It has been said that “Everybody loves a parade!” I have often thought that this is the reason, in their desire to fill the pews on Sunday morning, churches are tempted act like some type of parade.
You know, like the parades they have down in New Orleans where they throw candy, toys, beads, and all sorts of fun things from the floats that pass by. I have often thought that people go to parades like some people go to church: to get something, to catch something that is thrown their way, something sweet, pleasant, something that is going to make their lives better, make their families stronger, happier.
Then there are other parades. Although no candy is thrown, these parades just have a way of making us feel good. They put us in a good mood. Nothing gets some of us in the Holiday Spirit like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
There are people who go to church to get in a particular mood. They go to hear something that moves them, stirs them. They go to see something that wows them. They go to ooh and ahh. They go to get a good feeling that will hopefully last them the rest of the week.
Then there are military parades. President Trump once said that is what our country needs. They show off a well-trained, well-conditioned army marching in step with tanks and missiles with nuclear warheads to show the world who’s the strongest and the greatest, whose citizens are the safest, most protected, most secure.
Just like some people go to church to get something that makes them feel a little more superior than others, reaffirms their power and privilege. They also go to be protected from all sorts of evil. And they go for some eternal security.
If we pay attention, we discover that each of these parades has the same drumbeat. It is a beat that is easy for us to march to. It is a beat of pleasure, a beat of comfort, a beat of self-preservation, but also self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement. It is a beat of pride, a beat of greed, a beat that entices us.
And, although we know this beat has an innate tendency to be depraved, although we know this beat often stirs the darker, most selfish places within us, we love this beat. Many live by this beat, work by this beat, relate to others by this beat, vote by this beat. We even worship by this beat.
But on this Palm Sunday, we are reminded that there is yet another kind of parade. And it’s a parade that marches to the beat of very different drum.
Nearing the end of his life, Jesus, the savior of the world, paraded into Jerusalem to liberate God’s people, not on some white war stallion, but on a borrowed donkey; not with a well-trained, well-conditioned army, but with a gang of rag-tag students who had no idea what they were doing or where they were going.
The late Henri Nouwen, one of my favorite authors and pastors once said, that to much of the world, this parade looked “downright stupid.”
For Jesus marched to a difficult beat that pushes against the status quo, that pulls us out of our comfort zones, that challenges our instincts.
While others marched to the beat of a self-serving, self-seeking, self-preserving drum, Jesus rode a donkey and marched to the beat of a self-giving, self-denying drum.
As the crowds waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna! God save us!” Jesus answered their cries by marching to a beat of sacrificial, unconditional love for all people, especially for those considered to be among least. Although he knew he would be killed for it, Jesus kept marching forward with a scandalous, socially acceptable love and an offensive grace.
Yes, bouncing in on the back of a donkey, Jesus marched to the beat of a very different drum.
During Virginia 10-miler in September, I have been told that several of you have made signs to hold up to cheer on the runners who make their way up and down Rivermont and Langhorn. As a runner, I know the type. These signs are often very creative. I have seen signs that say: “You Are Running Better than the Government.” One of my favorite signs that I see people holding in nearly every race reads: “Worst Parade Ever.”
If we are honest, this is our initial reaction to this Palm Sunday parade. The people cry “Hosanna! God save us!” And here comes God, riding in on a donkey!
This is not a parade of pride. It is a parade of humility.
It is not a parade that entertains. It is a parade that suffers.
It is not a parade of pleasure. It is parade of agony.
It is not a parade of self-preservation. It is a parade of self-expenditure.
And although the route of this parade brought Jesus to the capital city, this parade was not good news for the rich and the powerful, the self-important and the self-sufficient.
This parade was good news for the poor, the suffering, the marginal, the prisoners—for all who thirst and hunger justice and compassion.
This march was good news those who had been left out and left behind: For sinners condemned by bad religion; For women, children and minorities silenced by the privileged; For the broken cast aside by society; For all those who are unable to march: the blind, the disabled, the mentally ill, the wounded and the sick. For all who needed salvation.
