Palms of Praise - sermon for Sunday, April 13

“Palms of Praise”

Rev Alison Longstaff, April 13, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Psalm 8; Matthew 21:1-9; Portions: HS 878:5

I want to start this sermon and end this sermon with hands. 

Why hands?  Because it is Palm Sunday.

A palm branch is called a palm branch because it is shaped like a hand.  This is actually true in several languages.  English is not the only language that likens that leaf-shape to a hand.  Perhaps this is because of correspondences. (For those who are new to Swedenborgianism, “correspondences” refers to the perception and science that every created thing has a spiritual meaning and communicates a spiritual idea.  This is not a new idea, because we see it in ancient cultures, in ideas like totem animals, using crystals for healing, and even in astrology.  We don’t necessarily buy into any of those individual expressions of correspondences, but we do love to work with and explore the idea that God’s wisdom shows up in many places in many ways.)

So, back to hands. Even today, when you see a crowd in St. Peter’s square, or at a rock concert, or when a celebrity passes on a float in a parade, you will see people lifting up their hands.  We raise our hands in recognition and honor.  And we raise our hands to say, “Do you see me in return?”

In our story for today, not only were the people lifting their hands in praise and greeting of the Lord when He entered Jerusalem, many of those hands had palm branches in them, extending and enlarging the hands that were raised in praise and celebration.  They wanted to greet Him in a big way, not only saying “I honor you.”  But, “Please see me too!”

Now, perhaps on first glance, you might think this strange custom, of waving palms and casting branches and garments before the Lord has no points of resonance for us today.  We rarely see people riding donkeys, and if we do, we don’t feel compelled to throw our jacket down in front of them, or to rip branches off trees so we can wave them.

So let me help you see just how much we are like these people and still do just what they do.  For example, I’m sure you remember those days when the streets were all mud and we had to pick up our long skirts to keep them out of the….  Hmmm.  Maybe not.  But surely most of us have seen those images in movies of the chivalrous days when a gentleman would throw his coat down in a puddle before a person he respected and honored (usually a lovely lady) to protect her dainty feet and frilly skirts from the filth.  

That action is the same action as the people of Jerusalem are performing when they lay their garments before the way of the King.  Very likely they were covering up some of the nastier stuff that was lying in the Jerusalem streets. It was sign of great respect.  It was saying, “You shouldn't have to step in that.” It was a sign of respect so profound that the individual would sacrifice the clothes off their back to spare this person such an indignity.  And remember, they didn't have a lot of clothes back then!  They couldn't just run into the house and grab something out of the rummage sale bin.  

This is more like you doing this with your favorite sweater, your best suit, or that expensive coat that you love so much—laying it down over animal waste or smelly garbage or even human excrement, to then be walked over by many feet, grinding that garment deeply into the muck.  Then after all the excitement has passed, you can peel it up out of the filth so you can clean it.  Because it is the only one you have and you need it.  That garment is how you stay warm in the chilly desert nights.

Do you feel that now?  The significance and meaning of that action?  Now that is sacrifice!  That is devotion.

A custom that we still have today that has descended to us from that same ritual can be seen at the Oscars, when we lay down the red carpet before North America’s royalty.  We have paved so much of North America and gotten so far away from living with live-stock by now, that we have lost the visceral, emotional, practical connection to the ritual.  We don’t think, “I’m so glad she’s not ruining her Dior garment and Sergio Rossi pumps in that donkey—er, by-product.  Yet the red carpet ritual is descended from the very same tradition.  The garments and branches in the road in today’s Scripture were Jerusalem’s way of laying down the red carpet for the Lord.

But do we see people waving branches to honor a passing celebrity these days?  Well, maybe not branches.  But have you witnessed a sporting event recently?  There are lots of big things being waved—flags, banners, signs, posters, and giant foam hands. Giant hands.  It is a way of declaring support and loyalty. It is a form of claiming that team or star as one’s own.  And when the camera pans over the crowd, don’t the signs and banners catch your eye? Those individuals want to stand out.  They want to be seen.  They are publicly declaring their support for their hero.

