If you want to hear my sermon
on the crucifixion,
come to St. Alban’s on Friday
at noon or 6.
As the hinge of The Sunday of the Passion:
Palm Sunday
swings us like a cabinet door
from Lent’s reflection on baptism
and Jesus’ arrival in the empty tomb
into the week of Passion
where we walk the way of the Cross
I think it’s good for us
to have heard both
of these gospel readings.
I like the pairing of these texts
because how they highlight and illustrate
how God works —
and it’s not how we’d expect
or even how we’d want —
even if we’ve been paying attention
to Luke’s gospel since December.
On the Sunday of the Passion,
Palm Sunday,
we have two gospel texts
that pair God’s triumph over sin and evil
through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
If you’ve been reading my Food for Thought emails,
you’ll have been able to tell
that I’m reading through God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us
by the Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail.
Here’s what she says
about Jesus prancing in
on a previously un-ridden colt.
“Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem
is a clear and definitive moment
when Jesus did something
that made the empire angry enough
to kill him.
He did something to make his community afraid
that his actions would bring pain upon all of them.”
What did he do, though?
He did the only thing that works
when facing power-hungry –
and power drunk –
imperialist authoritarians.
In January the podcast Conspirituality
had an episode about NeoKayfabe.
One of the hosts interviewed
Josie Riesman about her book
Ringmaster: Vince McMahon
and the Unmaking of America.
NeoKayfabe is a new term,
but kayfabe comes from carnivals
and carnie culture.
It’s basically pretending outwardly
that you don’t know that what’s happening
is totally fake.
Mostly it’s used
when talking about professional wrestling.
Even as everyone had a wink and a nod
about the wrestling I wasn’t allowed to watch growing up
everyone played along
because it was more fun that way
for the audience
and for the participants.
The kayfabe myth broke in 1989
when Vince McMahon
wanted to get around safety and regulation
by just outwardly saying
that it’s fake.
That’s resulted in an American ecosystem —
through a somewhat twisting path —
where it’s hard to tell what’s real
and what isn’t.
The wrestling bad guy
can be a hero the next night
and vice versa.
Riesman and the Conspirituality host
extend this to our current climate
where after decades of concern with Russia
maybe Putin isn’t that bad.
Does North Korea give us anxiety,
or are we excite about love letters
from Kim Jong Un now?
The only thing that truly matters in NeoKayfabe
is being in control
or at least the appearance of it.
Truth and consistency
aren’t important.
“Everything is fake
except the parts you want to be real.
Total fantasy
with reality poking in
leads to chaos,”
is how Riesman summarizes
a professional wrestling arena
with the facade of kayfabe
having been abandoned.
Jesus is challenging
the reality claims
of the empire
as he comes prancing in
on an unridden colt.
Those whose power depends
mostly on keeping the illusion
of absolute power
can’t stand being made fun of.
They can’t handle mockery.
While Rome had the power
of the boot and the sword
Caesar in Rome
was not actually a God.
Caesar and his designees
had the power to kill people,
but only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
had the power to bring people —
like Lazarus, we heard last week —
back to life.
McManus-Dail says,
“New Creation
takes the tools of conquest and might
and laughs at them in the face
of the gentleness of God’s almighty power.
His costume
is a bold lack of armor
or military might.
He does not need swords or armies
for his power.
He knows these powers of empire
will kill him.
And yet there he sits,
on a donkey,
laughing at the devil
with a few palm leaves
as improvised, earnest props
and a crowd of hungry, desperate,
freedom-seeking people.”
Followers of Jesus the Christ
the killed and raised God
at the center of our faith
don’t need to act from intimidation.
We don’t have to pretend to be in power
nor do we seek to amass it ourselves.
We don’t need to accept the myth of kayfabe
or embrace the chaos of neokayfabe
because we know Jesus
as way, truth, and life.
What those whose power
depends on shows of force cannot stand
is being told
“Nuh-yuh.”
Not to make it childish,
but the might of Roman or American military and empire
are nothing compared
to the creator of the cosmos
who hung the stars in the sky
and knows them all by name
like knowing each of us by name
and knowing the number of hairs on our heads.
God’s actions in Jesus —
and the subversion of what we humans
expect an all powerful God —
show the frailty and faultiness
of those exact expectations.
Whether it’s Jesus riding in on a donkey or colt
and not a warhorse
or marching in a display of force
(think about the Champs-Elysee
on Bastille Day)
God doesn’t rely on brute strength.
Whether it’s being born in a manger
or facing execution
to make a point about staying in line
God mocks the powers and principalities
of this world.
It’s the thing they can’t stand.
It’s the thing that brings them down.
Take heart, beloved,
as we stand against those
who would bully or intimidate us.
God has the final say,
and like I said last week,
this is not the end,
no matter what this is.
When we stand with our neighbors
and speak out against abuse,
Jesus stands with us
as we follow him.
Today —
on a colt and a cross —
we see where it leads.
O Holy Christ,
Your burdens are light
But your blessings are heavy
Almost too weighty to bear
There’s a hook in this meal
To receive is to follow
And you won’t always say where
What fool would dare follow you?