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Sermon by: The Rev. R. Casey Shobe Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration | Dallas, Texas April 9, 2017 The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday |
Texts:
The Liturgy of the Palms
The Liturgy of the Word
“For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.” and The Passion According to St. Matthew
After six weeks, we’ve finally gotten to the final line of the prayer we’ve known by heart for what seems like ever, the prayer that we pray every week and many of us every day, and the prayer that we all think we know so well: the Lord’s Prayer. But when we conclude this oh-so-familiar prayer with the line, “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,” do we really know what we’re saying? Today, more than any other day all year, we get a sense of just what Jesus had in mind when he taught these words to his disciples. For today, on Palm Sunday, we are presented with a stark contrast between the kingdom, power and glory of the world, and that of God.
When I tell the story of Christ’s Passion to children, I often begin by telling them the story of King Backward. I ask the children to tell me where kings are born and where they live, and the answer is always the same: in a palace. I ask the children to tell me what kings wear, and the answer is obvious: fancy clothes and a crown. I ask the children to tell me who kings hang out with, and the answer is always queens and princes and knights. I ask the children where kings sit and what they do all day: “On a big throne, and duh! – they do whatever they want!”
And then I tell them about King Backward, who seems to not know what kings are supposed to do. Instead of living in a palace, he was born in a stable and didn’t really have a home of his own. Instead of wearing fancy clothes, he said it doesn’t matter what we wear, and he didn’t really have any possessions. Instead of hanging out with rich and powerful people, he picked the people who were forgotten or disliked to be his friends. And instead of spending his days in luxury, bossing people around from his throne, he traveled from place to place loving and serving others. I tell children the story of King Backward to draw a playful contrast between the sorts of people we think of being “kings,” and the sort of king that Jesus is, because he is our King Backward, our king who doesn’t look or act like any other king we know or imagine.
You know, the funny thing is that when I ask children to tell me what they think a king is supposed to be like, they actually describe someone from the story of the Passion – but it’s not Jesus, it’s Pontius Pilate.