SERMON SERIES ON “A COMMUNITY OF GRACE”

FOR THE HEALING AND HOPE OF THE CITY

Scripture: Psalm 122; Colossians 3:1-15

INTRODUCTION

Throughout this Lenten Season, we have been walking together with Jesus and His disciples on our journey of faith, and talking with each other about what it means to be and to become “A Community of Grace.” Today, we come to the gates of Jerusalem as we take up the glad and glorious shout with those first Palm Sunday people – “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

It seems to me that there is something deep down inside all of us that rises to the occasion of a grand entrance and glorious celebration. Family and friends turn around with anticipation as the organ sound of a Purcel Voluntary signals that the bride is coming down the aisle! Thousands of eyes watch and wait as the trumpet fanfare welcomes Olympic athletes marching into the stadium! And tonight, millions of viewers will tune in to the Academy Awards as we watch film and television celebrities make their way into the Kodak Theater in Hollywood to see who will receive the Oscars! To be sure, there is something in all of us that rises to the occasion of a grand entrance and glorious celebration.

And there are those of us who like to be the center of attention, people who enjoy the praise and position of making their entrance with everyone else focused on them.

Lou Holtz, the football coach at the University of South Carolina, who has enjoyed some degree of notoriety, was once asked how he would like to make his own grand entrance. Holtz answered: “It would be great to be invited to the Vatican by the Pope himself, and while there, the Pope would say ‘Lou, let’s go for a ride in my little cart through St. Peter’s Square.’ Oh, to get into that cart and drive out into the crowd and have them shout out loud, ‘Who’s that riding in the cart with Mr. Holtz?’” You see, there is something in all of us that loves a procession, and there are those of us who like to be the center of attention.

It was not so with Jesus Christ on that first Palm Sunday. Although He was the One whom all the eyes were watching and all the voices were praising, He rode on into the gates of Jerusalem in silence and in humility.

Although there was great joy in the city streets, there were others in the shadows lurking there who were watching and waiting for that man from Nazareth to make the fatal mistake which would lead to His crucifixion. And as He drew near to the heart of the city, Luke tells us that Jesus got down on His knees and prayed with tears in His eyes for the peace of Jerusalem. Oh that even today, he prayed, You knew the things that make for peace. (Luke 19:42)

So it was then and so it still is today. I think that the poet Ann Weems in her wonderful book “Kneeling in Jerusalem,” captured something of the essence of it when she wrote these words which help us to make our way toward the city. The poem is entitled “The Way to Jerusalem is Cluttered”:

The way to Jerusalem

is cluttered

With bits and pieces of our lives

that fly up and cry out,

Wounding us as we try

to keep upon this path

that leads to life.

Why didn’t somebody tell us

that it would be so hard?

In the midst of the clutter,

the children laugh

and run after stars.

Those of us who are wise

will follow.

For the children will be the first

to kneel in Jerusalem.

So it was then, and so it still is all these years later: joy mixed with sorrow, expectation in the midst of despair, violence versus peace, suffering embraced by compassion and care. And together with Jesus, we have come to the gates, seeking and praying, as our Statement of Purpose proclaims, “For the Healing and Hope of the City.”

Centuries before that first Palm Sunday (circa 1000 B.C.), King David stood by those same gates and poured out his heart in praise:

I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord!” Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem, built as a city which is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up…to give thanks to the Lord…Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!…Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers! For my brothers and sisters and companions sake, I will say “Peace be within you!” (Psalm 122)

What David saw with his own eyes was a city that had already been fought over and fortified by previous generations (see Joshua 15-16; Judges 1, 19; I Chronicles 11). He and his army captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and established the capital city there from which David ruled over Israel and Judah for 33 years (see II Samuel 5).

A millennium later, what Jesus saw with His own eyes as He entered the gates of Jerusalem, was a city that had been conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians and the Greeks; a city that was caught in cross fires between the Egyptians and the Syrians, then the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans, and in 63 B.C. was overtaken and leveled by Pompey and the Romans, who put King Herod in charge of rebuilding everything that had been broken down.

Soon thereafter, Jesus was born and during His lifetime, Pontius Pilate became the Roman Procurator (26 A.D.) and another Herod, named Antipas, was made Tetrarch over the entire region (Luke 3:1) – two men whom we remember for the role they played in condemning Jesus to death. (Research information from The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “Jerusalem” and “Herod”)

So what Jesus saw as He came through the gates was much the same as what David had seen 1000 years before – a holy city, sacred to God but seething with human conflict and suffering in pain. And as you know – in truth, as the whole world knows – Jerusalem still needs and desperately seeks healing and hope and the promise of peace today.

II.

A small group of us from Atlanta were supposed to travel there last January, but the trip was postponed until this April and has just been postponed once again. However, I learned at a meeting this past week that Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, our good friend from The Temple, was able to get into Jerusalem recently. He told me and several others that he has never seen that city in such disarray or felt as much fear and hostility as there is right now…and he has been there more than thirty different times. Rabbi Sugarman and group of Jewish leaders were supposed to have dinner in a local restaurant one evening, and at the last minute, they made reservations elsewhere. A few hours later, that restaurant was bombed, and three people died. Had he gone there, Alvin Sugarman might not have come back home alive.

Which is exactly what has happened to more than 1500 people – a majority of them Palestinians, many Israelis and a haunting number of children – during the past 18 months of violence and bloodshed. Other nations, including our own, have sent envoys, proposed plans for a cease-fire and offered help to establish a process for peace. And now, more than ever before, we Christians need to join our hearts and hands together with Jews and Muslims around the world to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that entire war-torn region.

Why? Because as disciples who follow and trust in Jesus Christ, we believe that He gave His life to forgive our sin, to save our souls, to reconcile us to our Father in heaven and to offer healing and hope and peace to all the people and cities and nations on earth.

That is what Jesus prayed, with tears in His eyes, as He prepared to ride on into Jerusalem long ago. And that is what He cried out from the cross with the last breath that was in Him: Father, forgive them! For they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

CONCLUSION

My friends: those prayers were lifted up by our Lord for the whole world. But they were also meant for me and for you, and for the people living right here in Atlanta, Georgia.

We are known as a city of dynamic growth and economic prosperity. But there are gaps among us between the rich and the poor, the upwardly mobile and the unemployed, the well educated and the high school dropouts. There are gaps between us, and I heard Jimmy Carter say this past week that the gaps are growing wider.

We once called ourselves “A city too busy to hate,” and looked to leaders like Ivan Allen, Jr. and Andy Young who helped us build inter-racial respect and equality and coalitions of support and mutual understanding. But I’m wondering if we are now becoming “A city too busy to relate,” where folks seem to care more about places to go and things to accomplish than about getting together and taking the time, making the time, to establish a deeper dialogue and a closer relationship with those who are different than we are. I know that Mayor Shirley Franklin and City Council President Cathy Woolard want that to happen, and the reality is, they need our help.

So if we really want to be Jesus’ disciples who reach out across the city with the healing and hope of the gospel, if we truly desire to proclaim His name and to embrace others as sisters and brothers from all walks of life, if we seek to be and to become a community of grace, the same kind of “beloved community” that Martin Luther King, Jr. once envisioned, then one thing is required: you and I and all of us in this church need to receive the gifts of healing and hope and peace that we seek to share with those around us. You see, nothing can happen through us if it isn’t first happening to us.

The apostle Paul believed that, and he said so to the Colossians, just as he would say to each and every one of us today:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones…compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience…forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you…And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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