Palm Sunday

Today we commemorate Jesus coming into Jerusalem amid the festivities and joy of Passover.   There’s the people, the cheering, the palms and the greetings – Hosanna!    “God has answered or prayers… We’re saved!”

… And the ideas of who this Jesus guy is begin to just flow like water from an open spigot on full blast!      

Who is this Jesus guy?   Who IS this Jesus guy?!    Actually a more real question would have been – Who do I want him to be… FOR ME?   Who do I need him to be… FOR ME?   Many people… many ideas!   

He might possibly be a political leader… maybe.     A military leader, perhaps… maybe a religious leader…  

Basically someone that WE think will lead us out from under the Roman thumb!  

They were waiting for the ONE… like in the movie “The Matrix”… they were waiting for The One – their Neo –  that would lead them… inspire them… help them be successful in their desire for liberation, in their hope for a NEW WAY of Freedom!    They were very much like their ancestors were under the thumb of the Egyptian Pharaoh…      they were captives in their own land.    

So, that’s the story up to this point… IN THAT context.   

In Matthew 16 – Jesus asks Peter, “Who do people say I am?”     Some say you’re John the Baptist, some say you’re Elijah the prophet.     Then Jesus asks – “And you do you say I am?”

Who do you say I am?            Who do you say Jesus is?     Who’s Jesus to you?   

Well, we could go to the “book answer”!     Jesus is the Son of God…    Jesus is the second person of the Trinity…    Jesus is the Messiah… 

Yeah… okay, you’re right.     You can’t get that wrong – it’s the Book Answer.

But that’s not the question!    The Question is…  Who’s Jesus to you?    

 Jesus didn’t ask Peter – “Who am I?”   Jesus asked Peter, “Who do YOU say I am”?  

Who do want Jesus to be for you?    For the Judeans, back in the day, Jesus was many things to many people!     Some saw him as their possible ticket out from oppression!     Some wanted him to be a religious leader who would bring God’s divine Judgment on the Romans!     For others, he was a healer and a preacher.        

  Who’s God to you?     Who do you say Jesus is?    Really… where the rubber meets the road…. Who’s Jesus to you?

I have this feeling that for many of us here in Middle Class Suburbia    we see God in this way….   

Picture this:

Life is played out on this game-field; all our running around, doing all our important stuff, with our work and our families, and our commutes, and… just all our lives there on this playing-field.   This is the game of life!    And we’re in the game.        It’s not really… it’s a metaphor…     but you know what I’m saying.  

But just off the field… on the side-lines   – where we can see this being – is God!             

Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit… however we think of this God…  that’s where God is, right there on the side-lines.

From what I’ve seen and heard and experienced, for many…  this God is very much a benign, benevolent, Holy Grandparent-like, teddy bear type person… you know, with soft terry-cloth clothes, a warm reassuring hug, good thoughtful /thought provoking  words for us…  waiting for us just off the field of life, on the side-lines.

And we can go to this God when we need to – when there’s trouble in the game of life, when we’re hurt, ect.  It’s good to know this God is there to comfort us, to motivate us, to reassure us when-ever we need to get ourselves centered again, etc.    

But God’s not in the game with us.   And that’s okay because we don’t always need this God in the game with us.    I mean we say we do, but…we don’t really play the game of life like that.     We say we need God in the game with us… but pretty much we’re mostly okay with looking over on occasion at the side-lines and be contented enough to know that God’s there still waiting for us… smiling at us and waving at us.           It’s not bad.    I mean… usually we’re okay, right?!      And it’s good to know God’s there for us when we need God.    Good enough for many of us.

 If we’re honest… this is usually how many of us live our faith-lives.     We’re in the game of life, and Gods on the side-lines… until we need God.   God’s there for sure… but off to the side until we reach out.

This is Jesus for some.        You know anyone like that?    I do!

I remember the first time I heard someone say – “I pray as I’m looking for a parking space… and you know… God always comes through for me!   I end up getting one right by the entrance to the store!”

Seriously?!      You’re praying to the Creator of the Universe to get you a little closer to the store so you don’t have to walk as much – nothing wrong with the person – because you’re too lazy to walk a little more? ?       You’re asking God to aid and abet you in your laziness???    And that’s good????    

Oh, please Jesus… help me find a way to be even less mobile…      Oh – Amazon.com?    ….  And…  “add to cart”…  (-click-)... and done!    Thank you Jesus!     You’re so THERE for me!            Seriously????  

As a theologian, I have lots of trouble with this… the most serious issue is this way shows God/Jesus as some sort of Divine coke machine:    I put my “money” in (my prayers, my devotion, my worship, etc…) I do that right… and Jesus delivers on the other end for me.    And if what I prayed for doesn’t come out… I get angry.    

For some…    Jesus “works” for them – I mean like Jesus is their employee.   

And you know what… we’ve all been there!        Sometimes we see Jesus this way.   

We all have a way we see God/Jesus… I hope it changes over time, but we all have a way we see the divine / the Creator.  

Here’s the thing with the people who pray for parking spaces near stores…    as opposed to those of us who see God as that benign being on the side-lines of the game of life…       they’ve at least invited God into the game with them!    For them, God is real, and present, active…  THERE!    Right there in their decisions; in their mundane, daily, life decisions.        For some, Jesus is present in the Game with them.  

For some, Jesus is REAL.   God is REAL!     And that actually CHANGES the game!   I’ve seen them, I’ve heard them talk about this.    For them, the game is different.    God is different!  

I’ve heard addicts talk about getting to a point where they just couldn’t do it any more by themselves.   Where they couldn’t play the game by the same rules anymore.     And they invited God in – to take the  controls.   And it’s an every-day decision for sure… they have to keep remembering that they’ve invited God into the game… that they’re game is different now.   

I read about Pastor Nadia Bowles-Weber over in Colorado, who was a lost soul at one point – who wanted nothing to do with God.       But little by little, she learned about the Grace of God, about Gods love for her and her broken life.    And she ended up – totally surprising her – going to seminary because she just couldn’t NOT go… she felt called by this God to play a part in the Salvation of the world!      Basically she says Jesus changed the game for her.   Jesus could never be on the side-lines again.   And neither is she, for that matter!

Jesus is coming into town… This is Palm Sunday, right?   It’s a big deal.    As far as the story goes, he’s going to be executed in a few days… but right now there are as many ideas about this guy coming into town as there are people seeing him.       Who is he to you?     “Who do you say I am?”

We have to ask this question… we have to live with this question… think about it, grapple with it, honestly!    If we say we’re a people of faith… we’re back at one of the places in our liturgical calendar where we come face-to-face with this question.    

Here he comes… who is he to you?     In your life…  right now…    who is Jesus to you?