Is anyone else a little angry at time?  I mean what gives time the right, flitting about the way that it does, falling back and then springing forward; we carry its weight with us when we are in line at the DMV but we must grasp after time as it escapes us anytime we attempt to savor the sweetness of a even a moment’s delight. 

Some of us float through life like it’s a lazy river, cold beverage in hand…unaware of the pull of time’s ever present current. Others, seek to tame time’s unruly rapids; these disciplined sailors navigate time from the sturdy bow of a well crewed day planner having read anywhere from  seven to twenty one irrefutable laws of leadership and life management for highly effective people who want to move from good to great to Tuesday’s with Morrie.

Here we are invited to enter into a different time. Today marks the beginning of Holy Week the days that lead up to the death and burial of Jesus. On Palm Sunday we remember when high waving palms, low lying garments and ringing hosannas marked Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, the city of God’s peace. 

The sadness of the peace of Jerusalem however, lies in its complete dependence upon the inhumane peace offered to it by the prerogatives of Rome.  Jerusalem under the foot of the pax romana, was another asset to be tapped by the Roman powers that be.  For the people of Jerusalem during the occupation simply surviving their relationship to the larger culture was the time of their lives.

Fueled by a sense that time is wasting away, Christian relationships in the public square have trended towards two strategies for understanding and redeeming the time.

The first represented by the latest and last installment of the Left Behind series, which gloriously appeared on bookshelves this week. More than a few clear water revivals have sprung up as the fearful and faithful alike look around for the signs of the end in earthquakes, lightening and a bad moons-a-risen.  Unshaken, I don’t give this particular method much credence though. 

The danger in this attempt at a Christian social strategy falls on the side of pessimism. If indeed it is destined that the larger society is doomed to sink and suffer absent of any light of hope, then “why should we try and bail water out of the sinking systems of a dying ship?” they might say, while by the way…wearing the only lifejacket. This world denying focus upon the pie-in-sky in the sweet by and by causes many to overlook the gravity of those with one foot in the ground.  As we seek to rightly embody the passion of the Christians, those who are hungry, poor or trapped in systems of oppression and injustice cannot be an afterthought in the ways we devise plans to be more relevant.

Justice and peace were at the forefront Liberal Protest efforts of the late 19th and early 20th century to create the kingdom of Godon earth. This second way of social interaction finds itself so grounded in the here- and-now that it loses any sense of the here-after. This world affirming Social gospel erred on the side of optimism, overly confident that they could do something, on their own to create heaven on earth, but somewhere along the way…through there busyness the need for redemption was blurred.

Enter now the uprising of Jesus…a third way.  As it turns out this way of Jesus was misunderstood by his closest followers, rejected by a people desperate for a pathway to freedom, and not tolerated by Rome.  Now, Peter’s taking the sword to the ear of a guard, Rome’s complete capitulation to violence as a means of control provided each with ample reasons to deny or reject Jesus’ way.

But there is something that has always baffled me though, how could the crowd prefer of Barrabus over Jesus. 

If you have seen the passion the strange sight is even clearer.

How is it that the masses could choose the mooshy-faced murder over the innocent man of Galilee so soon after his well received entrance into the city?

Jesus was one of their own, an insider who might be an effective leader for a wanting and waiting people long oppressed by outsiders. But the tenuous peace granted the city teetered on the brink of breaking down.  So, when the local masses endangered this fragile union by shouting:

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

 You can almost hear the whispers, “Crucify Him!”

Soon after the Hosannas passed from near echo into distant silence, voices stirred in the heart of the city from those now responsible for maintaining the current state of affairs. Their quiet murmurs took on a momentum of their own, leading to their part in the betrayal, arrest and trial of Jesus.

Now, you’re right…we’ve all heard this part of the story before.  But we… as a people… like our stories simply told: neat story lines and happy endings…where the good guys wear white, the bad guys wear black and bad girls wear…well…red.  So, it is easy for us to tell the tale of the political motives of the Jesus’ contemporaries rather flatly. 

Instead of acknowledging the complex motives involved, we favor a somewhat simpler tale: a blood thirsty Jewish court consumed only with blasphemy, an ignorant crowd void of self interest only fueled by the prodding of rabble rousers in their midst and a puny Roman governor paralyzed by the fear of another uprising.  Really? Looking more closely we see that the geometry of peacekeeping contains many angles. 

Upheaval in the area meant problems of power for Pilate and unrest in the community meant jeopardizing protections afforded Jewish worship under Roman rule.  It is important for us to remember that survival, not just self righteousness was on the line.

