Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church.
[00:00:03] Pastor Wolf Mueller here. This is the Sunday drive to church for Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024. I'm laughing because I just recorded about 30 minutes of a Sunday drive to church, and then I looked down and realized I hadn't pressed record. That first take was great. Sorry, you got the second take. Here it is, Palm Sunday today, and this is Palm Sunday. The first week of Holy Week is an amazing time when the celebration of the events of the life of our Lord Jesus slow down to real time.
[00:00:33] So it was today, 1991, years ago today, that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and a colt, riding triumphant in peace to win salvation for his people.
[00:00:50] And then it is this week that we'll celebrate, for example, on Monday, Thursday. It was 1991, years ago on Thursday that the Lord Jesus instituted his supper and gave his body and his blood to his church to eat and drink for the forgiveness of their sins. It was 1991, years ago, on Friday from noon to three, which is when we'll be gathered in the church for the triori service this year for those 3 hours of darkness. And we'll hear the seven last words of Jesus and think about that. It's when it actually happened. We're celebrating the anniversary of these things in real time. And then when the sun goes down on Saturday and when it comes up on Sunday, we'll be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. 1991. Years ago. It happened in the year 33 AD, if I'm doing the math right. But this is the point.
[00:01:39] It's real time on these events, most important events of the Lord's passion week, of the last seven days of our Lord's ministry and life before his crucifixion and resurrection. Now, it's interesting to note that this is then a very festive service. We could call it the Hosanna Sunday if you wanted to. Not the Sunday, although Joanna is going to say, I must have said that word at some point during lent.
[00:02:11] And Joanna said, oh, mom, dad, pastor, use the h word.
[00:02:20] Okay, we dropped that word that praise the Lord out of the service for the season of Lent, waiting for Easter, which is really, if you'll excuse me, hallelujah Sunday. I mean, it's full of that praise the Lord. But the Sunday before Palm Sunday is a Hosanna Sunday. And that's because when Jesus was riding into Jerusalem, the children and the disciples and the crowds were streaming in behind him and all around him, singing Psalm 118, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he. Blessed is he. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And how amazing is it that this event, the triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem, is heard at least twice every year in the church? Know these gospel readings are.
[00:03:09] That is expensive real estate in the divine service. You're picking and choosing very carefully what gospel lessons you're going to have in the three year, especially in the one year. But even in the one year lectionary, you hear the same gospel lesson twice in one year. And it's the reading of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. But it's not even twice a year. It's really even every Sunday we have this text because it makes up the main part of the canticle, the Sonctus, the Songtus, which we sing right after the preface, right before the Lord's prayer. And the words of institution is made up of mostly Isaiah six and Psalm 118. Well, not. Not even. It's made up of Isaiah six and the song of the people at the triumphal entry of Jesus. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of Savio. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. That's Isaiah six. And then Hosanna, hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's what the people sang when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. And this is the point. Why we have the text twice read as a gospel lesson, and every Sunday in the sanctus is because this is what Jesus does. He comes to us righteous, lowly, peaceful, riding, not on a war horse or on an elephant or on a camel, but on a donkey, the animal of peace. I, by the way, I just remembered this just a second ago when I was recording the first edition of the Sunday Drive to church, that when I was 19 years old. Have I told you guys this story? I think I must have told you. When I was 19 years old, I dropped out of college and I went over to Israel to backpack around. And one day I was sitting on the top of the Mount of olives, just sitting there watching the sun go down over Jerusalem. I was doing some reading and writing and thinking about stuff, some praying. And up the road, that palm Sunday road, comes a couple of guys with a camel. They walk by and they set up, and then a bus of tourists pulls up and they jump up on the camel and take a picture and jump down, jump up, take a picture, take down. They all get their picture with a sunset in the background on a camel. It's a great picture, I'm sure. And then the tour bus left, and the guys were walking back down the road with a camel. And I said, I think what you're supposed to say in that circumstance, which is nice, camel. And the guy stopped and said, well, you want to ride? And I said, sure. So I jumped on the camel, and we rode down the Palm Sunday road down into traffic. Cars were swerving around, honking back up into Jerusalem, and they dropped me off. So the same path that Jesus was riding on a donkey, I rode on a camel. But this is the point. Jesus is not on a camel.
