these festive days -- but we are not so ready to follow during the week. Things are neatly packaged for us on Sunday, but being disciples gets messy in our everyday lives. We are fine when the crowds are with us, but we hesitate to act or speak when we think they will disapprove. Forgive us our cowardly ways, and so fill us with your Spirit that we will step boldly into the fray as Jesus did. Amen.
Leader: God is constantly working to save us all. Rejoice in God’s redeeming love, and open your hearts to God’s Spirit.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
All glory is yours, O God, for you are both the creator and the redeemer of all creation.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We love to be Jesus’ followers, especially on these festive days -- but we are not so ready to follow during the week. Things are neatly packaged for us on Sunday, but being disciples gets messy in our everyday lives. We are fine when the crowds are with us, but we hesitate to act or speak when we think they will disapprove. Forgive us our cowardly ways, and so fill us with your Spirit that we will step boldly into the fray as Jesus did.
We give you thanks for your redeeming love that comes to take us from the darkness of death so we might live in the eternal light of your life. We thank you for those who have shared your love and grace with us throughout our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of us in our need for redemption. We are all still infected with the sickness of sin. Help us who have seen the promise of your redemption to share it with others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
What if your parents told you that you could only sleep on half of your bed or wear only one of your shoes? That would be silly. Some people think they can be Jesus’ disciples only part of the time, like when they are in church. But Jesus wants us to be his disciples all the time -- at church, at home, at school, everywhere... even when being his disciple means being nice to people who aren’t nice to us.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Fit for a King
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 21:1-11
Of course, today is Palm Sunday! You only need to look around the sanctuary and see the palms decorating this space. I’d like you to help me to retell the story of Palm Sunday. I’m going to begin the Bible story by saying one line. Then I’ll leave it to you to say one of two things:
1) You can say “And then...” and add a detail to the Bible story.
2) You can say “Before that...” and add a detail to the story.
Let’s give it a try. I’ll begin to tell the Bible story:
“Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. Jesus sent two disciples ahead of him to get a donkey for him to ride on.”
Do I have a volunteer who wants to add to our story?
(Prompt a volunteer, saying) Start off by saying “And then...” and add a detail. What happened next as Jesus and his friends prepared for their palm parade?
(Encourage children to tell the general outline of the Palm Sunday story, as it roughly follows what is contained in Matthew 21:1-11. Children may add other details from other gospel versions. This is okay!)
(Details to include:)
And then... They found a donkey and a colt (foal).
And then... They brought the donkey and colt to Jesus.
And then... They put cloaks on the donkey and colt.
And then... Jesus sat on the cloaks.
And then... People cut branches from trees and spread them on the road.
And then... Crowds went in front of Jesus and behind him.
And then... Crowds/People shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
And then... Crowds/People shouted “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And then... Crowds/People shouted “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
And then... Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.
And then... Everything in Jerusalem was confused and chaotic.
And then... People who saw it asked “Who is this?”
And then... The crowds said “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
(Feel free to give hints to the children as they retell the details of the familiar Bible story.)
Think with me for a minute... Jesus was their King! Does this sound like the way you would treat a king?
What made this seem like Jesus was their king? (Allow children an opportunity to respond.)
What do you think a king would ride on? (Allow children an opportunity to respond.)
How do you think the crowds would act as King Jesus passed by? (Allow children an opportunity to respond.)
You and I might see a king riding in a car or an SUV. Jesus didn’t enter Jerusalem in a fancy car, with lots of bodyguards around him. Jesus was a different kind of king. He’s a king that walks (or rides) with the people. They laid down coats and branches for him -- this shows that they thought that Jesus was pretty special. But he was with them, with the people, riding along as they walked along into the city of Jerusalem.
As we move past Palm Sunday and get closer to Easter this week, I’d like you to think about Jesus. Think about what he was doing as he prepared for his crucifixion. Think about his walking along with the people, knowing exactly what was going to happen to him. Think about how exciting it is to celebrate his resurrection and to know that he walks with us even today.
Prayer: King Jesus, we celebrate you today by waving palms and telling your story, for you are our friend and our king. Walk with us this week as we look ahead toward Easter and your great resurrection. Help us to think about you as the week unfolds. We turn to God with our prayers. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 9, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
For the passion narrative, team member Chris Keating considers the twin themes of loyalty and betrayal at the heart of the story. The disciples pledge their loyalty to Jesus at the Last Supper -- and yet as events unfold Judas is not the only one to betray Jesus... even Peter denies his connection to Jesus three times. As Chris observes, loyalty is something that’s often expected yet easily ignored in our society -- whether it’s sports fandom or the party discipline demanded of politicians. Yet as we all know, that loyalty is easily betrayed when the powers that be find it expedient. In our world, superiors demand loyalty from their underlings -- yet that loyalty is rarely reciprocated. And like the disciples, we too find it all too easy to betray our Savior. But as Chris points out, our frail loyalty stands in contrast to the complete devotion Jesus offers to us... even to the point of dying on a cross.
Demonstrations, Marches, and Rallies
by Dean Feldmeyer
Matthew 21:1-11 (12-17)
It is crucially important, especially in the light of ancient and enduring Christian anti-Judaism, to be quite clear that this [Palm Sunday] double demonstration was not against Judaism as such, not against Jerusalem as such, not against the Temple as such, and not against the high priesthood as such. It was a protest from the legal and prophetic heart of Judaism against Jewish religious cooperation with Roman imperial control. It was, at least for Christian followers of Jesus, then and now, a permanently valid protest demonstration against any capital city’s collusion between conservative religion and imperial violence at any time and in any place.
-- John Dominic Crossan, God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now (HarperOne, 2008), p. 132
In the News
For those of us who came of age during the Vietnam War, it’s (in the words of the famous Yankees catcher and malapropist Yogi Berra) “deja vu all over again.”
People have taken to the streets in marches, rallies, and demonstrations to air their grievances against or support of, well, just about anything and everything.
Within hours of the presidential inauguration, more than half a million women gathered in Washington DC and another 2 million turned out in 670 cities around the world to protest President Donald Trump’s self-described treatment of women.
In late January and early February, spontaneous demonstrations broke out at airports across the country when American citizens turned out to aid and assist refugees and immigrants who were being held as a result of Trump’s executive action disallowing, delaying, and in some cases banning altogether immigrations from six Muslim majority countries. Soon after, those spontaneous demonstrations became well-planned and executed, and included marches at Trump Tower in Chicago and Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s weekend home in Florida.
The past months have seen immigrant strikes and women’s strikes to demonstrate what the country would be like without them. Even more demonstrations, marches, and rallies are planned for the future.
On April 15, a Tax March will take place on the Ellipse in Washington DC and in 60 other cities to protest the president’s refusal to release his taxes as promised. Protesters will also rally against what they consider the illegitimate and immoral use of their tax dollars to support big business and big military while poor elderly people and children suffer.
The March for Science will be held on Earth Day, April 22, in Washington and other cities across the country, in response to Trump’s widely known skepticism about climate change and his sympathy for the views of vaccine sceptics as well as his cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (a department he plans to “abolish,” according to an aide).
A “People’s Climate March” will be held a week later in Washington.
An “Immigrants March” is scheduled for May 6, and the LGBTQ community will hold a “Pride March” on June 11. And on a lighter note, a “Juggalos” march will be held on September 16 to protest the fact that the FBI has classified the band Insane Clown Posse as a gang. About 4,000 people are expected to attend the event on the mall in Washington -- and this is not an April Fool’s joke.
All of these demonstrations will probably be peaceful, non-violent events with the police in attendance to protect the demonstrators as much as to control them. Not so in other countries.
Last week tens of thousands of angry Russians took to the streets in cities across the country to protest against government corruption. The police responded to these “unsanctioned” demonstrations with barricades, tear gas, and mass arrests. Over 700 of the marchers in Moscow, including leader and organizer Alexei Navalny, were arrested and jailed.
Also last week, just hours after Beijing’s hand-picked, newly chosen chief executive Carrie Lam vowed to heal Hong Kong’s deep splits and “unite our society,” police swooped down to bring charges against leaders of the territory’s democracy protests of 2014. Eight alleged leaders of protest groups were told to report to their local police stations, where they would be arrested for violating public nuisance and incitement laws in rallies that took place two and a half years ago.
In other news, 2,000 years ago the city of Jerusalem was overcrowded with people celebrating the Passover when a protest demonstration was held just inside the city gate near the suburb of Bethany. In an obvious parody of the emperor, a local itinerant preacher and healer is said to have ridden a jackass into town, where he was greeted with shouts of “Hosanna” as though he was a conquering general. People were reportedly seen waving palm branches and throwing their cloaks on the road before the mock emperor.
The crowd dispersed before authorities could arrive, which is just as well since police were immediately called to respond to a near-riot at the Jewish temple in the center of town -- where an unidentified man was said to have attacked the money-changers in an attempt to drive them out of the temple.
Sources inside the temple guard said that “a certain Nazarene” had been identified as a person of interest in both incidents. A spokesperson for Roman governor Pontius Pilate would neither confirm nor deny the allegation.
In the Scriptures
Why Judea? Why Jerusalem?
Did Jesus always go to the capital city, the home of the temple and the center of all Judaism, for the celebration of Passover? Or was this his first and only time? The gospels do not agree.
Either way, this time it was an intentional decision with an intentional purpose.
Historian and theologian John Dominic Crossan says: “Jesus went to Jerusalem that one (or last) time because it was a capital city where religion and violence -- conservative religion and imperial oppression -- had become serenely complicit” (God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, p. 131).
The first demonstration was what we have come to call the “Triumphal Entry.” But it was triumphal only in the ironic sense that finds its expression in satire and parody.
Jesus knew that emperors, who often referred to themselves as saviors or messiahs, tended to enter conquered cities through walls destroyed in battle or through gates opened in surrender. Either way, they came riding in a war chariot or upon a war horse.
Jesus also knew that in about 400 BCE Alexander the Great had entered the conquered cities of Tyre and Gaza after bloody sieges, but Jerusalem surrendered and opened her gates to the conquering emperor.
The prophet Zechariah, writing out of his grief for the fallen capital, penned an oracle describing a new and different type of savior, a messiah that comes from God and enters the city with humility and peace and riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:1-10).
Jesus took those prophetic words as his inspiration when he staged his anti-triumphal demonstration, which mocked conventional thinking and offered a new type of triumph and a new type of king.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was no pious and sanctimonious affair. It was loud and raucous, it was irreverent and impertinent and even contemptuous. And it was dangerous. As with any demonstration, one of its purposes was to incite a reaction from the powers that be.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus leaves this demonstration and goes immediately to the next. Or maybe the mock parade ends up at the temple. Whichever it is, Jesus does not stop and think about things. He goes immediately to the money-changers and those who sell animals for temple sacrifice. These people would have been inside the outer wall, in the yard and on the portico surrounding the temple, in view of the public.