What about the motives of the masses?  What kind of uprising occurred to turn the crowd’s hosannas into hate-filled cries for anyone-but-Jesus?

It passed the understanding of the powerless, that peace could come without taking it forcefully from the powerful. Before the crowd laid a choice, between the violent, but effective way of insurrection and the way of painful suffering that leads to resurrection. Could it be that the cries of the crowd were vote of confidence concerning the most effective strategy for peacemaking? 

On the one hand we have Barabbas, whose name by the way means Son of the Father.  Barabbus was a murdering insurrectionist whose involvement in a revolt from the Roman authorities ended in bloodshed; he was willing to kill to create a rebellion.

On the other hand Jesus, the nonviolent rabbi from the hillsides of Galilee, who by the way, was the Son of the Father, remained so committed to obeying the will of his father in heaven that he was willing to die to create a kingdom of God.

At the fork in the road the masses chose the short path of effectiveness over the long journey of obedience. The people got it wrong. They picked the wrong path to peace.

Art Heyman owns and operates a small Manhattan tavern called the “Watering Hole,” but in 1963 he was the National player of the year for college basketball. Nowadays, from a different post, Art screens his customers’ interest in college ball.  He found that many, if not most patron’s of Art’s establishment pulled for ABD University in this year’s NCAA championship. That’s Anybody-But-Duke University….. As an alumnus of the school and member of the first Duke team to reach the final four last night’s game was of particular interest for Art and me…don’t ya know? 

As the overwhelming winner, though not last night… Duke garnered 53% of the vote in a recent MSNBC poll of most hated teams in basketball due in part to their consistent success in recent years…a situation eased by their lose last night to Connecticut.

Cameron crazies aside, how is it that a program absent of any history of impropriety can illicit such a negative response when other more notorious programs such praise?  As in basketball so also in life, those willing to bend the rules past the breaking point in order to gain security and success are at times given a wink and a nod by those who also stand to gain something from the endeavor.  When asked about the negativity, Duke’s Coach Mike K’s responded: What could we do…What would we want to do to change someone’s opinion?  [We must] be [our]selves, play [our] game and run [our] program. 

That has a kind of full court gospel press feel to it don’t you think?  The game strategy of the third way:  The best defense against the culture’s offence is the offense of the gospel.  First we must maintain our integrity about who you are, focusing first on obedience and never failing to make the play in the way of God.

If you are listening you might hear a few hosannas from the media. God’s ratings are up as of late and it doesn’t take a trip to the movies or your local bookstore to understand the buzz surrounding the office water cooler.   This has lead certain pop culture gurus to proclaim the obvious, as they often do, that God is “sooo everywhere” these days.  The spin surrounding the return of God to public discourse has led some to answer a resounding NO the question posed by Time magazine nearly forty years ago; Is God Dead?

Nevertheless the Culture’s droning funeral dirge can be overwhelming, easily drowning out the quite voices that prompt us toward the path. The people of god, through lived practice and not dead doctrines must begin to be the presence of Christ in a world of other options.  We may either hype up the entrance of a paper savior or invite the curious masses along with us on the road of discipleship.  Walking the road for a while and breaking bread together we may experience that presence.  In a world unwilling to pull over and ask for directions, we must be living, breathing, walking road signs along the winding way of Christ.

To be those signs we must act according to the third way.  Knowing that we are given the time to be both faithful to the way of Jesus and effective in being the hope and love for others in a violent world. We need not bunker down and hide from the world nor should we attempt a coup de tat. Power is not ours to be grasped, our success resides not in our effectiveness but in our obedience to the work and way of Jesus the Christ

Being a living sign that points people toward the way of Jesus means that we must be willing to give up any of our ambitions about being first in the world.  We must as Brian Mahan calls it…forget ourselves on purpose.  Praying as Jesus did in the Garden…”Not my will but your will be done.” 

We must first choose to be willing to just be:  to be faithful follower…to be obedient.  We must choose to make our convictions about Jesus find their breath in the living practices of faith, hope and love. 

As a fellow traveler on the journey writes: In choosing to be faithful we must be willing to keep our promises, giving our friends the gift of not regretting our trust, our family the gift of not questioning our words and spouses the gift of not doubting our love.

In choosing hope we must allow God to be the God of circumstance, refusing to see any problem anything less than an opportunity to see God

In choosing love we must be willing to love beyond benefit, modeling the suffering love of Jesus.

So, may we now go forth, silencing the stones, by being so caught up in the rebellious uprising of God; that we are willing to take the time to share in the sufferings of the world yet remain faithful to the way of God.

Begin the journey…I think its time you do…

Amen