Friday's thoughts
In the short story by Reynolds Price we have a noted architect visiting Bethlehem with the job of building something for the "Church of the Nativity". He is encountered by Kamil, a deaf tour guide, who insists on showing him the precise location of Jesus' birth and the manger into which Jesus was placed. He grabs on to the architects arm and says to him the word, "real". He wants him to understand that what he is seeing is authentic.
With that approach to Palm Sunday I will try to grab on to your arm and point out several things about Palm Sunday that are "real".
1. I want to say something about the journey into Jerusalem on a colt that had never been ridden before. The most authentic reality is the one that requires risk. There must be risk in reality or it lapses into meaninglessness.
2. I want to say something about the crowd that waved palm branches and cheered him for the wonderful acts of power that he had performed. Obviously, they didn't understand what he was about. The crowd was mindless and a mindless crowd is a mob, and a mob is not aware of the nuances of wisdom and truth.
3. I want to say something about the real Jesus. There is no way to validate the Christian claims except for the way in which the followers of Jesus carry out our ministry under the influence of him. The real Jesus is known by the people who follow him. We make Jesus real in our world. He came into Jerusalem so we might see him more clearly and follow him more nearly.
If you have thoughts on this please write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing for others to see your thoughts click the box marked "comments" below. I will receive those comments as well.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