Running them out of the temple is a symbolic act, a staged event, a demonstration -- for it is not just the merchants and hangers-on that Jesus criticizes here. Listen to what he says. His verbal attack is drawn nearly word for word from the prophet Jeremiah, quoting Isaiah: “ ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”
The rich and privileged think they can go to the temple and worship according to the prescribed rituals and that will excuse their behavior the rest of the week. They can lie and cheat and steal and even plot murder with impunity because they go to church. They can do whatever they like, and then hide behind the rituals of proper worship.
But Jesus challenges all that. It is exactly that kind of thinking that has turned the temple into a den of thieves.
Crossan rightly points out that a “den” is not where robbers do their business of robbing but the place to which they flee so they can safely divide their ill-gotten gains. The collusion of official, traditional, conservative religion and violent, oppressive politics has turned the temple into a place where dishonest bullies gather to count the money they have stolen. It is a safe place for those who use their position and power to exploit the poor, the week, and the underserved.
And this collusion is the corruption which Jesus assails in this second demonstration.
It is the same behavior which Jeremiah preached against, preaching which nearly cost him is life 500 years earlier -- and it will, in a few days, cost Jesus his life.
In the Sermon
The Palm Sunday story is as contemporary as it is eternal, but only if we can separate it from the saccharine image that we have made of it in innocuous, uber-pious Sunday school lessons. This day can have power for us only when we are willing to see it as more than “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” being led by “gentle children, meek and mild.”
It is so much more than the harmless little pageant we re-enact each year when we walk self-consciously around the sanctuary waving limp palm branches and singing tepid hymns. Its impact is so much more powerful than agreeing to boycott a company that we probably aren’t going to patronize anyway.
These two demonstrations that Jesus deliberately undertook on that Sunday long ago were loud and raucous. They were offensive to those who benefited from the status quo. They challenged all who just assumed that this is the way it has always been.
And the really amazing thing is that, if we understand and apply these stories correctly, they still challenge us more than 2,000 years later. They call us out of our lackadaisical submission to the status quo. They seize us by the lapels and shake us and demand our attention and our action.
Educator, author, and activist Tom Head offers five reasons why protest demonstrations and events are not a waste of time:
1. Protest events increase the visibility of the cause. Policy decisions can’t be treated as abstractions when real people are standing out in the cold or heat to bring them to the public’s attention.
2. Protest events demonstrate power. Large, loud groups of people simply can’t be ignored, and neither can small groups of loud people.
3. Protest events promote a sense of solidarity. Protests make the cause feel more real to participants, and as we become more emotionally engaged in an issue it becomes even more important to remain intellectually honest about it.
4. Protest events build activist relationships. Protest events give activists a chance to meet, network, swap ideas, and build community. Most activist organizations, in fact, got their start with protest events that united and networked their founders.
5. Protest events energize participants. Good protest events have an almost religious effect on people, charging their batteries and inspiring them to get up and fight again another day.
Two thousand years ago Jesus applied these very contemporary insights to his demonstration against the unholy marriage of conservative religion and political/military oppression, a marriage which still today must not be tolerated or accepted, especially by any people who consider themselves the People of God and the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
To do so for even a moment would mean the destruction of our nation and the obliteration of our religion. So from time to time it is to the streets we must go, as Jesus did, to call for change in our church, in our government, in our world, and in ourselves.
Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered, and Betrayed
by Chris Keating
Matthew 26:14--27:66
Betrayal seems to be flying off the shelves these days. Loyalty to the tried and true comes at a cost, and lately betrayal seems to be a hot seller -- in everything from football to national security secrets.
Just ask the fans of the Oakland Raiders. Correction: make that the Las Vegas Raiders. Or ask (the former) St. Louis Rams or San Diego Chargers fans.
“Buh-bye” is often translated “buy-buy.”
Raiders fans feel betrayed by their teams trading away loyalty for the promise of a “world-class” stadium in Las Vegas. Yet that’s just sports, it’s not personal. Thankfully, our political leaders don’t act like greedy NFL owners.
Oops.
In Washington, where there are more leaks than a season of This Old House, it seems plenty of folks are willing to trade on their loyalties. The cost of betrayal is more than the 30 silver coins Judas extracted from the high priests, however. For some it is promises of immunity, while others could be hedging their bets on their political futures.
Even President Donald Trump, who wrote the book on negotiating, learned a huge lesson about loyalty in the wake of the failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The president, who had invested serious political capital in repealing Obamacare, tried to shrug off the cost of defeat as a learning experience.
But the cost of politics as usual was steep, leaving the fledgling administration feeling betrayed by members of their own party. To paraphrase an old Rodgers and Hart song, no doubt they felt bewitched, bothered, bewildered, and betrayed.
Betrayal is at the heart of the gospel’s passion narrative. Judas trades away his loyalty to Jesus before the oil on Jesus’ hair had a chance to dry. Judas cut his deal early, but as the week unfolds it will become apparent that all the others were willing to fall away as well.
Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered are they -- but also betrayers. In contrast, Jesus will pay an even higher price as he pours out forgiveness and demonstrates the true cost of loyalty.
