Hebrews 12:1-2

My first memories of Palm Sunday are of being in a parade of Sunday School children coming into the worship service at Adams Square Congregational Church. We waited in painful silence along the musty corridors of the church basement, anxiously awaiting our cue to climb the stairs to the sanctuary. I remember lots of giggles and whispers as we waited, along with an occasional outbreak of unmuted laughter which always brought a loud SHHHHHHHHH! from one or more of the teachers. And then it was time to go.

As we emerged from the darkness of the basement and stepped into the light of the narthex, we were each handed a long palm branch and as we paraded down the aisle - branches waving - you could hear the organ playing loudly and the people singing enthusiastically:

O'er all the way the palms and blossoms gay...Sing and rejoice all people sing...Hosanna! Praise to the Lord. Praise him who cometh to bring us - and as we got to the last word of the chorus, I was always fascinated by how this mostly white, middle-class congregation suddenly turned into a bunch of soul singers, really raring back and singing - Praise him who cometh to bring us salvay -yay-yay-yay-yay-yay-tion!

It was quite a parade. A time of great joy. True celebration.

I love parades. Always have.

When I was kid, we once had a Superman parade. Back in those days, all the kids in the neighborhood thought they were Superman, although, of course, I knew in my heart of hearts that I was the true Man of Steel. So we used to tie long bath towels around our necks, get on our bicycles, and ride real fast down Calumet Avenue - capes flapping behind us. I once saw an 8 millimeter movie of this superhero spectacle and was disappointed to see how absolutely stupid we looked. In our mind's eye, the bikes were invisible, and we saw ourselves actually flying in formation down the street.

I love parades. Always have.

Perhaps some of you went to the Victory Parade last Monday to welcome home our National Champion Lady Vols Basketball Team. It was truly triumphant!

But perhaps you also remember last year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when the Donald Duck and Goofy balloons got loose in the high winds and caused quite a bit of damage and some injuries.

You see, parades are not always what we want them to be.

On the one hand, there are parades where armies march home in victory, and on the other, there are death marches where prisoners walk until they drop. On the one hand, there are parades that celebrate the great personal achievements of our lives, and on the other, there are funeral processions when our achievements are done and our work is over. On the one hand, there are political parades where politicians celebrate their election, and on the other, there are marches in which the oppressed cry out for justice. On the one hand, there are parades that lead us to the holidays, and on the other hand, there is the silent procession of those who lead a prison inmate to the death chamber.

And now that I'm a little older and have a better understanding of who Jesus is and how he lived, I realize that Palm Sunday is not about any of those things on the one hand, but rather about all those things on the other hand.

The focus of Palm Sunday is not the parade of life, but the impending death of Jesus upon the cross.

Today is the beginning of what Christians call Holy Week.

Strange that we should call it holy. It begins on Palm Sunday with this pitiful parade, and ends next Saturday with a great round stone anchored in position, sealing the tomb of Jesus. In between today and Saturday there is really nothing to celebrate - there's a brawl at the Temple, a betrayal in the Garden, a beating in the Palace, and a broken body on the Cross. Strange that we should call this week holy when it is a week of such terrible darkness. In fact, as the week goes on, we Christians go through a process of extinguishing candles in our churches and homes. By the time Maundy Thursday comes, there will be just seven candles left, and each one of those will be snuffed out in turn until absolutely no light remains. This is called tenebrae - darkening - and it is the symbol of death itself.

If today's parade brings you anywhere, dear friends, let it be here. To the death of Jesus. This is the birthing place of the Christian faith, and you are invited to join Jesus here.

Do you realize that this is what Baptism conveys? Whether by sprinkling or immersion, whether as children or adults, we are symbolically lowered beneath the surface, joining Christ in death. Do you realize that this is what Communion expresses? We take within ourselves the death of the Lord by consuming bread representing his body, and wine representing his blood.

Oh, if today's Palm Sunday parade leads you anywhere, let it be to this unfathomable mystery that, in the death of Jesus, new life is waiting...for YOU!

The author of the letter to the Hebrews calls out to us over the span of time and space to engage the death of Jesus in our own living today. He writes:

You see, Jesus obediently stepped into the darkness of Holy Week, and Jesus faithfully took up the Cross, for a reason: for the sake of the joy that was set before him.

I don't believe you can fathom the meaning of faith until you come to terms with these words and their connection to your own life.

Here is an amazing claim that Jesus endured the dark tragedy of the cross because he could see in the distance a joy that God had set before him. And if we are called ourselves to follow Jesus, this must mean that God has placed divine joy out in the future of our lives, too!

But so often, we do not see it.

Probably the greatest tragedy that can ever happen to any of us is the loss of future joy. We all know what its like, because every human being experiences it. Sometimes it comes to us in silly ways, like when those of us who play golf suddenly realize one day that we will never hit a golf ball any further than we do now. Doesn't matter if you buy that Biggest-of-all, Gargantuan, Most Humungous, Biggest Big Bertha driver that just hit the shelves at the Pro Shop for $954 - its just not going to go any further without a BIG tailwind! Or this loss of future joy comes when you've done so much traveling around the world that there seem to be no surprises left and you have the constant feeling that you've already been there, done that. Or the loss of future joy hits you when you sit, like Sandy and I did a few years ago, and watch your son pitch his last baseball game, your daughter run her final hurdle, and you know that one of the longest and most joyful chapters in your life has come to an end. And it seems like there will never be another chapter with the same magnitude of joy as the one that just ended.

One of the ongoing losses of human life is the loss of future joy.

And it reaches epic proportions when you encounter those times when the doctor says the word cancer, or your spouse says the word divorce, or when you live in the midst of a village of husbands and wives and you suddenly become a widow. Oh, those of you who've been struck by catastrophic illnesses, and those who've been saddened by family problems, know what I'm talking about. Even the attainment of retirement can bring with it a gradually diminishing sense of future joy.

And yet, here is Jesus, at the very end of his life, with every human joy stripped away, going to the cross for the sake of the joy that was set before him.

Dear friends, in the midst of a world which gradually squeezes the future out of our lives, there is a God who plants joy before you! In fact, right now, in this very moment, there is divine joy set in the future of each and every person here. You may be so caught up in the pursuit of your own joys that you don't see it. You may be so overwhelmed by your losses that you're unable to lift your eyes high enough to perceive it.

But it's there.

The God who loves you has placed it there!

And, in the death of Jesus, we see what this joy consists of!

Oh no, here in the death of Jesus we discover that the ultimate reality of life is the Kingdom of God!

This weekend, as people gather in Memphis to soberly recall the assassination of Martin Luther King, there is a powerful memory of the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. It is that, in a day when blacks were not even considered to be human by many, in a day when society held closely the chains of oppression, this movement began because people like Dr. King refused to see this darkness as the ultimate reality of their lives. And in one of his speeches, we come face to face with the miracle of the cross, for Dr. King says that he has been to the mountaintop and looked over to the OTHER SIDE!

And it was the vision of that other side that drove him and others to accomplish what they did.

They saw the joy that was set before them.

And here at the foot of the Cross, we see Jesus look to the other side. The joy he sees is of a love that is larger than either life or death. The joy he sees is of a power that can save others through him. The joy he sees is of a dawning new world in which the weak are made strong, the poor are made rich, and the broken are made whole!

To live as a Christian is to be able to see through the crosses that rise up in your life to what lies beyond. And then, trusting in God's love to save you, pouring out your life to make the dream come true!

And as this new week begins, there is joy set before you.