Rejoice John, you are a child of Wisdom! - Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Advent

3^rd Sunday of Advent, December 15^th, A+ D 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Rejoice John, you are a child of Wisdom!

Sermon Audio available HERE.

   Rejoice John!  For the Lord God rejoices over you with a song, because you are a child of Wisdom! 

   St. Paul exhorts John the Baptist, and all Christians, to rejoice always, in every
circumstance.  But, as our Gospel reading begins, John the Baptist is sitting in Herod’s prison, has been for months.  John’s disciples are allowed to visit him, and once in a while Herod will bring John out for a while to speak with him.  But John is still imprisoned.  I think he probably assumes, correctly, that he will not leave captivity alive.  I would find it very hard to rejoice in such circumstances. 

   Unsurprisingly, John seems to be struggling.  He hears news of all the wonderful things Jesus is doing, and he expresses confusion.  He sends a question to his Cousin:  “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  We aren’t given any more of a window inside John’s mind, but the Baptizer seems to be doubting Jesus’ identity, whether He is truly the Messiah, the promised Savior.  Perhaps John expected more fire and brimstone from Jesus, more burning of the chaff, more warnings for sinners about the coming judgment.  Instead, John keeps hearing about Jesus delivering gifts of healing and restoration.

    Well, the fire will come.  But burning the sinful chaff of humanity is not the main point of Jesus’ ministry.  The hell of fire for the wicked is reality, but Jesus’ goal is not to send people to the flames.  His goal is to save them from the fire, and bring them into God’s eternal family.  Even warnings about the fire serve this greater purpose, to turn people from the broad and easy way that leads to destruction, so they can be moved onto the Way of Salvation.  The fire serves to prepare Jesus’ hearers for saving water, for the washing of regeneration, for new birth, into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

     The miracles of Jesus, healing the sick and lame, casting out demons, raising the Widow of Nain’s son, these are like new births.  Jesus restores broken people to shalom, peace and wholeness.  He rescues the outcast, bringing them from estrangement from God to acceptance and unity.  A new start in life, a new start with God, and also with others.  Jesus in His ministry is driving at New Birth, the New Birth of Wisdom.  For, as Jesus concludes our reading this morning, Wisdom is justified, declared to be righteous and wonderful, by all her children. 

   Wisdom in the Bible is portrayed as a woman, especially in the book of Proverbs, probably because in both the Hebrew and Greek languages, Wisdom is a feminine noun.  But even though Wisdom is portrayed as feminine, the Truth is that Jesus is Wisdom, the Wisdom of God, the Father’s best and highest thought.  When Jesus says Wisdom is justified by her children, He is claiming to be Wisdom, and He is claiming to be God, by echoing the justifying words of the sinners and tax collectors, when they heard Jesus celebrate the greatness of John the Baptist, and so they justified God. 

   Our Lord sends off the disciples of John to reaffirm him in the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.  “Tell John about the miracles,” He instructs them, because they’re just like the prophet Isaiah predicted the Christ would do.    

   Jesus then goes on to discuss the Baptizer with the crowds.  Who did you go out to see?  The last and great prophet, second to none among men born of women.  On par with Moses, Elijah and Elisha, a first ballot election to the Prophets Hall of Fame.  “When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John.”  Whoo-hoo, we were baptized by one of God’s greatest servants, God has smiled, on us.  And so, they declared that God is just.  They justified God, that is they proclaimed that God is righteous and good, most especially for sending them John to administer a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 

   Wisdom, and God, are both declared to be just, righteous and good, by all who see and hear and believe the Good News, the Gospel, that Jesus of Nazareth is both declaring and enacting.  In fact, Jesus announces that all who enter the Kingdom of God are even greater than John the Baptizer.  “I tell you,” He says, “among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 

   Being reborn as a child of God, being made a child of Wisdom Incarnate, the God-Man Jesus Christ, this re-birth is the greatest thing that can happen to a human being.  Being a child of God is even greater than being a great prophet like Elijah or John the Baptizer.  Why?  Because the only way to become a child of God is by being united by faith to the eternal Son of God.  “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.”  All the prophets, from Moses and Elijah down to John, were forerunners, preparing the Way of the Lord, promising justice and mercy would come with the Messiah, the Christ.  “But now the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.” The Christ has come.  Everything old is being made new, everything broken is being restored, new life springs up all around. 