In the News
NFL owners are obviously willing to try their luck in Las Vegas. They’ve placed their bets that owner Mark Davis’ Raiders will flourish in a town better known for casinos, showgirls, and mega-buffets. It’s a gamble not popular with Oakland’s deep fan base, but one that will certainly mean a jackpot of winnings for the league’s fantastically wealthy owners.
Davis’ betrayal of his hometown fans means big bucks for other owners. Each team will share in any earnings generated at Las Vegas’ proposed dome stadium, in addition to splitting a relocation fee of nearly $400 million.
But that’s just the starting lineup. A glittering Vegas stadium will be a likely candidate to host a Super Bowl, and will add to the massive entertainment offerings in the desert city. Additionally, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will benefit. One of Jones’ companies has secured the marketing and hospitality contracts for the new stadium, just as it did for the Rams’ new home in Los Angeles. No wonder Jones is smiling -- he stands to win no matter how well the Raiders play.
It’s another example of how owners can stick it to their fan base.
Not long after the announcement was made, Davis made his way through the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. He soon ran into Godfather Griz Jones, a diehard Oakland fan and leader of Forever Oakland, a fan group. Davis told Jones he’d like to have a conversation about the team’s future.
“There is no future,” Jones said, rebuffing Davis’ outstretched hand.
As the Raiders close out their storied history in Oakland, the town will face the additional burden of being stiffed with continuing to pay for $100 million worth of stadium improvements they used in 1995 to lure the team away from Los Angeles.
It’s another example of how the bewildering game of loyalty and betrayal is played. For much of the world, both loyalty and betrayal can be bought and sold and can command exorbitant prices. That’s pretty plain in the bravado and swagger of an NFL owners meeting, and it is even more evident in the halls of government. It’s a whole different league in Washington, where the deals and stakes are even higher.
When the Republican attempt at repealing and replacing Obamacare failed, President Trump said it had taught his fledgling administration a lesson in loyalty. It’s a remarkable statement, especially coming from someone who exacts loyalty at any price.
But the defeat of the healthcare legislation revealed a fracture in the president’s assumption that he could demand loyalty from Congress. Faced with a barrage of political pressures from within his own party, Trump’s insistence at replacing the Affordable Care Act quickly withered. “We all learned a lot,” said Trump. “We learned a lot about loyalty.” Clearly, he was bothered by Congress’ notions of loyalty.
Trump’s fierce outsider approach to corralling Washington dealmakers didn’t work on his first major legislative effort. As Republican support weakened, it became apparent that Congress would return to conducting business as usual. In other words, loyalty, even to one’s one political party, may cost a lot more than a stay at a swanky Trump hotel.
Trump may also be learning that enacting policies and legislation, like relocating football teams, often feels like bewildering betrayal to fans. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been interviewing Trump loyalists in Oklahoma who are finding that many federal programs they have relied on for years may be cut to provide money for building a border wall or increasing funds for defense.
Many are upset by proposed cuts, Kristof notes, though few have actually changed their opinion of the president: “Some of the loyalty seemed to be grounded in resentment at Democrats for mocking Trump voters as dumb bigots, some from a belief that budgets are complicated, and some from a sense that it’s too early to abandon their man. They did say that if jobs didn’t reappear, they would turn against him.”
As an executive, the president is known for demanding loyalty among aides, a policy that is making it difficult to hire staff for several cabinet secretaries. In one case, a pick by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for a senior legal advisor was nixed by Trump aides who noticed the lawyer had shared tweets that were critical of the president. The irony is that as a businessman Trump often insisted on loyalty, but often did not reciprocate.
Last summer, Politico journalist Michael Kruse noted that while Trump had branded himself as a decisive executive, the reality is that he is often a mix between a “micromanaging meddler and can’t-be-bothered, broad-brush, big-picture thinker.” Kruse cited former Trump staff members as describing Trump as:
...both impulsive and intuitive, for better and for worse. He hires on gut instinct rather than qualifications; he listens to others, but not as much or as often as he listens to himself. He’s loyal -- “like, this great loyalty freak,” as he once put it -- except when he’s not.
His unpredictability in the boardroom is not a quirk but a hallmark, according to those who’ve worked with him for years. He is on the job around the clock, and expects those on his payroll to be the same way, but also resists a rigid schedule -- he is, in other words, an unstructured workaholic. The way he manages his people and properties, too, is a reflection of his abiding conviction in the value of unfettered competition -- between his own staffers, between himself and his staffers and vendors and contractors, and ultimately between himself and the rest of the world.
According to Kruse, Trump built loyalty in his company by hiring inexperienced persons and giving them terrific opportunities. Trump company employees were motivated by a mix of praise, fear, money, and titles. He’d come up with ideas, and expect staff to turn them into realities. Demands and loyalty went hand-in-hand, with a notable exception. Loyalty to vendors and contractors was often non-existent.
It seems that loyalty is more costly than betrayal.
One former Trump company executive said these were the loyalty lessons he had learned from Trump: never make people your heroes because you’ll always be disappointed, and always be concerned about yourself because you can’t count on the loyalty of others. Even though the former executive had been sued by Trump for violating a non-disclosure agreement, he insisted that Trump would make a good president.
“This is Donald just being Donald,” he said. “Welcome to Trump world.”
In the Scriptures
Jesus, as he passes under the “Welcome to Jerusalem” sign, soon confronts the bewildering forces of loyalty and betrayal. The texts begin with the reminder that everyone has their price, though they conclude with Bonhoeffer’s critical observation that only a crucified Christ can save. Jesus’ pathway through Palm Sunday to Golgotha is a reminder that God subverts the usual notions of loyalty, grace, and betrayal.
