1030am Sunday 4-5-20

When they were approaching Jerusalem at Bethpage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and he said to them go into the village ahead of you and them easily as you enter it you will find tie their occult. It is never been ridden untie it and bring it if anyone says to you, why are you doing this just say this the Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately. They went away and they found the Colt tied near. adore outside the street as they were on tying it some of the bystanders said to them. What are you doing untying the colt and they told them what Jesus had said and they allowed them to take it then they brought the Colts to Jesus and through their cloaks on it and he sat on it many people spread their cloaks on the road another spread leafy branches and that they held a cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting Hosanna blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord blessed is the coming Kingdom of our ancestor, David. hosanna in the highest heaven Then Jesus enter Jerusalem and went into the temple and we looked around and everything as it was already late. He went out his bet. He went out to Bethany with the 12. This is the gospel of Our Lord. I like you to be seated Wherever You Are.

Today later this afternoon here at Saint Stephen in celebration in preparation for the coming of Holy Week beginning a today. We're inviting all of our of families within the congregation. We set up a drive-thru with strict precautions in place. You're not allowed to get out. But if you would like to receive Holy Week bags for your children, they have a whole Myriad of things provided not only for them to do a but also for you and the family to do and just am also fun things for the kids to do that are just kind of to give you as parents Insanity. So we love you and we will have these available for you if we got over a hundred bags available. So each child should probably more than likely get one. And if you are coming through the campus of please follow the directions to the campus will be open today from 1 until 3 p.m. Myself and just a very few skeleton staff will be here at far distances to provide you with a little like hooked thing until I can do stuff. So it's like 10 feet away from us, but we can't wait to see you guys. We can't wait to provide you with these Holy Week bags to it leaves you on through this Holy Week season into Easter and that is for children ages 3 to 13. So if you are a parent of a child ages 3 to 13, we invite you to drive through our campus today to receive your holy big bag here at St. Stephen's from 1 to 3 p.m. Today. Thank you for joining us if you're able. Well, let's get right into our message today.

This is certainly been the lunch shift lens I have ever lented and I certainly hadn't originally intended to give up this much for Lent and I can imagine that you hadn't intended that either. We have all sacrificed or lost parts of our lives and this past month. But in the midst of this Unexpected Journey perhaps God is inviting us in this time to discern the parts of our life that we had before which are worth rebuilding or returning to Hold on to that. Play the church transitions out of Lent and inaugurate Holy Week. Holy Week is the week where the church celebrates the culmination of Jesus's Ministry in his life death and Resurrection beginning with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to confront the powers which corrupt and the powerful who oppress. Now if it's lent has been any indication of how Holy Week will go. This will be the holy of Holy Week any of us had ever hold lead. and it should be because if God can overcome death that God will overcome this moment of Crisis as well. Life is hard right now. But for the church today. is the day for us to celebrate and celebrate we shall throughout the sermon. I'm going to be giving you Q's. To raise your palms or whatever it is you have in celebration with me whenever you hear me. Say the phrase Palms up. I want you to lift your palm wherever you are and shake it like you mean it. Can you do that for me Church? You got it. K-pop All right, we're going to test this is going to be fun. Today we meet Jesus as he begins his final Act of God's drama of salvation. But before Jesus complete complete his purpose and his mission to enter Jerusalem the city of his ancestor David. You heard that in the proclamation of the Gospel today blessed to the one who comes in the name of our ancestor, David. first Jesus however needs to get to the city of David and so he needs to choose how he will show up. The one option would be for Jesus to arrive on a war horse as so many other conquering Kings and would-be Messiahs had done in the past if he has a Messiah Jesus was expected by the Jewish people and the leadership in general to act as a conquering King. That was the image and what they were expecting and waiting for. In the Jewish tradition, the Messiah was expected to be a conquering King at a fearsome Warrior image, but war and Conquest were not Jesus is Mission or purpose nor the means by which Jesus would bring about the completion of his father's will in the saving work that he was doing. No to the warhorse. Jesus says donkey donkey will do just fine. Jesus tells his disciples to go get him and ask them why they are taking it which I think in this context implies that they're like technically stealing it I guess. All right. Then simply say that the Lord needs it and I'll bring it back immediately, but the Lord needs it just say that. Not many of us would not have considered a donkey. Have you been in Jesus's position? We would have considered a donkey worthy of our power and position. Our ego has a way of getting ahead of ourselves and propping us up and inflating our sense of self to a two and I deserved it unnecessary level. that we'd know that we probably wouldn't have chosen a donkey because I don't know about you but I don't see many CEOs driving on a Honda nothing against Hondas, of course, but there is a sense that your position should not touch the type of ride you got

but the good news is that God sees beyond what the world sees what you and I see I love that Jesus chooses a donkey because it reminds us no matter how little we have or how lowly we might feel or how I ignored. We are by The World God often chooses the littlest the least the lost and the last to reveal his power and his purpose. That is something that we can all celebrate Palms up.

now Jesus has a donkey he's got his transportation and now he needs to enter Jerusalem. The people are celebrating and they're waving their palms and they're laying their cloaks on the ground for him. I sometimes like to imagine in this story and drama and folding in these pages and story. That that you and I are the donkey that Jesus is riding on the Colt in this case. after a while the people around us or shouting Hosanna and they're spreading their palms in their coats on the ground in front of us and maybe we start to believe that they're celebrating URI.

But we need to remember. Was that the saving Of The World Isn't Our mission or purpose is not for you or I to do it's dots and that you and I in the midst of this acclamation Proclamation celebration that they're not celebrating us. We are simply the donkey or maybe another name for a donkey who carries the Christ into a lost and lonely world. you and I are the donkey's who carried Jesus into whatever situation or circumstance we find a generous or smart or kind or strong you are make sure that you remember that they are not celebrating so much you and freezing so much you but the reflection of Christ at work within you Palms up. Thanks be to God. Jesus has arrived at the temple and he enters into Jerusalem. Jesus life has been building to this moment for 33 years. This is this moment. the city of David at the holiest site at the at the temple he sees where he's supposed to be. It's the moment of Apex and acclimation. But it's a tension Point everything. He's driven for. Now is the time to complete what his heavenly father has sent him to accomplish. So naturally naturally Jesus looks around.

and then leaves Oh.

Thumbs up I guess.

This part of the Palm Sunday narrative is very anti-climactic. Why does Jesus look around and leave? Because Jesus is an impulsive nor does he did her? The Army we have a saying move with a purpose. Jesus here is purposeful and decisive Jesus didn't show up accidentally late in the day. You didn't get there and say all man. Whoops. I totally lost track of time. I guess the saving of the world is off gentlemen. I'm so sorry. No, Jesus arrive late when the temple will be mostly empty. Not because he lost track of time because he's scouting the battlefield. how many of us would we have a critical life-altering appointment to a job interview that will That will affect our life do a dry run. We get to know you're with the drive we get the lay of the land. And when the day comes because we've done that prep work were able to focus on energy and attention on the mission and the task of hand. Jesus is about to do spiritual and physical. With some of those powerful people in all of Israel and the Roman Empire many of whom have acquired their power by stepping over the metaphorical and physical bodies of their opponents. They are ruthless and they will show no mercy. Jesus trust in God's calling and plans for his life as should each one of us. But Jesus is no fool and neither are the people who bear the mark of Jesus and his resurrection on our heads. Palms up

the story of Palm Sunday tells the story of the God who sees beyond what we can see invites us to look deeper with him. It is the story of a God who calls you and I to carry the good news of Jesus Christ into a lost and lonely world that you remember. That we are only the donkeys that carry that Christ. It tells the story of The God Who is wise and teaches his disciples the true depth of Godly wisdom. Well, this is good. The most important point I want to make is this just as the Lord that needed the donkey that day the Lord needs you today. I don't mean that you that you wish you were the you that you're striving to become tomorrow. I mean the U of right now in the midst of this virus and the middle of your mess that you which God had created and has called for a purpose.

This one has been hard and this Holy Week will be hard and the weeks to follow will be hard but God invites you today. to look deeper at this moment and find purpose in the midst of this suffering Jesus just as Jesus found suffering in his many of us are in the midst of reflecting on our life in the choices, which we have made our schedules and routines have been altered in the foundation's which we once held a new and the compromise as we once thought we once thought were necessary they seem different today. Today these Palms have a dual-purpose. Yes to celebrate the welcoming and the entrance of Jesus Christ into this Holy Week in the celebration of God's ultimate victory in the world and the cosmos. but they also function today for you and I as kind of antenna I to help us find our way to discern the prey to consider and reflect. For those who are on the cusp of losing so much the Palms offer you the comfort of a God, who knows what it is to lose and is already gone before you into the tomorrow that you fear so dearly. And for those Brothers these Palms are all showing a new possibilities of what life will be like after this virus no longer held down by the ways of the world in your patterns and your routines of yesterday. Regardless of which side of that equation you fall on remember this? use this time to discern which parts of your life are worth returning to which parts of your life had the most purpose and meaning this has been the luckiest Lentz that we have ever lented. We certainly had intended to give up this much. But in the midst of this time, we still dare to celebrate. We have all had we all have the opportunity to move with a purpose and reflect with a wisdom. which the piece which the pace of life before this time did not allow us to so I invite each one of us wherever you want. Let these Palms transform you today. And let them be transmuted into an antenna to a Jew and finding meaning and purpose and hope today. Palms Upchurch Hamza

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