Anchored | Palm Sunday

 Palm Sunday opens Holy Week with a striking reversal — the same crowd that cried Hosanna would cry Crucify. Father Aaron preaches on what untethers us from the real Jesus, and what it means to be anchored by devotion rather than driven by emotion. From St. John's Fort Smith. 

Transcript

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In the name of Flower, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Evening, this is Northword, the Word, the North, your Week, a daily podcast from St. John's Fort Smith in collaboration with the Anglican family. Today we celebrated Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. That's the week leading us into the Passion, into Good Friday, and then to Easter Sunday. We enter Jerusalem with the crowds this morning. We are carrying and waving palms, but spoiler alert, we already know what happens on Friday. And this morning I preached a sermon called Anchored, from the Triumphal Entry to the Passion. So let's take a listen. We are often swayed by the tides of popular opinion. Sometimes we are aware of the swaying that happens, and sometimes it just happens, and we are completely unaware of that experience. Now, the idea of being swayed, you have to understand it this way, is gentle. It's not an extreme experience. It's like a boat being pushed on a gentle wave. Now I'll give you an example. I ha I my sister's boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. My sister's ex-boyfriend. They were in Israel, and the Dead Sea is both in Israel, of course, and in Jordan. And so uh he was laying in the Dead Sea. I don't know if anybody's been to the Dead Sea. Anybody been to the Dead Sea? Well, the Dead Sea's got a lot of salt in it. Um so much salt content that the one time my brother jumped into it next to me, I was blind for three hours when the water splashed in my face. Like, we're talking salt content that you float. And so he fell asleep in the Dead Sea. Beautiful, he was laying back. And uh next thing you know, he woke up uh sort of floating into Jordan. It was not a great place to be floating into. So we may not even realize that we are we are being swayed, that we are being pushed until we find ourselves really, really far beyond the course that we were intending to be. And so today we read two gospels. This is tradition that we read two gospels. We read the gospel of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. That was our opening gospel that we read outside, with the shouts of Hosanna, and everybody's very excited. Jesus is here, Jesus has finally come, the king is here, the Messiah is here. And then we read the passion, the long story, the long account from the garden all the way up to the crucifixion. And what we see, the reason we read this, what we see is this striking reversal of feelings, striking reversal of emotions. The joy, the crowd's joy turns into condemnation. So the same group of people, right? This is Jerusalem, it's a small city, they're all there for the Passover, when everybody pilgrimages to Israel, to Jerusalem. And so they're all there, and Jesus comes in and they're like, Hosanna, King of David, oh my gosh, the Savior is here. And that's on Sunday, and then come along Friday, they're like, let's crucify him. It's a great idea, let's crucify him. And not because the truth has changed, not because Jesus has changed, but because their hearts were untethered. And emotions, when they're untethered, they sway. So consider this. Consider how you consume your news or how you form your opinions in life. So we read a headline, or we we listen to a news update. News updates are between four minutes and 35 seconds and five minutes and 35 seconds. And they seem neutral in tone. Nonetheless, they can still deeply sway our emotions. But how often do we hear something on the news that sways our emotion, that makes us feel angry or happy or with condemnation? How often do we hear that and then go read the full story? Or go and look up what the actual policy is and read that policy. We're swayed so simply by what we hear and what we feel. I I had a family, uh part of my family, a member of my family, who was going through a very difficult legal battle. Uh it was a custody battle. And so he was bombarding. I think there's only worse thing than uh you know being pregnant and getting advice from people is getting divorced and get, you know, getting advice from people who just want to give their unsolicited advice. And so he's, you know, he'd go to the store and be like, oh my gosh, you know, I have a, you know, I talked to my lawyer once and he said this. And the next person would say this. And then his lawyer would call him and he would say something else. And then, you know, his mother would call him and say something else, his brother would call him and say something else. And he was just losing his mind, right? And what he needed was