John 12:12-16; Reading by Rev. Dawn Hutchings
Introduction
There are many theories about the afterlife. Some people believe in reincarnation. Three men died and stood before God, who asked them how they wanted to spend their next life on earth. The first man said, “I want to come back as myself, but I want to be 10 times smarter.” “Poof,” God made him 10 times smarter. The second guy said, “That’s a good idea. Send me back, but this time I want to be 100 times smarter.” And “Poof” God sent him back 100 times smarter. The third guy said, “We’ve got a good thing going, so send me back 1,000 times smarter.” And “Poof”, wouldn’t you know, God made him a woman.
Palm Sunday: A Contradiction
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday. The day that Jesus enters into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! Save us! Save us! Save us from the darkness. Save us from all that oppresses us. Save us from our deepest fears. And yet we know full well that this parade is leading us straight into the abyss―unswerving toward crucifixion. In actuality, Palm Sunday is not a celebration―but rather an event that leaves us wounded, and limping on into the unknown.
Here, we discover that Jesus is not the Messiah we were hoping for. We want someone who rides in on a stallion. We want someone who will do the bleeding for us―someone who will show us that God is all powerful, capable of doing our bidding. We want peace through victory. Over and over again, the world has put its faith in a military might hoping against hope to achieve peace through victory. Over and over again, the rich and the powerful have profited from the violence perpetrated upon the oppressed and the powerless. Over and over again, we seek to feel good about ourselves by making Jesus into our own image.
But in comes Jesus victoriously riding on an ass. A contradiction. There is no victory through might. There is no triumph through power. Instead, this man humbly strolls through the crowd of people, befriending the unlovable, caring for the sick, healing the lame, and touching people’s hearts. This, my friends, is the ultimate irony of the Gospel. Jesus came to reform the world by bringing peace through humility not strength. Jesus came to pull us off the wrong train track, not to affirm our complacency or heretical selfish practices of rule making. Jesus meets us in the brokenness of our lives not in our abilities, not in our own strength.
John Lennon and Jesus
I have long thought that John Lennon and Jesus could be brothers. Both were dreamers of a new world vision. Lennon’s genius extended beyond music, to world play and visual arts. While he inspired teens, he frightened parents and pastors, and was a target of the Nixon-era FBI. His childhood was unsettled, with an absent father and a mother who simply could not handle motherhood. John was 16 years old when his mother died, and he carried the weight of the tragedy with him for the rest of his life. His adult years of pursuit and anguish were somewhat controversial, to be sure. And yet his music has inspired the world toward an image of peace. From his “Give Peace a Chance” melody to the ultimate existentialism theme song “Imagine”―where he echoes the views of people of faith and captures worldwide attention.
“Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for; and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace.”
In an interview, John Lennon once said, “I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.”
Hosanna! Save us! Save us!
It’s just that the translations have gone wrong. And I would add, it’s just that our interpretations and expectations have gone wrong. “Hosanna! Save us! Save us!” is all too often the interpretation of preachers in pulpits all over the world on this Sunday. Save us! It is a cry that places ourselves at the center of existence. It is a narrative that allows us to become self absorbed and ethnocentric―a world view framed by a vision of heaven and hell or reincarnation or otherworld phenomena. We become easily insulated from others who do not believe the things we believe or do the things we do. We become focused on victory no matter the cost.
By the way, white privilege has grown out of this mindset. Save us! So does violence―the violence we have seen over the past year, the violence John Lennon saw in the 60’s, the violence of the Vietnam war and all wars, the violence of hatred and division, the violence of the mass shootings in Colorado and Atlanta. Indeed, this colonization of christianity―this mindset creates this violence.
Hosanna! Imagine! Imagine!
Jesus knew this all too well. And so he invites us to take another view―a view that imagines a world that is not based on victory or violence or heaven and hell, but one of peace through non-violence. Jesus knew that violence was not the way to freedom. The reign of God would not be ushered in at the point of a sword. Justice was the only way to peace, justice for the poor meant freedom for the oppressed and the oppressor alike. Justice was the way. Justice is our way to peace.
For both Jesus bar Joseph and John Winston Ono Lennon, faith is not about winning a victory but creating harmony. It is not about heaven or hell but heaven on earth. Not about salvation for the few but imagination for the many. Palm Sunday demands that we take this outward view of Imagining a world of peace and solidarity, of hope and love. Instead of a cry to save us, it is a cry to help us become more imaginative. Hosanna! Imagine! Imagine! It is a commitment toward actions that will usher in peace―a commitment to the work of justice for all.
I don’t believe in reincarnation. I suspect most of you don’t either. I am not even sure that I believe in heaven or hell. And my read of Jesus is that he did not much care about after-life talk either. He was concerned with the here and now. Today! He wanted to make this world―our world―an experience of heaven.
Friends, imagining and striving for peace and justice can get you killed. It is not a calling for the faint of heart. In fact, it killed Jesus. That’s precisely what this Holy Week is all about. But if Jesus teaches us anything in this week of passion, it is that death is not the final word. Death cannot kill our imagination. Peace and Love will always have the last word if we imagine it so.
So in the words of John Lennon and these could have been from Jesus too: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”
A-men.