Palm Sunday 2016 20th March 2016

3 readings in Church linked to God's promise, gift and task.

Isaiah promises the gift, Luke tells of it and Philippians speaks of its implications.

Time frame 800BC, 30-50AD so back 2800 years to...

1 THE PROMISE. Isaiah 50:6  'I gave my back to those who struck me,  and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me;  therefore I have not been disgraced'.

For 800 years the identity of this speaker, the mysterious so-called servant of God, who 'listens to God as those who are taught' and promises to bear suffering for all, was hidden. It's a real one-off Old Testament passage looking to a Saviour figure that still puzzles the Jews.

I've just seen in a new Bishop of Guyana. Last Sunday I was in our Cathedral, the largest wooden building in the world, twice. At 630am to offer the Cathedral Mass and 4pm for Evensong which saw Bishop Charles Davidson enthroned as 8th Bishop of Guyana. He gave a sermon based on another Old Testament passage from Exodus 18:17 in which Jethro advises Moses he'll work himself to death unless he appoints collaborators to serve God's people. In doing so he paid tribute to our late friend Bishop Cornell Moss.

The bit of his sermon that struck and challenged me wasn't scriptural but this quote 'blessed are the flexible because they're not bent out of shape easily' (repeat). Message for the Diocese, I thought, for me, for St Giles I thought. In this passage from Isaiah we see a prophecy of one to be pulled from pillar to post whilst going with the flow, bent but not out of shape. We Christians are J shaped for a J can be seen as an I pressed down to spring up again.

What's pressing on you this morning? You'd hardly be human or self-aware without a sense of bearing pressure! Are you like Isaiah's mystery sufferer listening to God in this? Is your ear attuned? Your spirit teachable so what you're going through will work out well?

Let's move on 800 years from the promise to the gift.

2 THE GIFT Luke 23:1-49. 'The chief priest and scribes stood by,   vehemently accusing Jesus. Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him, and sent him back to Pilate... Then Jesus, crying in a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’. Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had  taken place he praised God.

Luke speaks of the arrival of the promise - the gift of the promised Saviour awaited 800 years and from the foundation of the earth.

Human history follows the course of creation then fall then redemption then glorification.

God made us for friendship (demonstration) - sin came in as a barrier - by his dying and rising Jesus broke the barrier - making us friends of God. 

In the Cathedral last Sunday Bishop Charles invited us to dedicate ourselves not to him but to Jesus who died for our sins, rose from the dead and gives us the Holy Spirit to help us become the best we can be. 

Pointing to Jesus, whose forgiveness for his torturers is stated in verse 34 of today's Gospel, he engaged with the temptation to criticise. There's a no such thing as constructive criticism he warned. What, not even Donald Trump I thought? No, the question he put was when someone says or does something wrong do you first want to voice it, or do you first want to pray for them? 'Bless her, Jesus!' 'Save him, Jesus!' I know I'm on a learning curve here - how about you? The church brings us liturgically, through the lectionary, to the foot of the Cross today and Friday. It's very level ground.

 Remember the story of two men watching someone go to the scaffold. One says to the other 'There but for the grace of God go I'. We're on level ground today faced within the awesome gift of Jesus. My self righteousness or lack of it compared to yours puts me on the top of bottom of the carpet, no higher or lower.

The promise from Isaiah, the gift from Luke and now let's move 30 years or so from the Gospel account to Paul's letter from prison, Philippians 2:5

3 THE TASK  'Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself'

We are J shaped people seeking to be capable of his humility, something we prayed for in the Holy Week Collect where we asked God 'in your tender love towards the human race you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross: grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection'

Paul in Philippians, and all through his writings, speaks of Jesus' death and resurrection as the source of spiritual renewal. We heard these words from Philippians 3:10-11 last week in Church: 'I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead'. That's our aspiration as we follow this week, the seven days that changed the world. Dying to selfish ambition, rising to enter the possibilities of the Holy Spirit.

When I sat down with Bishop Charles and fixed up his UK visit in July I said if just 10% of what he'd set before us in his enthronement address came true it would be fantastic. He reminded me of the core challenge he stands under, and would have us all stand under, namely 'Jesus expects us to do our best and better'. This agreement to do our best for the Lord is here this morning. It's much before us as we contemplate his death for us. Because of that death and its sequel we are becoming Christians by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we experience Christ's love in worship, prayer, study, service and reflection we come to know him more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more nearly day by day.

Worship - extra opportunities this week when we've effectively got 3 extra Sunday's with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Prayer - which we can be much more flexible about, popping into church alone if we've time, looking round the Stations of the Cross which will be removed as the altars are stripped on Thursday night.

Study - 'read your bible, pray every day' was a chorus I sang in Guyana. Read the end of a Gospel, take away your service booklet and use it day by day to think of the promise, gift and task of Jesus in Isaiah 50, Luke 23 and Philippians 2

Service - in Holy Week we recognise especially our individual need of mercy. This sensitises us to others in their need and to engaging with our neighbour, not forgetting the best gift they could ever find, which we have in Jesus Christ, nor possibilities to invite friends to the powerful services next weekend.

Reflection - we love God with our heart in worship, soul in prayer, mind in study, our neighbour in service and last but not least ourselves in reflection which is a theme of this afternoon's healing service. Holy Week's a time to examine ourselves. There are confession times this afternoon at 4pm and Good Friday 3pmand you're welcome to arrange times for counsel or confession with the clergy convenient to yourself. 

We've heard the promise of Jesus in Isaiah. We've welcome the gift of Jesus in the Gospel to be sealed in Holy Communion. We're now primed afresh for the task of loving God and making him loved.

'Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself'