Luke 19:28-40, Philippians 2:5-11
I have a question for all of you? What are the things that make you the most frustrated? That get under your skin and bring out those emotions of irritation and aggravation? What’s gets you frustrated? Shout out some answers? … If you are at home, you will have to email them to me. (Repeat answers… Gas prices, bad drivers, cable prices, kids, etc.)
What do we notice about these frustrations? Some are about things, some about people? They really bring out our emotions – strong feelings? What they all seem to have in common is that we get most frustrated by things that are out of our control – where we can’t seem to do anything about them. I know that is the case for me, for the things that most frustrated and irritate me.
Here is some of my list (as Rachel can attest to). Most of them are about things, inanimate objects or situations.
- I can get frustrated in traffic and by other drivers – especially when they are too slow – like speed limit. I get really frustrated in stop and go traffic on the 401 to Toronto and it can put all of us in the vehicle in a bad mood, even though we know we will eventually get there.
- I get frustrated when things in the house break, or need fixing or replaced. I am not a handy man kind of guy. I know some of you get all excited and there is a gleam in your eye when you can get going on a house project, when you can try to figure out a solution and use your natural skills of invention and creativity. I shrink up in fear and anguish, especially when the part doesn’t fit or in trying to fix this thing, something else breaks or I don’t have a clue how to do it – and I’m not great at asking for help, and like we heard last week from Kevin’s family of origin, I want to do it on the cheap and do it myself, even though I can’t do it.
- When it rains in January. Then I get all grumpy. It’s too warm for that time of year. I can’t go ski. Snow melts. Ice rinks melt! I complain in vain to Rachel, especially when the radio talks about how nice the balmy day is. It’s stupid. I know I can’t control the weather and this is what Southern Ontario does, but my whole mood gets wrecked over something I have no control over.
- The last thing I’ll name is scheduling. I am a busy person. I get involved in way too many things. I try to do too much. I admit it – I have a bit of FOMO – the Fear of Missing Out. So I book myself pretty full – my date book has lots on it, which for the most part I can manage and do enjoy. But I get frustrated when events collide, when someone else schedules something I should be at, when I was already planning on being somewhere else. I hate having to choose. I detest dropping something off my calendar that I really wanted to do, even if the other thing is good too – more so when it feels more like a duty. As things are starting to open up a bit more, I already had 2 situations of conflicting events in the next while where I have to miss out on something else I was looking forward to, like singing in my first in-person Menno Singers concert again. I find myself starting to get those feelings of annoyance, until I step back. These 2 years of pandemic have been so hard because so much has been out of our control. But one of the gifts for me at least, has been this opening up of time and scheduling because there were so many things we simply couldn’t do. My schedule has had more open space, and I am slowly learning to be more flexible, to hold events lightly, to not need to try to do everything, and in the process just get frustrated. I am starting to let go.
- I did confirm this little list with Rachel, and she would concur, but she did remind me that I also sometimes got frustrated with our kids – although for the most part for me, it has been around these inanimate objects or things or situations than with people – things I have absolutely no control over, so why bother getting anxious about them, she asks.
So, we all have our frustrations, whatever they might be for you. What do we do with those emotions? Is it just getting grumpy and in a bad mood? Or do we start to act out, to take out our frustrations on others? Do we try to take back control and power in other ways? What happens when our frustrations are more about people than things? Is this where we get in trouble? You yell or act out against the actual drivers in that car next to you, or the neighbour who irritates you, or the person who reminded you about an event you didn’t have on your calendar, or what one of your family members does? Does it start to get personal? Does it start to affect our relationships with others – even those we most love? Do we start to pull the levers of power, to control and manipulate the people around us to do what we want them to do? Do we lash out in anger or even violence? Do we simply switch out our own feeling of things being beyond our control by being controlling ourselves? If we really stop and think about, there is much more in life that is out of our control than in our control. That shouldn’t surprise us. And yet so often we get frustrated or move to a position of control ourselves.
Our theme for this morning, following the pattern all Lent, is ‘from control to collaboration.’ Collaboration looks very different. Collaboration is about working together, cooperation, teamwork, partnership, coming up with solutions together with the people around you. When Amanda and I met to plan worship together and talked about collaboration, what we were really doing at the time, we talked about the art of compromise, of being open to the surprises and contributions of others, of learning from each other, of giving up control, of the creative energy that becomes more than the sum of its parts, of flexibility and going with the flow, of letting go one’s own need to always be in charge, of dynamic reciprocity. At the root is trust – trust of the other and that they have your best interests at heart. A trust that if we work together, we can face even some of the most challenging things that come along, things beyond our control, things that might otherwise just frustrate. As Amanda shared in her opening, she thought about their home schooling. I couldn’t help but think about our pastoral team model here at SJMC, and the true gift it is to be a part of a collaborative team with Janet and Kevin. It takes commitment. All three of us are committed to working collaboratively. It is a choice. Sometimes it means giving up your idea or trying an approach you might not be comfortable with. It means trying as best one can to give up one’s ego, to rejoice in another success and cheer them on. I am sure there are times when my team members could easily get frustrated with me and my quirks or ideas or ways of doing things… and visa versa. We might each approach something in a different way, or have different gifts or insights to draw upon in a situation that the others wouldn’t have thought of. But that just adds to the richness if you are committed to collaboration and trust that the other members will follow through, will do things well in their own way, and are a part of the same mission and purpose as a team. So often, this spirit results in wonderful creativity and something greater than what any of us could possibility do on our own. I am grateful so often for this gift of team and gift of collaboration. Collaboration gives a different way to approach life than control.