    Jesus is not excluding John the Baptist from the Kingdom of God.  John the Baptist, along with all the faithful prophets, indeed, all the faithful children of Israel, are also included in the Kingdom, by God’s grace, poured out from the Cross.  Jesus is simply reminding us that nothing we sinners do, not even a great prophetic work, nothing we do earns us the right to be called children of God.  Because our works are not perfect, because we are not perfect, we are not sinless.  But the Sinless One has come and is doing His great work, from Bethlehem to Calvary.  Jesus called the fire that we deserve down upon Himself, and extinguished the flames in His own body.  So now, all who live from baptismal faith in Christ are justified.  All who trust in Christ are declared to be righteous, the free and life-giving gift of God.  And since you are justified, you are also great in God’s eyes, forever, for Jesus’ sake.      

      The faithful Old Testament prophets and saints, along with the believing crowds, including the tax collectors, all these characters in today’s Gospel drama, are children of Wisdom.  Thankful, wise children rejoice to declare that Wisdom is just.  The children of Wisdom are Christians, little Christs, who find their self-worth in Him, and so tell forth His excellencies.  Because He is truly worthy of praise, forever and ever, Amen.

     There are others characters, of course, naysayers, in today’s Gospel.  Opponents of the message of John and Jesus, whom it will be good for us to study.  Because we still face opponents today, who are descended from the opponents of Jesus’ and John’s time.  And they still employ many of the same tactics. 

     The first opponent isn’t mentioned, but the backdrop of the whole account depends on his opposition.  I’m speaking of Herod, Herod Antipas, to be precise, the tetrarch of Galilee, a local ruler installed by the Romans, the son of the infamous Herod the Great.  The earlier Herod fashioned himself a king, a jealous and fearful one.  Three decades before today’s Gospel events, Herod the Great slaughtered many innocent baby boys in and around Bethlehem, as he tried to kill the newborn King of the Jews, whom he feared would take his throne. 

    King Herod is part of a pattern, which includes ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.  Each of these empires was an enemy and sometimes the overlord of ancient Israel.  Rome acted the same way, feeling compelled to oppose Christ and His Church.  Herod Antipas is a bit player in a struggle that is as old as this fallen world.  In the mysterious wisdom of God, His people will always be living under some earthly power, until the Last Day when Christ returns visibly once again.  This arrangement can be advantageous, as in 313 A+D when Constantine recognized the reality on the ground, and legalized Christianity.  Or, fun calendar coincidence, on this day, December 15^th, in 1791, the day when the Bill of Rights was approved, enshrining religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution. 

   The Church can be blessed through good government.  But there is always a tension between the Church and any earthly government.  There will always arise a desire in earthly powers to control and use the Church for their own ends.  The Church prays for good, just rulers, and even for truly Christian rulers.  At the same time, we are not surprised when earthly powers turn against God and His Truth.  Like John the Baptist did, when earthly authorities turn against the God’s Word and Way, we are called to speak the Truth of Christ, come what may. 

   John the Baptizer got in trouble when he condemned the illicit relationship between Herod and Herodias, who was the wife of his brother Phillip.  John wasted away in prison for the sake of not avoiding conflict with the governing authorities, for always speaking the truth.  God grant that we learn such fidelity and courage from John, and from countless martyrs and saints through 2,000 years, who gave up their freedom and often their lives, rather than betray Christ and His precious Word. 

   God calls us to uphold both His Law, which defines what is right and condemns what is wrong, and His wondrous Gospel, which reveals God’s desire and actions to rescue lawbreakers from eternal condemnation.  If upholding God’s Word requires us to say things that bring the ire of the government upon us, so be it.  Rejoice, God be praised, His Truth is marching on.     

