A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch?" And the father answered, "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today." The little boy replied, " Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"
We begin Holy Week today celebrating Christ's presence in Jerusalem. The day he came to town! We have been prepared by the gospel writers to understand the joy of the people greeting Jesus. We are about to see Jesus in the fulfillment of his role as messiah. He will die to demonstrate the love of God, which has no limits. But on the first day of the Passover week, Jesus came to Jerusalem and there were a few who knew him, but most would have asked, "Who is this man?"
Now Jesus was referred to with many names, most of which described some facet of his character or countenance. I have counted 40 in the NT but there could be more. Son of God, Son of Man, Alpha and Omega, Good Shepherd, The Door, The Light of the World, The Word, Messiah.
There was Jesus the Rabbi, Teacher, who taught with authority even at the age of twelve (Luke 2:41f) and all through His adult life. There was Jesus the Healer, who healed the sick in body and soul, curing their deformities and casting out their demons. There was Jesus the Carpenter, who spent the first thirty years of His life as a craftsman. There was Jesus the Friend of the despised and downtrodden. On the first Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem, like the Kings of old had entered the city-on a humble donkey greeted with palm branches and shouts of "Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Jesus-King. Truth, Lamb, Life, Master, Judge, Lord—There are more and I could go on and on.
But of all the names, perhaps the one which is of utmost importance today and the one which our confirmands will be asked if they are ready to "serve him as Lord", is the most important. If he is Lord, he must receive ultimate loyalty. Above all things, he desires our affection and loyalty to his ways.
To the confirmands: There are two things I pray you will remember of this day when you affirmed Jesus to be your Lord.
First of all, that you knew yourself today to have been created in his image. You were not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. As a matter of fact, long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. In Isaiah 44:2 there is this beautiful statement from God: "I am your Creator, you were in my care even before you were born."
You are alive not because of some freak of nature, nor luck, nor coincidence, but because God wanted to create you. He desired you to breath, to be, to accomplish his purposes for creation. Albert Einstein said, “I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.” You display the exquisite creativity of God.
I am convinced that nothing in all of creation just happens. Things happen because of the will of God and that we are where God wants us to be. He custom made your body and gave you certain natural talents you would need to do what he wanted and needed you to do. The Psalmist said: "You know me through and through, inside and out, you know every detail of my life. It was you who knitted me together in my mother's womb."
Because God made you for a reason, he also decided when you would be born and where. Your days were planned far in advance and as you serve him as your Lord, you will live according to his plan. To live in any other way is to short-circuit his plan, to frustrate his will.
C. S. Lewis, an English writer once said: “It’s not that we are any more special than anyone else, but everyone is as special as I am.” There are two kinds of people; those who say to God: "Thy will be done" and those to whom God says, "All right then, have it your way."
Over the more recent years of my life, I have become convinced that peace can only be found when we submit ourselves to God's will. When we do, God accomplishes his purpose for our life and we are at peace.
Russell Kelfer states this in his poem, "You are who you Are"
You are who you are for a reason.
You're part of an intricate plan.
You're a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God's special child.You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You're just what he wanted to make.The parents you had were the ones he chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God's plan in mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.
The first thing I Hope you will remember about your day of confirmation is that you were reminded that you were created in God's image for a purpose.
And the second thing I hope you will remember is that you made a choice of Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. Life consists of a series of choices and those choices will shape your life.
William Jennings Bryan wrote: "Destiny is not a matter of chance but of choice." The future is not a place we are going – a place we are creating.
This week the papers carried articles about two individuals, Emmett Smith and W. D. Childers. One a football hero who came from nowhere and chose to make something out of his life. He spoke with tears in his eyes of gratitude for family and community. The other a politician placed in privileged positions for decades but chose a way that led to humiliation. Choice. You chose the way of Christ and keep asking yourself "What Would Jesus Do?" and you will know God's way and will find strength to walk in it.
As you choose to be a servant of Jesus as Lord, you will find and fulfill the reason of your creation.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2 "Have this mind in you which is in Christ, who considered equality with God not to be something to be held on to but emptied himself and became a servant."
It is as a servant of Jesus as Lord that we will know and fulfill God's gift of life. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Good news is always something you share with a smile. Something you can’t wait to share with a friend. Something you want to shout across the street—"The war is over. I'm in love. The Baby is born. I've found a new job. I'm getting married. He is not here, He is risen! The Troops are coming home.”
It has been interesting the comments of the young men and women who are coming home now from Iraq. Some wounded and others just relieved of duty. One said: “We have accomplished our job! We did the work of liberation! We saw, we conquered!" “I’m thankful we are out of there!” One said in the words of the Apostle Paul: "We are more than conquerors!" This statement seems to me to capture the emotions of this time and this particular day and were in fact the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 when, realizing the impact of the Resurrection of Jesus, said: "We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ."
More than conquerors! That is what we are today when our life is in Jesus. Some have experienced a troubled year of personal challenge, and in some cases suffering, yet you have made it through to see the sun rise on another Easter and you are more than conquerors.
As he left my office he looked back and said: "Thank you, I am a survivor!" And I said, "Yes you are! And you are more than a survivor!"
There are those who have had a hard time in your work and in some cases in your marriage, and yet you are still working and are still married. This fellow that lived in Orlando went fishing in Colorado one year, which wasn't bad except that he left his wife nearly nine months pregnant at the time. He caught this trophy trout, the biggest he had ever caught and was so excited that he decided to e-mail his wife. It read: "I've got one, weighs seven pounds and two ounces, and it is a beauty." A reply came almost immediately from his wife who had delivered the baby, saying: "So have I, weighs eight pounds, four ounces. Not a beauty, because he looks like you. Come home, immediately." Some of us have survived our own foolish mistakes because in Christ, “we are more than conquerors!”
There are those who have experienced broken homes and their numbers have increased once again this year, you are a survivor but more than a survivor.
Those who have experienced death in your family this year, you are a survivor, but you are more than just a survivor. This year, since we last gathered on Easter Sunday, we have been through the valley of the shadow of death, and today's message is our loved ones are more than conquerors!
Robert Shaw was the chorale director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for many years. He died a couple of years ago, but each and every year for years, he would direct the symphony in their annual performance in the Lenten/Easter season Handel’s Messiah, the historic work of epic proportions. You will hear the Resurrection Chorus of The Messiah today. Someone once asked Shaw, "You and your orchestras have been performing this for so many years, how do you get up for such a performance? Is it just normal or perfunctory now or do you get excited about it?" With excitement, he said, "When we perform the Messiah, everybody is on their toes. The reason is I know in my heart that there is someone out there who will be hearing this music for the first time, and I want it to be right and exciting, for it could be the beginning of a new life for that individual. There are those who are listening to this music for the first time." Then with tears in his eyes he said, "There will also be those in the audience who will hear this music for the last time."
Each year that we come to the Easter celebration, I wonder to myself, how can I voice this wonderful mystery in a new way? Is there some humorous story that could be told? Is there some drama that could be performed? Is there some inflection in one's voice that can be made at a certain dramatic point in the story that would enlighten and encourage and enrich and make meaningful the life of someone who is present? Yet then I remind myself, "Henry, just tell the story. Tell the old, old story, because there will be some in the audience who will hear it for the first time, and there will be some who will hear it for the last time."
Jesus had been executed as a common criminal on Friday. An innocent man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rome was suspicious of everyone. The old Jewish Sanhedrin authorities were gradually losing their grip on the Jewish cultural society. And into this tension this upstart prophet from Galilee came to Jerusalem. He preached a message of hope and deliverance. He told the story of a new way of power through service. He spoke of turning the other cheek, going the second mile, offering one's cloak. He said if you want to be great you must be the servant of all. He had ridden on the first day of Passover into the city on a Donkey and some of his disciples had waved palm branches. This act itself would have stirred up hope in the people that here could be a new revolutionary leader. He was so gentle, but he was a threat to the system and he must go. He had been tried in a kangaroo court in the middle of the night and on Friday had been nailed to a cross along with two other common criminals. Before sundown on Friday he was dead and was taken down for burial in a borrowed tomb. But now it was the third day and his body could not be found. And some of the women were telling tales about him and they said that someone had said to them: "He is not here, He is risen?" Could it be true?
And today we come to this place of divine worship again to hear the good news—Is true! Is true! “He is not here! He is risen! He is risen indeed!”
I know today that there is someone here who is hearing this story for the first time. And there are also those who are hearing this story for the last time. Since we last gathered for out Easter celebration service a year ago, in our own church family, there have been 29 individuals who heard the story for the last time. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus, they are more than conquerors.
The Resurrection of Jesus is often portrayed in creative fashion by the great artists of the ages. In stained glass beauty, for 95 years the artist of the centerpiece of our sanctuary has depicted our Lord, and this year in a new and enhanced setting. He stands blessing us surrounded by the angel Gabriel with the Lilies of the spring season.
Often times the Resurrection scene includes not just Jesus, but also others. Jesus always has the mainframe focus but such Painters as Rembrandt, Michelangelo, El Greco, Botticelli, all add others in the Resurrection scene. Piero Della Francesca painted himself into the scene as a soldier. Titician painted three of his friends into the scene.
There seems always to be Mary of Magdala, and Peter and John.
In a side chapel in St Patrick's there is depicted in the Resurrection Scene, not only Jesus, Mary, John and Peter, but also: Augustine, Albert Switzer, Mother Teresa, and a lot of other persons I didn't know.
This year, were I an artist, I would paint in addition to Jesus, Mary, John and Peter, and also the visual presence of each of our friends who are in the Resurrection scene this year. Yes, they would all be there, for they are more than conquerors. Paul said: “If God is for us, who is against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
1. God's Holy Spirit was given to the first disciples during the transitional period between the death and resurrection events and the growth of the early church. Nothing else could have explained the phenomenal change which took place among the frightened disciples and the church which they initiated other than the awareness of the Resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God present with us! Were the Holy Spirit not here this very moment, this would be an assembly of diverse individuals gathered for entertainment and fellowship. Were the Holy Spirit not here this very moment, this would be but a large group of people in an auditorium, but instead it is a worshiping congregation in a Sanctuary. The difference is The Holy Spirit! God present with us!
There are two different accounts of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The first is found in today's scripture, and the second we will hear on the Sunday of Pentecost recorded in the second chapter of Acts. Today's account is this:
"The doors being shut, Jesus appeared among them. He said "Shalom-Peace" and he breathed on them the spirit of God." …
The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote an ambitious poem entitled The Wreck of the Deutschland. It commemorates the death of five Franciscan nuns drowned on the German ship Deutschland at the mouth of the Thames in the winter of 1875. One half-line especially intrigues me: 'Let him Easter in us.' Let Christ 'Easter' in us. A rare verb indeed, but it suits this sacred season, … How does Christ Easter in us? By the presence of his Holy Spirit who comforts, guides, teaches, encourages, disciplines us. The Holy Spirit-God present with us.
2. When I was a kid I first learned of the gift of God's spirit as a physical miracle called The Second Wind. In the spring of the year in Marengo County, in my school, I ran track… The reason was not that I liked track, but rather because it was a small school and every able-bodied male played all three sports, football, basketball, and then baseball. But there was a brief spring season when track was offered. I was usually exhausted trying to keep up my grades and playing all three sports, so I would usually opt out track. But when my Dad would come in from work and find me laying around in the afternoon, he would ask what’s going on? And I would say, "I just can't run track. I'm going to take some time off." And he would say, "That's great, we will break up the garden tomorrow and I need some help anyway." Well that was all it took, so the next day I went out for track. I ran the shorter races the 220, 440 but never the mile. But on one occasion when we went to a track meet on the campus of the University of West Alabama, then Livingston State University, our only miler was sick and the coach came to me and said: "You'll run the mile today."
Three things happened that day:
There were those who opposed me thinking I could not do it,
There were those who believed in me,
and then there came the gift of God, the Second Wind.
3. This Sunday has been designated in our denomination as Heritage Sunday by the United Methodist Church. The reason is that it is the 35th anniversary celebration of the Methodist Church becoming the United Methodist Church which took place in l968 by the merging of two denominations: The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren. This particular year also celebrates the 300th anniversary of the birthday of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in England. God's Holy Spirit has been, is and will be a vital part of the life and ministry of the United Methodist church. The Holy Spirit guides, comforts, guides, teaches, encourages, disciplines us. The Holy Spirit-God present with us.
There is much you can learn from our heritage. As I learned on the track as a teenage runner, you realize that there were those who opposed the Methodist movement in the mid l8th century, there were those whose lives were changed, and the Holy Spirit directed it all.
Summary: Understand this, that in your life, there will be individuals and situations, which will oppose you. There is evil in the world and you must choose the right in order not to be overcome by evil's ways. Remember your Confirmation vows: Do you reject evil in any form that it presents itself. And secondly, as there will be some who will oppose you, there will also be some who will encourage you. Chose carefully your friends. Someone will always appear that will surprise you and bless you… And thirdly, the Holy Spirit will come. God is present with us today—encouraging, guiding and seeking to strengthen us.
One of the many Wesleyan hymns in our hymnal is the hymn in a few moments I want us to sing—Love Divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down; fix in us thy humble dwelling all thy faithful mercies crown.
Breathe, O breath thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast! Let us all in thee inherit; let us find that second rest.
Finish then thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be. Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee.
Now To Him Who Is Able To Do Immeasurably More Than All We Ask Or Imagine, According To His Power That Is At Work Within Us, To Him Be Glory In The Church And In Christ Jesus Throughout All Generations, For Ever And Ever! Amen.