POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Palm Sunday

Time Sensitivity: Palm Sunday

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“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows God’s handywork.” Psalms 19:1

(Find picture of Albrecht Deuer’s “Praying Hands” on the Internet. Ideally place picture on PowerPoint to project or copy for front of Sunday bulletin.)

Today I share a beautiful piece of art with you. You have seen this before. It is one of the most famous pieces of art that exists to inspire humankind. This is Albrecht Deuer’s “Praying Hands.” In churches of all religions around the world, there are hundreds of thousands of these.

It’s a beautiful piece. He was a genius. Many of his paintings are so great that they hang in the great galleries of the world. Of all the great art pieces, this is one of the very best. Years after it was painted, this was sculpted from one of the paintings. This is a copy of what is in the prayer chapel at Northwestern University. Let me share the story with you of this great work.

There were two struggling artists. It is believed they lived in France. They were trying to make it financially, but it was obvious that they both couldn’t go to art school because they didn’t have the money. They both wanted to go. Albrecht wanted to go and his friend, Hans, (who lived with him), also wanted to go. But the problem was, they had to make the decision as to who went first. Hans said to Albrecht, “Please you go on. I’ll stay back here and work. I’ll send you the money. You start to work and get paid for your work, and then I’ll get to go to school. I’ll then learn to be a great painter also.”

Albrecht said, “All right. But why don’t you go first?” They argued back and forth, and finally Hans won the argument so his friend, Albrecht would be the one to go first.

So Albrecht went to Paris and learned all the creative things needed to be a great artist. Three years later, he went back to the small town in France to see his friend, Hans. He knew right away that there had been a great price paid by Hans. He looked at Hans’ hands which had been doing manual labor during these years. They were stiff and gnarled. They could no longer hold a delicate brush. His friend had given his all–his love–so that Albrecht could go and give his life to creating things of beauty.

Albrecht looked at Hans and said, “May I do something for you? May I paint those hands that I love?”

Hans said, “How could anyone love these hands? They are so twisted and calloused.”

Albrecht held his hands and said, “No. I love these hands.” He painted these hands in the praying fashion that we know so well, because he had seen his friend pray many, many times before.

Legend says Albrecht gave this painting to Hans around 1342. The rest became history. But listen to the complete story. The complete story tells a lot about friendship, about giving ourselves to God, and about helping someone else to obtain something great. Probably because of his doing manual labor, Hans gave the world something greater than he could have ever done himself. God always has a plan. In a way, Hans was much more of a genius and gave the world much more than Albrecht did. He gave his all, that the artistic beauty of the genius could be seen. It’s like Jesus Christ gave us His all.

It is spiritual to care for others more than you care for yourself. You will also find through God’s love that you cannot give more away than you receive.

All good spiritual work is prayer. You too can make wondrous prayers. You don’t necessarily have to have your hands in this fashion. You can pray at any time. Archbishop Trench once said this about prayer: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s highest willingness.” So often, when we are like this in prayer, we wrongly think that God is reluctant to answer our prayers. We think we have to somehow speak in a certain way, and somehow, we have to convince God to help us. But God is a willing God – if we are willing to make that triumphant spiritual entry like Jesus Christ did.

I pray that you, yourself, can obtain a spiritual connection in your own life. This is something that each person needs in his or her own individual life.

That’s the reason we’re here.

We come together in our humanness to discover the presence of God; God is ever willing to work with us, in us, and around us.

“One day Jesus had a blind man come up to him. The blind man said to Him, ‘Lord, let me receive my sight.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. “(Luke 18:41-43).

The story is not clear on how many were with Jesus when these events were taking place, but you had one incredibly grateful blind man who was seeing, possibly for the first time in his life. The events he was going to see had great significance.

Let’s pretend that up to this moment we were blind, and we have just received our sight. When you get into church you are going to hear a message you have NEVER heard before. Your awareness of God is so great that even the messages that you know well, become new. It has to become new IN you. It has to be seen and heard in a new way, a deeper, more profound way.

In Mark 11:1 it says: “And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives … “

Let me explain, first, what the names of these cities meant. Names, in Biblical times, had great spiritual significance to the people. Jerusalem meant a habitation of peace. Imagine in your life if you were drawing near to a habitation of peace. Jesus spiritually knew what was going to happen. You wonder how could this Man, headed toward a crucifixion, have peace? How can you, head toward a crucifixion, or tremendous difficulty, in some area of your life, and still have peace? You can, if you have a high awareness of the Presence of God with you, helping you.

Bethphage is a place of unripe fruit. It is a place in our awareness where grace is realized, but it is just coming into realization. The fruit is there, but it is not quite ready yet; it is not ripe. There is still more to be done. You have had times like that. You have had an idea, but it is not ready yet. You have got it, but you don’t have all the details. You have been guided by God to do something, but you do not know yet where your next step is going to take you.

