Rewind
Mark 11:1-11
Click here to view the full sermon video, titled "Rewind"
A few weeks ago our youth began preparing for their “Lenten Olympics.” The Lenten Olympics was a scavenger hunt/bible trivia activity that occurred last week. They were sent all over the church to find envelopes with slips of paper detailing Jesus’ journey from Palm to Easter Sunday. However, in order to prepare for this Sunday School Event of the Season, the youth had to initially learn about what all went into this palm, passion and resurrection story. After the first week they stood back and looked at the white board and said, “Wow that’s a lot more stuff than I remember.” Not only did it include all the passages we spent time with this lent, but it also entailed 4 more chapters worth of preaching, healing, anointing and teaching before the passion piece begins. Some of the most quoted Jesus sayings occur in this one week span between Palms and Resurrection, and dear ones we didn’t even cover half of it this lent. There is so much of Jesus' story that worked into these last few chapters. It is like our gospel writer knew he was running out of time, and he wrote like it, which leaves us readers turning pages as quickly as we can trying to keep up with the race to the cross. Reminding us that resurrection can’t and won’t wait, but before we can set ourselves on calvary, my friends, we have to rewind. Back to the beginning. Back to the palm parade, back to the before the shift to light speed which carries us to the end of the gospel trying to catch our breath. It’s time to rewind, and start again – back at the beginning with the waving of palms and an unfinished parade.
At the beginning of December, Eric, Lucy and I went to our first Twinkle Light Parade in Nob Hill. We bundled everyone up, rode on the shuttle bus through the campus to the main drag where the parade was being held. We found a spot and started to get Lucy excited for the parade. As the parade started, we watched decorated vehicle after decorated vehicle with glimmering eyes and delight. After the first hour we were mesmerized, after the second we were tired, by the third hour we started trying to see where the parade ended, and we couldn’t find it. However there was a lull and we wondered if the parade was over. It was over 10 minutes and no cars had gone by, everyone kept waiting but we started walking back to the car – unsure of what just happened.
This is not unlike the first Palm Sunday, where the day started with fanfare and ends with Jesus simply walking away. Crowds of people line the streets crying out for Jesus, “Hosanna, save us!” As he rides on a colt – not too dissimilar from the animal that carried his mother to Bethlehem. With cloaks being thrown to pave the way. It was a procession fit for the king of the people, where folks used what they had to welcome in Jesus, the one who comes in the name of the Lord. However, according to scholars, an event of this magnitude should have concluded with some sort of ritual – a sacrifice, a burnt offering – something along these lines. But rather Jesus simply comes to the temple and returns to Bethany. It is an anti-climactic ending to the parade the people gave. It is as if this moment of the story reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways. Just like the birth of a savior in a manger God does the unexpected. Jesus is not crowned, nor does he claim the title of Davidic royalty, rather the parade route putters out and Jesus and his disciples continue on their way, the story continues into the holy week ahead of them and us.
God’s ways are not our ways. God does not need a parade or coronation, rather the next part of this passage is indicative of who God is. Following the parade Jesus cleanses the temple in Jerusalem, claiming that it had become a den of robbers and turning over the tables with righteous anger. This tells us that God has no need for royal ceremonies or optics. God cares about people, and equity, and justice. Much like any non-violent resistance, this palm Sunday ending is not a mistake or simply forgotten part of the story. Rather the author of Mark is intentional with this unfinished royal procession. It is a bold statement, that God’s dominion and reign cannot be contained or constructed by human hands. Not by Rome, and not by religious authorities. This story teaches us that We do not control God’s narrative, that is for God alone. And yet it reminds us God is there alongside us, alongside the suffering, the poor, the grieving, the vulnerable. God hears our cries, will turn over tables and die on a cross to be with us, to save us, to heal us, to bring forth new life. In the words of biblical scholar Rev. Dr. Brian Blount, “God is on the loose in our world. And that friends is a very good thing.”
In Detroit Michigan there is an artist by the name of Tyree Guyton. Tyree grew up loving art and his community. As a kid he was always tinkering and creating out of spare parts and pieces he would find around the neighborhood. And when he grew up, he channeled his creativity into a neighborhood wide art installation known as the Heidelberg Project. Tyree is a black man who lives in a historically black neighborhood near the birwood wall – a wall in Detroit built to separate the black and white neighborhoods. Tyree was tired of seeing his community labeled as dirty or unkempt, and so he turned the trash into art. He took broken down cars, left behind stuffed animals, shoes and more to make art on the land across the street from his home. Each house is painted vibrantly and one local neighbor sits on her porch and lets folks sign her house like a guestbook for a couple of dollars. The city has cleared out their projects multiple times but Tyree and his team keep building back, relentlessly, using the most unexpected resources, in unexpected ways to challenge the status quo, and demonstrate that beauty is what you make it. No one expected trash turned into art installations or a polka-dot or bubble gum pink houses to revitalize and help a neighborhood grow and bloom, but it did and continues to do so.
God’s ways are not our ways and that’s a good thing. Where we see trash God sees liberation. Where we expect a neat and wrapped up ending – God says hold on. When we fail to listen to the cries of “Hosanna Save Us.” Jesus rides in on a colt, feet touching the ground, reminding them they are not alone. Beloveds, God is on the loose in our world, subverting systems of oppression, drawing in those who have been cast out, binding up the broken hearted, healing the sick, caring for the poor. God is on the loose in our world, in the faithful waving of palms and spreading of cloaks, and in the unfinished parades to remind us in this hard and holy week, that God is not done with us yet. Amen.