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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Save Us</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">When
we wave our palms and boldly cry out, "Hosanna," do we dare imagine
what we really want God to save us from? Save me from anger. Save me
from cancer. Save me from depression. Save me from debt. Save me from
the strife in my family. Save me from boredom. Save me from getting
sent back to Iraq. Save me from the endless cycle of violence. Save me
from humiliation. Save me from staring at the ceiling at three a.m.
wondering why I exist. Save me from bitterness. Save me from
arrogance. Save me from loneliness. Save me, God, save me from my
fears.<br>
<br>
In viewing Palm Sunday from that angle, we can begin to see the
potential for some real depth in this celebration, for embedded in our
quaint pageantry is an appeal to God that originates in the most
vulnerable places inside of us; and it bubbles, almost beyond our
control, to the surface. "Hosanna." "Save us." Please God take the
broken places that will tear us apart and make them whole. We beseech
you, God, jump into the water and drag our almost-drowned selves to
shore. "Save us." "Hosanna."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Scott Black Johnston, Save Us</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">___________________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Creating Turmoil</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt">In
his book The Freedom Revolution and the Churches Robert Spike recalls
an incident from the early years of the turbulent civil rights movement.
Flying out of Jackson, Mississippi, Spike overhears the conversation of
a Catholic sister, sitting across the aisle from him, with her seat
companion. The sister is lamenting all the unrest in Mississippi, and
she complains about the “outside agitators,” the students and church
leaders who have come to her state in support of civil rights, certain
that their presence is provoking violence on the part of white racists.
“I do not question their dedication, nor even the rightness of their
position,” said the sister. “But surely it is a bad thing to create
turmoil by stirring up people who feel differently.” As the sister
talks, all the while she is nervously fingering a cross hanging around
her neck.</span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">There’s
a tragic irony in the sister’s words and actions, not unlike that of
the first Holy Week. For the one whose cross the sister holds most dear,
Jesus, would never have taken the risk of going to Jerusalem and
proclaiming a new way of living, would never have confronted comfortable
patterns and ultimately endured the cross, had he followed the sister’s
philosophy.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Joel D. Kline, What Did We See in Jesus? </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">_________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The Tomb Is Easier than the Cross</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">In
just a matter of days Holy Week takes us from the mountain of festive
palms to the mountain of Golgatha’s despair. And that is why we resist
it so. I mean, do we really need the emotional roller coaster of Holy
Week? What’s so wrong with just jumping from one parade to the next and
skipping all the sacrifice and death stuff? What’s wrong with simply
moving on to the joy of Easter, with its white bonnets, Easter eggs,
family, friends, big ham dinner, and of course the empty tomb. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Well,
I think we know the answer to that. For starters, an empty tomb, at
face value, is a lot easier to deal with than a dying, bleeding Savior
on a cross. Add to that all the pain and suffering that comes with
Holy Week, is it any wonder that the human tendency is to try and ignore
the events of the week and simply move on to the Easter celebration?
But as much as we’d like to skip Holy Week we know that the only way to
Easter is through the cross. We know where the parade of Palm Sunday
leads and we also know that we’re part of that parade. That is to say,
we know this intellectually. Our hearts are another story. Our hearts
may be more in sync with the disciples and the fear and disbelief that
led them to run away. It would seem that 2000 years later Jesus’
disciples are still running away.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Jeffrey K. London, And When You Think It's All Over </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">__________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Palm Sunday </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">What
is Palm Sunday? Maybe another way to approach that question is to ask
another question: what if the gospel story ended with Palm Sunday? Like
the disciples, we maybe would like it if the gospel could conclude right
here. After all that the disciples had been through, and with their own
secret hope that Jesus would be a political success on whose coattails
they would ride to prominence, the disciples looked at the Triumphal
Entry and thought, "Now this is more like it!" They probably wanted to
capture and bottle that festive atmosphere. It was rather like Peter's
reaction to Jesus' transfiguration when Moses and Elijah also appeared
with Jesus on the mountaintop. Peter piped up and said, "Let's build
some tabernacles right here so we can keep this great thing going
forever!" So also on Palm Sunday: if they could have hit the pause
button on the remote
control of life, this would have been a wonderful image to freeze frame.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The
problem is that there is no salvation for anyone on Palm Sunday. The
people cried "Hosanna," which means "Save us!" But given the world we
are in, there could be no salvation from that kind of happy parade. That
festive atmosphere, though in one sense befitting the true, deep-down
royalty of Jesus as God's Son, still all that hoopla just doesn't fit
our world. It doesn't address the problems that need solving.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">And
maybe at this time of war and carnage, of terror and multiple threats
of violence all around us, maybe we preachers don't need to work very
hard to convince anyone of this point. If we look back upon history, we
see that human sin has resulted not in one long string of happy parades
but rather in a series calam<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">i</font></font>t<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">ie</font></font>s, one long and sad parade of calamity
and sorrow. Instead of a festive throng, history shows us things like
the Trail of Tears on which Native Americans tramped into exile. History
shows us boat-loads of black people in chains, taken from their native
country and brought to a place called "America," then paraded before
potential buyers, not of their services, but of their very lives.