Maybe the President was partly right. What America needs right now is a good parade.
However, we do not need a parade led by tanks and missiles with nuclear warheads asserting that military might is the answer to our problems.
We need a parade led by one riding a donkey asserting that selfless love is the answer.
We need a parade that emphasizes that what this nation needs is more humility and less arrogance, more respect and less name-calling, more empathy and less callousness, more acts of kindness and less meaness.
We need a parade led by one riding a donkey showcasing not those who sit in the highest seats of power, but school children who just want to be safe, workers who just want a living wage, persons with different abilities who just want to be included, the sick who just want to see a doctor, the poor who just want to eat, the oppressed who just want to be free, refugees who just want to live, immigrants who just want to be seen as human beings rather than animals, and women who just want the government to stay out of their most personal decisions.
We need a parade led by our savior who rides a donkey!
And if we are honest, we would confess that this parade is not always easy for us accept. Notice verse 16: “His disciples did not understand these things…” The truth is: neither can we.
United Methodist Bishop William Willimon writes:
We wanted Jesus to come to town on a warhorse, and Jesus rode in on a donkey. We wanted Jesus to march up to the statehouse and fix the political problem, and Jesus went to the temple to pray. We wanted Jesus to get organized, mobilize his forces, get the revolution going, set things right, and Jesus gathered with his friends in an upper room, broke bread, and drank wine. We wanted Jesus to go head-to-head with the powers-that-be, and Jesus just hung there, on Friday from noon until three, with hardly a word.
Jesus didn’t come fixing all our problems. He didn’t come offering us health and wealth, an easy life or even a better life. He didn’t come showering us with treats to make us feel good. And he didn’t come showing us his power and might. Jesus came riding a donkey.
For God so loved the world that God emptied God’s self. God poured God’s self out and showed us the way to love. God bore our rejection and suffered, even to death on cross. God came to us—not in the way that we wanted—but, the good news is, God came in the way that we need for life—abundant and eternal.
Those great theologians of our time, the Rolling Stones had it right:
You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you might just find, you get what you need.
We found the worst parade ever became the best parade ever!
I may want these pews to be full every Sunday morning. However, for us to be the church that God is calling us to be, worship service attendance on Sunday morning will never be as important as how we are worshiping God with our selfless service the rest of the week. How we march through these doors on Sunday morning is not nearly as important as how we are marching outside of these doors on Monday.
To determine if we are being the church God is calling us to be, what we need is a new gauge. We need a new benchmark to determine if we are marching to the beat of a different drum, a new indicator to tell if we are marching in the steps of the One who rides a donkey. For it’s not how many of us are coming to church that is important to this One. It’s what we are doing in the world to be the church.
Purchasing summer learning kits for to prepare underprivileged children for kindergarten is a sign that we are marching in the steps of the one who rides a donkey.
Building a community pantry and serving a meal at a local mission to feed people who are food-insecure is evidence that we are marching in the steps of the one who rides a donkey.
Worshipping with a Jewish synagogue to take a stand together against racism and hate demonstrates that we are marching in the steps of the one who rides a donkey.
Selflessly giving our time, our resources, and ourselves marching in a Christmas parade to advocate for inclusion, marching to the capital to cry out against injustice, violence and corruption, to speak up for the care of God’s creation; marching down the road to extend mercy to someone who is broken; marching across a room to perform a small act of kindness to a stranger, marching out in the darkness to be a friend to someone who is afraid, marching everywhere we go to love all of our neighbors as we love ourselves—
These are the markers that we are the church God is calling us to be.
May God give us the grace and the strength to keep marching forward to the beat of a different drum, to keep following in the steps of the One who rides a donkey; to keep marching a march of suffering, but also a march of joy; a march of sacrifice, but also a march of hope; a march to lose our lives, but also a march to save our lives.
Just Love 