   In the Baptizer’s time, the government was firmly in league with the pagan world.  Supporting the worship of national and local deities was a civic duty, whether that God was Zeus, or Athena, the Sun, Moon and Stars, or the Emperor.  Strangely to our ears, early Christians were accused of atheism, because they only worshiped the One true God, not the whole pantheon of idols. 

   Today, the governing authorities are not quite as clearly in league with the idol worshipers.  Although in some jurisdictions, denying the cult of transgenderism can put you at risk of losing your job.  Old fashioned pre-Christian paganism is making something of a comeback, but much more influential are a whole series of belief systems that deny being religions, but seek to enforce their worldview with fanatical fervor.  Try speaking up for marriage as God defines it, or criticize the radical sexual freedom that dominates our popular culture.  Try being a public school teacher who rejects the worldview of scientific materialism.  Even though contemporary evolutionary biology and current origin of the universe studies face serious contradictions and mathematical impossibilities, still, daring to speak against these belief systems can cost you.  

   However, worst of all for John the Baptist and Jesus were their supposed co-religionists.  The Pharisees, the lawyers, experts in the Law of Moses, and the priests: all of them should have been allies of the Forerunner and the Christ.  They more than anyone should have seen how the prophecies from Abraham to Malachi were being fulfilled before their eyes.  But for many of them, their faith had been corrupted with the age-old temptation of works righteousness, the false belief that I by my goodness and works have made myself pleasing to God.  Others had their faith corrupted by seeking the approval of the world, in particular mixing in ideas from Greek thought and religion.  Others simply preferred comfort and power in this life, and found it in alliances with Rome, even if that required compromising God’s Truth. 

   Today it is much the same.  Many of faithful Christianity’s worst opponents are people who claim to be Christian, but reject anything in Biblical teaching that conflicts with the world’s preferences.  So we see people who claim to be Christians endorse giving hormones and disfiguring surgery to try to change boys into girls and girls into boys.  We hear pastors shouting their abortions, and denying that God created the world in six days, or that Jesus’ blood is the only Way of Salvation.  There seems to be no end of friendly fire trained on Biblically faithful Christians, by those who in theory are also Christians.   

   So be it.  We face social and economic pressures, but we do not yet face violent persecution.  We are not being thrown in jail.  We are still free to gather.  We are still free to speak truth, here and in our daily lives.  Although speaking the truth may cost us now and again. 

   But even if God should allow sharper persecution to come into our lives, we know of a better prize, that the world cannot take from us.  For the “Lord your God is in your midst,  a mighty one who will save.”  You have been reborn by faith in Jesus.  You have been washed.  You are forgiven.  You are a child of Wisdom.  The Lord rejoices over you with a song.  We have gathered here this morning to declare that God is just, because He has gathered us to declare that we are just, justified by the forgiving love of Jesus.  And so we rejoice, always, by faith in Jesus Christ. 

Let us pray:  Holy Spirit of the Coming Christ, drive out fear from our hearts, and fix our eyes on Jesus, who is our Wisdom, our Righteousness, and our Holiness.  As the Son of God has come and won forgiveness for all the sins of every sinner, strengthen us by Your Word, that we resist the temptations and pressures of the world.  Fill us with joy that we are children of God the Father, through Jesus His Son.  Let our rejoicing be seen in our lives, that other sinners may see our hope, and seek its Source, which is Jesus Christ, the Savior of Sinners, who reigns with You and the Father, One God, now, and forever and ever, Amen.    

What Is Our Place in the Great Drama of Life? - Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday in Advent, December 8th, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
What Is Our Place in the Great Drama of Life?  - Luke 3:1 - 20

Audio of the sermon is available HERE. 

   In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

    It feels like we’ve witnessed something consequential these last few months.  I’m not actually convinced this is true.  But recent events do seem almost cinematic:  Like the end of the Lord of the Rings, we’ve witnessed the return of the king, or at least of the Donald.  After so much drama, indictments and convictions, assassination attempts and the defenestration of a presidential nominee, podcasts and pollster fails and pardons, we look forward to calmer days…  Well, probably not.    