Bethany means wailing, limitations and affliction. But it also spiritually signifies the demonstration OVER these conditions.

You have a wonderful realization that God’s good is coming. And then you have a town (or a place in your awareness) you are drawing near to which is trouble or difficulty. That is normal in life. Just realize that God is with you. God will get you through this difficult time.

He said to two of His disciples, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.”

I think that is the greatest miracle of this whole lesson. If I bring a colt in this church and ask you to sit on this colt – but I add, “By the way, no one has ever sat on this colt.” I’ll tell you; you might want to do it, but you would be foolish if you sat on it. This colt would throw you, and you would be airborne for some time.

It never happened to Jesus. He sat on that animal, what some consider the lowest of animals, and He tamed it immediately. It didn’t buck or throw Him off because of His consciousness and His awareness of His divinity. This was the highest moment in the animal’s life as well as for the people who had the colt. In Eastern places, when a holy man wanted to borrow a colt, it was a high honor for the family to give that colt over to him. And Jesus knew exactly where the colt would be. He told his disciples:

“Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they said to them, ‘What are you doing untying the colt?’ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.

“And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it and He sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'”

“In the name of” … means “in the nature of.”

They will say that TO YOU every time you come into a situation in the name of the Lord. If you come into your home and your family is quite dysfunctional and fighting, and you come in – in the name and nature of the Lord, (which is love), and bring harmony and peace to that situation, they will call you blessed. If you do this in your workplace, or wherever you are, you can come in the name of the Lord and make others feel God’s presence.

Hosanna means “save now.” There are many times when you want to be saved from the situation you are approaching. Many people here have high anxiety because of something that is facing them. We are yelling out Hosanna. God is a bigger God than any problem you face in your life. If you have this attitude, if you have this trust in God, you too will ride on the colt inside of you. This colt is your human nature, your lower nature that can buck with worry, and throw you off. You WILL ride and it will not buck or throw you off even though you have been thrown many times before, when you did not approach in a spiritual way.

Have you ever been so nervous that you actually shake? It’s like a bucking bronco. We do it to ourselves through worry and anxiety. If Jesus would have done it, we would not have blamed Him. He could have been in a real anxiety state. But He was not, He was calm. The animal was calm. He rode the animal, and He was not bucked off.

“Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna in the highest; save now in the highest. Every time you need saving from something in your life, you can be saved in the highest by God. God is the highest. If you want to go to someplace that will never turn you away, that will always be willing, that will always accept you and love you, it is the Lord God Almighty. God will never forsake you. God will never fail you.

“And He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when He had looked at everything, as it was already late, He left and went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

When He looked around the temple, He saw many things that were wrong. He saw some things that needed to be changed. He saw a lot of people were not praying aright. He was quite disturbed by this into that evening. The proof of this is His actions the next day.

“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He could find anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.'”

This means, in our own life, we have to be ready to produce fruit. We have to be ready so that we may be known by our fruit. Our big moment comes daily. Maybe it is a family situation where everyone is fighting, or an office situation where there is in-harmony, or maybe you’ve been laid off from work. Instead of riding that bucking bronco of worry and fear, know that God is with you, and you are going to be okay. That is what produces spiritual fruit of the harvest in our lives.

You become the light of the world. It doesn’t stay within you. It goes forth and blesses everyone around you.

We will never know how many people we bless when we are holding to trust in God. Others see it. They will look at you and say, “You have something I want. How do I get some?”

“And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.”

What does it mean that He wouldn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple? We often carry our fears into our places of worship, and we forget to let go of them there; we continue to carry them. Do you know what will really make you more religious? Prayer. You can fold your hands or sit or stand … however you choose, as long as your thoughts are on God Almighty. That is what makes you religious whether you’re inside the temple or wherever you are. You are the religious symbol of the church.

“And He taught and said to them, ‘It is not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ You have made this a den of robbers.'”

We ARE a house of prayer. We are here to help. And we know all help comes through us from God. It is our willingness working, our human willingness to allow the Divine to come through. We have to watch that we may never make our churches places of robbers. We have to take the focus off the humanness and put it on God.

“And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the multitude was astonished at His teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city. And they passed by in the morning, and they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.”

That will happen to us if we do not let our spiritual fruits shine forth. If we do not allow that nature of God to come through us instead of our lower, human, animal nature, we’ll wither away also. It says so many places in the Bible. But that is not going to happen to you. Truly, if you are in a place where you have been withered, if you turn to God, you will experience the resurrection again. That is the message of Christianity – eternal life out of death. There are many areas of our lives that can be dead in the moment. They can come back to life again because God is a God of new life.

“And Peter remembered and said to Him, ‘Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.'”

When you pray, believe. Have your willingness allow God’s willingness to come through.