Judas makes his move at the beginning of the Passion Sunday gospel reading. While much of the text focuses on Jesus’ instructions regarding the Passover meal he will share the disciples, Matthew provides a fitting prelude to the passion at 26:14-16. Judas, perhaps the most complex figure in the entire New Testament, has fixed in his mind a plan to betray (literally, “hand over”) Jesus. Judas’ motives are unclear, and have often led to Christians expressing anger against the “Jews” and other unchecked expressions of anti-Semitism.
Suggestions that Judas is in it for money seem exaggerated, especially since the sum of 30 pieces of silver was not much, representing the required payment for injuring a slave (see Exodus 21:32). Commentators point out that the chief priests and leaders had sufficient grounds to arrest Jesus without Judas’ betrayal.
What emerges, however, is the contrast between the extravagance of the unnamed woman in Bethany who anointed Jesus (26:6-13) and Judas’ greedy unfaithfulness. For Judas, betrayal has a price, even if it is not much. The unnamed woman, who is not counted as “one of the twelve,” pours out her gift in lavish abundance. While the priests keep their plans secret, the woman who anoints Jesus becomes an instrument of witness to the world.
Thus the contrast: grace which is expensive and lavish, is poured out in love. Betrayal of one’s loyalty is sold for a measly 30 pieces of silver.
The contrasts continue in the meal Jesus shares with his disciples. It is an intimate setting, and clearly identified as a Passover seder. The twelve, including Judas, are gathered. As they share in the table fellowship recalling God’s gift of liberation, Jesus tells them he knows that one will betray him. If deserting Jesus is equivalent to betraying him, then in truth each of the disciples is culpable. Yet only Judas will “hand him over.”
But before that happens, Jesus offers to each the bread and the cup. He shares these as signs of a new covenant, a sign of God’s forgiveness. Judas has betrayed Jesus, but like the others he is included in this meal of grace.
The meal, as Anna Case-Winters discusses in her commentary (Matthew [Westminster/John Knox], 2015), is a gathering for sinners. Matthew places the story between Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. “Here we are reminded,” writes Case-Winters, “that we are all deniers/betrayers/deserters. Yet God’s grace is extended to us nevertheless. At this table we share not only bread and wine but also forgiveness.”
The distinction is key. The twelve, hand-picked by Jesus, will quickly fail in their mission. They have a price attached to their loyalty, in greater or lesser degrees. But Jesus does not; his loyalty remains even as he is handed over to die.
In the Sermon
Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday offers a teaser of the week that is to come. As the cheering crowds depart, as the palm branches dry up in the street, acts of betrayal are afoot. This day is so much more than an Easter warmup. The liturgical richness of the day invites our congregations to find themselves in the midst of the bewildering confusion of betrayal.
The lengthy readings are hard to parse, but there are ways of structuring the service and liturgy so that the congregation can move from the moments of joyful adulation (Hosanna!) to desperate betrayal. The sermon in particular could faithfully explore the shifting loyalties in Jerusalem. Note how the crowd moves from adoration to accusation. The architects of Jesus’ death stir them into a frenzy, whipping them into a furor where loyalties are easily forgotten and betrayal comes cheap.
Compare Judas’ betrayal with the betrayals we encounter: promises that are broken, relationships that are betrayed, confidences that are not held, friendships torn apart. Think of church members who have felt betrayed and isolated. How can our participation in the meal of Christ point us toward acts of reconciliation?
Note, too, the way Judas moves in and out of these narratives. The church’s tendency to denigrate Judas into a symbol of anti-Semitism is unfortunate -- and lacking in biblical support. Jesus identifies the betrayer as the one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with him (26:23). The point is that each of them has shared in the meal, and all are offered forgiveness. While Judas’ protesting is different (others have said “Surely not I, Lord,” while he changes to the less familiar “Rabbi”), each of the twelve will be scattered.
Jesus embodies a different sort of loyalty. His love poured out in the cup and broken in the love represents God’s continuing commitment that shall not be broken. It is not broken by the cross, nor shattered by the tomb. Jesus’ unending love is different from ever-moving human loyalties.
The week ahead is bewildering. We are bothered by our own acts of betrayal and lack of loyalty. Sure, we will lift our palm branches high and shout our “Hosannas!” But come Friday, we may well find ourselves bewitched, bothered, bewildered -- and even betrayed.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Loyalty in the Face of Danger
When being in Jesus’ presence becomes dangerous, his disciples struggle with staying loyal to him. Carl Wilkens faced a similar quandary when he lived in Rwanda during the years of the genocide. Wilkens’ wife and three children were airlifted out of the country with other Americans, and Wilkens made the hard choice to stay behind. When American citizens were evacuated, U.S. diplomat Laura Lane describes the struggle to get every American citizen out alive. She remembers: “I was the political security officer at the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, and I remember calling all the Americans and saying here’s your evacuation point ? here’s where you need to go, and I remember making the call to Carl and he said, ‘Laura, there’s people here, they’re depending on me. I can’t go.’ ”
Carl recalls: “You know, right there in front of me was our house-girl who’s a Tutsi. Worked for us for several years. I knew as soon as we left she would be slaughtered. There was a young man who was our night watchman. A Tutsi. He’d be slaughtered. And there was no way convoys were letting anyone take Rwandans with them. And at the time my family was evacuating we lived on a dirt road, and I watched my family drive away down the road. I walked back up to the gate. Closed it and locked it, but as I went back up there and knelt down on the floor with our house-girl and night watchman, and we prayed for the safety of my family, it was a pretty empty feeling.”