It is these themes of control and collaboration that we bring to our Scriptures this morning, to Palm Sunday and to Jesus as he moves into Jerusalem towards the cross. Jesus has been in ministry for 3 years. These years have not been easy. He was not accepted in his home town. The Pharisees and Scribes and Religious Leaders are always hounding him and putting him on the spot, ready to pounce. Word has gotten out to the political leaders, to the powers that be that Jesus is politically dangerous, and Jesus is more and more seen as a threat to be eliminated. Jesus also has his hands full with this motley group of disciples he has gathered around him. They are a diverse group that you would hardly imagine working together or being friends. They speak their mind. They are a competitive bunch. They want to know who will be first in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus keeps working with them – telling them parables of the upside kingdom of God, proclaiming that the first shall be last, that the outsider will be welcomed, to love your neighbour and even your enemy like yourself. He gently forms them into a community, into a group that can work together, that begins to collaborate instead of compete and control each other, to use our language from today.
But now starts the real test as Jesus and the disciples enter Jerusalem. Does this gentle collaborative approach actually work? This is where Jesus will lose more and more control of the events and situations around him, and what is happening to him. What does Jesus do when things are beyond his control? What choices does he make? This is where we get to the heart of the character and mission of Jesus. Jesus keeps making decisions that point towards collaboration rather than control.
It starts with the entry into Jerusalem. I had never really paid attention to the geography of how they entered the city. Janet, in that true collaborative style, to help with my sermon, pointed me to an article/sermon by a Steve Hollaway from Harbor Church, a Baptist church in Rhode Island. Who knew? (https://www.blockislandtimes.com/affiliate-post/two-parades/45853) He points out that Jesus and his disciples entered from the south – from the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, coming down from the Mount of Olives. There is maybe some foreshadowing as the story will get back to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane later in the week, but there is also significance in coming through a Southern Gate into the city. Where you make a splash is through one of the Northern Gates. Hollaway points out that right about this same time, there would have been a large grand entrance or parade of Pilate and his many troops from that Northern gate, because Passover was coming, and Passover could only mean trouble with all its many people. Show some military force and the celebrations will be kept under control, kept in that false peace of an occupied people. As a sharp contrast, Jesus enters, almost sneaks in, with his own little parade, but it is deliberately on a colt, a donkey, not a horse. There are echoes of Zechariah 9 – ‘Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious. Yet he is humble, riding on a donkey. I will remove the battle chariots from Israel and the warhorses from Jerusalem. I will destroy all the weapons used in battle, and your king will bring peace to the nations.’ (Zechariah 9:9-10) As Hollaway writes ‘Coming in one gate of the city is the military ruler, the oppressor, riding a war horse, making it clear that he rules by force and intimidation. Coming in another gate is Jesus of Nazareth, riding a donkey… here on the South side of Jerusalem we see not the warrior king but the Prince of Peace.’ (Ibid).
The crowd, the multitude of people at this parade don’t quite get it. They spread their cloaks, they shout their hosannas – Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!’ But do they know how Jesus wants to bring peace? By collaboration, by sacrifice, by letting go, by offering up oneself, by the power of love. Or do they too expect that warrior king, the Messiah who will overthrow the Romans, that will use and take control. Right after this parade, Jesus looks over the city and weeps. ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes… You did not recognize the time of your visitation from God’ (Luke 19:42, 44) Jesus himself realizes that he is losing more and more control of the situation, of his future. Was he frustrated? First he weeps over Jerusalem, and then he cleanses the Temple. And then as the week goes on, as his world becomes smaller and smaller and the troops and the authorities and the courts arrest him and declare his death sentence, he must again and again choose how to respond. He does not choose control, but chooses rather to pray in the Garden and turn his cheek, to keep silence, to accept humiliation, to forgive for they know not what they are doing, to remember those on the crosses beside him, to commend his spirit into the hands of God, to die a death on the cross for the sake of all humanity – the ultimate collaboration of the divine with humankind.
Holloway writes of the choices for us coming out of this Palm Sunday. ‘I feel like we are standing in the middle of town, knowing that there are two parades happening on opposite sides of town. Pilate’s parade calls to us, offering us excitement and security, offering a kind of self-worth by identifying with a winner, appealing on the basis of the pragmatic truth that most of the time might does make right. But then there is this alternative parade that Jesus started, saying to us that there is another way. There is a way of trusting God and not human might; there is a way of humbling yourself before the other; there is a way of setting anger aside so you can forgive and serve.’ (Ibid). From Control to Collaboration.
There is much in our world that is out of our control. It feels like that list just keeps growing. There is much that will frustrate – yes, on those small little individual things, but also in the larger scheme of how the world works. There will always be the temptation to use violence and power and control to get what you want, to get your way. There will always be people to follow on war horses and in large flashy parades. There will always be the appeal of taking control. And there will always be choices in how we respond and what we choose to do ourselves. When we stand at those crossroads, looking at the two parades, can we follow the way of Jesus?
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes of this movement from control to collaboration, from fullness to emptiness, from violence to peace, from humiliation to humility, from taking charge to letting go. It is words for us on this Palm Sunday as we too enter the journey of Jesus to Good Friday and the Cross.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited (or as we heard Amanda read from the New Living Translation – he gave up his divine privileges), but (he) emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.’ (Philippians 2:5-8)
This is where Palm Sunday ends as we prepare for Good Friday, for the Passion – with the invitation to have this same mind of Christ Jesus – to choose collaboration instead of control. But Easter is coming! The story is to be continued: We will yet get to the ‘Therefore’ …’Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name…’ (v.9) This is our hope, our promise, when we follow the way of Jesus. So let us enter into this Passion Week and into the way of Jesus, with the faith and trust that Easter is coming. Amen.