    The whole world watches our politics, and that’s saying something, since there are no shortage of dumpster fires to attract the concern of our global neighbors.  Did you hear the president of South Korea briefly declared martial law last week?  The war in Ukraine slogs through its third year, unless you’re counting from 2014.  The Middle East is a tinderbox, which isn’t helpful when there are four or more conflicts kicking out sparks, in the north and the south of Israel, civil war in Syria, the Houthi’s attacking whoever they want from Yemen.  The French government has fallen, and China threatens Taiwan.  Important people are doing important things, all over the world. 

   And who are we?  What importance do our efforts have in the grand scheme of things?  We’ve been blessed with some new members over the last few years, (God be praised!).  And as the ears with the best listening post in the Nave, I can attest that your song to the Lord is consistently lovely.  But Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer are just a couple of small congregations in a thinly populated corner of flyover country.  Do we really matter?  Great things seem to be happening all the time, or at least our phones tell us it is so.  What is our place in the Great Drama of Life? 

   At least our obscurity is not so severe as John’s.  The Baptist was set aside by God, before his conception.  Big things were coming, through him; John was to prepare the way for the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed Savior.  How did John prepare for this important role?  What was his resume, as he embarked on his life’s work?  He was a strange ascetic recluse, living out by himself in the desert, dressed in clothing made of camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey.  Zechariah and Elizabeth must have been so proud.  

   Then the Word of God came to John.  It’s time.  Time to start preaching, time to start preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah.  So go, preach repentance from sin, that’s always a crowd pleaser.  Tell it like it is, which is to say, call them a brood of vipers, the offspring of snakes, children of Satan is the point.  Tell them to live rightly, but do it in a way that will especially offend the Jews.  First, insult the children of Abraham.  Bear fruit, live rightly, warns John, or God’s axe will chop you down.  And don’t think: 'We have Abraham as our father, so we’re good with God!” For I tell you, God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.  Many interpreters think John’s words about the Lord raising up children of Abraham from the stones is a reference to the Gentiles, the nations of non-Jews, whom the children of Israel generally despised, and slurred as worthless as dead stones.  If this is the background, then John is hinting that souls whom many Jews thought unredeemable would become objects of divine love, to the shock of many. 

   Whether or not the crowds caught the reference, nobody likes being told their proud Abrahamic family heritage is worthless.  And John’s not done.  He goes on to tell everyone who has enough clothing and food to share with those who do not.  That’s pretty standard stuff, maybe not that frequently seen, but a normal divine expectation.  But then John tells two enemies of God’s people how to rightly do their assigned work, which was to subjugate the people, for the good of Rome. 

   Tax collectors came to John.  These were Jews hired by the Romans to work for the good of the emperor, Tiberius Caesar, squeezing revenue out of God’s people.  These were very unpopular folks.  But, John did not tell them to quit their jobs and find honest work.  He only told them not to over do it.  Only tax as much as Rome says you can tax, no more. 

   Soldiers, Roman warriors who occupied Israel and had the power to abuse the Jews, were not told to lay down their swords and desert from the Legion.  That is what the people would have preferred to hear.  But, no.  John tells them to keep doing their job, keep ruling over the Jews.  Just don’t abuse your power by extorting money from the people.    

   And John baptized them.  For all who came, confessing their sins and seeking God’s mercy, the Baptist washed away their sins in the muddy Jordan River. 

   Now, I think even Kamala’s campaign manager could tell you that John’s approach seems unlikely to succeed.  Most influencers try to build a following by telling the people what they want to hear.  But not John the Baptist.  And yet, John did attract quite a following, people bothered by their sinfulness and seeking something better.  John’s approach produced results, exactly the results that the Lord had promised in His Word.  For it is the Word that makes all the difference.  Whatever Tiberius or Herod or Pilate thought, whatever their plans were, the Word of God had come to John, and so his strange ministry flourished, in just the way that the Lord intended.       

