Sun. Mar. 24, 2013 (Carl Friesen)

On Palm Sunday, Carl Friesen told of growing up in a world of daily rituals--milking cows, shower, breakfast, devotions, school. There were also the weekly rituals of church (without fail) and even rituals for dressing. Our rituals informed us as to who we were and were not. The same was true in New Testament times. Luke 9.51- tells of Jesus "turning toward Jerusalem" for the ritual of Passover. According to that ritual, countless pilgrims gathered along the way, singing and chanting while walking. But this ancient ritual took a new turn when a group of followers gathered around Jesus while he symbolically rode into Jerusalem on a colt. Before long, a song that was part of the singing ritual was updated from "Blessed is he" to "Blessed is the king that comes in the name of the Lord." Then another ritual was upended: Yes, they went to the temple as pilgrims, but Jesus then occupied the temple (it is generally agreed that this mistake lead directly to his death before the end of the festival). Throughout the coming week's Passion story, one will encounter terror, abuse of power, lies, show trials, dreams, and unholy alliances. Some hopeful Jews saw Jesus as exemplifying the story of salvation (sharing food, washing feet, riding the colt) but all hopes are dashed when he is killed. This whole story is absolutely insane ... unless there is an Easter morning. [JEK]

Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, March 24th, 2013 using your browser's preferred media player.