Sermons

March 24, 2024

Palm Sunday – Year B – George Yandell

Every year the assigned readings for Palm Sunday split the day between the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem then move to the passion gospel and Jesus’s crucifixion. I’ve had problems with that program for a long time. So today we’re going to focus on Jesus entering Jerusalem and leave the crucifixion to Good Friday.  

Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in 30 CE. It was the beginning of Passover week, the most sacred week of the Jewish year. One was a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession demonstrating the Roman Empire’s occupation and domination of Jerusalem and Israel. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives cheered by his followers. Jesus was from the peasant village of Nazareth, his message was about the kingdom of God, and his followers came from the peasant class. My friend and colleague Bowlyne Fisher would have called them ‘the great unwashed.’ Jesus and his companions had journeyed from Galilee, 100 miles going south to Jerusalem. [The above adapted from The Last Week: A Day-by Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem, Borg and Crossan, Harper San Francisco, 2006, p. 2]  

Mark’s story of Jesus and his kingdom of God movement has been aiming for Jerusalem. It has now arrived.  

On the opposite side of the city, coming from the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea and Samaria, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire. Those two processions embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus’ crucifixion.   

Pilate demonstrated Rome’s imperial power and its imperial theology. The emperor was divine. It was the standard practice of the Roman governors to be in Jerusalem for the major Jewish festivals. They were in the city in case there was trouble. They augmented the standing deployment of legion soldiers on the grounds of the temple. They had no regard for the Jews’ religious devotion. There often was trouble at Passover- that festival celebrated the Jewish people’s liberation from an earlier empire, that of Egypt.  

Pilate’s procession had cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. The sounds of marching feet and hoofs, the creaking of leather and the beating of drums emphasized their dominance and power. The dust swirled around them.   

That procession displayed not only imperial power, but also Roman imperial theology. According to that theology, the emperor was not simply the ruler of Rome, but the Son of God. It began with the greatest of emperors, Caesar Augustus, who ruled Rome for 45 years, from 31 BCE to 14 CE. His father was the god Apollo, who conceived him in his mother, Atia. Inscriptions refer to him as ‘son of God’, ‘lord’ and ‘savior’. He has brought ‘peace on earth’ or the pax Romana. After his death he was seen ascending into heaven to reign with the other gods. For Rome’s Jewish subjects, Pilate’s procession embodied not only a rival social order but also a rival theology.  

So to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Although it is familiar, it holds surprises. As Mark tells the story it is a ‘counter-procession.’ Jesus planned it in advance. As Jesus approaches the city from the east he had told two disciples to go into the village nearing Jerusalem and get him the colt they would find, a young one never before ridden. They do so, Jesus rides the colt down the Mount of Olives to the city surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic followers. They spread their cloaks, spread leafy branches on the road and shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David. Hosanna in the highest heaven!” It is a planned political demonstration. [ibid]  

It’s meaning is clear. Using symbolism from the prophet Zechariah, it foretells that a king would be coming to Jerusalem ‘humble and riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ In Mark’s gospel the reference to Zechariah is implied. Matthew’s gospel in telling the same story, makes the connection explicit: “Tell the daughter of Zion, look, your king is coming to you humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah’s passage continues, “He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations.”  

This king on a donkey will banish war from the land- no more chariots, war-horses or bows and arrows. Commanding peace to the nations, he will be a king of peace.  

Jesus’ planned procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city. Pilate’s procession embodied the power, glory and violence of the empire that ruled the world. The forces of that empire had squelched Jewish peasant revolts in years prior, the last one in 5 BCE when Jesus was born. Jesus’ procession embodied an alternative vision, the kingdom of God. That contrast, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Caesar is central to the gospel of Mark and to the story of Jesus and early Christianity.   

The confrontation between these two kingdoms continues through the last week of Jesus’ life.  