That sort of cheering, rowdy, crowd energy that you see in the stands at a big event, or on the streets of London when Will and Kate drive by, is the sort of cheering crowd energy and declarations of faith and hope that we see in today’s story.  Now do you feel it?  Surely you have been in a crowd like that.  Surely you have thrown your faith and hope in with a team, or a political candidate, or some guru-figure at least once in your life.  That is what was happening on the streets of Jerusalem that day.  It was as real and relevant and exciting for them then as it has been for us in our experiences.

Now you might say, “Yes, but I've never mistaken Oprah, or Obama, or Patrick Dempsey for God!”  Well the truth is, very few, if any of the people in that day saw Jesus as anything other than their next physical king.  This human from Nazareth (so they thought) was going to rise up, overthrow the Romans, cleanse Israel from all foreign oppression, and make their nation a strong and respected nation once again.  Hurray! They would no longer be occupied and oppressed.  This man was their Messiah at last!  Their expectation was that he would become their earthly King—restoring Israel to herself and establishing her peace and freedom for all time to come.

And that was almost what Jesus had in mind, except it was the peace and freedom of all of humankind, for all time to come that He had in mind—which was a much bigger and more ambitious goal than to be a finite king of one earthly nation for a limited time.  So He went straight to the Temple, representing our spiritual center, and began to throw out the money changers. 

The first step in any renewal is to remove the things that stand in the way.  We cannot have a “buy and sell” attitude about our status with God.  God is not a vending machine, that if we offer a certain amount of prayers the right way, or sacrifice the right amount of chickens or fat oxen at the right time, we can then expect certain rewards or favors.  God’s love is unconditional and constant.  His/Her desire for our happiness is immediate and without reserve.  It is we who put in barriers and expectations between us and God, and decide we aren’t good enough or deserving enough to access God’s love directly.  It is we who think God will like us better or pay more attention if we “prove” our devotion.  It is we who create rules about God’s love and reduce our relationship with the Divine to something requiring transactions and debt and the exchange of “money.”

And it is we who interpret not having our prayers answered according to our specifications in our time frame as God not hearing our prayers and not loving us.  In that case we are just like the people in Jerusalem, who had a specific notion of what Jesus was going to do for them.  When He didn’t go to the Palace and throw out the Romans, but went to the Temple and upset the religious leaders, they began to withdraw their support.  Their Messiah was letting them down, and they began to abandon him in droves.  No doubt you have lived this in some version in your life.  I know I have. 

How many of us who expected Obama to turn the whole mess of the US government around after His election, have downgraded our loyalty and expectation since he hasn’t delivered the way we thought he should?  Or if loyalty and expectation connected with Obama doesn’t work for you, no doubt you can think of any number of groups, individuals, doctors, new health regimes, diet plans, or self-help books that you have signed up with or committed to only to have your hopes for wholesale salvation from whatever it was not be delivered.  We know this experience.  We live it all the time. It is easier to understand this people’s wholesale abandonment of Jesus during His trials and crucifixion when we can connect it with our own disappointments and disillusionments. Yes, they completely misunderstood what His mission was, and we often do too. 

So this is the lesson for us.  It is showing us the gap between Jesus’ intentions for our salvation verses our ideas of what we think we need to save us.  God always answers prayers and the answer is always “YES.”  But God’s “YES” answers the deeper longings, the underlying unhappiness, the whole shooting match of why we are asking for aid, not the face request.  It is a little like Extreme Home Makeover, Spiritual Edition, where we ask for help with a leaky basement, and meanwhile while God is working behind the scenes to give us a whole new dream home. 

But unlike Extreme Home makeover, God’s Divine Plan doesn't unfold in a week while we go to Disney World. No such luck. God’s Divine plan takes a lifetime of work, with lots of apparent set-backs and losses.  Sometimes we get little peeks at what blessings might be coming, but much of the time the journey can feel like a lot of lonely hard work. 

Like the people in Jerusalem, we all tend to expect on some level that God should make our personal lives relatively free from the really nasty problems that other people have.  And when He doesn’t, we sometimes jump ship, and hitch our wagons to something promising a more immediate “salvation” than God seems to be offering.

I know that sometimes I can’t help but hope that the next diet plan will be the one that locks in a slender figure for me forever.  I can’t help but hope that some new love or some big lottery ticket, or maybe Oprah discovering my awesome self will finally rescue me from the endless drudgery of budgeting and prioritizing and telling myself “no” because there simply isn’t enough money. 