He hid some of his neighbors in his home, which added to his danger. Carl explains: “People in the neighborhood knew we had Tutsis in house. They’d seen them and threatened us. ‘Next time your white man comes out we’re going to kill him. We know he’s keeping people there.’ For three weeks we didn’t leave our house.”
Almost three weeks after the genocide began, Carl Wilkens was able to leave his house. “Finally the government said, ‘Heads of organizations can leave their houses, come to government headquarters, and get a permit to travel around the city.’ From that point on, we moved about the city finding food, water, and meds for the orphans.”
Damas Gisimba ran an orphanage which had become a place of refuge for adults also. “This American showed up at the orphanage,” says Gisimba. “He said he was just stopping by to see if anyone here needed help. I told him what we needed most was water. Carl Wilkens promised to come back the next day with water and anything else he could get his hands on. I kept wondering, ‘How will this stranger get past so many checkpoints?’ And besides the checkpoints, there were bullets flying everywhere.” Carl surprised Damas.
“Carl came back the next day with water and lots of goodies. And the next day, and the next day. There were some days he could not reach us because the militia blocked him or let the air out of his tires, but Carl kept his promise. He was fearless.”
Loyalty in a time of danger is a rare and precious gift.
*****
The Staff that Wouldn’t Leave
When the assisted living facility Valley Springs Manor closed abruptly, the management company stopped paying the staff, and most of them -- understandably -- left. Maurice Rowland and Miguel Alvarez decided they needed to stay with the elderly residents, even without being paid. About 16 residents were left behind, and Rowland, a cook, and Alvarez, a janitor, found themselves passing out medication, giving baths, and making meals. For three days they did everything that needed to be done at the facility.
Rowland said: “[W]e had like people that had dementia. I just couldn’t see myself going home. Next thing you know, they’re in the kitchen trying to cook their own food and burn the place down, you know what I mean?... Even though they wasn’t our family, they were kind of like our family for the short period of time.”
Alvarez said his own experience prompted him to make the choice he did. “I will only go home for one hour, take a shower, get dressed, then be there for 24-hour days.... You know, you feel sad but you don’t want to show them you’re feeling like that, you know? My parents, when they was younger, they left me abandoned. And knowing how they going to feel, I didn’t want them to go through that.”
When everyone else, including the management company, abandoned the residents, these two employees showed a great deal of loyalty and care, the kind that Jesus asks of all of us.
*****
Betrayed -- and Redeemed
On a trip to the circus when she was eight, Courtney Seiberling was chosen, out of all the kids there in the huge tent, to pet a unicorn. She remembers: “As I walked towards the magical beast, I knew I was looking into eyes that knew all the answers of the universe.... White dust began flaking off onto my hand, and I wondered what kind of powers I might absorb as the music started up again. The sparkly assistant took my hand, and we began a procession behind the unicorn, circling the arena that had a sweet-hooved aroma. I searched the crowd for my mom’s purple sweater and found her and my dad in it. I could tell they were proud. After the parade, the ringmaster handed me a certificate, and the audience clapped. I waved a final wave, and my dad came down to the rim of the audience to snap a photograph.”
The next week, she shared the story for show-and-tell. “I waited to go last, until all my classmates had shared their new toys or lost teeth. When it was my turn, I walked to the front of the classroom wearing my pink Barnum & Bailey t-shirt and prepared for the rounds of applause that would surely follow. I framed myself between the chalkboard and hamster cage, delicately holding the ivory parchment paper so I wouldn’t wrinkle it. My classmates quieted and looked to me. I was serious, and they knew I had something special to share. ‘Okay, Courtney, go ahead,’ Mrs. Hughes prompted. She was old and curt and probably had no business being an elementary school teacher. Allowing a delicious pause to permeate until it created the dramatic effect desired, I announced loud and clear: ‘I got chosen to pet a unicorn.’
“ ‘Oh honey, that wasn’t a unicorn,’ Mrs. Hughes sneered. ‘That was just a goat with a horn glued on its head.’ My heart plummeted to my stomach like a failed paper plane. I was mortified. Confused. It couldn’t be, I thought. I’d felt Lancelot with my own hands. Seen his horn with my eyes! I took a good look at our teacher’s face and contemplated what she just said. Bonding a horn to something that already existed did seem more probable than capturing a legendary creature. Standing up in front of all my classmates, I realized I’d been duped. The bell rang, and I stuffed the certificate into my backpack. I ran home and changed my shirt, swearing I’d never wear it again, and then cried and beat my fists into the soggy bed. I buried the certificate in a drawer and left it there for all of eternity.”
Before she went to college Courtney’s father died, and life lost its color for her. It took a long time to remember that there was still grace in the universe. “We put my father in the ground on the top of a hill by a tree overlooking other hills and trees. It’s a special place with a sky 20 times as high as that circus tent, and I’d visit his grave whenever I needed to feel him. By November, the dirt had hardened. Snow was starting to fall outside the windows of my high school, and people had stopped asking me how I was. This is the unfair part of mourning. Of course, the death itself is unfair, but just as I was beginning to grieve, everyone else was back to talking about normal things. There were no longer fresh-cut flowers delivered or ready-made casseroles in the fridge, just a lot of empty space that my father used to fill.”