The Church also calls Holy Week, Passiontide. As we enter this week of passion and pathos, we do well to root ourselves in the audacity, the courage and the drive that led Jesus to create that counter-procession. He must have known his caricature of Pilate would not sit well. He egged on the legion with his deliberate pantomime of Pilate. And he sealed his own fate. To what purpose? To honor his father in heaven. To fulfill Zechariah’s prophecy. But mostly, to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit poured into him at his baptism, with the voice of heaven booming out, “This is my son, the beloved. Listen to him!” Pay attention, God declared, this is the One I’ve anointed finally to liberate my people from bondage and tyranny. And so the Holy Spirit’s lead continues today. Jesus has come to bring peace even now, to a world torn with hatred, strife and pandemic. The anointed one anoints us to proclaim the true kingdom of God today.

March 17, 2024

Lent 5 Year B – George Yandell

I’ve been mulling over what I can offer you as we prepare for my retirement. I keep coming back to how grateful I feel being with you at Holy Family since August 1, 2010. It has been an incredible blessing to serve with you and my clergy colleagues. I’ve asked them to send me some of their recollections.  

When Susan and I were in town house-hunting before I started as priest-in-charge, the clergy invited us for a meal at Byron and Anne’s house. Susan recalls that Scott and Katharine drove us with Ted and Debbie to the Tindall’s. I had some apprehensions about being the new kid on the block with a team of clergy that devoted themselves as volunteers and had kept worship and pastoral care alive after Mary had left. We were so delighted as we talked and shared a wonderful meal- I thought as we were going home- what a tremendous gift to have such sharp and devoted colleagues! And in the years since that first engagement, I’ve only grown in my respect and love for you all.  

Byron offers these recollections:  
Approximately 14 years ago, the Search Committee at Holy Family was in the process of interviewing priests for the position of priest-in-charge of our parish. As “retired” clergy and members of Holy Family, Katharine, Ted and I were afforded an opportunity to have some private time with each of the candidates.

Continue reading March 17, 2024

March 10, 2024

Lent 4 – Year B – George Yandell

I like the word ‘oxymoron’. It means expressing two contradictory things at the same time. The word itself is an oxymoron – it’s a compound made up of two Greek words meaning “sharp” and “dull.” So oxymoron = sharp/dull. Some good examples are: bittersweet, original copy, jumbo shrimp, and a true Southernism—“pretty ugly”. I have often thought that having a firm handle on the concept of an oxymoron is vital to understanding the Christian faith. Is God oxymoronic? Does the Bible express truths about God that are mutually contradictory?  

Dom Crossan has said: You can read the Bible all through and find evidence for two quite different, conflicting ways God acts. [How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, Harper One, 2015, p.17] In one way – God is harsh, judgmental, strict; a god of law and punishment, of revenge and retribution, even violence; a god who keeps a careful tally of our sins and metes out appropriate penalties. In the other way – God is gentle, loving, forgiving, and indulgent; a god who condemns violence and loves us with a prodigal, spendthrift love. [Adapted from a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Delmer L. Chilton on The Lectionary Lab, March 15, 2015]  

How do we hear and respond to the dialogue of Jesus with Nicodemus in today’s gospel?  In shaping our responses, key words in today’s gospel demand some decoding and recasting.

Continue reading March 10, 2024

March 3, 2024

Lent 3 Year B – George Yandell

When Jesus went onto the temple courtyard, he erupted in violent anger when he saw the Court of the Gentiles desecrated by the traders who set up shop there. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and threw them out. Why? Because they filled their pockets by ripping off the poor. He screamed at the vendors of sheep and cattle and doves. Anger coursed through him, he was outraged. What was Jesus really doing? Jesus might have waked up one morning, walked out of his house, seen the poverty and the hunger of all those around him and said, “This Stinks!” He was enraged at those perverting the true worship God intended.   

What was the worship God intended? Jesus seemed to be channeling the great prophets’ teachings: Amos 5:21 ff., speaking God’s word to the people of Israel 750 years before Jesus: “I hate, I despise your festivals…. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them… Take away the noise of your songs, I will not listen to the melody of your harps… But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” Isaiah 1:17 “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Hosea 6:6 “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Micah 6:8 “[God] has told you….what is good;

Continue reading March 3, 2024