Fair
Weather Fans
Pastor Mathew Magera – 3/25/18 – Sermon 280
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
I remember when I was young,
Palm Sunday always stood out to me. Coming to church and receiving this long,
branch thing to wave around in church and annoy my parents with. Then, as I got
older, I learned how to make crosses out of my palms to keep me busy. Palm
Sunday was unique in that it was a celebration near the end of the somber
season of Lent. It was like a mini-Easter and what a cool sensory celebration
it was. As I continued to get older and learned more about Palm Sunday I
discovered how incredibly wrong my perception of the Palm Sunday actually was.
Many of you know of my love
for the game of baseball. Many of you also know of my loyalties to the Chicago
White Sox as my team of choice. I've been to a number of Sox games in my years
but some of the most memorable games that I have attended have been between the
White Sox and their north side rivals the Cubs. June 9th in the year 2000 I was
watching these two down at Comiskey Park. The score was tied in the bottom of
the 14th inning and with men on first and second base with one out Ray Durham
hit a game winning double down the left field line. After 14 innings, that win
felt so good. The very next year, June 8th 2001, the score was tied in the
bottom of the 10th inning. The bases were loaded, Magglio Ordonez just struck out,
giving the Sox 2 outs. Carlos Lee steps in and hits a grand slam into left to
win the game. I couldn't figure out which felt better, a 14th inning double or
a 10th inning grand slam. Those were two pretty sweet victories that I have not
forgotten to this day. Fast forward to July 4, 2004. I'm at Wrigley Field now.
The Sox finally tied the game in the top of the 9th inning. Then in the bottom
of the 9th, Cubs had the bases loaded, three balls and two strikes, and our
pitcher, Damaso Marte, threw ball four and the Cubs won the game with a bases
loaded walk. It was the most embarrassing loss I've ever experienced.
Any diehard sports fan could
probably tell you stories like these about their teams. They could tell you
about the best victories as well as the worst losses they have experienced. The
games are tense. You're excited, tense, and emotions can change in mere
seconds. Eyes on the scoreboard, focused on the action of the game and all of a
sudden chances of victory slowly slip away. All the anticipation, all the
excitement thrown right back in your face as you slowly emerge from your seat
and walk to your car wondering how it all went wrong.
This... is Palm Sunday. Not
a celebration of victory, but a curious mystery about how, after all this time,
things seemed to go wrong. The victory procession that we would all be cheering
for is about to become a slap in the face as Jesus gives up, as we might think
of it, a bases loaded walk, to lose the game.
How could this have gone so
wrong? Just how can we go from the euphoria that surrounds the entry into
Jerusalem to confusion? From palms and procession to distraction and
disorientation? If you cherish Palm Sunday because of the fanfare, the
hosannas, the palms on the ground, the processional parade as the celebration
of an earthly Messiah, you are not thinking about Palm Sunday in the right way.
This procession into
Jerusalem is about as fanfare as Jesus will ever get but it was for the wrong
reason. Granted, it was this grand entry that likely drew many others to
believe in Jesus. Many of the crowd who saw him raise Lazarus from the dead
were there. Seeing the throngs of people who had come to see Jesus likely
captured the attention of others who asked who this man was. It was a
witnessing even, no doubt. Nevertheless, while people place their palms on the
ground for the donkey to walk over, they are anticipating something that Jesus
would never be about. An earthly kingdom is only temporary. Jesus was here to
establish the heavenly kingdom on earth. The palms we carry with us today are a
reminder of the witness that took place on Palm Sunday but also our inevitable
desire for an earthly kingdom. Our palms do not belong on the road at the
entrance to Jerusalem but rather at the foot of the cross as our Lord willingly
takes his place there to assume his throne and his crown.
You've heard of the phrase
when the going gets tough, right? How does that finish out? When the going gets
tough... the tough get going. Right. But, what about the weak? When the going
gets tough, what happens to them? When the going gets tough, the weak walk
away.
That is exactly what is
about to happen. It was the weak who crowded the streets on Palm Sunday. It was
the weak who laid their palms on the ground. They thought they were strong. They
thought they were doing the right thing. They thought Jesus was going to
establish that earthly kingdom and save them from Roman oppression. But, when
Jesus, quite literally, turned the tables the next day, and when he was
betrayed, tried and beaten, when he was crowned with thorns and nailed to a
cross, that same crowd was gone. Sure, maybe some of them stayed but their
attitude and the atmosphere was different. Jesus had let them down. Jesus had
given up.
It is at this point, with
these feelings that we discover the true followers of Jesus and the fair
weather fans. A fair weather fan is one who joins in the excitement when things
are going well but at the first sign of a problem, slides back into disbelief.
