March 23, 2010
Dear St. Paul’s Family,
I’ll admit that even though this is my third Holy Week with you, I am still not accustomed to ordering imported palm branches for Palm Sunday. In Florida, they were easy pickings from just about any home, and the church usually invited children to “B.Y.O.P.B.” For our two girls, it usually meant my taking out a last-minute machete before we left for the service. No problem.
Maybe Luke’s rendition is most suitable for us snow-thawed, flood-receding, Upper Midwest folks. Because his is the only version not to say a word about palm branches. Whereas Mark is obsessed with the details of the branches (calling them “leafy” and “cut from the fields”) and John is the only one to name the branches as “palm,” Luke is disinterested in this kind of biblical botany. It could be that since Luke is writing to a generally Gentile audience, he feels it unnecessary to portray the Messiah with Jewish symbolism that would be lost among his readers.
But deep down inside, I’ll prefer to think of Luke as an Iowan at heart.
What Luke lacks in heavenly horticulture, he makes up for in divine drama. His is the only gospel to record the dialogue between the Pharisees and Jesus after his arrival. The charge is disturbing the peace (“Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”), to which Jesus offers an unusual response: if he silenced them, then the stones would resume the shouting.
Shrieking stones is a strong image, in light of a God who with a hefty resume of bringing life out of inanimate objects. God breathed life into a lump of clay to create human beings. God spoke judgment to Habakkuk through stone-filled walls. And in this gospel, John the Baptist affirmed God’s ability to raise Abraham’s descendants from the stones (Luke 3:8). Clearly, if the disciples went silent, the stones would be ready.
But the disciples were not silent. They threw caution to the wind, displaying a free, unfettered enthusiasm, unencumbered by societal restriction or personal inhibition. Their response is a complementary bookend to the parable of the talents, which Luke places immediately prior to Jesus’ triumphal entry. Whereas Matthew and Mark locate the parable long after Jesus’ arrival, Luke’s placement suggests a model for how followers of Christ are to behave as they enter the passion of Holy Week: ready to take a risk, unafraid of cultural pressure, and determined to live self-sacrificially, rather than cautiously.
Of course, seasoned Lenten pilgrims are well aware that this is just the beginning. The disciples, over a week’s time, do become silent. They fall away from Jesus, one by one, until he is left to die, alone, on Calvary’s hill. But by week’s end, a stone will cry out. The one that is rolled away from the tomb becomes the first witness to a resurrection that has triumphed over death, and signals the arrival of a new dawn.
Join us this Sunday as we mark the beginning of the week that changed the world, and we continue our sermon series “Facing Life with Faith.” The sermon is titled, “How to Be Passion-Prepared.”
See you along the way,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org
Luke 19:29-40
29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,
30 saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
31 If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’
32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.
33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’
34 They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’
35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
38 saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’
40 He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’
HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE:
Maundy Thursday: Service of Holy Communion
Thursday, April 1, 7:00pm
Good Friday: Service of Light and Darkness
Friday, April 2, 7:00pm
Easter Sunday: Service of Resurrection
Identical Services at 7:00am at 10:10am
Easter Brunch sponsored by the youth group, 8:00-10:00am
EASTER BRUNCH
The youth group will be offering a church-wide brunch on Easter morning, and would appreciate anyone who would contribute breakfast dishes or assist with clean-up throughout the morning. If interested, contact Lisa Sampson or Karla Wilkie.
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