not emotions, what he needed was devotion. He needed to have the calm and clear and unwavering work and word of God in his life, and not the thousand different opinions vying for the central point of his mind. And so, in the same way, you and I, I give this as an example, because in the same way you and I can be swayed in our spiritual lives, not by encountering Christ directly in prayer and scripture and at the table like we should, but through secondhand opinions, uh, cultural habits, popular trends, church traditions. And so, if that's how we're encountering Jesus, it's no wonder our spiritual direction can feel unstable. Like the crowds in Jerusalem, we cheer Hosanna one moment, and then we're silent and confused the next when Christ doesn't fit our expectations. We all experience this kind of swaying in our life, whether it's in serious decisions or in subtle ways. We are influenced by the opinions of our friends, the pull of our culture, the noise of the media around us. We're swayed in the same way. We're swayed in the matters of our faith. We compromise our convictions, we compromise our faith, our standing so that we simply fit in to the noise around us. And scripture reveals this dynamic over and over again. Sometimes it's very dramatic and public, and other times it's very subtle and unconscious. Yet it all stems from the same root. Not having a mind that is shaped by Christ, having a mind that is shaped by the world instead of anchored by Jesus. Jesus speaks. Might blow your mind this morning. Jesus speaks 2,000 words directly in the Gospels. That's it. 2,000 words. Okay? But driven by emotion rather than devotion, we are quick to take 30 words of the scriptures here and 30 words of the scriptures there, and then create a composite Jesus that fits our vision, that is convenient to our narrative as people. And we all do that because the real Jesus will never make us superficially happy. He will not let us act on our emotions, he will not agree with our politics or our love or our lifestyles, and he won't disagree with everyone that we disagree with. You see, we all want to experience Jesus who is easy to follow. But the moral of Palm Sunday is exactly that Jesus didn't fit their narrative, and so he was crucified. On Sunday, my gosh, this guy looks great. Let's uh, you know, we're yeah, I totally he's got my vote for Messiah. And well, Friday he looks a bit problematic. We're gonna put him on the cross. The crowd didn't fall, though, because they were bad people. I'm not criticizing them as bad people. They fell because their picture of Jesus was built on what they wanted him to be. Faith is not feeling, faith is not emotion, it is deep and true devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. Faith is not emotion, it is devotion to Jesus Christ, who, if you trust him and not your feelings, will offer you true transformation and fullness of life right here. In the Gospel of Matthew, which we read this morning in the in the in the Passion narrative, Peter denies Jesus. Before Peter denies Jesus, a couple of chapters, there's this beautiful scene where they're they're having this conversation, and then Jesus is asking Peter about what he thinks, and then Peter, you know, have this whole dialogue, and then Jesus says, you know, I'm gonna go suffer, right? I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm coming to Jerusalem to suffer. That's what's gonna happen in Jerusalem. And Peter says, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. And Jesus' response to Peter is, get behind me, Satan. Peter isn't trying to deny Christ. He's swayed by the cultural expectation of a conquering Messiah. The culture says Messiah is gonna come in and he's gonna conquer everything. And so when Jesus says to him, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem now and I'm gonna suffer, and I'm gonna suffer quite badly, I'm gonna choke to death on my own blood on a cross. Peter's like, No, I'm not gonna let that happen. That doesn't work, that doesn't fit my narrative. Even our best intentions can falter when shaped more by culture than by divine truth. Peter knowingly denies Jesus three times because following him has become dangerous. He's sitting there and it's just uncomfortable. So everybody, yeah, I want to be a follower of Jesus when he's parading in with all the palms waving. This is a great time to be. This is wow. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a disciple. I'm an apostle, I'm his right-hand man. I'm St. Peter, I'm right here next to Jesus. Oh, Jesus is in court and um he's getting prosecuted and he's gonna be crucified. I don't know Jesus. I don't know Jesus. I don't know Jesus. James writes, Saint James writes, one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. The crowd that shouts Hosanna, they're excited about the potential Messiah. But not the true Messiah. Their enthusiasm was surface level. The one that they wanted, they were excited about that. And when he failed to meet their worldly hopes, they shouted crucify. Only those who are really closest to Jesus, those who truly knew him, they remain. As the as the you know, as the tables turn, they stay with Jesus. But even then, as the tables keep turning, we've got Peter denying him, Thomas doubting him, and Judas betraying him. Twelve of the apostles, three of the twelve are causing problems. At least we don't even know, maybe more. Only three are recorded there. Paul says, We are to have the mind of Christ. This is not simply thinking the right thoughts, but it's allowing Christ's spirit to shape our whole being. To have the mind is to share his peace, to share his humility, his way of seeing the world. It's what the early church teachers wrote about when they call it our union with God. By his grace, the grace we receive from God, we become more like God. We are purified, we become more one with God. In this mind, it's not something we attain on our own. We don't have to. It sounds so hard. Like it's all these self-help things, you know. You've got to do A, B, and C and say your affirmations and so on and so on, and it's wonderful. But that all puts the work on you, a flawed human. It all puts the work on you. Jesus gives us his grace as a gift, it's a free gift. And he gives us the church, he gives us prayer, he gives us his scriptures, he gives us confession, he gives us Eucharist, fasting, and spiritual struggles to help cultivate that grace. He gives us the seeds and the land and the manure. And these are the ropes that tie us to the dock when the storm rages. Last week we talked about surrender, and the week before we talked about surrender, and the week before we talked about surrender. We had a theme going, surrender was that theme. That's what it means to follow a new life in Christ is to surrender to Him. And part of that journey, part of that surrender, is letting go of emotions and feelings. Those are good things, don't get me wrong. Emotions and feelings are good things. I'm not denying our humanity. They are a beautiful part that makes us human. The emotion you feel the first time you hold your child, the first time you fall in love. All of these are wonderful things. All of these things are a part of God's beautiful creation for us to enjoy. But what I'm talking about is not letting emotions be our controlling factor in life. It is the devotion to Jesus that anchors us, not our emotions. And this is why we show up. This is why we pray when we don't feel like it. This is why we receive communion on a Sunday when we feel dry and empty, like we don't even have a relationship with Jesus. We're not even sure if Jesus exists, we don't even want if he does exist, we don't even know if we want to know him. Yet we still come back. Because devotion is not a feeling, it's a practice. Christianity is not a hobby, it's a habit. And when we yield to that habit, when we give our life to that habit, that habit gives us a new identity. See, the crowds, they're driven by emotion, and the Christian is anchored by devotion. And I've said that enough times now that you all should have it memorized. We are so often swayed by the emotions of popular opinion. That like a boat gently shifting off course, the crowds who praise Jesus on Palm Sunday would soon demand his death. Without the mind of Christ, we are vulnerable to the tides of public opinion and spiritual confusion in our lives. But with the mind of Christ formed through grace, prayer, the sacraments, and the life of the church, we find an anchor. And we don't have to be blown around by the winds of the world. But by the steady, continuous breath of the spirit. Are you all concerned about the fire behind me? It's the fire of the Holy Spirit. By God's grace, we don't need to be a boat that's drifting around in chaos without a rudder, without a direction. With Christ as our anchor and the church as our harbor in life, we can chart a course not by the world's winds, but by the Holy Spirit's tide and fire. The same tide that carried Christ from the palms to the cross and from the grave to glory. So I encourage you as we go into this holy week to walk in the shadow of the cross and to follow him to the resurrection. Amen. Well, that was me preaching this morning at St. John's, my message anchored for Palm Sunday. And I just want to thank you for joining us on this journey as we head towards Good Friday, towards the Passion and then the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Make sure to find all of our episodes by checking out linktree.e slash the northword. That's linktr.e slash the northword, all one word, or wherever you get your podcasts. Until tomorrow, God be with you.

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In the name of Fowler, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.