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“The Exile of Betrayal”
Matthew 21:1-11
A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Palm Sunday
How wonderful to be in this company
of saints on Palm Sunday. We emerge from
the exile of Lent and come to the triumphal entry of Jesus into
During Holy Week, we remember Jesus going through trials, betrayals,
denials, longing prayers in the garden, eventually crucifixion and death. Not unlike the early Christian community developing
its own morphing identity, we reflect on our own continued complicity in the
denial, betrayal and abandonment of Jesus.
What if the betrayal happens not
only during Holy Week? What if we
consciously or unconsciously betray Jesus and the movement that is Christianity
in most of what we do? That’s what I
want to focus on this morning.
Think about the difference between
the way Jesus lived and the way we live.
I’m not talking about the differences between the culture of that time
and the culture of our time. I’m talking
about the priorities Jesus had and the priorities we have, even those who call ourselves
Christians.
Think about this:
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew
5:1-8), Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the
Jesus said, “Blessed are the
merciful for they have received mercy.”
And yet, we seem to say, “Cursed are the merciful because they are being
duped.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for justice for they will be filled.” And yet we seem to say that the words of the
justice-seekers are not to be heard in our so-called free press. And the hunger and thirst for justice starves
our souls.
Jesus said “Blessed are the meek for
they shall inherit the earth.” And yet
we seem to say, “Blessed are the timber industry or the polluters or the oil
industry, for they have the earth.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in
heart for they will see God.” And yet, we
seem to say, “Blessed are the pure in doctrine for
they shall remain in denominational life.’
Jesus said “Blessed are the
peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” And in Orwellian doublespeak, we seem to say,
“Blessed are the war-makers for they will receive great lucrative perpetual
defense contracts as we call war, peace and security.”
Jesus said “Blessed are you when
people revile and persecute you and lie about you for they did that to the
prophets of old.” And yet we seem to say
that when people revile and hate you and lie about you, you are getting what
you deserve. In fact, truth becomes a
luxury our empire cannot seem to afford.
Have we betrayed Jesus?
Roman Catholic Activist John Dear
calls us a Pharisee nation. He writes:
“Jesus resisted the empire, engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience in the
Maybe we have betrayed Christianity
in our words, our deeds and even our beliefs.
Bruce Bawer
wrote a book a number of years ago called Stealing
Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity (1997 Three
Rivers Press, NY). He says there is a difference between
love-based Christianity and law-based Christianity. Law-based Christianity seems to purport that
our acceptance or denial of certain doctrines of belief is what makes us
Christian. Love-based Christianity on
the other hand says that we shall know our faith by our deeds of mercy and
justice. That Jesus’ most important
legacy is an ethic of love over and against the exclusion of the law.
This is not very far away from the
work of
Elli Elliot taught us during our
mid-week Lenten study that both models have a place, but that Jesus’ task was
largely to resist the strict-father model of family, embodied in the Roman
empire, in favor of the nurturing parent model modeled so well in the family of
God—the emerging church. Jesus said, “Those
who do the will of God are my mother, my brothers and my sisters.” (Mark
Jesus could have come into
And yet, the people desperately
needed to win, or so they thought. They
needed that strict father. In
Somehow, we seem to forget this,
even two thousand years later. We are
still trying to have Jesus be the military leader. We are still trying to separate the good from
the bad people. We are still trying to
judge the righteousness of our brothers and our sisters. We still don’t understand that the one who
rides in humbly on the back of a donkey is trying to show us a different way of
being.
The betrayal wasn’t only from
silver-hungry Judas or denying Peter or doubting Thomas, it is also from each
of us when we don’t take Jesus’ view of the world seriously enough to change
the way we look at the world or act in the world.
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,
in his book Jesus Against Christianity: Reclaiming
the Missing Jesus (2001 Trinity Press
International, Harrisburg, PA) puts it this way: “The almost
unlimited violence that humanity has projected onto God and Jesus has taken an
enormous toll throughout history, making Christianity and other religions
accomplices in the world’s threatened destruction…Nonviolent images of God
guided Jesus, grounded his faith, and informed his actions as he exposed and
countered a deadly spiral of violence. His
revelation of a nonviolent God and his invitation to abundant life rooted in
the generosity of God offer us an alternative way to live. Abundant life is both present possibility and
future promise. It is available to those
who thirst for alternatives to despair and violence, those who accept Jesus’
invitation to be communities of subversive weeds growing in and at the edges of
imperial gardens. The important task for
Christianity and Christians is to allow Jesus, and the
God he reveals to us, back into our collective and individual lives.” (pp352,3)
Sisters and
brothers, as we enter Holy Week singing the songs of triumph of Jesus, may we
remember the ways that we are in exile as a people, as a religion, as a world
in need.
May we remember those places where
there are people betrayed.
May we be convicted and convinced of
a Gospel that will truly turn the world on its end and proclaim the new and
acceptable year of God’s favor.
May we remember and live the words
of the prophecy of Isaiah which Jesus quoted at the start of his ministry:
“The Spirit of God is upon me
because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, release to the
captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to
proclaim the acceptable year of God’s favor”. (Luke 4:18,19)
May we seek to live these words each
day.
May we be a people who resist the
temptation to betray Jesus.
Rather, might we embrace this nonviolent, compassionate rabble-rousing
rabbi who taught us all to look at the world through new eyes?
Might we be the people to offer an alternative view?
Might we be a people to find our voices amidst the cacophony of
betrayers clothed in the garb of Christianity?
Might we be the ones so convicted, so alive with fire in our bones to
see a vision where God’s priorities, where Jesus’ priorities reign supreme:
·
Where we
love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
·
Where
our yes is yes and our no is no.
·
Where we
care about the poor with as much fervor as we care about our image.
·
Where we
seek to understand our sister or brother more than we seek to judge them.
·
Where we
seek to preserve and enhance life wherever we see it, instead of expanding the
war and terrorism machinery of today.,
·
Where we
embrace family values regardless of how those families are constructed.
·
Where we
seek to not only not betray Jesus, but also embrace his worldview—so that all
the people, all the people, all the people might have life and have it with
abundance.
Amen.