This is last Sunday in our worship series, Everything Old is New Again. We went heavy into the sciences to show how everything is connected to everything else. How the fabric of reality is relationship.

We are connected to everybody. We are connected to creation, and we’re at home here as our context forms and shapes us. We are made from dust and to dust we shall return. Blessed are those who believe this and aren’t jerks about it.

I think that in the time before COVID we could pretend like this day and moment in time would happen again. We could take one another for granted. We could not show up or not fully show up. Now as we have been distanced, we have a new understanding. How important community is. How important little things like hugs, and thank-you notes, and spiritual practices are to sustain us.

Before we could pretend, and then those things we took for granted were taken away from us, and we are now seeing things in a new way. We have adapted quickly to things. Virtual church worship, bible studies, and committee meetings. We’ve found out church is not just something we go to, it’s something we are.

We are the church. We are the body of Christ. This is a huge distinction from how many think about church. Many think of church as a club or a building or a place you go to once a week, not something that you are. We are the church and it’s an important distinction to make, especially on this day of Palm Sunday.

Jesus rides into town. The people shout “hosanna!” which means “save us.” Like the work is all on him. His whole ministry he’s been saying, “This is our work.” It’s participatory. This whole thing, this life you get to experience… It’s a gift! Don’t take it for granted. Don’t just let it happen to you, participate in it!

“Save us!” the crowd shouts.

I get this a lot as a pastor. “Fix it, Rev” is an unspoken request by a lot of folks. They think that I have the final word when actually I have the first word on things. I start the conversation. Or you start it and I say, “Oh, yeah! That reminds me of this one story in the bible! You’re totally not alone in this, other people have been here before! Let me introduce you to a few friends.” Those friends could be biblical characters or those friends could be other church members.

“Save us!” the crowd shouts and God says, “What you need is already within and among you.”

I get trapped in thinking, “I just need ‘it.’ Once I get ‘it’ then I’ll be complete.” Once I get more experience or inspiration, then I’ll work on my sermon. But Sunday comes each week, and if I waited for more inspiration, then I’d never get anything written. I just have to start.

Sometimes the way appears after we fail a little bit.

I have a friend who doesn’t take any risks. I once asked him why he didn’t ask out a woman he was interested in. He said, “Well, if I say this then she’ll say this. Then I’ll say this… and it’ll end up like this.” A little later I asked why he didn’t go after the promotion he wanted. “Well, if I do this, then my boss will do this, and it’ll end up like this.” I used to think he was wise. Then I realized how boxed in he is. And living things don’t belong in boxes. Look at all the surprises we discovered! Light is both wave and particle! It all depends on what you’re looking for.

I found that he didn’t have wisdom, he had anxiety. He was waiting for “it.” There is no “it.” Someday never comes. Someday is not a day on the calendar.

The people Jesus was ministering to thought, “We’ll be blessed by God once we offer this sacrifice. We’ll be blessed once we do this ritual. We’ll be blessed once someone gets rid of all these Romans. And gentiles. And Samaritans. And lepers and outcasts and everyone who isn’t me…”

The Good News is that you’re already blessed! We thought we had God figured out, and what we really had was anxiety. Anxiety is not relationship. And relationship is what it’s all about. My kids are really into the Percy Jackson book series right now. Percy is a son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. These are really cool stories, I’ve enjoyed learning them and hearing how inspired they are by the books. On a walk recently and Sam asked me, “Poseidon is the god of the sea. Athena is the goddess of wisdom. What’s our god the god of?”

That made me think of Moses. Moses asked the same question when he took his shoes off and stood barefoot by the burning bush. “What’s you’re name?” Moses asks.

“I am what I’ll be,” God says.

Moses is asking, “So what are you the god of?”

“Yes.”

Moses doesn’t get it. “Like thunder… or the sea…”

“Yes, all of it. Everything.”

We can look at the quantum level and see God. We can look at the cosmic level and see God. It’s all connected. God’s in all of it. What’s our God the god of?

The poor. The outcast. The oppressed in Egypt. Yet when the Israelites celebrate the death of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, one story the rabbis tell is of God saying, “Don’t celebrate their death. I mourn the death of my Egyptian children.”

God sends Jonah to Nineveh. Jonah is reluctant and gives a half-hearted, “hey… repent or God’s gonna smite ya.” And these enemies of Israel totally change everything! And Jonah gets mad! Jonah is the only book that ends on a question from God: “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons?”

God will be what God will be.

Yeah, but what category do we put God in? God of the earth? The sea? Thunder? Yeah, all of it. All the categories.

We set the tables and get a good system going, and God appears in Christ who overturns those tables. It’s not about the tables, it’s about the relationship!

“Save us!”

You’ve had the power to save yourselves. Change your thinking and believe that the beloved community you’ve been seeking is already here. Jesus’ first words are “Repent and believe the Kingdom of God has come near. It’s already here for those who can perceive.”

We’re called to participate in this. This church thing is not a spectator sport. It demands something of us. Christianity is not a “believe and you’re in the club going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell” religion. Many have made it that. It is a fundamentally different proposal.

It’s an invitation to a way of being. Of taking the old things, and the new, and seeing what they point to. How things are connected. How everything is telling us a story. What kind of story is it? Comedy? Tragedy? Yeah, it’s both of those, but I think it’s fundamentally a love story. For God so loved the world…So why not fall in love? Well, I’ll just wait until I have it… I don’t know what “it” is. The right words? The right weight? The right outfit? There is no it. Save us! No… You’re invited to this love story. We all play our roles and our parts. What we can’t do is spectate. Just sit this one out. We only get one life. This is it, my future dead people. This day will never come again.

So love. It’s an old story made new each time I revisit it. Everything old is new again. Even Palm Sunday, which is here again. This was my preaching day as an associate pastor for 7 years. Always Palm Sunday, never Easter. I didn’t think I’d have anything new to say about this scripture but I do! Folks want Jesus to solve all their problems and satisfy their unspoken yearnings. God is not your cosmic bellhop.

Jesus tells stories that invite interpretations. What does he mean by the “Good” Samaritan? Those people are my neighbor?! What happens to the prodigal son, his brother and their father? What do you think he means talking about the sheep and the goats?

These stories overturn our categories… they wake us up to stories not our own. Stories from Costa Rica. Stories from our own bodies. Stories from our tradition and rituals which aren’t the point, the point is the relationships! Don’t spectate, get in here! Bring your whole story! We welcome it! For when you share it, you’ll find others who’ve experienced something similar. No matter the genre. No matter what.

How do I know this? It’s baked right in! We’re connected and in relationship. We are built for love and connection.

Remember your baptism. May you allow your view to be transformed. Listen to your body. And know that you’re in a love story, for God so loved the world… Don’t take it for granted. Participate! Everything old is new again. We got this.