Last month, eight survivors of the Bataan Death March along with thousands of other persons gathered in New Mexico to memorialize the 75th anniversary of that terrible atrocity. It was the first of several events that have been organized to remind Americans of one of the most barbaric episodes of the Second World War. During a period of eight days and over a course of more than 60 miles, 60-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners-of-war were forced to trudge under the most brutal conditions, resulting in an estimated 5 to 10,000 Filipino and 1000 American deaths. For the next three years, these POWs endured an experience that would forge a life-time bond among them. Said one survivor who will be celebrating his 100th birthday in July, “If you knew about the sacrifices of those men in the prison camps, you would know I am the weak one. They brought me back, time and again, from death and they are so much a part of my years in incarceration that I cannot ever forget them.” I’m proud to say that my father took part in the invasion that helped liberate the Philippines, enabling many of those who DID survive to return home once again.
Well this morning, we remember ANOTHER “death march,” but this one occurred NOT 75 years ago but almost 2000 years ago, and it didn’t involve thousands of men as it did one person in particular- Jesus Christ of Nazareth. After restoring the sight to an old blind beggar named Bartimaeus, he leaves Jericho and begins his final journey, ascending some three thousand feet over the next fifteen miles to Jerusalem, the City of David. When he gets as far as Bethany--only a couple of miles from the city itself--he sends two of his disciples across the way to fetch a young donkey which no one had ever ridden upon. He instructs them that if anyone was to stop and question them, they should say that the Lord has need of it and he will immediately send it back when he is finished. Returning with the animal, they spread their cloaks upon it and then, mounting it, Jesus begins the final leg of his journey- one which will end a few days later on a hill called Golgotha.
During the summer of 1976, I was working for a savings bank in mid-town Manhattan in New York City at the same time our nation was celebrating her Bicentennial. Throughout the months of July and August, the city was busy hosting the Democratic National Convention; Operation Sail was underway with armadas of tall ships from around the world streaming up the Hudson; and even Queen Elizabeth of England, the country we had defeated two hundred years before, made a special visit to honor us. One day, the bank manager approached me and asked if I’d ever seen the Queen. “No” I said. “Why do you ask?” “Well if you want to take off an hour early, you might get a chance to see her when she arrives at Bloomingdale’s later on today”- Bloomingdale’s being the famous department store located directly across the street from us. I jumped at the opportunity, not just to see royalty up close but to take advantage of getting out of work a little early.
At three o’clock, I finished up my work and hurried out the building before the boss could change his mind. A small crowd had already gathered outside the bank in anticipation of the big event. Television cameras were being set up by some of the local networks so as to capture what would be the lead story for the evening newscasts. The police began cordoning off the area in front of the store, prohibiting persons from entering the premises. Then all traffic up Lexington Ave., which was a one-way boulevard, was cleared and a detour set up so her entourage could arrive safely and without incident.
I stood around for about half an hour when in the distance I could hear the growing blare of sirens indicating that her arrival was imminent. Within moments, a retinue of police cars turned the corner with the Queen’s limousine right behind them. Once the procession had come to a stop, Queen Elizabeth slowly got out of the vehicle followed by her husband and consort, Prince Phillip. Smiling, they faced the crowds and began waving to everyone- a scene she had performed many thousands of times before. Almost spontaneously, the crowd responded with shouts of “Queenie! Queenie!” and they began to reach out with their hands as though somehow believing they could actually touch the royal couple. Though I am half English, I’m certainly no fan of royalty. Yet, what happened next came as a complete shock to me. In what seemed like an unconscious reflex, my OWN arms began to rise up and with my hands straining forth towards them, I TOO began shouting, “Queenie! Queenie! Over here! Over here!” Surprisingly, I found MYSELF behaving in the same mindless and worshipful manner as everyone else. Well I learned a very important lesson that afternoon- just how easy it was to get caught up in the emotion of the moment, to succumb to the psychology of the crowd and begin doing things as part of a group which one would not normally do by oneself. I imagine that much of the same mob psychology had infected the crowd that day as Jesus made his way into Jerusalem that day.
