Mark 11:1-11    Hallelujah in the Face of Death        E/DC               April 9/06

1. What would you do if you knew you only had a short time to live?  And were able to do whatever it is.  Are there friends and family you?d want to see?  Places to go?  Important things that you want to make sure you do?  Things you?ve learned and want to pass on?  An injustice you want to leave your mark on while you still can?

2. Dark clouds of pain and injustice were brewing over Jerusalem.  Jesus didn?t exactly know when he would die, likely very soon.  But he certainly knew how he would die ? there was one way they dealt with traitors ? crucifixion!  Unless he withdrew to the hills and hid with the others planning revolt.  Imagine the anguish as he decided what would be the best way to do God?s will.  To set his people free.

3. First, he must see Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  He was going right by Bethany.  He needed to just be with them a little.  Enjoy the delicious smells of cooking, the times of listening to each other, and the friendship.  Nerves jangling, head spinning, oh just to have some peace and quiet with friends.

4. Then it is time to go to Jerusalem.  It has become clear.  It?s something he must do.  All his teaching, all his insight into what it can mean to be in relationship to God will be lost if he backs down and runs away.  He sends a couple of disciples off to get the donkey.  He?d talked to the owner before, knowing that if this time came, it would be important to be clear that he came in peace, not the mighty warrior.  But he was coming ? a leader against tyranny.  Would they get it?  Well he could only hope.

5. He looks around, as he mounts the donkey and begins the ride into Jerusalem.  Who is in the crowd today?  They?re cheering!  They?re waving palm branches.  He takes a deep breath and smiles to himself.  They are getting it.  This is a very clear message to the religious and political authorities.  This is a time of occupation.  Their action is brave, risky, scary, as they thumb their nose at the authorities, and dare to support the one who has been challenging their comfortable ways and disregard for the needs of the poor.

6. Jesus and the crowds that day chose to stand up and say we will choose what is life-giving rather than death-avoiding.  J.R.R. Tolkien has Aragorn say in The Two Towers ?some things are better begun than refused, even if they lead to darkness.?  We know the deep darkness that resulted from Jesus daring choice to stand up to Rome and the religious authorities.  But he would not refuse it.

7. What do we choose? Life-giving or death-avoiding?  ?Gary Richmond in A View from the Zoo tells how he worked as a zookeeper at the Los Angeles Zoo where he ran into a group of 15 red-tailed hawks. The majestic birds had been illegally trapped, and the police had turned them over to the zoo while the people accused of the crime were brought to trial. The proceedings took a long time and the hawks remained in the zoo. One day Richmond decided that the birds should go free.  He slipped into the centre where they were housed, took the lock off the cage and set it where they could easily escape. With great satisfaction, he went back to his usual duties. An hour or so later when he returned to check the cage, to his astonishment he found all 15 birds still relaxing in the cage.

He decided they needed some "inspiration" so he ran at the cage waving his arms and yelling at the top of his lungs. They flew out. But they landed just 10 feet from the cage and eyed him with the most pitiful look of confusion. "Hey," he yelled, "Don't you see the sky?" He pleaded, "That's what you were meant for. What's wrong with you? You're not chickens. You're majestic birds of prey. You hunt your food. God gave you a purpose, now go fulfill it." But no matter how he badgered those birds, they wouldn't budge.

Finally he realized that the birds had long since become satisfied with just waiting to be fed. No famines to suffer. No droughts to survive. No territorial battles to fight. To them there was no reason to move from their comfortable perch. While they would live a long life in the zoo, they would no longer live the kind of life that they had been created by God to live.?[1]  They would not soar.

8.      How have we been created to live?  Are we contented with being comfortable when we were created to soar?  We soar when we live for others, for justice, for peace.  And walk with those who have no voice that our voices together may be heard.  About two years ago at Shepherd?s Field in Beit Sahour, Palestine, Sis Levin was just beginning to work on peace building education from Kindergarten through University.  ?We were working with four-year-olds on an old Quaker exercise about two donkeys tied together and two piles of hay. At first the donkeys pull toward different piles and of course neither one gets anything to eat. Then they figure out if they go together they get one pile and then another.  I said, well you know Jesus rode a donkey to Jerusalem. And there was a great sadness in the room as the children said, ?We can?t go to Jerusalem.?  Neither children nor adults from Bethlehem are allowed to go to Jerusalem. Of course you can apply for a permit to go, but 99.9 percent of the permits are denied.  And even with permits, there is no guarantee.  But from the statement of sadness came a question of hope, ?Why can?t we go to Jerusalem?? and the idea for the Palm Sunday action was born.  At first, Levin treated the Palm Sunday protest as a ?what if? idea. What if the children rode donkeys to Jerusalem, confronting Israeli checkpoints along the way? She talked about it in imaginary terms, because it seemed too dangerous. But at some point she was told that even if the action had danger in it, if the children wanted to make a nonviolent statement, she should let them.  She talked to people in the States, her other home than Bethlehem, and some offered to come and take part.  ?At first, I thought it would be difficult for me to sell the idea of peace education, partly because I?m a Westerner coming in,? says Levin. ?But also the Palestinians of Bethlehem are already way up there when it comes to education.  ?My goal in the long run is to help revise the teaching for children on both sides,? she says. ?I have many Israeli friends and they tell me, what would it matter if we gain the whole thing but lose our children? They are concerned about what happens to their children in the heavily militarized culture of Israel. And you have no idea how many there are in Israel who feel this way. When I hear my Israeli friends talk about their society, it makes me feel like in America we are losing our souls, too. But you don?t read about their stories.  Life in Palestine is very different from what the public knows, continues Levin. When she lectures in the USA, she finds that 85 percent of the average audience don?t have a clue about the situation, don?t know about the walls, and don?t know that Palestine has been reduced to nine percent of its former size. ?There?s only nine percent left,? she repeats.  So what happened on Palm Sunday last year?  Of course, the parade ended in a towering concrete wall erected to keep them forever out of Jerusalem.  And lined by heavily armed soldiers.  But they launched a nonviolent protest against their occupation.[2]

9.      What kind of world do we want to leave?  What do we want people see about what we consider important enough to stand up for?  Will they know that we believed with Christ that it was better to begin than refuse even if it leads to darkness?  What will our example of self-giving love be?  We?ve begun our walk with Jesus through holy week.  He didn?t go alone.  Go with God.