   It’s quite an approach to ministry and life with God.  Preach God’s Word, especially including the unpopular parts.  Proclaim the coming of the Christ, the Savior.  Condemn sin, so that the people be led to confess their sins and seek to live differently.  Then set our minds on producing fruit that is in keeping with the repentance God’s Word has worked in our souls.  Look to share your bounty with those who have less.  And seek to live in your legitimate earthly vocations, whatever they may be, as a child of the heavenly Father. 

   The same Word of the Lord that came to John has also come to us.  John baptized, and we baptize.  Even more, we are the Baptized.  We have been baptized, and not only with water, as John did.  We have received Christ’s baptism, water combined with the Triune God’s Holy Name.  Baptism has now been transformed and empowered, because the Messiah passed through His baptism by fire on the Cross.   John’s baptism made people ready to receive the Savior.  Now, Christ’s baptism regenerates repentant sinners, giving them new birth as living stones in the new Temple of God.  Baptism has brought us into the New Testament Church, each forgiven sinner made a member of Christ, made truly alive and useful, by the Word of God, who took on flesh and came to John, to be baptized in the Jordan.   

   What God is doing in our midst is the most important thing in the world.  Roman emperors and American presidents come and go.  Campaigns and great political and social movements sweep across history.  But all these things, as important as they are for a time, are passing away.  What God is doing in our midst is the most important thing happening in the world, because the Word of the Lord endures forever.  Jesus’ sin-confronting and life-giving Word will never pass away. 

   Now, it is not that we are more important than any other faithful Christian congregation.  There is nothing particularly special about you and me.  In fact, I suspect we all have room to bear more fruit in keeping with repentance.  We all have more than enough, so we could all share more with others.  We could stop abusing others.  We do not wield taxation power or a sword to enforce the authority of Rome.  But we do sometimes wield sharp tongues that cut and injure.  As forgiven sinners, blessed by the Word of God, we should always use our words to bless, not to injure. 

   We are not more important than any other faithful Christian congregation.  But we are not less important, either, because the Word of the Lord has come to us, is heard among us, goes out from us.  The same Holy Spirit, who alone works true repentance and faith, is working in our midst.  Since He is at work in our midst, then our ministry is important, the most important thing there is.  Even though our churches may not look impressive from the outside, and even less if one looks inside at us, still, glory and power belong to the Christ of God.   And the Christ is with us, in our midst, as we the Baptized gather in His Name and around His Word and around His Meal.  What may seem routine to our eyes and foolish to the world is, in the eyes of God, the grandest activity in all the earth.  

   What is our place in the great Drama of Life?  Our place, our significance, is precisely the place and importance that God intends for us.  We may be small, but that doesn’t detract from what God is doing.  We all would like to see more souls gathered, and we should work to grow.  But we shouldn’t worry about the top-line numbers.  Remember that Jesus, having completed His three-year ministry on earth, still at the time of His Ascension only seems to have had about 120 followers.  Just 120 believers in the entire world.  But the Word of God was with them, so they were infinite, the root of a mighty tree of faith that continues to grow toward heaven today. 

    We shouldn’t worry about numbers, or the survival of institutions.  No, we should worry about souls.  We should worry about getting the Word of God into peoples’ ears.  Numbers will come and institutions will continue, as God provides.  But we have been given to worry about human souls, every one of which needs to hear of Jesus and His forgiving love.  Following the Lord’s lead, it is enough even to worry about just one person.  Like Jesus did with the woman at the well.  The Lord God Almighty, Savior of the world, for a good long while, focused His entire attention on one sinful woman.  We can dare to follow our Savior’s lead, and worry about just one soul, if that is who God puts in front of us.  And then, we can expect great things, because the Holy Spirit will do what He does. 

