SETTING THE CONTEXT

The timing and location of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem were very significant. He came down the Mount of Olives to the Golden Gate to the Temple. The tension in the city would have been very high because of the Passover Festival. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to the city to celebrate the Festival of Passover, the celebration of God's rescue of the Jews from an imperial power, Egypt. Jerusalem was occupied by an imperial power, Rome, so the Romans would have been on high alert. The armed Roman soldiers patrolling from the parapets of the city walls were a stark reminder of the Jewish people's oppression as Jesus and his procession entered it.

Read Luke 19:28-40

The Golden Gate is blocked up in the picture you see because the Jewish people believed that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem through that gate and a Muslim conqueror after the Roman time period blocked it up and put a graveyard in front of it to prevent that from happening, that was the path that Jesus walked as he entered the city for the last time.

Read Luke 22:14-23, 28-30, 40-46

THE SERMON

Each year, I am torn about the content of this service. I would love to stay at the hallelujahs of Palm Sunday. I'd love to spend the entire service celebrating Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, adding our voice praise with theirs. If I do that though, those people who don't come to Holy Week services will miss out on a tremendous part of Jesus' story (1/3 to ½ of the Gospels are devoted to Jesus' last week) and they'll miss out on a critical part of the Good News. We may be able to skip out of the Holy Week observance, but life doesn't allow us to skip out of our own passions and sufferings.

This fallen world is a mixture of shadow and light. While I swim and pray several times a week, I see this mixture on the pool floor. In the places of complete shadow, I notice that you can still see light shining through. It is like the shadow is overlaid on the light, but it can't completely overcome the light; that is what the Bible tells us the sin and suffering of our world is like. Even in the darkest places the light of Christ is still present. Suffering was not God's intention for creation, but the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience tells us that evil and suffering did come into this creation. We can't avoid suffering even if we try to deny it or hide from it.

Facing loss is hard. I think one of the saddest things I experience is when families pretend that their loved one is not dying. George told a story from early in his ministry that I have never forgotten. A man from his congregation was dying, but the family insisted that no one talk to him about his impending death or even acknowledge it in his presence. Everyone was to pretend that he would be coming home and things would go back to normal. George felt this was wrong, but he honored the family's wishes. When the man would ask him what was happening to him, George would evade answering him. When the man died, George realized that he had allowed that man to die completely alone. There was no one he could talk to about his death. There was no one to hear his goodbye and George vowed never to allow that to happen again. It also made him wonder if they had been able to be open and honest in their relationship together before this time. My family had very good communication skills but we played a similar game when my grandfather died. Although I cheated when he was in his coma, I asked him to tell or show me about the other side once he had gotten there, if he could. I wish I had said that to him while he was still able to respond because I know he would have laughed at that curiosity so like his own. I wish I could have told him while he could respond how much I would miss him. I didn't want him to die, none of us did, but pretending didn't stop it from happening. Morrie never gave Mitch the chance to pretend and it allowed them to be honest with each other. As I watched the clip we're about to see from "Tuesdays with Morrie," I could easily imagine the disciples and followers of Jesus having the same conversation with him.

SHOW 10 GOODBYE clip from Tuesdays with Morrie DVD^[i]

Saying goodbye can be so hard especially in those times when we're like Mitch or like Jesus' disciples, when we don't want it to come. Goodbyes are hard but as Morrie said, "Death ends a life, not a relationship."^[ii] How many of you have lost someone you loved? How many of you stopped loving them the moment they were gone? Death ends a life, but not a relationship. Jesus knew this and as he said goodbye during that last supper, he gave his disciples a way to connect to him even after his death. He took the cup and gave it new meaning, blood in Jewish understanding represented the life of the person or animal. Jesus took the cup and said "this is my life given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." He took bread and said "this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." The goodbye that he knew was coming may end his life, but it would not end the relationship. And it has not, has it, for here we all are still loving him and seeking him.

The ability to say goodbye is essential for someone who wants to live a full life. As we have been talking about these last six weeks living a full life requires us to love. Love is a risk though because when we love someone we risk the pain of loss. Since all living things including people die that pain is inevitable. The movie Shadowlands is about the love relationship of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. Joy is dying of cancer and Lewis' pain is excruciating. Joy reminds him that "The suffering now is part of the joy then.  And part of the joy then is the suffering now."^[iii] The love that they shared brought them not only delight in their time together but now it brings them the pain of separation. Love is a very risky thing. The deeper you love, the greater the depth of suffering. It takes a great deal of courage to love especially when you have experienced how love can hurt. Being able to say goodbye helps us to walk through that suffering, but how do you do it? How do you say goodbye? Morrie tells us how.

SHOW 13 GOODBYE clip from Tuesdays with Morrie DVD^[iv]

"I love you" is how we say goodbye. Poor Mitch is starting to get it, but he still has to pretend that there would be another Tuesday. Morrie died that Saturday; his funeral was Tuesday. The groundwork for those goodbyes though needs to begin before the time to say them. Mitch and Morrie had only weeks to lay that groundwork again. Jesus and his followers had only three short years.

My family rarely used to say, "I love you." One day my sister took the risk and started saying it whenever she said goodbye. At first it sounded and felt very weird, but then my Mom started saying it every time she said goodbye then my Dad, and I started saying it and my brothers started saying it. After some practice, it felt completely natural. Now no matter what happens we have expressed our love for each other. And I tell you it feels great to hear it so often. "I love you" are words one never tires of hearing. Goodbyes are hard just as it was for Mitch and Morrie, just as it was for Jesus and his followers, but to live fully we need to lay the groundwork and when the time comes, we have to walk through that pain and say our goodbyes knowing that death may end a life, but it doesn't end everything. But that is next week's story. Amen. 

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on Palm Sunday April 1, 2007.