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| Celebrating Jesus One New Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its float truck was out of gas. Is there anyone who does not enjoy a parade? The band music, the floats, the fire engines with their piercing sirens. Parades have the ability to bring out the child in all of us. As we look at Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem it would be helpful to understand the history of parades in the first century. There were basically two kinds of parades in those days - those that welcomed a victorious general, and those that recognized a conquering army. The pattern for these parades contained four basic characteristics. 1) the ruler was escorted into the city by the citizens, 2) the procession included people singing hymns or acclamations, 3) parts of the parade depicted symbols of the ruler’s authority, and 4) there was some ritual or sacrifice whereby the ruler claimed the city for himself. It didn’t matter if the parade was for a returning general or a foreign conqueror. The parade pattern was essentially the same. And this was the pattern in place when Jesus paraded into the city, but with some noted differences. Jesus had no army, just a band of ragged followers. He rode, not on a chariot, not on a high and mighty horse, but on a lowly beast of burden, a donkey. I suspect his feet were practically dragging the ground! Another major difference was in the kind of leader people wanted and expected. The Jews wanted Jesus to be a political and military messiah, one who would lead them in a violent overthrow of their Roman oppressors. But Jesus knew that his mission, his revolution would happen differently. It would involve a Roman cross. It would mean suffering and death. But I don’t want us to go there yet. Even though we know the story, we know that Good Friday is coming, let’s stay in the present moment. Let’s focus on the celebration of Jesus on this day. So I want to ask this question, "How do we celebrate Jesus today?" I think it may be helpful to look at how we celebrate anything in our lives. Are there any Duke University fans here? I bet some of you were yelling as you celebrated their national championship last Monday. Have you ever wondered why we can scream and shout as we cheer on our favorite sports team, and then sit in church without smiling or singing or celebrating Jesus? What is it about cheering our favorite sports’ teams that gets our adrenalin pumping and vocal chords shouting? Before you start to feel guilty because you don’t cheer for Jesus the same way you do for your child’s soccer team, let me offer this. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I talked about different spiritual types? Some of us relate to God more through our minds than our hearts. Some of us enjoy longer periods of silence. Others of us have to be able to put our faith in action. It occurred to me that just as there are different spiritual types, so are there people with different party types. Some of us are the type who like to party quietly and at home. Our idea of celebrating the milennium was staying at home watching the movie, "Armageddon," on video. Some of us enjoy going to parties and dances but this type prefers to watch others have fun. In junior high and high school I went to lots of dances. The strange thing was that I never danced! I just stood around trying to look cool. Of course there are the party types who actually like to party. These are folks who actually dance at dances! Celebrations are a big deal and they throw themselves wholeheartedly into any party. If we translate this into our worship life then what we have here today are people with temperaments suited to celebrate Jesus in different ways. Some of us like quiet celebrations and are not comfortable with boisterous displays of emotion. Some of us like applauding in church. Others do not. Some of us wouldn't mind if an "Amen" or two was heard in worship. Others would love it if we clapped during a song once in awhile. Some would welcome instruments other than the organ to help us worship. Others feel it’s not exactly worship if the organ is not heard. The important thing to remember is that we worship with people of different party types, different ways of celebrating. Not every Jew was waving palms and laying coats before Jesus during his parade into Jerusalem. Some were likely waving from the windows of their homes. Some listened to the commotion from their workplace. As Christians it is important that each of us find appropriate ways to celebrate Jesus. And we need to respect each persons’ unique way of celebrating Jesus. Throughout our lives there are times when we need to be reminded of what is truly important. It’s not about material things. It’s not about possessions. It’s not about status or prestige. It’s about celebrating Jesus. How do we celebrate Jesus here at St. John? I think we need to celebrate Jesus’ presence in our many small groups. We have about 40 groups where children, youth, and adults are learning to love God and each other. As St. John continues to grow the most significant need is that people feel a sense of belonging to a small group. It may be a study group, a choir, a Sunday School class, or UM women or men’s group. It is vitally important that we celebrate Jesus in our small groups. We celebrate Jesus with our outreach ministry. With the leadership of our Outreach Ministry Team we support a huge number of ministries that feed, clothe, house, and share God’s love with others in need. We celebrate what Jesus is doing through our hands, our actions, and our gifts. We celebrate Jesus with our children’s ministry. St. John’s New Horizon’s preschool is one of the best in the city. Our Children’s Council with Rose’s leadership works hard to provide quality Christian education for our children. We are seeing an increase of parents bringing new children to our church. They want their kids to grow up learning about Jesus. And we want so very much to teach them. We celebrate Jesus with our youth ministry. With capable adult and youth leaders and Randy’s leadership our youth are growing spiritually. They are learning that being a Christian doesn’t have to be boring. We celebrate Jesus with our excellent music ministry. Eight choirs and music groups work hard to provide music to enhance our four worship services. Truly they help us celebrate Jesus with acclamations and songs of praise. We celebrate Jesus as we move to provide building space for the new families coming to St. John. If all goes as planned we will be breaking ground this time next year on our new multi-purpose room with kitchen and youth rooms. And we celebrate Jesus today by giving to God our pledges. We acknowledge that all we have belongs to God. We are the stewards, the caretakers. And so we simply give back to God a portion of what belongs to him already. I hope that when you come forward to lay your pledge on the table that you will do it with a deep sense of gratitude for all the gifts God has given you. At conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha people were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they didn’t free to say "Hallelujah or Praise the Lord." But during that service a hymn was sung and a balloon or two could be seen floating to the ceiling. Then a prayer was said and more balloons rose. As the people shared their joys and concerns more balloons were released. All through the service balloons ascended, but when the worship was over one third of the balloons were unreleased. It is time to celebrate all Jesus is doing before our very eyes. It is time to let go of our balloons and celebrate Jesus! With God’s help we can continue to welcome others and share God’s light with joy. With God’s help we can reach out to new families so they too will feel a sense of belonging. With God’s help we can achieve our financial goals. Because it is not about money. It is not about new buildings. It is not about becoming a bigger church. It is about welcoming new friends and celebrating Jesus! |
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04/08/01 - Celebrating Jesus