[00:06:09] He's on a donkey. He comes in peace. And that has to do with the reading that we have and the Old Testament reading that we have from Zechariah, where this is all promised. Now, by the way, I don't know if you guys know this, but so I forgot my bulletin for tomorrow. I'm recording this on Saturday at home, and my Palm Sunday bulletin is there. It's a beautiful bulletin with all sorts of great artwork that Jonathan has in there, but to look up all the liturgical stuff. Did you know that every week Jonathan updates this page of the website, St. Paulauston.org slash service with the most recent service. It has all the liturgy, it has all the hymns with no music. It has all the readings that are there. And it's so people can, if they're watching the service, they can get it that way. Or it's especially for people who need help to be able to see it. They can just download that on their phone and expand it and look at it in large font or whatever. It's just a nice resource that we have as a congregation. So I'm looking at that for the words. Here's a couple of things that are different this week. First is we have a processional, and the children will be involved in the processional. So kids come early, a few minutes early, grab a palm, and we'll process down the middle, and the choir will sing. And then we'll hear the gospel from John, chapter twelve, the large crowd that waves their palm branches, and they cry, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And then they find a young donkey, and Jesus is sitting on it. Fear not, o daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. That's John 1215 quoting Zechariah, nine nine. And the disciples don't know what's going on. They remember later. And we'll have that Palm Sunday procession in the late service. Look in the Palm Sunday procession, and you'll see the huff family with Holland, who will be part of the procession and will be brought to the font where we'll have the baptism. God be praised. That'll be absolutely marvelous now, because it is still lent.
[00:08:16] In fact, it's deep into Lent. We do drop a number of things. We don't have the Gloria. In fact, we don't have any of the first part of the service.
[00:08:25] The confession and absolution, the psalm, the kirier and the Gloria are all dropped, and you go straight into the collect. In fact, there's a pause there to, I suppose, transition a little bit from the festivity of the procession into the seriousness of what we're about to begin to consider.
[00:08:50] Some places, Palm Sunday is called passion Sunday.
[00:08:54] So we pause and then we have the collect, and then we're right into the readings. The first lesson is Zechariah nine, which is a beautiful text both at the beginning. It has the palm Sunday processional text, the promise of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem, and then a little phrase that you don't want to miss right at the end. But first, the first part in verses nine. Well, really, it's verse nine, Zechariah nine. Nine. Even though the prophet was preaching good news, this is coming as even greater news. There's a better deliverance that's on the way. And the key word here is, well, two keywords, three, four keywords. Rejoice, king, righteous and humble. So it's a call to rejoice greatly. O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you. Here they're just about to run out of kings, but now the Lord is promising that the king will be back. They'll have a king, and he will come, righteous and having salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey. So the king is coming, and he's not coming to destroy you. He's coming to rescue you. He's coming to save you. He has salvation. And that salvation is not power, but righteousness. His salvation is the forgiveness of sins. His salvation is setting up a kingdom that will grant us the capacity to stand on the judgment day, because we're going to be clothed in his mercy, and our sins are going to be forgiven. And that's what it says here. Humble, mounted on a donkey. He comes in peace, not to make war.
[00:10:32] He comes to make peace.
[00:10:34] Some people have been confused about this. Mounted on a donkey. On a colt, the full of a donkey. And the atheists love to talk about how is Jesus riding two animals at once. My best picture, by the way, is that Jesus was probably here's a donkey and its baby or its foal, and that Jesus was using Mama donkey as the seat and baby donkey as the footstool, so that Jesus comes into Jerusalem riding side saddle as if he's on a throne as the king, but still he comes in meekness and lowliness and humility. And this is why we have hope. There's a phrase, a little phrase at the end of the Zechariah text. Don't miss this one.
[00:11:16] This is one we could write a book on. It says, return to your stronghold, o prisoners of hope.
[00:11:23] Today I declare that I will restore to you double. That's Isaiah 40 language the Lord has restored double for all your sins. But this idea of being a prisoner of hope first pass is that we're prisoners. Yes, but we're not despairing prisoners. We have prisoners that are longing to the longing for the day that freedom will come. We are sinners longing for the day of salvation. We are prisoners of hope. But I think that even more so is that the thing that captivates us is hope. We are locked up in hope. We cannot escape hope.