    One woman at the well, estranged from God, living in a foolish series of broken relationships, is brought to faith and used to draw others to Jesus.  Her whole village came out, to hear and believe the Word of the Lord, from the mouth of God’s Son.  We can check the details when we get to heaven, but it seems this narrowly focused effort by Jesus might have set up the subsequent mission of Philip the deacon, who some four or five years later was driven out of Jerusalem by violence, and so carried the Gospel to the Samaritans, some of whom had already heard Good News from the mouth of Jesus.   

 

   We have a calling as God’s living stones in this place, to extend His Word farther.  We do not have a guarantee that we will get to see the fruit of our efforts.  But, we do have a rock solid guarantee that Jesus desires for all people to hear His Word and be brought to repentance and faith.  And so we are free to pray for the mission, free to be bold, to speak God’s life-giving Truth into a dying world.  We are free to invite, to encourage, to share what we have been given, in our day to day lives.  And we are free, we are privileged, to gather together again, to receive the Word of the Lord, again, to bring Him our struggles and failures and concerns, and exchange them for His strength and mercy and forgiveness.  Jesus being present to serve His Body, the Church, is what makes all the difference for us, and for our neighbors, day by day, and forever.

    What is our place in the Drama of Life?  No matter what is happening in the great halls of power on this earth, our place is the place of undeserved blessing, today, and forever.  God’s desire to save has come to us.  Our sins, your sins, and my sins, are forgiven, washed away by the blood of the Lamb.  The Word of God is with us.  The Lord, who does not change, has committed Himself to you.  Therefore, O children of the New Israel, you are not consumed.  Safe in the love of God, you are free, strong, and beloved, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.   

The Lord Has Need of It - Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent

First Sunday in Advent, December 1^st, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
The Lord Has Need of It – Luke 19:28 – 40

Audio of the Sermon is available HERE.

   I often wonder about the owner of the donkey.  All four Gospels describe this borrowing. Jesus sends two of His disciples to get a donkey, two donkeys, actually, according to St. Matthew, a colt, the foal of a donkey, and its mother.  Their task was to bear the rightful King, as He entered the holy city, to offer Himself in place of His people.    "Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: 'The Lord has need of it.' "

   So many questions come to mind:  Why?  Why did the Lord do this?  Who?  Who was the donkey’s owner?  Luke says ‘the owners’ plural, protested the commandeering.  Were the owners a husband and wife?  Was Jesus borrowing a well-to-do lady’s ride?  Maybe it was a father with his sons, merchants, or maybe burro-breeders?  Motion picture productions of the story of Jesus have some fun with such questions, filling in these types of details.  And that can be fine.  As long as nobody mistakes their creative license for the Truth, and assuming they don’t butcher the main point of the author’s message, filling in some details to engage folks in the story of Jesus can be helpful.  It could perhaps even be a thing that the Holy Spirit uses for His good purposes. 

   Which is an important point for us to take away from the line that Jesus gives the two disciples.  If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying [the donkey]?' you shall say this: 'The Lord has need of it.  The Creator of the Universe, the eternal Son of God, is about to launch the climactic acts of His great plan of salvation.  He is the protagonist.  Your rescue from the eternal suffering and condemnation you have earned with your sin is about to be accomplished, and it is entirely the work of God, a mysterious and awful exchange transacted between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  All this, done for you, by God.  Done for you, and for all your fellow sinners of the human race.  Salvation belongs to our God, and to the Lamb.  It is a Divine project; we do not add anything to it.  We can’t. 

   And yet, again and again, the Lord involves us in His great work.  Men and women and children are passive bystanders, observing and receiving the benefit of the divine drama of redemption.  But still, at the same time, mankind is not entirely out of the action, and not just in a negative sense.  To be sure, the great majority of the bit parts that people play in Jesus’ Passion are negative: betraying, abandoning, denying.  Falsely accusing.  Humiliating, torturing, crucifying. 

