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This last week I spent the better part of three days involved in interviews with the Board of Ministry. It was our responsibility to interview men and women in the United Methodist Church. Those being interviewed ranged from their mid-twenties up to a woman who was 68 years old and will be ordained as a deacon at annual conference.

During the interviews, we examined the theological beliefs of the candidates. We listened to tapes of their sermons. We asked a lot of personal questions about their lives; which is a nice way of saying that we were being a little bit nosey about their personal lives and human foibles. We did our best to determine if each candidate would be a credit to the ordained ministry of the church.

Finally, after we had exhaustive interviews with the candidates, they would leave the room and we would discuss their strengths and their weaknesses. Often, the debate would be long and emotional. We would vacillate on certain candidates as we rode the fence trying to determine if we were for or against them. We were torn between accepting and rejecting them.

However, the time of decision came. We could no longer ride the fence and remain neutral. We had to make a choice. We had to make a decision. It was impossible to remain neutral and we had to vote "yes" or "no" on a candidate's fitness to be a United Methodist minister.

Palm Sunday dramatized in unforgettable fashion the impossibility of being neutral regarding Jesus. When we read and think about Jesus riding through the Holy City, we usually think about what that event meant to Jesus. Today, we are thinking not only about what it meant to Jesus, but also what it meant to Jerusalem. If only Jesus had stayed away from Jerusalem, what a relief! The city as a whole did not want to accept him. The city as a whole did not want to crucify him. To be honest, I believe that the city as a whole would have dodged the issue about Jesus if they could have. After all, why did they have to make a decision that would split the city wide open?

Look at what happened on that first Palm Sunday. We are mistaken if we think everyone was pleased to see Jesus. Of course, there were those who were excited to see Jesus. They welcomed him with palm branches. They laid their coats in his path. They shouted, "Hosanna!" as he rode by on the back of a donkey. But, there were others in the crowd who cared nothing at all about Jesus. The merchants were there hawking their wares. They enjoyed the large crowd that Jesus attracted, but they probably cared nothing for him. The religious leaders were in the crowd. The proud Pharisees and the greedy Sadducees stood there with their arms folded and whispered about what a nuisance Jesus was, coming to Jerusalem in such a manner during this holy season. And there were the Romans who watched to see if Jesus was a threat to their authority. Accepting Jesus was preposterous, crucifying him was distasteful. They simply wished to side-step any decision having to do with Jesus.

Just as those who were present when Jesus marched into Jerusalem found it difficult to remain neutral about Jesus, so do we. Human nature being what it is, Jesus is still disturbing almost 2,000 years later. We talk about his love and we call him glorious names, but there is something about him that is upsetting. So often, we are made miserable by the necessity of choosing either for him or against him.

If you have never felt that way about Jesus, I suspect that you have never taken him seriously. Life would be easier if the ideas of Jesus didn't force us to choose. And we must decide! It is impossible to be neutral when we are confronted with the ideas of Jesus.

I. It Is Impossible To Be Neutral When It Comes To Jesus' Ideas About Truth

Why is truth so hard to find? Why is truth so elusive? So obscure? So hidden that only with great difficulty can we find it? Jesus was a revealer of truth. He came into this world and revealed the truth about life, about the infinite value of each person and about goodwill and brotherhood for all people.

Jesus was a revealer of eternal truth and this presents us with forced decisions. For or against, we must make decisions. We cannot remain neutral. We must take sides.

So often, we like to side-step issues and try to remain neutral. But, there comes a time when we must make a decision about what we believe.

One police officer told me that he has always been troubled by parents who try to force their children to do something by threatening them with the police. This tends to make children afraid of the police even in a time of danger. However, the way to handle this type of situation was revealed when he was eating lunch in a cafe with another officer.

A woman in a nearby booth was trying to get her son to eat his meal and said to her little boy in a loud voice, "Jimmy, if you don't eat those green beans, that policeman over there will come and take you to jail."

The officer heard that and he promptly got up and walked over to the five-year-old boy who has being scolded. He reached out and tousled the boy's head and said, "Jimmy, I am six foot two and weigh 200 pounds. I can't stand green beans and I never eat them either."

Just as that officer confirmed the truth that the police are not our enemies, but our friends and helpers, Jesus is the revealer of eternal truth and this finds confirmation in the fact that others have said some of the same things Jesus said. The Golden Rule of Jesus, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you," is not original with Jesus. Hundreds of years before Jesus, the Jewish law said, "What is hurtful to yourself do not do to your fellow man." Buddha said, "Hurt not others with what pains yourself." Hinduism says, "Do naught to others which if done to thee, would cause thee pain." Strangely, there are some who believe that this lack of originally detracts from Jesus' uniqueness. But, to the contrary, when eternal truth, waiting to be revealed, breaks through the clouds and is accepted as truth by many, that simply confirms the revelation.

