Phil. 2: 5-11                                                                                                                    Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Luke 19: 28-40                                                                                                                                       April 13, 2025

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

        Prayer: We wave our palms, O God. We love a parade. But, help us see more deeply Jesus’ meaning. Amen.

Do you remember back in the end of February when our own Corty Byron organized a benefit concert at Tellus 360 in Lancaster?  Corty got several individual artists and local bands together for an afternoon concert that benefited Church World Service. The reason? Because government funds were stripped away from CWS and nine other resettlement agencies due to a presidential executive order.

And the reasons for that? Because some of our nation’s top leaders and spokespersons said without evidence that these agencies are involved with money laundering, that they were receiving “illegal payments” from the federal government. Some said that cutting off funding was combatting “wokeness,” that refugees were considered “illegal immigrants,” and that the agencies were only looking out for their bottom line (“A stop-work order for compassion,” from the editors, The Christian Century, April 2025, pg. 9).

Yeah, right now we are facing some troubling times, to say the least. And I’m not going to lie… the mountains of recent tariffs and the reactions of the stock markets and watching our retirement resources dwindle away and our endowment funds get reduced, puts the meaning of “Faith Mountain Climbing” to the test, doesn’t it? To be honest, I’m trying to look at the bigger picture, to see what the positive end result is. But, God help me, that is difficult to see.

But truthfully, I’m even more troubled by something else. And that is what appears to be an utter lack of empathy from our nation’s leaders. And somehow, that’s OK!  That somehow, the practice of God-centered Christian values like empathy and compassion, of caring for the refugee, the needy and vulnerable are deemed “the fundamental weakness of western civilization,” according to Elon Musk. And that caring for the refugee and the immigrant, the poor and the vulnerable is committing “civilizational suicide” (Loathe thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathy | Far right (US) | The Guardian , retrieved April 11, 2025).

And worse, the implication is that stopping funding for refugee resettlement work somehow represents Christian values? There’s a growing allegiance to this apathy from the far Christian right! Wow! We have a strange god in Washington D.C. right now, and that’s a god with a small “g.” What a mountain to climb for people of faith!

When Jesus and his followers were preparing their march on Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, I think Jesus was aware that a strange god lived in Jerusalem. It wasn’t the God of his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, who were refugees and immigrants. It wasn’t the God of covenant, which created for us a holy relationship with God.

No, instead it was the god of legalism. The god of wealth and power and apathy for the poor, the refugee and the immigrant.

It was the god of misappropriated divinity who demanded allegiance. In fact, Caesar was Emperor Tiberius, and he proclaimed himself to be a god, and worse, everyone was to worship him as such. And all of his governors, satraps, even appointed religious leaders like the Pharisees were extensions of Caesar’s divinity.

I know years ago I shared this with you in another Palm Sunday sermon, but let me remind you about what New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan’s biblical research showed. That on or near the day Jesus’ march on Jerusalem took place, another march was taking place at another entry gate into the city. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor was coming into the city and a big parade was held in his honor.

So, keep this question in the back of your mind—which march would you pledge your allegiance to? Because the contrast between the two marches couldn’t be more like night and day.

For one, Pilate entered powerfully with full military regalia, probably got up on a big mighty warhorse, with garrisons of soldiers marching precisely.  Jesus entered humbly on a young colt, never having been ridden. He was set up there by a small group of people, who started throwing their cloaks on the ground. 

Pilate shows off Rome’s military aggression and dominance. Jesus shows humility and peace.

Pilate rules by coercion, forcing allegiance. Jesus rules by love, inviting people to allegiance.

Pilate has a love of power. Jesus shows the power of love.

Pilate is exalted above the people; Christ is one of the people.

Bowing before Pilate (and Caesar) is motivated by fear; bowing before Christ is motivated by love of God.

Caesar’s power excludes, dominates, and cares only about what happens to the top 1 % and cuts funding to programs that care for the poor and underprivileged. Jesus’ power is relational, is empathetic and compassionate, caring for others and uplifts everyone for the greater good. while creating ways to tend to the needy.

Pilate was an extension of the emperor thinking he was the son of God. Jesus emphasized that only God is God, Holy and divine!

The Pharisees demand that Jesus order his followers to stop protesting the Emperor’s divinity—that’s what they were doing by saying “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” Pointing at Jesus. Jesus says that if they were to stop saying that, the rocks and stones themselves would start to sing the same message!

So which way would you pledge your allegiance to? Surely, Jesus’ followers saw the difference. They were part of the Jesus movement called “The Way.” And most of them followed Jesus right up to the very edge.

I hope Paul’s word’s to the Philippians helped them know which path to follow as well to be faithful to the way of Jesus and God’s vision for their community. They were the next generation of followers on The Way.

And don’t you think that we, many generations later, that we would know the path of faithfulness, too? That we know what way to pledge our allegiance to? To give our highest of level of devotion to?

You know when we say, “I pledge allegiance to…” we automatically say, “… the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.” That’s because it’s been drilled into our heads ever since kindergarten.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my country which has given me and all of us so much opportunity and privilege. And I know, countless lives have been lost in the effort to preserve the fundamental human right that people are to live free. But my country is not at the top of my “I pledge allegiance to…” list. Neither is the flag. Both get some allegiance and devotion, but they’re not at the top.

Neither can I say I pledge total allegiance to Christianity or to the Church, especially in our nation. That’s called Christian nationalism, another clear form of idolatry. And I can’t say that I pledge my allegiance to the Bible as the inerrant word of God. That’s called bibliolatry. Christianity, the Church, the Bible all get some allegiance, but they’re not at the top of my list.

Each of us has to decide if we are willing to pledge our allegiance to God. To have the highest level of devotion to God. To be on The Way with Christ, or not. Each of us has to decide if we believe in living and practicing God-values, like empathy and compassion, love and mercy, justice and peace for others.

Because building a community that works together for the well-being of others is the key, I think, to living spiritually intelligent lives. Being a faith community that pledges allegiance to Christ on The Way, and does some faith mountain climbing to get there helps resist the condoning of apathy shown by our current leaders.

So saying “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” today—I think that is the first step of faith mountain climbing. Because “Hosanna’ means “Lord save us!” That is faith, like on a basic level. We turn to God for God’s help and saving grace. We pledge allegiance to God in Christ. And we can get on “The Way” toward a new future with God leading the way, if we decide to do so. May God help us do so. Amen.