   But others, mostly unnamed extras, are honored to offer some useful things.  Going and getting the donkeys.  Loaning the donkeys.  Laying cloaks on the animals and on the road to honor the Son of David, the true King of Israel, coming to be raised up on His throne.  Shouting hosanna to God and to His King, riding into Jerusalem to redeem God’s people from their captivity.  The multitude’s song is a sacrifice of confession and praise that angers the Pharisees and leads to their decision: Jesus of Nazareth must die, as soon as possible. 

   None of these contributions by the friends and followers of Jesus had any redemptive power.  The owners of the donkeys were not saved by their willingness to let Jesus borrow their beasts.  But God used their offering, and all the other faith-inspired responses of service, praise and thanksgiving to the God-Man, Jesus, the Christ.  God used their things and their actions, their offerings and their voices, to tell the story, to move the plot along, to help us understand what Jesus did. 

   In the same way He worked through their actions and offerings on that first Palm Sunday, God continues to work in the lives of His people of every time and place, right down to this day.  The Lord honors faithful stewardship, cheerful offerings.  The Lord, to Whom belong the universe and everything in it, still rejoices to receive and praise and bless the very limited service, the imperfect gifts and praise and confession of His people.  And so we sing:

     “We give Thee but Thine own, whate’er the gift may be, All that we have is Thine alone, A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

      May we Thy bounties thus, As stewards true receive, And gladly, as Thou blessest us, To Thee our first-fruits give!

   It’s a little bonkers, depending on how you think about the opportunity for stewardship. It’s easy to fall into thinking our service and offerings are like bargaining chips with God, or that they are a requirement for our salvation.  But, this could never be.  Salvation is a free gift, given for Jesus’ sake, to all who believe, to all who trust in His forgiving sacrifice.  God, who loves to give, naturally loves a cheerful giver.  But He does not receive as a good work any giving that proceeds from a grudging or fearful or bargaining heart. 

   The call to give our time, talents and treasure to the Lord is even a bit mysterious.  From the perspective of true ownership, or if we should think about what God lacks, what He needs from us, which is nothing, well, then we kind of hit a wall.  God is so great, and we are so dependent on Him.  The whole idea of there being in our gifts some blessing or merit or reason for joy, on God’s part or ours, makes little sense.  As the Psalms teach us, the cattle of a thousand hills belong to God, and if He were to feel hunger, He would have no need to ask us to make Him dinner. 

   And yet, He does ask us.  The Lord God Almighty rejoices to receive what we have to give, however meager it may be.  Jesus accepted the humble service of friends and followers, who fed and financed and cared for Him.  He certainly could have cared for Himself, with ease.  But He chose to welcome the imperfect gifts of the people He loved.       

   It’s a bit like the mom who is a great cook, the queen of the kitchen, who nevertheless invites her little children to help make Thanksgiving dinner.  The stuffing or the pastry or whatever menu item she invites her kids to help with will not be, objectively speaking, as good as she could make on her own.  But in terms of relationship, the lumpy mashed potatoes that the 8-year-old makes for the family are the very best.  Gifts that, in earthly terms, are very imperfect, are in heavenly reality the best part of the family gathering. 

   Thanksgiving dinner is not going to happen if mom or dad aren’t truly driving the action.  But true joy, for parent and child, for all the family, is found in the imperfect but cheerfully given efforts of even the least of the gathered guests.  Involving everyone in the ways that are possible, even just setting the table with napkins and utensils, helps bind the family together. 

   God does something similar for all of us, with His call for our service, for our offerings, for our stewardship.  God honors us, by inviting us to serve Him.  We do not know whether Jesus set up the borrowing of the donkeys in an unreported conversation with their owners, or whether this borrowing was their first exposure to the Man from Nazareth. 

   Either way, what an honor!  We will have to wait for the new heavens and the new earth to find out exactly how it went down.  But what greater honor could forgiven sinners receive than to have Jesus ride their donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?   Or how many times did the little children who sang “Hosanna to the King”  re-tell that day to their children and grandchildren, as they passed on the faith around the family altar?

   If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: 'The Lord has need of it.' The Savior knows we struggle with giving.  We struggle with having.  There is a selfish, scared-to-lose-my-stuff streak in all of us.  You can tell me all day long that if I hang on to my things at all cost, I am not really the owner of my stuff.  If I can’t bear to let them go, then I am being owned by my things.  I might be able to quote this truth back to you on demand.  But that doesn’t mean that when the opportunity to share arises, selfishness and a fearful grasping don’t rise up in my heart. 

   A heart that gives cheerfully to God, a sharing spirit that looks for opportunities to help other people, this true Christian stewardship is a miracle.  And miracles only come from God.  And so, even as Jesus accepted the gift of the donkeys, the cloaks on the road, the song of the children, still, our Lord kept the main thing as the main thing.  You may have never before heard the Triumphal Entry Gospel used to preach about stewardship.  And that’s o.k., because it’s mostly not about stewardship.  What you and I do in response to and in service of the Gospel is never the Main Thing. 

   As interesting and important as stewardship is in the Christian Church, the main point of Jesus riding into Jerusalem is not the contributions of the followers of Jesus.  The main point is Jesus, and what He was doing, not just for His followers, but even for His enemies.  

   The Prophet Zechariah, some 550 years before, had predicted that the Messiah, God’s Anointed Savior, would ride the colt of a donkey into Jerusalem, signaling the beginning of His saving reign.  Lurking behind Zechariah’s words was another royal entry into Israel’s capital, 4-½  centuries earlier, when a dying King David faced an insurrection by one of his other sons, Adonijah, who had declared himself the new king of Israel. 

    When the plot was revealed to him, David, who intended to put his son Solomon on the throne, called for a procession.  He put Solomon on his own mule, and had him ride into Jerusalem.  The crowds hailed him as the true King of Israel, and Zadok the High Priest anointed Solomon the new king.  Royal family strife and intrigue would follow, but after a time of trial, Solomon, God’s man of peace, would consolidate control and rule in place of his father, King David.  (1^st Kings 1 – 2)

   On Palm Sunday, the true Prince of Peace made the final coronation ride into Jerusalem, fulfilling the unrealized promise of Solomon.  Solomon’s name means ‘man of peace,’ but, while his reign was impressive, it ended in strife.  Soon after Solomon’s death, civil war tore Israel apart.  Solomon’s peace could not endure.  Thank the Lord, Jesus is the true Man of Peace, not merely resolving petty conflicts between men, but rather making eternal peace between God and all mankind, by the blood of His Cross. 

   Indeed, as the followers of Jesus made Jerusalem ring with their praises, you might think they got the song wrong.  The angels announced the birth of Mary’s Son to the shepherds by declaring: Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.  But on Palm Sunday, the place of peace is lifted up: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  There is peace in heaven, along with glory, because Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem.  The rebellion of humanity is ended, not by the destruction of the rebels, but by the sacrifice of the One Good Man, the true King of Israel.  Jesus swallowed the sinful insurrection of His own subjects, in His own body.  Jesus washed away the sin of the world and extinguished the flames of hell, with His holy and precious blood, and His innocent suffering death. 

   All the mighty works that His disciples had seen were brought to perfection in Christ’s final and greatest work.  Selfish, stingy hearts are made to love, filled with generosity, by the ever-surprising completion of Jesus’ story, the story of God loving the world to death, for eternal life. 

   Because of the sin that clings to our nature, anything we do that does not flow from true faith in Christ is still stained with sin.  Trust in the victory of Jesus is what gives value to our feeble efforts to love and serve God.  Faith in Jesus makes our stewardship a pleasing gift to the Father.  The honor of supporting the work of Christ with our time, talents and treasure, the privilege of serving Christ by serving people in need whom He brings into our lives, these are the fruit of faith, and the joy of God’s family, from the least to the greatest. 

    And so, we pray to the Holy Spirit to grant us a clear focus on the Father’s perfect gift to us, the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, for our forgiveness and salvation.  And from that greatest gift will flow the stewardship that makes the Lord happy,

in Jesus’ Name,  Amen.