Because I am human.  And that is what humans do.  We have incredibly short attention spans compared to our infinite God.  God’s plan for our salvation is so much bigger and grander and far reaching for us in scope and comprehensiveness and timing than we can possibly imagine.  We expect Jesus to come rule our little city and overthrow or mortal concerns and trials.  And we do get grumpy when He goes to the Temple instead and calls for a spiritual cleanse.  But the grand outcome will be ever so much better and more miraculous and comprehensive than even the grand coup at the end of “The Sting.”  There is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we can ever see; there is a lot more being set up and guided and put in place for the eternal happiness of the whole human race, than our small expectations and hurts and hopes can possibly fathom.

So welcome to the human race.  Welcome to Palm Sunday.  Every day is Palm Sunday when we look at life this way.  Every day we lift our hands to God in praise, expectation, hope, supplication for aid, and in desperation to be seen and loved.  And every day we may feel let down or overlooked.  We may buy the illusion that some other god is going to do what we want.  Or we may be lifted up in the joy and mystery, open to whatever may come.  We might just follow Jesus to the Temple, and trust in Him even through the crucifixion, ready to greet Him when He rises on Easter.

There is so much more to say, and no time left.

Let me leave you with a few correspondences for your contemplation. 

When anyone raises their hands in religious ecstasy, it is rather like a flower lifting its face to the sun, open to being fed and nourished from the rays of sunshine.  It is a receiving action.

Hands also represent what we do, our effectiveness, our power.  Things in our hands are an extension of our power.  Like Moses’ staff, and Gandalf’s staff and Harry Potter’s wand.

Palms are also quite sensitive.  The hollow is like a receptacle, and the driving of a nail through that soft place is the violent rejection of what the palm is offering.  The palm represents vulnerability and compassion.  An open hand represents “there is no weapon here.” 

And finally, it is okay that yours and my expectations of God often fall short of the mark.  We are human.  It is okay that we even sometimes turn on God, and abandon God because He doesn't live up to our expectations.  God knows we will do this.  We are still part of the story. And yes, even parts of us and times in our lives will sometimes crucify the presence of God because we are so threatened by what it represents.  Forgive yourself.  And try not to be afraid.  Even if we crucify the God of Love, She returns more powerful and more loving than ever, still intent on redeeming the whole human race, which is all parts of us in the story, not just the “good” parts.

Welcome to Palm Sunday.  Welcome to life.

Amen.

Readings

Psalm 8 NKJV

O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

² Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise
Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
⁴ What is humanity that You are mindful of them,
And the children of humankind that You dwell with them?
⁵ For You have made humanity a little lower than God,^[b]
And You have crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶ You have made them to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under their feet,
⁷ All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field,
⁸ The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Matthew 21:1 – 9, 14-16  As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away." This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: "Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'" The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.  A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!”

Heavenly Secrets 878 [5] In the Word, the hand stands for the Divine power.  Indeed "hand" is so significant of power that it became its very symbol in ancient times, as is evident from the miracles that were done in Egypt, when Moses was commanded to stretch forth his hand, or his staff, and this accomplished the miracles.

What’s In A Name?

a sermon on the error of Christian exclusivity

I dug this out to post in reflective response to last Sunday's guest speaker at The Church of the Good Shepherd. It was the gentle and well-spoken Carol McMullen from Temple Shalom. One question she raised was how we address our various exclusive texts when it comes to interfaith dialogue. I could write it better now, but I will let it stand as is.

Rev. Alison Longstaff

May 3rd, 2009

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Kitchener, Ontario

Mark 9: 33 -40, John 10: 11 - 18

Our notion of God is deeply personal. It starts forming when we are very little and resides in a deep place within our hearts. This inner concept of God is very sacred ground. To mess with it in another person without their consent can be to commit spiritual violation. This explains why we find religious recruiters so distasteful. This can also explain why we might feel hesitant to talk about our own beliefs with others.

Today, I plan to push the boundaries of our God-image a little bit. This is intended to be a kind of spiritual massage-therapy or yoga. It is intended to soften and loosen what can be tightly held spiritual muscles, and it may feel a little uncomfortable. Just breathe. I promise to be gentle.