[00:12:02] That's all what the Lord has given us in that text. The epistle lesson is Philippians two, another one to try to tattoo onto our hearts. If you want a memory verse, you could just cut out the Philippians two from your bulletin and tape it to your nightstand. It's an amazing text. It might have been an ancient hymn that Paul is quoting because it shows some marks of poetry. In the Greek, Paul says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped like Adam and Eve did, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
[00:12:55] How we are made in the likeness of God. But now here Christ is made in the likeness of men.
[00:13:01] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[00:13:11] Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. So he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant. So in his incarnation, in his humiliation, in his suffering, in his death, in his burial, Jesus is humbled so that God would exalt him.
[00:13:40] And not just exalt him, but also exalt us with him, which has to do with the gospel lesson. Now in the palm Sunday procession, we'll hear John twelve, verses, twelve to 19. And then in the Gospel lesson, we'll just pick up right at verse 20 and carry on to verse 43. So we have John twelve in two parts. And in John twelve, starting with verse 20, we have the Greeks who are in Jerusalem for the Passover. And they want to see Jesus. That's where this great line comes in, sir. We wish to see Jesus. That line is on the pulpit. It's on the light that's on the pulpit there, sir. We want to see Jesus. And they bring Jesus. And then Jesus is preaching. He's praying. In this text we hear the voice of God the father for the third and final time in the gospels. The first time is at the baptism of Jesus. The second time is at the transfiguration of Jesus. This is my beloved son. Hear him. And now the third time we'll hear it. Jesus says, my soul is troubled. What will I say? Father, save me from this hour. For this purpose I've come to this hour, Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
[00:15:02] And the crowd says, it's angel. Jesus says, this voice came for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of the world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. This lifting up from the earth is not the ascension of Jesus. It's the crucifixion of Jesus. And Jesus calls that crucifixion his being lifted up. Can you imagine? That's his exaltation. What Paul said was his humiliation, his death, and even death on the cross, Jesus says, is his exaltation. Well, which is it? The answer is, well, yes. He is exalted in his humility. He is made strong in the depth of his weakness. He conquers in his death.
[00:15:47] Everything is upside down so that it might be made right side up. Jesus doesn't grasp what he ought not to grasp, but makes himself nothing so that we can be lifted up.
[00:16:00] Boy, oh boy, what a text. And this is the light that Jesus draws us into.
[00:16:06] He says, the light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you. The one who walks in darkness does not know where he's going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light.
[00:16:23] That's what you are. You are a child of light, a son of light. That's what it means to be a Christian.
[00:16:32] This is why we gather on Sunday. That's why we hear the Lord's words. We could be children of the light of life, joy and peace. The hymn of the week is this beautiful, haunting, somewhat haunting hymn. Ride on right on in majesty. It has this. In lowly pomp, ride on to die. Wow. Twice in the hymn. Ride on. Ride on in majesty. In lowly pomp, ride on to die o Christ, thy triumphs now began or captive death and conquered sin.
[00:17:18] Right on. Ride on in majesty the last and fiercest strife is nigh. The Father on his sapphire throne awaits his own anointed son. Do you see that there's some joy in this riding in of Jesus into Jerusalem, because he knows that he'll soon be back at the Father's right hand, that his sojourn here on earth below is almost to an end, but not before the worst of it.
[00:17:53] Right on. Right on in, Majesty.
[00:17:56] In lowly pomp, ride on to die bow thy meek head to mortal pain then take, o God, thy power and reign.
[00:18:11] Amazing.
[00:18:12] And the amazing thing about this hymn is that while the disciples were there singing their hosannas to Jesus while he rode into Jerusalem, the text indicates that they didn't know what was going to happen, that they didn't know really what was going on.
[00:18:29] It seems like the Pharisees always have a better idea of what's happening than the disciples do. And the Pharisees say, stop all this praise. It's not right for you to receive all of these accolades. And Jesus says to them, look, if these didn't cry out, the stones would cry out, I will be praised one way or another. So this is good that they will be praised. And they understand what he's saying, and they're angry with Jesus. It's one of the reasons why they want to destroy him and kill him.
