April 13, 2025 · Rev. Derek van Gulden · Psalm 118; Luke 19:29-40
With the prepared sermon lost to a computer crash, Rev. Derek van Gulden preaches Palm Sunday from the pulpit, setting Pilate's military parade into Jerusalem beside Jesus on a young donkey, inviting everyone, and asks which parade we will join. Along the way: a five-year-old's theory that Jesus actually rode in on a T-Bird.
Transcript
People of God, would you join me in a moment of prayer? Gracious and holy God, this morning I ask you to. You move the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts by your love, and help me this day not to be the instrument of my own or anyone else's oppression, but to be an instrument of peace in every step, in every breath, in every moment of every day. Amen.
So because I'm used to walking around and preaching, but I'm not used to holding a mic, I'm going to do something I very rarely do and use the pulpit. It's a bit dusty. That's okay. You'll have to bear with me. Truthfully, the real reason I'm doing this is because my computer decided to. Go on a strike this weekend and everything I had put together for today, including a written sermon. I know it's very rare. Will not allow me to get anything off my computer. So we will see how this goes. Hello.
Before I begin, I want to share with you a story that in my last church, I think it was my fifth year there and people knew it was Palm Sunday. We had started a youth group. We had a lot more kids in church than we had before. And as I did every other Sunday there, I would do a children's sermon, which most of the adults said it's the only one they could understand. When I preached and this five year old boy, whose father was a deacon and one of the lieutenants of the fire department in town, came up to me. I was sitting on the steps like here, and the kids came up and sat next to me, and he came up and he stood right in front of me. He said, now, Reverend Derek, I need to explain something to you before you begin this story of Jesus's parade. My grandfather, who I believe never lies, told me that Jesus did not come in on a donkey. He rode in on an old T-Bird top down, sitting on the back. And now, every Palm Sunday, I have trouble not envisioning that. Why? He said that his parents were sitting in the second row just disappeared. But I asked him to explain it and he said, my grandfather loves T-Birds. He has a few at home. He takes us for rides in them. Never with the top thing down. But they're beautiful. And how can anybody miss it? So Jesus, being Jesus, must have had a. T-Bird may have had the donkey with him riding too, but. So if you picture Jesus coming in on a T-Bird.
But what I really want to share with you, and what I will say next, is inspired by the words and writing of two of my mentors, Reverend Doctor Rachel Keith and the Reverend Molly Baskette. One from a book on lent and one from a beautiful sermon. Her and her congregation Molly preached last year and she shares with lots of people. And very fitting.
Jesus undoubtedly knew that there would be this great military parade coming in on the other side of Jerusalem. He was astute, and everybody knew that Pontius Pilate did not live in Jerusalem, but he lived by the sea. But whenever there was going to be a big holy day, and that meant more crowds in Jerusalem, they would bring in more soldiers just in case. And so Pilate would come in at the head of this very military parade on a big white horse, followed by lots of soldiers on their horses. Leather on them. Their armor on them. Banners flying. And behind those came marching. The legions that were there. And there were people lining the streets, waving. We see this in different places these days, and quite often we hear that those people had been oppressed and coerced into doing it. But I don't know, I wasn't there.
But if you picture this great military parade coming in to keep force through oppression and the power of military might, and then there was Jesus coming into Jerusalem, down the hill. And we know the story that he asked two of the disciples to go get a colt or a donkey, a colt of a donkey, meaning a donkey that was so young it had never been ridden before. And he told them what to say to the person who owned it. The person said, why are you taking it? And they told them, because our master said so. They brought it to Jesus and they put some of their cloaks on this colt. And then some of the scripture says, and they lifted Jesus up onto it. I believe I have no idea how tall or short Jesus is, but I believe that most people could just step over, sit down. And as Jesus started to ride the colt, those gathered through their clothes, their coats on the ground in front of him, they tore palm branches off all the palm trees around, and they put those down in front of him as well to keep the dust from coming up. This is my own version. To make things as perfect as possible, for Jesus wouldn't be slowed down. And people held those palm branches and they waved them, saying all kinds of amazing things. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, Hosanna! Oh, I forgot mine. Sorry.
