HONORING JESUS IN THE LAND OF PALMS

John 12: 12-16

The latest edition of the AAA Guide to Florida is 1166 pages. It weighs over a pound, and is filled with information about history, attractions, hotels, restaurants, and events. The book begins with: “When you hear the word ‘Florida,’ there’s a good chance that you conjure a vivid mental picture. It probably includes swaying palms, sandy beaches, and piercing rays of sunlight ….Perhaps you envision the emerald green waters that caress the Gulf beaches of Pensacola. Or the shark’s teeth sprinkled across the sand in Venice. Or the colorful varieties of seashells blanketing the coast on the islands of Captiva or Sanibel. Or the rolling waves lapping at the sugary shore of Ponce Inlet.” Ponce Inlet, you made it on to the first page about Florida! Of course, the book reminds us of other draws: the Space Center, Disney and the other Theme Parks, and the weather. Nowhere does it say that the state spends under the federal minimum for each child in school, or that our largely retirement population is suffering with the diminished value of their retirement savings, or that our prisons are jammed with criminals. Of course not; this is the land of palms, and a travel guide wants to paint the picture with as much attraction as possible. Who, when selling a car or a house, points out all the flaws first? No, the first line of the guide features palm trees, made to sound exotic, but in truth they are one of the more useless trees that grow, giving little shade, with a shallow root ball that makes them tip in the wind, and having their wood too soft for construction. Yet when the palm tree that graced our front lawn for more than two decades died last fall, the price of a replacement tree was over $11,000. Now, as you may have noticed, we have no palm tree out front.

Palm Sundays at most churches are a little like a travel guide. Most who attend church services on this day are looking for a few the following: a joyous procession of children with palms, and the singing of one or more of these hymns: “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus, Hosanna Loud Hosanna, and All Glory Laud and Honor” –check, check, check, and check. It is a day that features children imagining themselves praising and cheering the Savior! Check. Most who come have their Sunday School, chamber of commerce, attractive church ad idea of Palm Sunday. And, of course, on the church ad page of the Hometown News on Friday, we joined six other churches in trying to “out attract” unchurched people to come to our services. Today all churches promote themselves as “churches of the palms.” Of course tomorrow, today’s palm branches will begin to curl, and turn brown, and later, in some traditions, they will be burned to ash, that will be mixed with Holy Oil and saved to be applied to people’s foreheads on the following year’s Ash Wednesday. Palms, like ice cream or ice sculptures, must be enjoyed quickly.

It is John’s Gospel that, at first glance, seems like the Jerusalem guidebook about Jesus Palm Sunday. It is only in John that palms are mentioned, did you know that? It is John’s record of what people shouted that is most often said in church liturgies: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! “Hosanna!” has been turned into a child-like cheer by the guidebooks, but in its original day it was the Hebrew word of frustrated anger that translated as “Save us!” It was the symbol of Judaism during their time of self-rule, during the wonderful and romanticized age when the Hasmonean Dynasty governed in peace: Jewish leaders for a Jewish nation. But now Romans were all in control of Jewish territories and Holy sites. Cheering crowds, trying to incite Jesus to action upon entering Jerusalem during the crowded and testy Passover crowds, hoped that he would be a warrior king. But Jesus had different plans. Verse 16 of today’s John text reads: “Jesus disciples did not understand his message at first, but when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that this had been done to him.” What had been done? He had called for a donkey’s small colt to ride on – a sign of change through peace- he did not call the white horse of a warrior. His people thought back to the words of prophets that told him what that meant: In Zechariah 9:9, the prophet told all who belonged to the Jewish lineage-daughters of Zion and of Jerusalem they called them- to expect a Savior who would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. Check. And the words for Psalm 118 gave the people the words they chose to shout and the actions they clearly took. Check. This was Messiah! They believed Jesus to be Savior, at least on that day. The hymns all talk about the children and it is popular and fun; the Bible talks about the Savior, and the direction his kingdom will take paints a disturbing and agonizing picture.

Today the good news about this day is this: as you leave this sanctuary and drive home, it is unlikely that you will miss seeing palms in some form. When you see them, you can think about how beautiful or how useless they are as a tree if you wish; but today, at least for today: let’s remember to honor Jesus in the land of Palms: joining the crowd of his day in proclaiming “Hosanna!” (Jesus, I need a Savior, and you are he) Blessed (anointed from above) are you who comes in the name of the one who first owned the title Lord, (Adonai, or Kyrie): the Lordship of the Almighty is passed on to the one called Christ. May palm branches forever remind you of the one who came to others in his day, and now he comes to you, and to me, in our day, and shows us the way to Kingdom living, and perfect Earthly living. His name is Jesus.

Jeffrey Sumner April 5, 2009

(Now we move from the guidebook Jesus into a brief reminder of what Jesus came to do: join me in singing verses 1 & 4 of this hymn, “Ride on Ride on in Majesty.”)