Pleasant Hill Community Church, UCC

When the Faucet Drips Backward

I was thinking the other night while I was lying in bed, as per usual, about all the sermons I have given in my life and all the sermons I have heard. And in thinking about these sermons, I came to the conclusion that I could not really remember any of them. Sermons, as simply shared words, do not really stick with us too long.

I first began to realize this about five years ago when I ran into someone in the parking lot on Monday morning and they said, “Pastor Tom, I loved your sermon yesterday.” I said “Thank you!” and asked “What did you love about it?” They said, “I cannot remember but it was really good.” Sermons are unlike hymns that tend to get hotwired into our brain. In Wharton every Tuesday afternoon those who are otherwise not with us perk up when Amazing Grace is sung.

There is one thing I can remember about certain sermons. That is the imagery that is used. Imagery is the sermon’s illustrations that bring the message to life. One such image was given to me by the Reverend Don Morgan when he was giving a sermon to the New Orleans Association of Churches about ten years ago. Many of you may remember Don Morgan who is on the staff of Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi. Don has been with us on at least two occasions since I have been here.

In his sermon in New Orleans he talked about his life in the apartment that he was staying in at the time in Biloxi. He spoke of the drippy faucet in his kitchen; the dripping faucet that kept him awake the first two weeks that he lived in Biloxi. He said he would lay there in bed exhausted from a day of doing work camps and there it would it be: Drip…Drip...Drip…Drip. Driving him nuts he would then do what any good minister would do when confronted with a problem; He would think about it theologically. What does this dripping faucet, that is driving me nuts, have to do with God?

Being a good UCC minister he figured out that the dripping faucet has to do with social justice. God’s justice is working in the world like a dripping faucet! Dripping slowly, nonstop, keeping us awake at night, working through history, bringing the kingdom of God to fruition a little bit at a time. It was a great image that has stuck with me and others that I know for a long time. As for the rest of his sermon, I have not got a clue.

One of the ways I like to try to create images in a way people can remember is through catchy sermon titles. I had a really good one for this morning, but I could not come up with a sermon to go with it. Had I been able to, the title would have been “The Palm Sunday Jesus: The Pain on an Ass.” That is a preview for next year.

In my experience of Palm Sunday it has always been a celebration. It is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We all know the scriptural story. The disciples find a donkey and bring it to Jesus. They put their cloaks on it and then Jesus gets aboard. The ride into Jerusalem is much like the royal imagery found in Zachariah 9:9. The crowds spread leafy branches and palms on the road in front of Jesus. Jesus is put forth in this image as the new king who will bring peace in the earth.

Historians have told us that it was actually a counter procession. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, also processed into the city in a much larger parade. He was there to exhibit Roman power. He was there to keep the Jews in line during their Passover celebration. Needless-to-say, it was a tense moment in the Holy City. As the procession of Jesus moves forward the mood gets a little more tense with the word that is cried out. “Hosanna to the son of David! Hosanna in the highest!” These, of course, are shouts of praise, yes, but they are something else too. The word Hosanna comes from Psalm 118 where it used as a plea to God. In the Hebrew it means “Save us.”

Jesus has been on a long journey from the social and symbolic peripheries of Palestine. He now arrives at the center of secular and religious power in Jerusalem and his followers cry out “Save us!

At that moment something begins to happen.

The dripping faucet of justice, the dripping faucet of the water of life begins to dry up. Jesus has been dripping the water of life all over Palestine. The water of life dripped when he fed the five thousand. The water of life dripped when he healed the demoniac, the lepers, the blind. The water of life dripped when he taught God’s wisdom in parables. The water of life dripped when he welcomed the outcast. Now as he enters Jerusalem the waters of life begin to cease. The dripping comes to an end because the powers of death have had enough. They are getting ready to put an end to this Jewish peasant who has the audacity to live and to speak on the behalf of God. The powers of death will silence Jesus. The Romans communicate the idea that he will not come in to our town and tell us about God because we are god. We have the armor!

So Holy Week, which we begin today, is the time in the church year when we grapple with the fact that there are times in history when the darkness is so thick and the power of evil is so palpable…There are times in our lives when all we can say with a scream is “Where are you God?” When all we can do is plead with the crowds “Save us!” Maybe as we look out on our world today we might wonder with all that is going on from Crossville to Darfur, from the governor’s mansion in New York to the green zone in Iraq, if the water of life has stopped dripping. We might wonder if God is momentarily absent and if we are on our own?

Now of course the good news of this Lenten season is we know how the story comes out. We know we will be here celebrating God’s victory and the fact that death does not get the last word. But we are not there yet. With the triumphal victory of Palm Sunday we begin the all too real journey into the heart of darkness. What we confront there is not an ancient memory of an historical event but it is our own lives. What we confront there is our world and very own souls.

So Holy Week is an opportunity for all of us to embrace the darkness. We spend so much of our lives running and being in denial of the darkness in our world. This is our opportunity to embrace the realities of our lives. It is a time to sit with the pain and the sorrow and the anger that permeates our experience and has brought our world to the brink of destruction. It is time to stare it down, to look it in the eye and to not flinch. It is a time to sit with it all and to silently wait for God to return.

A spiritual writer by the name of Reinhold Schneider puts it like this. “At such times, our task would be to set the faith of powerlessness against the unfaith of power.”

Palm Sunday is a strange celebration in the life of the church. It is strange because it is really about the beginning of the end. It is a celebratory parade that at least momentarily culminates in crucifixion. It is the parade that takes us to the cross. It is the parade that takes us to the death that we all must first confront before we can claim the new life of the third day.

On Palm Sunday we proclaim Jesus as Lord and we walk with him to this death. We march with him to the heart of darkness. Amen.

3-16-08

Pastor Tom Warren