The Palm Sunday procession brings out followers of all kinds. Seeing Jesus ride
into Jerusalem for those who want him to assume the throne in that city are
cheering but those cheers would not last. They expected something great to
happen but they were disappointed when Jesus failed to live up to their
expectations. How they must have felt as they had invested so much into his
teachings, his message only to now be wondering why he isn't appearing to push
for that final victory? Can't you just imagine what the people would be
thinking? He doesn't care about me. He doesn't have my best interest in mind.
Doesn't he realize how much we are suffering? Doesn't he realize that he is the
Son of God and has the power to end all of this suffering?
How close to home are
phrases like these? Yeah, God's in control but I still feel pain. Yeah, God's
in control but I want to be my old self again. Yeah, God's in control but I
want my life back! Give me my life back, God. Give it back! I don't want to
have this pain. I don't want to have this fatigue. I don't want to be living
paycheck to paycheck. I don't want to have angst in my relationships.
So, then here we are in
worship every Sunday praising God for his goodness, hearing wonderful stories
about healings and miracles, singing songs, gathering at the table, feeling the
hope, feeling renewed, but then when we go home again it's like a slap in the
face. Why, after all this praising, all this worship, why after hearing all
this good news am I just stuck right back where I came from? I trusted you God.
I've seen what you can do for others, I've heard the good news. Why on earth
won't you do that for me?
It might be easy for us to
have a Palm Sunday hosanna experience in worship on Sunday but when the trials
and the suffering increases, how much do we really rely on and trust God to alleviate
that suffering when it takes over our very existence? Our faith is weak. We
become fair weather fans. When the going gets tough, the tough may get going,
but as for us, the weak, when the going gets tough we walk away.
The truth is that we are all
fair weather fans when it comes to faith. We all wonder why Jesus does what he
does. We all want to celebrate when we see that he is doing something that
appears to support our desires but at the same time we all fall away and out of
faith when he appears to do something different or against our desires. We are
weak. This makes me feel bad for waving my palm in the air while we sing,
"All Glory, Laud and Honor." While we know Jesus wasn't going to
assume the earthly throne we are still the weak ones who would have turned away
from him because we still do.
Fortunately, in our
weakness, though we are fair weather fans, Christ still goes to the cross for
us, without the palms and procession, without the cheering and the hosannas.
Though many walked away from him, though many doubted, though many thought he
didn't care about their suffering, their trials and their tribulations, Jesus
was on a larger mission. His mission did not lead to the throne in Jerusalem
but beyond it, past the palace, past the city gates, up on a hill on a cross.
On that day when people
lined the streets with palms, the real procession of our king was still yet to
come. The real procession of our Lord takes place on Friday morning. The cheers
replaced with boos. The palms on the ground replaced with yelling and spitting,
hitting and pain. Instead of riding a donkey, he'll be carrying a cross. That
is the true procession of our king and he did it for us. Nowhere in that
procession would you find hosanna's or worship. But even for those who have
turned away from him, who lost faith in him, for them he would endure the pain.
He would still save them. He would still save you and me.
The Good News on Palm Sunday
is not that Jesus entered Jerusalem to palms, procession and hosannas, but that
Jesus would not be staying in Jerusalem, that he would continue out to the
cross. The Good News is for those who are laying their palms on the ground.
Even they, who may have followed Jesus since the beginning, who still got it
wrong, are included in God's plan of salvation. The feeling of Palm Sunday is
like that of Jesus giving up a bases loaded walk to lose the game. It's about
being weak and feeling like a fair weather fan who can't understand why Jesus
does what he does. But, Palm Sunday is also about Jesus who understands our
feelings, yet though he could take those feelings away in the blink of an eye,
keeps his focus on the more important plan to end suffering forever.
"The truth of what we
call Palm Sunday is that this is not a simple celebration that happened long
ago to give... Christians a chance to whoop it up with some palms... every year
a week before Easter."[1]
What we forget is that Palm Sunday is not a bright spot in the end of Lent
before we enter Holy Week. Palm Sunday IS the beginning of Holy Week. We can't
be ready for Holy Week. It needs to catch us by surprise.
Palm Sunday's main intent is
to confuse us. Palm Sunday should put a knot in our stomach, to make us wonder
what is really going on. If you leave worship on Palm Sunday feeling confused,
betrayed, or even offended, then Palm Sunday has done its job. Do not rely on
your own strength this week for it will fail you. Rely instead on his strength
and if when the going gets tough you walk away like a fair weather fan, Jesus
never forgot about you. He didn't just pass you by. He just wasn't going where
you wanted him to, he was going where you needed him to. To God be the glory,
now and always. Amen.