So, long before Copernicus, Pythagoras guessed that the earth circled the sun, long before Columbus, the viking, Eric the Red, discovered America, long before Martin Luther, Tyndale and others rebelled and protested abuses within the Catholic Church.

Nevertheless, it is Copernicus the world remembers as the founder of modern astronomy. It is Columbus the world credits with discovering America. It is Martin Luther the world remembers as the first leader of the Protestant Reformation and it is Jesus Christ who forces the issue on us now, saying, "This is the everlasting truth!" Are you for it or against it?

If Jesus were simply another religious leader, we could side- step him. But, the truth he revealed makes it impossible to ignore him.

II. It Is Impossible To Be Neutral When It Comes To Jesus' Ideas About The Sacredness Of Life

One of the unique things about Jesus is that he taught that people are sacred. Every person who breathes a breath of life is valuable. There may be times when you do not feel like it. There are many times when you do not act like it, but your life is important to God. Your life is sacred simply because that is the way God made life.

The sacredness and value of life was revealed when Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus was teaching that you are important because your life is sacred. It is so sacred that God came into this life through Christ for you.

Some time ago, I conducted a funeral service for a young man about 20 years old who had taken his own life. The family lived in another city and when they came back to this city for the funeral, they called me and asked if I would officiate at the service. I was glad to be able to help them and be with them.

When I tell this, I am not trying to make myself sound like a hero. I believe I only did what you would have done. At the conclusion of the service, I was standing beside the casket when the man's 22-year-old sister came up and began to cry. As she stood beside her brother's casket, she whispered, "I hate you for doing this!"

She looked up and realized I had heard her. She was embarrassed. I simply put my arms around her shoulder and said, "Susan, there's nothing wrong with what you said. Of course you hate him for doing this to himself, to you and to your family."

Now, did she really mean she hated her brother? Of course not! She was saying, "I love you so much. I don't know why you did this to yourself, and to me, to Mom and Dad and to everyone who loves you."

She was simply asking, "Why?" Every life is sacred and somewhere deep inside of us we know that to be true. Jesus proclaimed the sacredness of life. I am sure of that! The sacredness and inherent worth of each life is something about which we must decide — are we for or against?

A few weeks ago, on one of those cold, cold nights, I drove down a street which ran behind a large grocery store. As I drove by the large garbage canister, I saw some movement in the shadows. I slowed down and looked a little closer. There was a woman and two small children — the oldest not more than 10 or 11 years old. They were scavenging for discarded canned goods in that garbage dumpster. These people were hungry and searching for food. These people did not live in some third world country. These people were right here in the state of Oklahoma. These people were right here in our own community.

I believe that we are confronted with a personal decision about the value and importance of each life. We cannot remain neutral. We cannot ignore the question. We must decide — for or against — that every life is sacred and valuable.

III. It Is Impossible To Be Neutral When It Comes To Jesus' Ideas About God

Every person has his or her God. You may give your life to money, power, ambition, alcohol, lust or what have you, but all of us have our gods. We are born worshipers, always giving our lives to something. The God-question is inescapable. We cannot avoid it. We cannot be neutral about it. We either choose Jesus' God or some other. For or against the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — on that issue no convenient fence exists where we can sit undecided.

Whenever an individual faced Jesus, he or she was confronted with the God-question. Zacchaeus, the tax collector, was confronted by Jesus. He could not remain neutral. Jesus wanted a yes or a no for an answer. Would he or would he not make restitution for his ill-gotten gains? Would he or would he not clean up his life? Would he or would he not straighten out his life? Everyone who Jesus encountered, he refused to permit to ride the fence and be neutral. He faced them and confronted them with the need to decide. He confronted the woman of Samaria and her mishandling of sex. He confronted Nicodemus about the need to be born again. He confronted the Jews with their race prejudice against the Samaritans. These and many others Jesus faced with a forced decision — will you or won't you? They would have loved to stay neutral, but Jesus forced them to decide on the God-question. They had to choose for or against.

And you have to choose!

You are confronted today and every day with the God-question.

You will either accept Jesus Christ or reject him!

What will you decide?

Prayer: O God, on this Palm Sunday, give us the courage to choose the way of Jesus Christ. In his name, Amen.