The big difference that I see is when Jesus was riding in and inviting people just the way he always did. He didn't tell certain people they weren't invited. He didn't matter what age they were, what ability they were, what gender, what race, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their socioeconomic status. He didn't care about their nationality, their ethnicity. He didn't care if they were immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. He invited everyone to join him in this celebration. He enjoyed it every. He invited everybody because through his life and ministry, people learned that Jesus saw. Every single individual has a beloved child of God, and he know in whom God was so very well pleased. It didn't matter to him. I don't know what was going on on the other side, but I have a feeling that there might have been people. They didn't mind lining the roads. All those things that I read just before might have been the people that weren't encouraged to come in line the roads for Pilate.
At this point in the past, I've had somebody come up to me actually during the sermon saying, you're in church. You cannot talk politics. Well, from my point, there's no way you cannot talk politics. Jesus was practicing politics in that moment. He was showing the people that peace and love and inclusion overcome all those other things, overcome oppression, military might, and people being pushed away. He was very politically astute, and to think otherwise is to miss some of who Jesus was.
And the fact that he came in, whether he was in a T-Bird. They're kind of old these days. So, you know, rusty. No beautiful cars or a colt of a donkey. He was coming in as a servant leader. Living his life as he always had, continuing his ministry. Has he always had calling out inviting, inviting and inviting people to join him?
My question today is which parade will you go to? The one Pilate on a giant giant on a big white horse, all their armor on the legions behind him. Banners marching in step with each other, and I'm sure. Many of the soldiers lining the street, keeping the crowds not back, but encouraging them to yell out and cry out in the loudest voices welcoming Pilate. Or the one where people threw their coats on the ground before this man. They knew his teacher as rabbi. Some had never seen, but they'd heard of. Some might have been at the feeding of the five thousand. Well, fifteen thousand plus. Some of them may have seen or heard or witnessed the miracles that Jesus had done. The greatest miracle of bringing people back in to society from the margins. Everybody included healing in so many ways that way.
And there's Jesus, the only one in his parade riding a donkey. I'm sure. His feet dragging in the dust. To people shouting with great joy, Hosanna! Welcome is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
The choice is always ours. And I think Palm Sunday is one of those days during the year that we can see. And stark contrasts the juxtaposition between Jesus's parade and Pilate's parade. One used oppression and cruelty to enforce peace. The other one lived and brought peace to everybody. The choice is ours. Which parade will we go to and how much longer in the week will we decide by the end that we're the ones crying out, crucify him or those who have ran away. May you be moved by the spirit and take part in Jesus's parade.
Now, as a side note, I was discussing this with one of my children, say children, they're all in their forties now, which is amazing because I'm only fifty. But they were asking about, you know, all the services. And I said, well, it starts with Palm Sunday. Explain it. And they said, well, a week ago you were out in the rain, weren't you? Waving banners, waving to people, shouting. Was that kind of like that? And I said, I hadn't thought about it, but I'm assuming. Yes. And that happened all over the country and it's continuing to happen.
But the one thing that we sometimes forget, those of us who feel we're in the right parade or watching the right parade, is that those people in front of us, behind us, to the right of us, to the left of us. May not be someone that would normally walk in that parade or be on the sidelines. Somebody that we know. Oh, why are they here? And Jesus invites them in as much and as well as he does everyone else. And we need to remember that. Otherwise, we kind of end up like the other parade pushing people away because we believe you're not. You shouldn't be here at this parade. You need to go to the other one.
We're all here. We are all beloved children of God, each and every single one of us. And everybody you meet. Created in the very image of God as they were created. All are welcome. No one turned away. Even when we feel it hard to invite them in. But please do. It may not be easy, but it is the way to go. Amen.