Now Jesus had chosen a donkey for a very specific reason. A thousand years earlier, Solomon, son of King David, entered Jerusalem on his FATHER’S donkey where he was anointed with the horn of oil and made king over all Israel. The crowd would have understood the meaning of Jesus’s act immediately for the prophet Zechariah had spoken of it centuries before:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion,
Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem;
Behold, thy king will come to thee, the just and victorious.
He is humble and riding upon an ass, upon the foal of an ass.
If a king entered a city on a horse, it symbolically indicated that he was a WARRIOR king who was coming to establish a military and political kingdom but if he entered on an ASS, it was an indication that his intentions were friendly, that he was not bent on war but PEACE instead. Thus, here we see Jesus publicly declaring for the very first time that he was a king and WHAT’S MORE, showing just what kind of a king he WAS- a Lord of peace and justice, one who would rule with a shepherd’s staff instead of a sharpened sword. As he had repeatedly said, his kingdom was not of this world; it would begin, not in a palace but in a person. He would conquer the world by establishing his throne on people’s hearts and using the only weapon he had at his disposal- his love.
Astride that donkey, Jesus nears the gate which serves as the entrance to Jerusalem. The crowd prepares the way by waving palm branches and spreading their own garments on the road in homage to him. Shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” at once fill the air. After centuries of foreign domination and brutal oppression, they now project their hopes, their dreams, their fantasies on this poor carpenter from Nazareth. The word “Hosanna” wasn’t just a word of acclamation but was originally an Aramaic prayer which literally meant “Save us now.” Thus, they were not only HAILING their deliverer, they were praying that he would establish his kingdom NOW and deliver them IMMEDIATELY from all their oppression. When they cry out “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!” they are certain Jesus has arrived to re-establish David’s kingdom once and for all, a kingdom of power and glory. He would make Israel GREAT again, or so they believed.
However, only JESUS is aware that he enters NOT INTO POWER AND GLORY but rather SUFFERING AND DEATH and he will NOT be King until he is nailed to a cross and then lifted up on it! The disciples and the crowds are looking for a Mighty Deliverer, a victorious savior because they are all so preoccupied with themselves and thoughts of personal power and prestige when Jesus comes to them as a SERVANT Messiah, a SUFFERING savior instead. THIS is the ONLY king he promises them and the ONLY Messiah they will get. In contrast to the great political powers of this world, Jesus' power lay in its very OPPOSITE- that is, in his "powerlessness," in his RENUNCIATION of status and power and wealth. He came as a servant who ruled in love and self-sacrifice on behalf of all persons. As he himself said, "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
My friends, when times get tough and people become desperate, it’s not uncommon for them to look for some messiah to come and save them. But then, after that person HAS come, they will find quite frequently that their hopes have been dashed and their situation is WORSE off than before. Exactly one hundred years ago this past Thursday, America officially entered World War I. My mother was born in Germany only a few short years after that war ended. At the time, there were six million unemployed and a wheelbarrow full of deutschemarks could not buy a single loaf of bread; there was violence everywhere and constant clashes between the various political parties. But then along came a man who presented himself as a paragon of virtue, a vegetarian who did not smoke, drink or womanize, one whose life exemplified thrift, industry, honesty, courage, and love of family and country. He honored motherhood and was always pictured as a lover of little children. He posed as a patron of the arts, as a lover of painting and classical music and architecture. He represented himself as a religious man who often spoke of duty to God and was often photographed with prominent religious leaders. A strong anti-Communist, he denounced imperialism of any kind and appeared as a champion of world peace. This beloved leader of theirs was none other than Adolf Hitler. They welcomed him as a savior but INSTEAD he led them to the slaughter because he was more interested in power and glory and creating a world-wide empire for himself that would last a thousand years than he was in contributing to a world where justice and mercy and love lay at the heart of it.
Since 9/11, Americans have had to live with an elevated level of anxiety that has not been experienced since World War II. People everywhere regardless of age or sex, ethnicity or income level are afraid, and their faith in many of our institutions and their confidence in our elected leaders to reverse this tide has never been lower. The fact we were willing to elect a businessman as President--someone completely outside the realm of politics and who had never held elective office before--only highlights that deep sense of desperation.