Jesus on prayer, “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:24, 25

In other words, replace the lower, human, animal nature of resentment, hate, and envy with love. Allow that Divine love to shine in you and through every part of you. To make this a house of prayer for all nations, prepare for the experience.

You are going to make a triumphant entry into spiritual power and answered prayer. You are going to prepare by being willing for God to work in your life.

Second, you are going to rely completely upon God’s guidance. That is important. If you are filled with worry and fear, and you’re all tense, let go and let God.

Third, you need to concentrate on God and God’s power. You enter into the time of the silence of prayer. In due time, in the silence of prayer, you hear the message.

In hearing the message, you usually don’t hear a knock and God’s voice out loud. You often get an idea. The idea is like unripe fruit at that point. It is a new grace coming into your life. But if you act on the idea, something is going to happen. That is the message. And then, you live the blessed life. You have to walk the way Jesus walked and think the way Jesus thought and act the way Jesus acted. You cannot resort back to the way you were.

Constance Foster said, “I am convinced that every prayer we make is answered. Actually, our wishes and prayers bring the most inescapable results in the world. They are coming through constantly to our lives and our affairs. If you want to know what you have been praying for, just take a good look at the situation in which you find yourself as of this moment. It is the answer to your real prayer.”

Ernest Wilson wrote a book called The Week That Changed the World. He said, “Come with me God’s way. This is the invitation of the Christ.

Trust God. He is telling us in many ways. He entered Jerusalem not to fulfill His human will as Jesus, but His Divine purpose as Christ. His nature in us today is the same. It calls us to new heights of daring. It seems at times many problems put things at risk. It points to unchartered ways, sometimes at variance with the worldly security or acclaim.”

Let us pray. Dear God, as I would receive the blessings and promises of the kingdom, so I would also accept the discipline. Let my will and persistence claim higher goals than worldly gain alone. Like one who was to follow You, I would not be found unfaithful to that heavenly vision. I would keep the faith, run the course, and follow the light as Your nature grants me to see the light.

Thank You, God, for helping me begin to obtain a triumphant spiritual entry in my own life.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray.

Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

What a holy time this moment is! This is a moment when you are turning to God, closing your eyes to the outside world and to its cares and concerns. This is a moment when you turn to the All-powerful Presence of God. And it is a moment when you spiritually hear. You hear that your problems are not really so big. And you learn how big God really is.

We do not really know God until we know God as love. We may have an intellectual understanding of God. We may have faith in God as Creator. But we do not know God until we feel love in our hearts and express love in our daily lives. Even when we think, speak and act from our highest understanding, we find that occasions arise which can only be met by the special calling upon the power of Divine love.

When wisdom is there, a problem cannot overpower us. When wisdom to solve a problem in our human self may fail us, love clarifies it and provides the answer. When there is discord and alienation to be overcome, God’s love works to restore understanding and harmony.

Now, during our prayer time, listen to these words from the Holy Bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-7):

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Allow God’s love to become part of your nature, your mind, your body, your awareness. Allow the love of God to flow through you in this time of silent prayer …

Dear God, I pray that I love more. I pray that I walk away from human judgment and that I see with the eyes of love. I pray that I see all men and women in love. With God’s love, I do not judge. With love, I accept others. I pray that I am able to love You more. Dear God, I know that love compensates for every deficiency in my life. And it removes all barriers to complete and happy living. If I take offense or if I give offense, love erases the wrong and transmutes the experience into something good. If our spirits are down, Divine love is mighty to uplift us.

I pray this hour that love is the wonder working power of God in my life. I pray that it will take the least desirable things in my life and transform them into objects to be supremely desired. An environment ever so unpleasing – can be transformed as love puts God’s enhancements into unhappy conditions. Joy and peace come in to refashion along me lines of harmony and grace.

Many of us have problems at the workplace. I pray that God’s love comes in. I pray that unhappy conditions in our homes are transmuted this hour into joy and peace. I pray that God manifests as love in many forms and in many ways in every area of your life. I pray that unselfishness is part of my being from this moment on. I pray that I give of myself more. And I pray that I fulfill the law which never fails, which casts out fear, which gives peace of absolute union with God.

In the silence of prayer …

I pray that we know God as unconditional, perfect love. I pray that we may experience the joy of rebirth in God’s love. And I pray that we yield ourselves to its wonderworking power and direct its creative energy towards all that needs to be adjusted, removed, harmonized, or healed in our lives this day.

Prepare yourself, now, for this to occur in the silence of prayer …

In Jesus Christ’s name I decree that you live in God and God lives with you. I pray that your heart overflows with an understanding love and your life is filled with harmony. And I pray that you make that triumphant entry into a new level of Thinking, into a new awareness, into a new life.

In the nature of Jesus Christ we pray, and we act …

Amen and Amen.

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