History shows us long lines of Jews marching not in some victory parade
but shuffling along toward Nazi gas chambers in Auschwitz. History shows
us the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the
death
squads of Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These are the real parades of human
history. Carnivals of sorrow, festivals of death.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">____________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Palm Sunday April Fool’s</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">I
was reading recently about a truck driver named Cornelius. Cornelius
specialized in hauling animals, especially cows. He hauled live cows,
and he also hauled dead cows that needed to be disposed of. Sometimes,
however, he was hired to haul other varieties of animals.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">One
April Fools’ Day he received a phone call. “I have a dead elephant for
you to pick up in Los Angeles,” said the voice on the other end.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">“Yeah right,” said Cornelius. “You aren’t going to get me on that one!”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The guy said to him, “No, seriously, I’ve got this dead elephant I need for you to pick up.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Cornelius again said, “Look, I know what day this is. You aren’t going to fool me today of all days!”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The
guy was insistent that this was a serious call, but Cornelius was
equally determined that he wasn’t going to be the object of an April
Fools’ Day prank. He told the guy that if he drove all the way out to
Los Angeles and it was a joke, he would charge the caller double plus a
fee for the extra tow truck that Cornelius would require.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The
caller agreed and so Cornelius drove to Los Angeles and, indeed, there
was a dead elephant waiting on him. He wouldn’t believe it until he saw
it with his own eyes. I mean, getting such a phone call on an April
Fools’ Day would make you suspicious. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Many
who witnessed Jesus riding into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday
probably thought they were witnessing an April Fools’ prank. They had
come out to see what they thought was the leader of a new religious
movement, and quite possibly the long-awaited Messiah. They had heard
amazing stories about this man about his feeding thousands of people
with two fish and five small loaves, about his ability to heal, and even
about his raising of Lazarus from the dead. Could this be, they
wondered hopefully, the One they had long been awaiting?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">King Duncan, Collected Sermons, </span><a target="_blank" __removedlink__1598636974__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8EBwgCCgFRCkkCBgdKDAtXUVw%3D"><span style="font-size: 12pt">www.Sermons.com</span></a></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">___________________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Walking the Walk </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Christ’s
commitment reminds me of a Japanese social worker who lived before and
during the Second World War named Toyohiko Kagawa. Kagawa was a devout
Christian whose faith caused him to have an extraordinary impact on the
working conditions of ordinary citizens in Japan. He was so well thought
of in that land that he came on a mission to the U.S. before the
beginning of the Second World War to seek to prevent that terrible
conflict breaking out. Even though he failed in this effort, he gained
international renown for his Christian witness and selfless work.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Years
later Kagawa was on a lecture tour to the United States. Two college
students were walking across their campus after hearing him speak. One
of them confessed that he was disappointed in Kagawa’s simple message.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">After
some reflection, the other student replied: “I suppose it really
doesn’t matter very much what a man says when he has lived as Kagawa has
lived.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">That is true. In today’s vernacular, it is more important that Kagawa walked the walk and not just talked the talk….</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">The
rest of this illustration and many additional illustrations and
sermons, including many resources for Palm and Passion Sunday, Holy
Week, and Easter can be accessed at <a __removedlink__1598636974__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
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