Such fear is no less found in many of our CHURCHES today, in a great percentage of mainline congregations whose once full pews are now nearly empty- mostly occupied by a handful of aging members on any given Sunday. Where they once boasted of robust membership drives and thriving programs and exciting building projects, now they struggle just to pay their bills and keep a full-time minister. They’ll often cycle through their ministers, looking for that one person whom they believe will in a sense “save” them, someone who will reverse their decline and replenish their finances and make them a significant presence in the community once again. But with expectations so impossibly high, the inevitable is BOUND to occur- the same persons who welcomed their ministers with palm branches and shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” are soon yelling “Crucify him! Crucify him!” when all their unrealistic dreams and unlikely expectations fail to materialize. I’ve seen occur again and again.
Well, the most important lesson I have ever learned about ministry and the church after so many years of service to her is this, that God never asks for SUCCESS from his people- after all, that’s something churches really don’t have much control over. “Success” is what the owners of baseball and football and basketball teams expect of their coaches and managers and when their records fail to measure up to expectations, then they fire them and look for someone else who CAN do the job. Well that philosophy might work well in the SPORTS world but it doesn’t work that way in the SPIRITUAL world, ESPECIALLY among Christ’s churches. Those churches which strive to be successful utilize all sorts of gimmicks and manipulation to get people to come through their doors. They become an extension of the entertainment industry instead of worshiping God in Spirit and in Truth, and simply allowing the love and humility of Christ to serve as its OWN witness.
No, rather than success, God only asks for FAITHFULNESS from his people and that’s something entirely different. When Jesus called his disciples, they didn’t have enough knowledge to pass a Sunday School exam. He only asked that they drop their nets, abandon their plows, and then follow him, in other words, to just remain FAITHFUL and HE, in turn, would lead them on a journey, an adventure they would never forget. It would be filled with love and hope and mission and service, and it would spark a revolution which in time would turn the world upside-down- which indeed it HAS.
This past Tuesday evening, the Pastoral Nominating Committee which was elected several weeks ago by you to find this congregation’s next pastor held its very first meeting. I can’t tell you much more other than that they are an exceptional group who love this church and are excited about the task you have entrusted them with. But it is an EQUALLY exciting time for YOU, the members of this church, because like those disciples, you TOO find yourselves on a journey, a grand adventure of which only God knows how it will all end. Along the way, God asks NOT that we be successful but to only concentrate on being FAITHFUL, that is, to remain focused on LEARNING together and GROWING together and having FUN together in the process. If we just concentrate on being FAITHFUL- FAITHFUL in our personal conduct with each other, FAITHFUL in our obedience to Christ, and FAITHFUL in our love and support of this his church, he will then show us what it means to be SUCCESSFUL- successful on HIS terms and not as the world defines it. We won’t be obsessing then about whether this historic old building with its greying contents will be around ten or twenty years from now but laughing and loving and enjoying ministry together ONE DAY AT A TIME while leaving the rest for GOD to worry about. A faith-filled church is a HOPE-FILLED and JOYOUS body, the kind of church that attracts others and keeps them coming back again and again. HOWEVER, it must begin with the same lowliness of heart and mind that Jesus HIMSELF showed; it demands the same love and humility and service to others that HE did. Only when we lay aside our pettiness and divisions, our pride and personal ambitions and assume the same kind of humility and selflessness Jesus epitomized in his OWN life will we ever become the kind of church Christ is looking for, the only kind he can ever work with- a FAITHFUL one.
Two thousand years after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, another visitor came to the city- Germany’s last Kaiser, Wilhelm II. His entourage was SO grand that he had to have the Jaffe Gate in the Old City widened so that his over-sized carriage could pass through. After the parade had ended, someone climbed up and attached a large sign to the gate. The sign read, “A better man than Wilhelm came through this city’s gate. He rode on a donkey.” Let us pray…
Most merciful God, thank you for the matchless gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who came to show us how to live and die with complete trust. We praise your name for Jesus and we bow in awe before his majestic life. Help us to follow him as our Savior and Lord as he marches through this life into our cities and homes, and may our lives reflect his love in such a way that others may come to know your forgiving grace and transforming love through us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.