Sermons

Sunday 13th April – Palm Sunday

Procession: Luke 19: 28-40 & Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29

Isaiah 40: 5-9a

Psalm 31: 9-16

Philippians 2: 5-11

St. Luke 23: 1-49 (or 22: 14-23: 56)

“Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Luke 19: 38

What comes to our mind when we think about – God?… What is God really like?… We likely think about some of the qualities of God’s nature – that God is all-powerful; that he is kind and merciful; eternal; that God sustains our very lives; and that God hates the destructive addiction of sin… For Christians, I hope we have other insights into what God is like, revealed through the Spirit of God the Son: That we are forgiven; that we can enjoy fellowship with God for ever; that we have free will; that the old human divisions have been broken by Christ on the cross; and so forth…

Perhaps some of us have images of God, or ascribe to God’s nature, false ideas about God which we need to shed, because they are unbiblical; they are contrary to the nature of God as understood throughout the universal Church… For example, some of us may have the image of a grandfatherly figure with a beard, “above” us somehow – but that cannot be accurate, because God is beyond the categories of gender, and God is present everywhere…

There are indeed times when we can feel closer to God – for God’s ancient people, they especially associated God’s presence with the ark of the covenant, and in the temple in Jerusalem… For us moderns, we might feel closer to God when observing a fantastic sunset, or when we are singing in the community of the Church… But it’s not quite right to say that “God is closer” when we are in the Church building, or in nature. Rather, there are times when our human spirits are especially open to the presence of God, who is everywhere…

Another distorted image of God is when people feel condemned and judged all the time; or for any who feel they are un-loveable… Especially if we grew up in a home in which there was a lot of criticism, we might feel as if we can never be free of a sense of dread or of judgement. If we never felt loved by our parents – our parents themselves might be deeply wounded adults – if we never felt loved by our parents, we might feel as if we are un-loveable; or that we have to perform well all the time, to be found worthy of being loved. The core of the gospel, in contrast, is that we are loved deeply and unconditionally…

Conversely, there can be some who never take responsibility for sinful behaviour; they are always ready to make excuses…

So, we all have some conceptions about what God is like… If our conceptions of God are consistent with how God has truly revealed himself in history, all is well… If, though, we have a distorted or misleading view about what God is like, then with the help of the Holy Spirit, and with the support of the local parish community, these misguided conceptions of God can be corrected… None of these misguided conceptions of God are an unforgiveable sin; we just need to help one another know our truest Friend more deeply…

Whatever conceptions of God we may carry, however, there is likely a quality of God’s nature which we easily overlook – even though the journey of Holy Week is shot through with this quality of God’s nature – from the triumphal journey into Jerusalem, when the crowd was jubilant with the arrival of Jesus; through to the astonishing example of Jesus washing the apostles’ feet during the Lord’s Supper; through Christ’s ministry on the cross; even to the first night of Christ’s resurrection, when he astonished his friends by sharing a meal with them…

There is one quality of God which we easily overlook, even though it is staring us right in the eyes all through Jesus’ life, now and hereafter: All too often, we forget that humility of core to God’s nature – shown perfectly in Jesus Christ himself… God reveals himself to be humble… We often think of God’s glory and majesty. Do we think of his humility?…

(Of everything which has life, we might think that God is the Being who has the least to be humble about! For heaven’s sake, God is perfect!… Why would God be humble?…)

Let’s consider how God has revealed himself through human history: We begin with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God didn’t choose to enter into a covenant relationship with Israel because they were mighty in number (Deuteronomy 7: 7), and God worked through Moses, a humble man, to achieve God’s purposes (Numbers 12: 3)…

God does mighty works and miracles, but from the beginning, God worked through the small, and the simple…

The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was not a conventional birth of a mighty king. Jesus of Nazareth was assuredly born in humble circumstances among the barn animals, because there was no room in the inn…

Today’s epistle reading is from Philippians 2. It is a kind of poem or early Christian Creed. Let’s read what this says about the humility of God:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

There it is! God “humbled himself,” in his self-offering for you and for me…

Let’s consider the events we observe in Holy Week: We begin with the Lord Jesus riding in to Jerusalem, amid a jubilant crowd, who are shouting praise to God, and they are throwing cloaks and palm branches before him. And what is Jesus riding?… Not a stallion. Not in a chariot. He’s riding a donkey, a humble animal. (This is one of many times when the Lord Jesus challenges our assumptions about status and God…) In the Middle Eastern culture, until quite recently, teachers would often ride donkeys, travelling to visit students. Details in the Bible are important to notice. Christ the King rode a humble animal, to present himself to the city where his life would be taken…

Let’s move ahead in Holy Week, to the institution of the Lord’s Supper. It is during a celebration of the Jewish Passover, that our Lord inaugurated this sacrament in his memory and of his presence, beginning with the elements of bread and wine… But the Lord Jesus astonished his friends at that meal, didn’t he? – by taking off his outer robe, by taking the role of a servant, washing their feet… Servanthood is part of the very nature of the Son of God himself…

Let’s journey further, to consider Christ’s death by crucifixion. By all accounts of that time, it had been thought to be a failure by this wonderful, strange young rabbi. The Old Testament law reads that anyone who hangs on a tree is cursed (Deuteronomy 21: 23). This King of the Jews was put to death between 2 thieves, on a hill outside the city walls, called the Place of the Skull… This is not the conventional death of a person of status, much less the earth’s true King!… It was a humble death – even a shameful one…

Let’s journey once more, to consider the apostles who are gathered on the first night of the resurrection… They have been confronted with the impossible – with the risen life of Jesus after his death… They are gathered together for supper, having locked the doors to the home (perhaps in a futile attempt to keep out the Roman army, if they come knocking)… They are having what we would consider a simple, humble meal together…

and – guess who shows up!… It is the risen Christ, in all his wounds and glory! Full of life and of laughter; perhaps bemused by his friends’ bewilderment at his presence. Does Christ Lord it over them? No. Does the Lord berate them or judge them or condemn them? No!… He joins them, reclined at the table, and begins enjoying the fish dinner with them (Luke 24: 42)…

There are many qualities to the character of God. At the start of the journey we are taking of Holy Week, I am inviting us to consider a key characteristic of God – that God is humble… The Lord God of hosts, mighty to save, doesn’t choose arrogantly to crush or to belittle the little creatures who are us… The story of Christmas is the story of the Incarnation – God became one of us, to make us great… God in Christ humbled himself upon the cross, so that you and I can enjoy fellowship with him forever, by God’s grace…

Humility isn’t putting oneself down. Genuine humility is about facing outward – it’s about being sincerely and genuinely caring for others and for God, and not being concerned about own status or position…

The vice of pride, of course, is all about having an unhealthy preoccupation with ourselves and our desire for status above others! The person consumed by pride is not at peace. Proud people are frequently comparing themselves with others – trying to assert their superior status to others… For a proud man or woman, other people are seen as a way to puff ourselves up… Humility, in contrast, is all about engaging and caring for others in a healthy way…

As God has become human in Jesus, to bring you and me to glory, we are expected to take on God’s attribute of humility… We too can wash one another’s feet. We participate in Christ’s death and resurrection, being dead to sin and alive to Christ. Let’s delight in God’s goodness and mercy to us, shown supremely in Jesus Christ. Let’s cheerfully adopt the state of humility, caring deeply for others (whatever their foibles or terrible habits), and caring for God. “Let the same mind be in you,” reads Philippians 2: