March 25, 2018, Palm Sunday
We Are Baptized in Christ Jesus
We are baptized in Christ Jesus, we are baptized in his death;
that as Christ is raised victorious, we might live a brand new life.
And if we have been united in a dreadful death like his,
we will all be reunited, for he lives.
In the water and the witness, in the breaking of the bread,
in the waiting arms of Jesus, who is risen from the dead,
God has made a new beginning from the ashes of our past;
in the losing and the winning we hold fast.
Glory be to God the Father, glory be to Christ the Son,
glory to the Holy Spirit, ever three and ever one;
as it was in the beginning, glory now resounds again
in a song that has no ending. Amen.
Text: John C. Ylvisaker, (b. 1937)
What a scene: Jesus astride a colt, riding into Jerusalem to the celebratory, joy-filled shouts of “those who went ahead and those who followed.” Jesus, surrounded by acclaim and praise. “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” You’d think it would sound like music to his ears.
Interesting, though, that Scripture doesn’t record a response by Jesus. No grateful smile, no welcome wave to the throng, nothing. It’s almost as if he’s unaffected by the admiration. He just keeps moving.
Fast forward a few days, less than a week. Another crowd, or maybe the same one, with a very different urging about this Jesus. “Crucify him!” It’s a mob now, angry, intolerant, blood-thirsty. “Crucify him!” they shout. Interesting to note that, again, there’s no response by Jesus. He makes no defense, offers no explanation; in fact, he says nothing.
Note to self: Take a tip from Jesus and refuse to live life on its own terms. Because if you live life on its own terms you’ll feel like a million bucks when the adoring crowd can’t get enough of you and like garbage when they treat you like garbage. Good advice, and like a lot of good advice, easier said than done.
But here’s the thing: Even as Jesus hears the voices issuing both the celebratory shouts and the vile condemnations, he listens most intently to the voice underneath all the others, the voice that issued his identity long before: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” He hears in his baptism that he belongs, he is loved, he is pleasing. He hasn’t earned any of that status; it comes to him as gift, and that gift will sustain him and give him an orienting confidence through all—all—that will transpire.
If you’re anything like me, you too want to know that you belong, that you are loved, that you are pleasing. Not primarily because those around you say so—we all know how fickle the crowd can be, since the crowd is made up of us—but because God in God’s unlimited freedom has declared it so. This is the bedrock truth of our lives, the truth that is truer than any other claim that can be made about us—by others or even by ourselves. Hear it again, and know it is for you: “You are my child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Rev. Roger Gustafson,
Bishop, Central States Synod
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