Palm Sunday 2013
Father Adam Trambley
March 24, 2013, St.John’s Sharon
“It these were
silent, the stones would shout out”
Back in Allen Hall, we started our grand procession to model
Jesus’ parade from Bethany, down the Mount of Olives and up to Jerusalem. The whole multitude of the disciples with
Jesus is praising God with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had
seen – maybe not as boisterously as the bagpipes, but with as much oomph as
they could muster. Then the Pharisees,
who aren’t sure about the whole Jesus enterprise and are nervous about “what
people might think”, tell Jesus, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” Jesus’ reply is startling. He says, “If the people were silent, the
stones would shout out.”
 |
| Silent stones laying between Jerusalem and Jericho |
If the people were silent, the stones would shout out. Maybe it’s hyperbole, but maybe not. Just maybe, the triumphal entry of Son of God
into the holy city requires the praise of God.
Just maybe, the mighty of acts of God call forth such joyful acclamation
that if the people refuse to proclaim it, the most insignificant roadside rocks
will reverberate, “Hosanna!” Just maybe,
the saving purposes of God are so momentous that neither stubborn silence, mute
fear or even a carefully cultivated cluelessness can prevent the good news of
Jesus Christ from being proclaimed to the people God is calling to himself.
That day when the disciples were lifting up their voices,
they may have thought they were just giving God the glory for what they had
seen. But they were doing so much
more. That day when the disciples were
lifting up their voices, they were announcing something yet to come, something
they didn’t even realize, something that was going to scare their socks off and
rock their world. That day when the
disciples were lifting up their voices, they were telling the world that the
king was coming in the name of the Lord, that the peace in heaven and the glory
in the highest heaven were spilling down into the holy city of Jerusalem, and
that God’s people gathering to celebrate the saving deeds of God at the
Passover hadn’t seen anything yet. That
day, when the disciples were lifting up their voices, is very similar to this
day, when we can lift up our voices for the mighty acts of God we have seen and
experienced.
We know the unbelievable love of God for us. We have just heard how Jesus emptied himself,
took human likeness and died on a cross for us, and even in the midst of his
suffering he prays for his enemies, forgives his murders and brings sinners
salvation. We know that throughout the
coming week we will remember and experience again Jesus’ last supper with his
disciples, the way of his cross and passion, and finally the joy and power of
his resurrection.
Even beyond the great good news of what God has done in the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we all can thank God for his many works
in our own lives. The protection and
care as we’ve walked through the valley of the shadow of death. The tough times when we found God provided
enough to squeak by. The peace, the love
or the joy that enfolded us during a struggle to help us get through. The gift of those nearest to us whom we love
and who love us. The miracles that we
can only ascribe to God. Any of these
things would be enough for us to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for
anyone to hear.
But we are also compelled to keep praising for those things
God is about to do. Just like when he was
on the way into Jerusalem, we are praising Jesus who has some work to do in the
Shenango Valley. God knows his plans for
this Valley, plans for its welfare and a hopeful future. The good news of God’s future for us will be
proclaimed as God comes to this valley, beginning with this place this morning. If our voices are silent about God’s acts, then
the stones will shout out.
Jesus is going out with us into the highways and byways, the
schools and the shops, the mills and the malls, the hospitals and the homes
throughout Sharon and Hermitage and Masury and Sharpsville and Brookfield and
Farrell and West Middlesex and Mercer and Hubbard and South Py, and wherever
else we go out from here. The grand
procession of our King does not stop just because we leave the church and don’t
have Ross wailing on the bagpipes in our backseats. We take what we know of the mighty works of
God and share them with others. Everyone,
beginning with those nearby and going out to the ends of the earth, needs to
hear the glories of what God has already done for us in Jesus Christ so that
they can discover what he is doing right now in their own lives. The work that God has done for us already,
and the salvation he has come to bring to this community, is such good news
that creation can’t keep it inside.
Either we give voice to every creature under heaven and join with angels
and archangels in their unending praise or the very stones of this church will
shout out. Regardless, God’s salvation
will sweep though the Shenango Valley and the wider world. But it is so much better for us to lift up our
voices in praise and join in Jesus’ triumphal procession of saving, self-giving
love, a procession that started on the Mount of Olives, moved into Jerusalem,
stopped in Allen Hall, went down Irving Avenue, came into this sanctuary and
will soon be moving out with you when you leave here this morning. Lift up your voices in praise of God, or the
stones will shout out.
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