[00:18:59] But the disciples don't know that Jesus is riding into Jerusalem to be conquered and in his conquering to win for us salvation.
[00:19:08] One more thing to note here, and that is the proper Preface.
[00:19:15] Remember that the first part of the service is the service of the word. Remember? Well, we really have two parts of the service. We have the intro, which is confession, absolution, and then we have the service of the word, and then the service of the blood. The prayers sit between the two. So when we're praying, we're transitioning, in a way, between the service of the word and the service of the blood. The service of the word mostly has propers. That's things that rotate week to week. The psalm, the old Testament, the epistle, the gospel, the intervening chance, the sermon, sermon, hymn, that's all propers. That's the stuff that changes week to week. The ordinaries is the stuff that doesn't change. So there's some ordinaries in the service of the word. There's the creed, there's the offertory, there's the curie and the glory net, Celsius, and the invocation, confession, absolution, those are ordinary. They're every week the same. But mostly the first part of the service is there's a lot of change. That's a lot of propers. Once we finish the prayer of the church, the entire rest of the service is almost completely ordinary. The service of the Lord's supper, nothing ever changes with the exception of the preface. So the Lord be with you and with thy spirit. Or I guess we say this in divine service one, and also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It's right to give him thanks and praise. That's the preface. That's ordinary. And then we have the proper preface. It's called the proper preface because it's not the ordinary preface. It changes. But this proper preface doesn't change week to week. It changes season to season. Now the proper preface that we will have today for Palm Sunday. Sorry, this is a long intro. Used to be the proper preface for the entire season of Lent. But at some point, the three year guys, or the hymnal guys wrote a new proper preface for Lent. And so this one is just for holy week. They took the old lent proper preface and they reduced it down to Holy week. And they made it make a little bit more sense. The old way was really a riddle, and they made it make a little more sense in this one. In fact, let me grab tl. I'll read you the old one. Hold on a second. I don't have to say hold on a second. When I pause it, you guys aren't holding on. It's me running around. Okay, radio 101, pastor. Here we go. Here's the proper preface for Lent from TLH. It's truly meat, right? And salutary, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, o Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, who on the tree of the cross didst give salvation unto mankind, that whence death arose thence, life also might rise again, and that he who by a tree once overcame, might likewise by a tree be overcome through Christ our Lord, through whom, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name evermore, praising thee and saying, now that's the old one. And that is really a riddle. It's an amazing riddle, actually, to sit and what's it talking about, who's overcoming and what's being overcome by, and et cetera, et cetera. The basic idea is this, and I'll read it to you as we'll have it today, is that just as the devil overcame Adam and eve by a tree in the garden, so our Lord Jesus Christ overcomes the devil by the tree on Golgotha, here it is today. It is truly good, right and salutary, that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who accomplished the salvation of mankind by the tree of the cross, that where death arose, their life also might rise again, and that the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross, be overcome, therefore, with angels and archangels, etc.
[00:23:20] The new one makes more sense of it, but it takes out a little bit of the mystery. But it's really quite amazing, this little riddle, that Jesus, by his death on the tree, overcomes the death brought about by the tree and by his suffer, hanging. As the fruit of this tree of death, Jesus becomes for us the tree of eternal life.
[00:23:46] That's just great. So don't miss the beauty, the poetry, and the mystery of that riddle. That's in the proper preface today. All right, that should do it. You should be pretty close. So I'll see you in a few minutes. Don't forget to grab your palm cross. And don't forget all the stuff that we've got this week. Check back on this podcast. I might see if I can do a Thursday and Friday drive to church. We'll see if we've got the bandwidth to put that together. So check your podcast as you're headed to church during this week. Remember, no services on Wednesday. We will have Bible study, though, so join us for that. And then Thursday, Friday at noon, Friday at seven. Thursday seven, Friday seven, Saturday at seven. We'll start outside and have the procession in. That's a beautiful Easter vigil. And then we'll be driving resurrection drive to church next week. Thanks. See you soon. God's peace be with.