Finally, as she remembered her dad, “something started to happen. My dad came to me. Instead of in the stiff earth, he appeared in a Neil Young song on the radio. Rather than beneath a glossed stone, he showed up in the way I preferred my coffee. Today, he’s often a nudge of encouragement for everything that is possible or a reminder of all that isn’t. Things end. But something else always begins. There’s a magic to it all.”
The disciples, and the crowds, betray Jesus, but redemption awaits -- for them, and all of us.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Psalm 31:9-16
Harrison Ford is known to collect and fly vintage airplanes. On February 13, he was involved in a near-miss collision at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. He said he was distracted by the turbulence from another plane when he mistakenly landed on a taxiway instead of Runway 20L. In his landing approach, he flew over an American Airlines plane, with 116 people on board, that was on the taxiway. The radio transcripts of the incident have just been released. Upon landing Ford called the air traffic controller and said, “I’m the schmuck who landed on the taxiway.”
Application: We are taught in Psalm 31 that life can have many problems.
*****
Philippians 2:5-11
In a Born Loser comic strip, Rancid Veeblefester and Brutus Thornapple are standing at the office water cooler. Veeblefester, the president of the company, is known for bragging about his wealth, while Thornapple, an employee, is known as the born loser. Veeblefester says to Thornapple, “I love my new wine cellar! I don’t know what I would do without it!” Then he says, “How about you, Thornapple -- do you have a wine cellar?” With great pride Thornapple says, “I have a beer basement!” The look on Veeblefester’s face clearly shows that Brutus did not understand the social and economic gulf that separates the two of them.
Application: Our lesson from Philippians teaches us about equality.
*****
Philippians 2:5-11
In a Beetle Bailey comic strip, Beetle and “Killer” Diller are watching Miss Buxley walk by. Miss Buxley is known to be an extremely attractive woman who all the soldiers at Camp Swampy chase after. Killer is known as a ladies’ man, and of course Beetle is the perpetual goof-off. Killer asks Beetle if he ever thought about marrying Miss Buxley, and Beetle of course answers “yes.” Then Killer says, “Would you really marry a girl who would marry someone like you?”
Application: Our lesson from Philippians teaches us about equality.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In a B.C. comic strip, the character B.C approaches an attractive cavewoman. He is representing a group of men who want to know what she looks for in a man. She replies, “Someone who isn’t constantly thinking about sports.” B.C returns to the group and reports, “Impossibly high standards.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
Ballerina Misty Copeland has just published a book titled Ballerina Body. In her book, she takes issue with the idea that many people think dancers are not athletes. In response to this accusation, she writes: “We work just as hard as athletes, if not harder, because we are also actresses and actors onstage. We are not competing to win, but we’re competing to be ourselves, our best selves.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In Misty Copeland’s recent book Ballerina Body, she answers many of the false impressions that people have of dancers. One false impression is that all dancers suffer from an eating disorder. This is not the case, Copeland contends, as she often eats a box of Krispy Kremes like others do. It is just that she focuses on the disciple of being observant and disciplined over the long haul. She writes: “The mental discipline is so much a part of it, feeling strong, feeling in control.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In a Frank & Ernest comic, a caveman is relaxing in a lounge chair with a big smile of contentment on his face. Behind him are a number of items, including a wheel, a spear, and a plow. His wife says to a friend: “Then he invented the easy chair and that was the end of his inventions.”
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the high standards that are required of being a disciple of Jesus.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
The Trump Institute was an educational seminar offered by Donald Trump to share with enrollees his secrets of real estate success. The seminar cost $1,997.94 to attend. It was discovered that most of the material presented at the seminar was plagiarized. In the seminar handbook that Trump published in 2006, at least 20 pages were lifted verbatim from a book published in 1995 by Success magazine called The Real Estate Mastery System. The seminar’s handbook never attributed the information to the original source.
Application: A common theme in Matthew is the understanding of what is truth.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
In a recent article, the New York Times’ Christopher Mele offered suggestions to those individuals who wish to disappear from social media. Mele cautions that it is not really possible since most people have been on social media for much longer than they realize. Also, many sites retain an inactive file of your information. Mele writes, “In the long run, removing 100 percent of references to yourself from social media is highly improbable.”
Application: In Matthew’s gospel, we read of a number of individuals who would like to erase their actions during Holy Week.
*****
Matthew 26:14--27:66
The former president of Penn State, Graham Spanier, was recently convicted for failing to stop the child abuse perpetrated by the university’s former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Though Spanier maintained his innocence, an e-mail he sent in 2001 revealed that he was very aware of what was taking place in the shower room at the university. Spanier decided to confront Sandusky directly, rather than report the incidents to the police. In the correspondence regarding his participation in the cover-up, Spanier wrote: “The only downside for us is if the message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we become vulnerable for not having reported it.”
Application: In Matthew’s gospel, we read of a number of individuals who acted irresponsibly.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give thanks to God who is good.
People: Give thanks for God’s faithful love.
Leader: God’s faithful love lasts forever.
People: God has shined a light on us.
Leader: This is the day that God has acted!
People: We will be glad and rejoice in it.
OR
Leader: Come and celebrate Jesus the Messiah!
People: We bring our palm branches and cry “Hosanna!”
Leader: Jesus comes among us to redeem all creation.
People: We will join him in this work and mission.
Leader: The darkness is deep and the way is rough.
