Sermon for Palm Sunday: Fame... I'm gonna live forever

music: Wave Goodbye: The 80's
mood: humbled by Christ

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The corrected text for this Palm Sunday is according to St. Matthew 21:1-11. Please Rise for the Gospel:

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Zechariah, saying,
5 “ Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘ Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” Let us pray:

Dear and merciful Father Son and Holy Spirit. You are the creator and perfector of all things. You know all, You see all, You reveal all. Look upon us and see that we are fallen… look upon us and see we are broken… look into our hearts and reveal the fame that we have deserves judgment… seek out our faults and lay them before us that we may view them with horror and shame… keep us ever mindful that we are among all creation who will receive Your judgment. When we see that we are hopeless… when we see that we are lost… remind us of Your grace and mercy… show us that You have taken our sins and put them on Your Son Jesus Christ. Keep us ever mindful that it was Your work that saved us and not our own. Let us not stray from the truth of Christ in the Word and Sacraments. Keep what is Holy in us and expel all evil. Humble us before Your throne of judgment… bow our heads at the cross of salvation. Fix our eyes on the wounds of Christ that were meant for us. Keep the devil from tying our tongues and help us to share the good news of Christ with others. It is because of Your mercy that we can come before You today. For these and all things, we thank and praise You in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1. What is fame?

What is fame? Better yet, how does someone become famous? It seems like there are two types of famous people: The first are the type who become famous for something they did. I’ll see if we can decide if we agree on why people are famous. I’ll name a person and you tell me why they are famous, ok? First: Fred Astaire… (dancing, acting) That’s right. Man that guy could dance, too. Let’s try another one: George Washington… (Revolutionary war general, first US President) very important man in our history, right? Ok, how about this one: Bob Denver (played Dobie Gillis and Gilligan) That one was a little harder to remember. It seems like fame can be fleeting, too right? And fame isn’t always a good thing, is it? Remember what Jack the Ripper was famous for? Or how about Jim Jones? (massive suicides, kool aid). Good or evil, fame is surrounded by people just trying to get a glimpse of their fame. Have you ever met anyone famous? Like an actor or a baseball player? It’s exciting, isn’t it? We have even sung about it. Twenty some odd years ago there was a Broadway play which later became a movie and a television show. It was called… you guessed it “FAME”. The theme song said this: FAME… I’m going to live forever. They believed if they did something so great, people would remember them after they were dead. That’s the way fame and famous people are. They have all done something that made you notice them for one reason or another.

2. Jesus entered victoriously as well

The Gospel lesson says a lot about the fame of Jesus, too right? Here was someone who had quite a level of fame. In three years he made quite a name for Himself, didn’t He? In three years He preached the kingdom of God to those who were lowly, poor, wretched sick and dying. He even preached to the dead who returned to life because of it. Christ came to those who were wealthy with cash and possessions and told them how to become truly rich. He healed the bodies of those who were crippled by physical problems, but more importantly He healed the souls of all who were spiritually crippled by sin, death and the power of the devil. There was so much He had done and so much people had seen. His fame was so great it even began to reveal Him for who He is. As He entered into the city, the cries of people who were throwing down their coats and waving their Palm fronds were “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Hosanna… what a great word! “Hosanna” in Aramaic, is an exclamation of praise literally meaning, "Save, I pray". This is something you would or could only say to someone coming in the name of Yahweh. The King was here, the red carpet was out and He was being glorified.

3. Law: Sinful man often only looks at “what is in it for me?”

This is an impressive scene. Usually when someone gets this kind of parade, they are on their way to receive and award or some kind of acolade, right? Like the red carpet that goes from the limosuine to the Academy awards. When the famous people are getting out of their limos, they triumphantly enter the building, confident that they will be rewarded for their efforts with a tiny, gold statue and the love and adoration of their fans… More money… Better opprotunities to be in more movies. Did I mention more money? Basically they are there for themselves. They ask the question “what will my reward do for me?” [pause]
Of course, to be fair, this isn’t just a problem of the famous, is it? Do you have to be rich and famous in order in order to be self-serving and selfish? Nope. All you have to be is sinful and unfortunatly, every single one of us is plagued with that condition. Instead of waving the Palms and shouting Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Too often it becomes My wants… my needs in the highest! And Blessed is He who comes in the name of WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

4. Gospel: Christ entered not to receive His reward of righteousness, but our punishment for Sin.

Brothers and sisters, when the people laid out the “red carpet” for Christ to enter into the city, He wasn’t like those stars who got out of limos in hopes of being rewarded for what they had done. He came for a much greater purpose. As a matter of fact, He would pray in the garden that if it was His Father’s will, that the award He was about to receive might not begiven to Him. Since it was His Father’s will that it not be taken away, Jesus preceeded in to receive a very special award. Our Savior would not receive the a reward for His righteousness. No, that was not the reason for His entry. He was receiving a different, more horrible one. The award was called “The punishment for the sins of all mankind. For every lie, cheat, murder, adultery, idolatry, blasphemey and covetessness of everyone here.” For all of the sins you have committed, Jesus would receive the fame and the reward of sin, death and the power of the devil. The son of David… the King of all… God made flesh decided that you shouldn’t have to know this type of fame. He has decided that this is an award that only His shoulders can bear. The carpet is red because it is soaked in His innocent blood. As He enters in the gates, He brought all of our sins with Him because He would, in a few days see them be destroyed on the cross. He did this so that you would receive HIS reward. Just as He did not deserve our reward of sin, we do not deserve His reward of righteousness. Nonetheless, because of His blood… because of His love… because of His sacrafice… because of His FAME… we can sing: I AM GOING TO LIVE FOREVER. And as we, like the academy award winners go up to receive this award, we will also be waving the palms of victory… our brief speech to the assembly will be “I would like to thank God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit… without Him, none of this would be possible.”
God grant this for Jesus’ sake. Amen. Please rise.

The peace of God who passes all understanding will guard and keep your hearts and your minds in the one true faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.


CaptainCatechism on 03.31.07 @ 07:38 PM CST [link]