Back to Sermon Index Palm Sunday — Thine is the Kingdom... March 16, 2008 Picture it in your mind's eye. They came from all over the city. They were young and old, rich and poor, slave and free. Men and women and children, all came running. They had heard stories of this new prophet, the one who teaches with such authority the words are burned into your heart and mind as you listen to them...and you understand about God in a way that is true in mind and spirit. It started with the children, who loved him as he loved them...he always made time for them and they often would run up to him and hug him. He blessed them and welcomed them into his kingdom. Or perhaps it was the women, who found in him someone who listened to them and cared about them as people. They were welcome to sit and learn as the men had always done, they were part of the group of disciples that walked the hills and visited the towns with him. They had seen and heard enough to know that a new day was dawning...in their souls and in the world. Come and celebrate! Added to the growing crowd were those who had seen and experienced the amazing power that he brought...healing the sick, the blind, the broken in body and in mind. It seemed that there was no one who was excluded and nothing that he could not touch and change...not even death. They had heard rumors that he has raised a little girl from death and gave her back to her grieving parents...but word of this latest miracle was spreading like a wild fire! A man named Lazarus had been his friend. He came to his tomb in front of the whole village of Bethany...just a few short miles from Jerusalem itself. When he commanded that the stone be rolled away people felt that his grief had gotten the better of him...Lord, he has been dead for days and by now he really stinks! His response was one of confidence and strength...fear not. And then it happened...he prayed to heaven and heaven answered with thunder and then Jesus said...Lazarus come forth. The air was still, the birds had stopped singing, the people stood in stunned silence. Had he lost his mind? Had he reached too far, even for Him? And then it happened. People saw a shadow move from within the dark tomb and then a figured wrapped from head to toe in burial cloths like a mummy hopped out. At first the crowd stepped back...was this real? Or was he come creature from beyond. Jesus simply said "untie him and let him go". At that his sisters were off like a shot...laughing and crying and shouting for help...as they unwrapped their brother. That was Lazarus...he lives just a stones throw from here! As he rode into the city that day a crowd gathered, a crowd made up of ordinary people who had experienced the extraordinary power and grace of God in Jesus the Christ. Their hearts were full to over flowing and they began to sing and dance and shout...Hosanna, hosanna in the highest...blessed is the one who comes in the name of the lord! Blessed is Jesus, messiah, savior, friend! They danced and shouted and waved their palm branches in joyful praise! For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever! This is the end of the pray that we say each week. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil (or the evil one...they are the same), FOR...because yours is the kingdom...and the power...and the glory....forever. Yours is the kingdom. Jesus came to bring the rule of God, the new order for the world and all of creation. He set the social order on its head and began a new community...not a kingdom like the world was used to..where the strong rule the weak for their benefit, where the few and the privileged benefit from the work of the many. No, he came to bring a the kingdom of God on earth. He came as king, the one who would rule in our hearts, who had defeated the powers of evil and the evil one too. The one who sets us free from Sin's power and from its penalty. He changes our hearts and our minds and in him we become citizens of heaven...who's values are different than that of the world. His is the kingdom... And the power. The early church spoke often of Jesus Christ the Victor...Christ the conqueror. He conquers evil and the evil one...and this is demonstrated for all to see by his resurrection power. This means that we are set free...free to love and to learn and to grow. We still face temptation and our old ways...but in Him we have the power to let it all go and to begin a new life. We are, in fact, born again in grace and set free from shame and guilt. And his power is at work in us...to help us want to do what is right and to give us the power to actually do it. His power is greater than we can imagine, if we will but plug into it. "how to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or even imagine possible by his power at work in us, to him be Glory in Christ Jesus and in the Church forever and ever...amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). In Christ the sinner is set free. Again and again through the ages people have begun new lives in Christ and the world has marveled at the new creation standing before them. The worst sinners can become the greatest saints. Of for a thousand tongues to sin my redeemers praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. He breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free; his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me! He speaks and listening to his voice, new life the dead receive, the mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe! And his is the glory. The word for glory is the word Doxos...from which we derive the word Doxology... The glory is the revelation of the inner beauty and grace...the term is a musical term...the glory of the bell is the sound it makes when it is rung. The bell reverberates and the sound rings forth and resonates in us. Jesus is the Bell of God...he is the one who rings his glory and shows his inner grace. In him the fullness of deity dwells in human form, and he is the visible image of the invisible God. His life, his spirit, his love share the glory of who God is and what God wants...For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that who so ever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:16-17). He is the bell, who's sound and glory reverberates in our hearts. And we too join the parade of praise...Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest...Glory, Glory to God in the highest...blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord! Back to Sermon Index