Those of you who live in the area join us this evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable channel 4. I will be sharing about Palm Sunday based on Luke 19. One of our ministry teams will be preparing a special Easter Banquet at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott, tomorrow, the 23rd of March. There will be special Easter Egg Hunt for the children at 5 PM followed by a worship service at 5:30 PM. Vicky Lee will be giving her testimony. The worship service will be followed by the Easter banquet. The menu will consist of Ham , potatoes, Indian curry and rice, and homemade desserts... colorful and sumptuous.
We will gather for worship on Sunday at 8:30 and 11:00 AM at the Union Center UMC and at 9:30AM at the Wesley UMC. It is Palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus, our Lord, on the way to Jerusalem. He paused at Bethany, and through His symbolic actions, He was going to ride into Jerusalem as the long-awaited Messiah. In fulfillment of prophecy He sent for a donkey, which he rode down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem while the disciples shouted praises and laid their coats in the path. Zechariah 9:9 says, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey." So excited were Jesus' followers that shouted hosannas, and cut down branches and flung them to make a royal path for their king.
While praise was customary within the temple court, this concert of praise was raised outside the temple; outside the church, so to speak. Jesus and his disciples were coming down the side of the Mount of Olives, coming into town by one of the busiest roads, in a secular setting. Praise of God was unexpected in that time and place - in a sense it is like "coloring outside the lines" of praise. I realize my poverty of praise of the Lord when I go outside the boundaries of being a pastor. It is like times when I go to the grocery store, or have the car repaired, and in conversation with someone they openly and joyfully praise God for what He has done for them. It is then that I realize that most of us, myself included, do not praise God as we should, either within or outside the walls of the church, and His blessings surely extend beyond the walls.
The praise for Jesus that day was also unanimous praise. Verse 37 says the "whole multitude" lifted their voices in praise. It is interesting to note that this unanimous praise from the multitude set them apart from the ordinary crowd. The Pharisees among them (verse 39), and some others, would not join in. It was joyful praise! Verse 37 says they rejoiced and praised God, saying, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." It was not sad music. The basis for our praise is not grounded in the circumstances of the moment but in the saving grace we have experienced in Christ.
We must still
praise God, not for, but in the midst of, our troubles. After all, these
people, if pulled away from the shouting multitude and questioned, would have
surely said that on the surface there was little reason to praise God and throw
their only jacket on the ground for this donkey to walk on! There was still the
Roman occupation, the poverty and taxes and pharisees and tragedies that fall
upon us all. Still, they praised for what they had seen and
heard.
In
Christ,
Brown
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