In the summer of 2001 I was up in Owen Sound, Ontario researching first nations’ spirituality. I was granted permission to sit with one of the tribal elders. I was delighted and honoured. I took a seat next to a lady with glasses and short curly grey hair, who was wearing a typical baggy “old lady” polyester dress. Somehow I had expected braids and buckskin. In any case, I said I was there to ask her about her spiritual beliefs. She asked me earnestly if had been saved by Jesus.

I was heart-sick. This was a tribal elder. It turns out that I knew more about her traditional tribal beliefs than she did. European colonialism did this. “Christian” colonialism, with its arrogant assumption that its religious beliefs trump those of all others, especially those of “savages,” had systematically dismantled, disbanded, and exiled her culture. Many tribal traditions and languages in North America are lost forever. Many more teeter on the brink of extinction, and are requiring deliberate governmental and tribal interventions to try to recover and restore what bits and pieces of what is left that they can.

Whatever gave Christians such arrogance? History will tell us that the earliest Christians sought simply to survive, and to spread the good news, which was to tell the story of Jesus, and invite people to live a life of social justice and mutual service. But somewhere along the way, in fact, once Christianity became the dominant religion, Christians—we—switched from a mindset of service to an attitude of entitlement. From there it was an easy step into certainty regarding our religious superiority. We stopped being about living love, and started being about being right. We started believing that forcing people to agree with us, and to become like us was our Christian obligation.

Religious arrogance can do so much damage. Now, NOW we know how sacred and precious aboriginal spirituality is. Yet we Christians nearly obliterated it in our arrogance.

And it was that shift from heart to head, from love to ideology, from humble service to “possessing the right truth” that was the key to our arrogance. It was this shift from love to “truth” that was so profoundly destructive of the health and well-being of the spiritual communities Christianity invaded. It was truth without humility, truth without respect for God in the other, (which isn’t truth at all) that did such damage. This is because truth when separated from love, becomes false. It has no internal integrity. It loses its connection to the Source of all. History has shown that any denomination that assumes it has a duty to impose its “superior” God-view on the cultures it encounters leaves spiritual violation in its wake. Current events continue to tell the tale of the all the violence enacted and justified by religious attitudes that claim exclusive access to “Truth,” ultimate superiority, and the right to exterminate alternate spiritual views. Such attitudes are only and ever destructive and divisive of the very things that bind us together.

Now, I’m going to ask you to go inside yourself. Think, (and feel if possible) about times you have felt religiously arrogant, or ideologically arrogant, or simply powerfully self righteous.  Go inside and ask yourself, “What attitudes and emotions underlie those feelings of arrogance and certainty?

Let’s sit with that a bit.

As for me, I can say it feels really good to be sure I am right. It creates in me an uprising energy that longs to spread itself. I can feel excited and empowered, and I long to go on a crusade to fix someone else with my great insights. Fixing someone else feels good! When I’m fixing someone else the attention isn’t on me and what I may have done wrong, but on the other, and how I might correct what they are doing wrong, or even simply how they are thinking wrong. I have actually found myself urgently wanting to fix someone else’s idea of the trinity (because it was “wrong”), when, as to quality of life, that other was busy serving the neighbour humbly and kindly. And I? I couldn’t step over the bodies fast enough to go correct the Good Samaritan’s ideology. (---metaphorically speaking. I don’t think I’ve ever actually stepped over a body in order to correct someone….)

But I’m sure you see the problem. Whenever you or I are on a mission to fix someone else, we have lost our way. Twelve steppers call it, “Taking someone else’s inventory” when we are cataloguing our neighbours’ faults and not our own. Our job is to work on our own regeneration, not someone else’s. That can be one of the hardest, hardest things for us to learn. It can feel much more fun and interesting to take stock of how someone else should change. It’s not nearly as fun, (not fun at all?) to take stock of how I should change.
But when you or I are focused on someone else’s foibles, we have left no room for respect. No room for reverence of the sacred spiritual ground in the other. Each person’s spirituality, no matter how different from yours or mine, is sacred ground. Sacred ground! And there is no humility when we are on a mission to fix someone else. There is no awareness that we all live in glass houses. We all have a massive rafter in our eye and have no business correcting someone else, especially when they haven’t asked for help. Christians aren’t the only ones on a mission to fix the whole world, but we certainly are high in the running.

