Remember God's Promise

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
March 20, 2016

Palm Sunday C

Some mornings when I walk into the church, I can still feel the energy in the building from a particularly joyful event the day before.  Sometimes when I walk in the building, I can simply smell the lasagna that was baked the night before.  But many times I have walked into this space and felt the energy from a worship service or a concert or an outreach ministry that was particularly Spirit filled.  The stones that make up this building have absorbed the prayers of the faithful people who have worshiped here for about 140 years.  The stones have witnessed our vows, held our joy and our sorrow, and try as we might, they have not budged even with the most joyful of song.  I wonder if this is what Jesus meant about the stones when he said to the Pharisees, who wanted Jesus followers to halt their joyful song, "If these were silent, the very stones would shout out."

The story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is basically the same in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but Luke's version of the story is my favorite. Jesus sends two disciples into the village to find a colt that has never been ridden.  If anyone asks why the disciples are taking the colt, they are to say "The Lord needs it."  All goes according to plan and Jesus enters Jerusalem on the back of the colt, with people singing.  There are, by the way, no palms or leafy branches in Luke's version of the story.  Matthew gives us leafy branches.  Mark and John give us palms.  Luke simply gives us a picture of people spreading cloaks along the path.  Luke is my favorite, in part, because we can all spread what we have before Jesus.  But the real reason Luke tells my favorite version of the entry into Jerusalem is because of  the stones.

The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with images of stones that would have come to mind for the Pharisees, who were well versed in Scripture, when they heard Jesus' words .  First, stones are a sign of an experience of God.  In the book of Genesis (28), Jacob takes a stone for a pillow and dreams about angels ascending and descending on a ladder.  In that dream, God says to Jacob "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south."  Then God says "Know that I am with you and will keep you where ever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised."  Jacob recognized that God was in that place, and set up the stone as a pillar, and poured oil over the stone to be a house for God, and Jacob promises to return to God one tenth of all he was given. In a perhaps more familiar story, there is the stone that the young and small David used to kill the giant, Goliath, which was also a sign of God's presence with David.

Stones are also signs of the covenant relationship with God.  At the end of the book of Joshua (24:27), after the Hebrew people have entered the Promised Land, a large stone is the sign of the people's promise to serve God and God alone.  Stones in the Hebrew Scriptures can also reflect the emotion of God.  The prophet Habakkuk (2:11) tells the people that if they go astray from God, "the very stones of the temple will cry out from the wall and the plaster will cry out from the woodwork."

So, in the Hebrew Scriptures, stones are a symbol of blessing and the presence of God.  On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that stoning was also a form of capital punishment in the Old Testament.  According to the laws of the Old Testament, offenses such as adultery, breaking Sabbath, or even rebelling against one's parents are crimes punishable by stoning.  The reality is that stoning according to the law, as opposed to mob violence, is quite rare in the Old Testament. The Law might allow for stoning, but the practice of stoning rarely happened and was highly regulated.  But, at least in theory if not often in practice, stoning was considered to reflect the judgement of God.

So, with all of these images swirling around in their heads, what would the people have thought when Jesus said "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would shout out?"

Perhaps the people would have heard God's promise to Jacob that God would be with Jacob and his descendants where ever they go.  Perhaps they would have been reminded of the holiness of their covenant with God and the consequences of breaking that covenant.  The stones were not mere inanimate objects holding the path together.  The stones were signs of the presence of God in their midst, and Jesus reminds the people that the stones would keep the covenant with God even if the people did not.

And so, on Palm Sunday as we sing the hosannas and process the palms with great and genuine joy, then move abruptly from that joy to the depths of the Passion gospel, we, too, are called to remember God's promise to be with us always.  We are called to remember that promise as we begin our journey with Jesus to the events of his last supper with the disciples, his arrest and trial, and his crucifixion.  We are called to watch for God's presence among us as the dead body of Jesus is placed in a tomb which is sealed with nothing other than a stone. And  we are called to prepare for that moment when the women arrive at the tomb on Easter morning, and the stone has been replaced by the Risen Christ.

Amen.