here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPalm Sunday<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\nApril 10, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFrom power over to power with<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOf war horses and donkeys<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLuke 19: 29-40<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nPsalm 31: 9-16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nPhilippians 2: 3-11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cFrom power over to power with\u201d is the theme given for today.<\/strong> On this Palm Sunday our world still hears the thunder of war horses \u2013 make that artillery shells and bombs, more than it does the gentle clip clop of a donkey. We will get to the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, but we do need to go to Psalm 31 first. Hear the pain of the people of the Ukraine – and of the world \u201cBe gracious to our world O Lord, for we are in distress, our eyes waste away in grief, soul and body also. Our life is spent in sorrow, and our years with sighing; our strength fails because of our misery, and our bones waste away\u2026there is terror all around.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>And in the middle of all that violence and suffering and despair we read a story of a donkey. An ass, of all things. Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, not on a war horse. Ah, the absurdity of how God works in our world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>Permit just a touch of humour on this bleak world-scape. I suppose if Michele, could, a few weeks ago, focus a whole sermon around an angry, clucking mother hen, I can risk crafting a sermon around a donkey \u2013 an ass, as it were. I probably should have consulted with Lori and Dora who know donkeys far better than I do. Is a donkey always a symbol of peace? I kind of doubt that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>What did jump immediately to my mind was that other donkey story told in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament – the story of the speaking donkey. We think of braying donkeys, but this one speaks. It\u2019s a great, humour filled story told in a grim time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>I\u2019m sure Jesus would have known that story – and would have laughed out loud over the delightful absurdity of it. My hunch is that the Palm Sunday crowd accompanying Jesus on that ride into Jerusalem would also have been reminded of that story, and would have smiled, and cheered, in delight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>The story? A wonderful tale of God using a donkey to foil the evil scheming of a terrified king. Moabite King Balak was facing a flood of Israelite refugees and feared that they would one day be powerful enemies \u2013 they were, after all, a rather prolific people. Moaned the king, \u201cA people have come out of Egypt; they have spread over the face of the earth and have settled next to me\u201d (Numbers 22:5). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn his terror, Balak tried to hire the prophet Balaam to cast a curse on the Israelites \u2013 and sent bags of gold to entice Balaam to go to Moab to cast his curses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBalaam, being a praying prophet, prayed about this and God said, \u201cdon\u2019t do it\u201d. He says no to Balak, who promises Ballam yet more gold and more honors if only he will curse the Israelites. <\/strong>
<\/strong>Finally, Balaam, overwhelmed by the glitter of so much gold, agrees to do the cursing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>But an angry and very ticked off God sent an angel with a sword to block the road. Ballam, the prophet, could not see the angel and the sword \u2013 the immense danger he was in \u2013 but his donkey could. The prophet \u2013 the \u201cseer\u201d \u2013 couldn\u2019t see the angel, but his donkey could.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>Ah, the humour of God. The donkey veered off the field. An angry Balaam beats it. Next, the angel stood at a narrow point between two vineyards. To avoid decapitation the donkey scraped against a wall, hurting Balaam\u2019s feet. Now Balaam is getting very ticked off. Another whack. A third time the angel stood, with sword in hand, at the narrowest place on the road, leaving no escape route. So, the donkey just lays down.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>Furious, Ballam beats the donkey mercilessly, and suddenly the donkey gains the power of speech. \u201cLet me tell you who the real jackass is. I am only trying to protect you from decapitation\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>At that Balaam\u2019s eyes are finally opened and he too saw the angel and the sword. Finally, his eyes are opened, and he says, \u201cHow can I curse who God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced\u201d (23:8)? When will the world\u2019s eyes, our own eyes, be opened to God\u2019s kind of power?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/strong>Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem. And the crowd \u2013 those who caught the symbolism \u2013 cheered and cheered. The Romans would have ridiculed the symbolism. Power is displayed on a war horse. Donkeys are the symbol of weakness. Come Friday and the world will know who has the real power.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Service Sunday, April 10, 2022 (11am start) Palm Sunday From Power Over to Power With Worship Leader: Doreen MartensSpeaker: Gary HarderSong Leader: JD PennerPianist: Sandra HorstUsher: Tobi and Harold ThiessesTech Team (In-Person \/ Online): Ted Steenburgh, Donny Cheung Listen to the service here. Listen to the sermon here. Read the sermon here. Palm Sunday April 10, 2022 From power over to power with Of war horses and donkeys Luke 19: 29-40 Psalm 31: 9-16 Philippians 2: 3-11 \u201cFrom power over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9258"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9284,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258\/revisions\/9284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}