It is this righteous arrogance that has given religion a bad name. But the thing is, religion isn’t the problem. Having a spiritual, God-centered paradigm isn’t the problem. Arrogance is the problem. Certainty, entitlement, and the desire to dominate are the problems.

Having said all that, what do we do with the very common, very strong teachings that "only through belief in Jesus Christ" can a person be saved, and that Christians are to go and teach this throughout the whole world?

I have titled this talk “What’s In A Name?” for a reason. I have especially tried to avoid too much “God-He” talk in this service and in our hymns today precisely so as to offer a little spiritual yoga for our minds. I want us to stretch our God-concept a little.

It is easy to get stuck on what name to call the God of Love, and what face to give—Him? (Her?) (You or I might like to reassure ourselves that our pronoun is the rightest one, but “rightest” doesn't apply to an all-inclusive God.) The bible tells us that God made all people, all humans, in the image of God. That includes all colours and genders. Swedenborg, if we want to believe him, tells us that God made all the religions too---ALL of them, each one uniquely suited to the people and region in which it is found. And each one provides a path to “salvation” which means a path to true humanity, true humanity—or to become a person full of wisdom and kindness. Each religion in its original form and at its heart has this intention. But over time, the human race has cluttered religion up with so many rules and exclusions, that the very religions which are supposed to be paths to God have become stumbling blocks.

In our Scripture reading from Mark we find the disciples arguing about who would be God’s favourite. That’s us. That’s you and me. That’s the human race fighting over which religion is better, which perspective is better. They are walking with Jesus right there with them and they are wasting time bickering over who is the best.

Isn’t that just like us? So Jesus, to wake them up, turned reality on its head. He proposed that the one who would be greatest was one who wanted to be the servant of all.  I’m guessing that this statement was a real stumper for the disciples. "Be the servant? Be the lowest?" Human arrogance never wants to hear that!

But it is never, never about the pecking order. It is never about status, or right skin colour, or right family name, or right sexual orientation, or right religious club. It is about what is in our hearts.

In this church, we are Swedenborgians. We always look inside a thing. We are about the spirit, the essence, the inner quality, not the external shape or size or colour. The spirit of God. The spirit of love and goodwill—this is our salvation.

Swedenborg tells us that every name in the bible represents a spiritual quality. The name of Jesus Christ, means the quality of great love—great love and great wisdom in service in the world. Every religion that is true has some version of this at its heart.

Whenever we remember that it is about compassion, not rules, Jesus is Lord. Whenever we refuse to dominate or control our neighbour, Jesus is Lord. When we focus on how to be of service, not how to be the best, we are acting "in the name of Jesus Christ," which in the bigger picture is to act "in the spiritual quality of love and wisdom in service to others."

What kills “Jesus” (or a life of loving, humble service) is this very competing over whose God is best—whose God will rule—be we Catholic, Protestant, Swedenborgian, some other Christian or a non-Christian spirituality. In this sense then, any religion that supports people in becoming more enlightened, compassionate, and useful is a religion with “Jesus Christ” at its heart regardless of what name they give God. If the spiritual value that is love and wisdom is at the centre of any spiritual path, “Jesus Christ” by another name is at the centre, period. Let’s stop fretting about names and faces and different rituals. Let us look to the heart and the life of any given spirituality, for that is where we will find “Jesus” or their “way of love.” That is where we will find the Holy Spirit in a slightly different skin colour or garment, but the Holy Spirit, nonetheless.

"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said, “for whoever is not against us is for us.”

“The Ancient Church, which was spread throughout many kingdoms of the earth, was of such a character that, though doctrinal teachings and religious practices differed, there was nevertheless one spiritual community. This is because respect and kindness were the essential things. At that time one could say the Lord's kingdom did exist on earth as it did in heaven, for such is the character of heaven. If the same situation existed now all would be governed by Love as though they were one person; for they would be like the members and organs of one body which, though dissimilar in form and function, still depended on one heart. Everyone would then say of another, No matter what form their doctrine and external worship take, this is my neighbour; I observe that he or she worships the God of Love and lives a good life.” Emanuel Swedenborg Heavenly Secrets (paragraph #2385:5)

There is but one fold and one Shepherd. Can we stop arguing about who is best and just love each other? Amen