I am an early riser. Regardless of how late I go to bed, It seems that the older I get the earlier I wake up in the morning. I tend to wake about twenty to thirty minutes before sunrise, and it’s sort of a pain to wake up that early, but it’s also a blessing because it’s the one time of the day when everything is at peace. And when it’s still dark before the sun rises, it’s so peaceful but also a bit eerie, as if something, anything might be about to happen.

When I hear that first Gospel that we read for the Palm procession, as it describes Jesus’ glorious entry into Jerusalem with the crowds cheering and waving palms I can’t help but feel optimistic and hopeful that somehow, maybe the story will end differently, and yet all the time I know it is of course a tragedy and ends as all in a literary sense.

“But a lot has happened since Israel’s golden era. After David and his son, Solomon’s respective reigns, things go bad with subsequent leadership transitions and now they have been conquered, carried away to a foreign land and enslaved.
Dark times for the people of God and this valley of dry, dead bones is clearly a symbol of the death of Israel and the death of any sense of hope for the people of God. David’s victories, Solomon's wisdom, and the splendor of that glorious temple are all gone, faint memories at best.”

“Too often in American Christianity, we think our mission is to
protect God, or the institutional Church,or protect the Bible, the Word of God, but really our mission is to figure out what God is already doing in the world and then cooperate and support that. That is not selling out to the culture, that is listening too and responding to a living God.”

“Now notice that Jesus doesn't moralize or condemn her, he isn't interested in her failings and weaknesses. He is interested in her person, her spiritual being. When she realizes that Jesus is
no ordinary stranger, she starts pointing out the differences in their faiths, that the Jews believe that you should worship in Jerusalem, but the Samaritans believed that you should worship on top of this great mountain there in Samaria. Jesus isn't interested in these details either, and explains that God wants us to worship in spirit and truth not according to specific geographical locations.”

“Jesus is offering Nicodemus free tickets to the biggest show on earth, the biggest show in the universe, but Nicodemus keeps trying to pay admission at the door. Our place at the altar was reserved two thousand years ago by the gift of God becoming human in Jesus Christ, and the price has already been paid by Jesus, once and for all. “

Today though, most of us prefer something made from scratch, or vegetables from our own garden or at least someone’s garden. It’s as if we feel this insatiable call back to the garden where the world is simpler, purer, more vivid and full of flavor, where we can till the soil and produce our own food. Back to the garden but without the heat and humidity of my childhood or the mosquitoes, much less the snakes.

We can blow the trumpet and return to the Lord for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. We can sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people and sanctify the congregation. We can blow the trumpet and call ourselves to true repentance.

Our society puts such emphasis on activity that it's impossible not to get pulled into this trap. You know, even in our worship, we can become so active and busy about how we do it, that we forget why we do it. It’s easy to forget that we come here not to critique and perfect the worship experience but rather to vulnerably lay open our lives so the mystery of God's presence can touch us and refresh us.

Jesus asks us, “So what?” to the charge that we or anyone else is not the person we think all of us should be. We can enter the kingdom anyway. The kingdom doesn't have barriers and heavy doors and high curbs that only the select can navigate around. The kingdom of God is about how every limitation is set aside. In fact, if we open our eyes with anything approaching the wisdom of God, we will see the kingdom filled right now with stumbling, broken-hearted, half-blinded people, doubters, skeptics, convicts and all, and we among them.