People: We will follow, knowing that the light will come.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Glory, Laud, and Honor”
found in:
UMH: 280
H82: 154, 155
PH: 88
AAHH: 226
NNBH: 102
NCH: 216, 217
CH: 192
LBW: 108
ELA: 344
W&P: 265
AMEC: 129
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“This Is My Song”
found in:
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELA: 887
STLT: 159
“What Does the Lord Require?”
found in:
UMH: 441
H82: 605
PH: 405
CH: 659
W&P: 686
“Be Thou My Vision”
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
ELA: 793
W&P: 502
AMEC: 281
STLT: 20
Renew: 151
“Lord, Speak to Me”
found in:
UMH: 463
PH: 426
NCH: 531
ELA: 676
W&P: 593
“Trust and Obey”
found in:
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
“Lonely the Boat”
found in:
UMH: 476
PH: 373
“Majesty”
found in:
CCB: 37
Renew: 63
“Sing unto the Lord a New Song”
found in:
CCB: 16
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to redeem all of your creation: Grant us the courage to face all evil with your love so that your reign may fully come among us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, as you come to redeem all of your creation. You made us to be in communion with yourself, and you do not rest until you have accomplished this work. Inspire us to fully engage in your works of reconciliation so that all creation may sing your praises together. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially trying to keep our faith out of our everyday lives.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We love to be Jesus’ followers, especially on these festive days -- but we are not so ready to follow during the week. Things are neatly packaged for us on Sunday, but being disciples gets messy in our everyday lives. We are fine when the crowds are with us, but we hesitate to act or speak when we think they will disapprove. Forgive us our cowardly ways, and so fill us with your Spirit that we will step boldly into the fray as Jesus did. Amen.
Leader: God is constantly working to save us all. Rejoice in God’s redeeming love, and open your hearts to God’s Spirit.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
All glory is yours, O God, for you are both the creator and the redeemer of all creation.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We love to be Jesus’ followers, especially on these festive days -- but we are not so ready to follow during the week. Things are neatly packaged for us on Sunday, but being disciples gets messy in our everyday lives. We are fine when the crowds are with us, but we hesitate to act or speak when we think they will disapprove. Forgive us our cowardly ways, and so fill us with your Spirit that we will step boldly into the fray as Jesus did.
We give you thanks for your redeeming love that comes to take us from the darkness of death so we might live in the eternal light of your life. We thank you for those who have shared your love and grace with us throughout our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of us in our need for redemption. We are all still infected with the sickness of sin. Help us who have seen the promise of your redemption to share it with others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
What if your parents told you that you could only sleep on half of your bed or wear only one of your shoes? That would be silly. Some people think they can be Jesus’ disciples only part of the time, like when they are in church. But Jesus wants us to be his disciples all the time -- at church, at home, at school, everywhere... even when being his disciple means being nice to people who aren’t nice to us.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Fit for a King
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 21:1-11
Of course, today is Palm Sunday! You only need to look around the sanctuary and see the palms decorating this space. I’d like you to help me to retell the story of Palm Sunday. I’m going to begin the Bible story by saying one line. Then I’ll leave it to you to say one of two things:
1) You can say “And then...” and add a detail to the Bible story.
2) You can say “Before that...” and add a detail to the story.
Let’s give it a try. I’ll begin to tell the Bible story:
“Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. Jesus sent two disciples ahead of him to get a donkey for him to ride on.”
Do I have a volunteer who wants to add to our story?
(Prompt a volunteer, saying) Start off by saying “And then...” and add a detail. What happened next as Jesus and his friends prepared for their palm parade?
(Encourage children to tell the general outline of the Palm Sunday story, as it roughly follows what is contained in Matthew 21:1-11. Children may add other details from other gospel versions. This is okay!)
(Details to include:)
And then... They found a donkey and a colt (foal).
And then... They brought the donkey and colt to Jesus.
And then... They put cloaks on the donkey and colt.
And then... Jesus sat on the cloaks.
And then... People cut branches from trees and spread them on the road.
And then... Crowds went in front of Jesus and behind him.
And then... Crowds/People shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
And then... Crowds/People shouted “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And then... Crowds/People shouted “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
And then... Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.
And then... Everything in Jerusalem was confused and chaotic.
And then... People who saw it asked “Who is this?”
And then... The crowds said “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
(Feel free to give hints to the children as they retell the details of the familiar Bible story.)
Think with me for a minute... Jesus was their King! Does this sound like the way you would treat a king?
What made this seem like Jesus was their king? (Allow children an opportunity to respond.)
What do you think a king would ride on? (Allow children an opportunity to respond.)
How do you think the crowds would act as King Jesus passed by? (Allow children an opportunity to respond.)
You and I might see a king riding in a car or an SUV. Jesus didn’t enter Jerusalem in a fancy car, with lots of bodyguards around him. Jesus was a different kind of king. He’s a king that walks (or rides) with the people. They laid down coats and branches for him -- this shows that they thought that Jesus was pretty special. But he was with them, with the people, riding along as they walked along into the city of Jerusalem.
As we move past Palm Sunday and get closer to Easter this week, I’d like you to think about Jesus. Think about what he was doing as he prepared for his crucifixion. Think about his walking along with the people, knowing exactly what was going to happen to him. Think about how exciting it is to celebrate his resurrection and to know that he walks with us even today.
Prayer: King Jesus, we celebrate you today by waving palms and telling your story, for you are our friend and our king. Walk with us this week as we look ahead toward Easter and your great resurrection. Help us to think about you as the week unfolds. We turn to God with our prayers. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, April 9, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
