Sermon Details

"Tanks or Donkeys"

A sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church Exeter

at 10.30 am on Palm Sunday, April 1st 2012,

by the Minister, Rev Andrew Sails

When President Barak Obama comes to town, he arrives in a motorcade
of 30 or so vehicles.   His vehicle is bullet proof and chemical proof,
and is called the Beast.  
The Chevrolet SUVs in front and behind are allegedly filled with secret service personnel firing so- called mini-guns - rather a misnomer,
as they can fire shells at the rate of over 4000 rounds per minute.

Times and technology change, but some things stay the same.

Ancient Roman Emperors didn’t have bullet proof limos, but they did have war horses.    They were not surrounded by Secret Service men but by armed soldiers.   

Julius Caesar, Queen Victoria and Barack Obama may have had many differences, but you didn’t easily miss the most powerful person in the world when they came down the road.

I remember many years ago going to the theatre to see Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” in modern dress - Caesar, Brutus and Cassius dressed not in Roman togas but in Nazi Jackboots and SS Raincoats.

I suspect that life in 1st C Palestine, when the Roman Empire was at its might, must have been not a little like life in Nazi occupied Europe during the 2nd World War.   

Brutal armed force was never far away - whether the Storm Troopers to put down any local disturbances, or just the ceremonial cavalcade for the visiting 5* General from Rome.

Caesar rode at the head of victory parades on a fine white war horse
Hitler entered Vienna in an open-topped staff car
Caesar deployed cavalry - in Tiananman Square they used tanks

The impact must have been much the same.

Today is Palm Sunday - and Jesus, proclaiming the Kingdom
not of Caesar but of God, arrives in Jerusalem.

No War Horse, Staff Car, no legions of angels nor tanks
nor machine guns - Just a man on a donkey.

Like a King driving down Whitehall in a battered Citreon DCV -
a utilitarian, humble but practical means of doing the donkey work,

It was more than that - those seeing Jesus that day knew their
scriptures -they would spot the reference to the prophecy of Zechariah
who talks about the peace loving humble saviour riding a donkey

Jesus was making a point about his distinctive take on kingship

The hymn we have just sung by Pratt Green reminds us how
the soldiers mocked Jesus and gave him a pretend crown  and robe -

The irony of course was that Christ’s humble reign
was more truly regal, and packed more of a punch
than the combined armouries of Greece and Rome, China and the US

Love is the ultimate weapon

You may recall how headmaster Philip Lawrence was killed by a knife attack outside his school in London.    In the Memorial Mass held at Westminster Cathedral Philip Lawrence’s wife read from 1 Cor - “Love does not end”    and then a deeply moving moment when Philip Lawrence’s 13 yr old daughter Unity read with unwavering voice a prayer she had written  -  “May we find the strength to overcome anger with love, ugliness with beauty and evil with good”.

Just so, Christ’s weapons are the weapons of love
and ultimately the power of love triumphs over the world might of empires and ruling elites.

So often, from Constantine onwards,
the Church has been tempted to abandon the donkey of peace
and settle for sprinkling holy water over the warhorses of Caesar.

Tomorrow marks the 30^th Anniversary of the Falklands War.  
Some of you will recall the end of that war, when Maggie Thatcher asked the Church to arrange a national service of thanksgiving for victory.
To his great credit, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time refused -
saying that the Church service would be one of remembrance for the dead and prayers for peace.

It is not easy to engage in the world whilst continuing to ride a donkey

Desmond Tutu once remarked

“There are three good reasons for a cleric not to harbour poitical ambitions - AB Macarios, Ayatollah Khomeni and Bp Musorewa”

Which is not to say that Christians should not be involved in politics.
It is to say that we should not sell our souls to the political process.
We should be in the world but not of it,
we absolutely should go to the places of political power and debate,
ride into Jerusalem and Westminster -
but go not on a warhorse but on a donkey
carrying the weapons of love and peace.

Easy to say - but to turn away from violence, and trust to the ultimate victory of love, forgiveness and sacrifice is certainly no easy path.

I’ve just seen an excellent Danish movie called “In another world”.  
The leading protagonist is a Danish doctor in an African mission hospital - he is asked to give urgent medical help to a brutal local warlord.
The doctor is opposed to everything this man stands for,
but says he must offer love and help to everyone.      
Meanwhile mutilated pregnant women continue to arrive at the hospital, literally carved open by the followers of the warlord
who encourages the atrocities.   Still the doctor treats him.
Finally the warlord is on crutches and about to leave 

when he learns that one of the mutilated women has just died.   
He turns to the mission doctor and says - “I will take the body”.

I won’t repeat the exact phrase, but basically he intimates that
the sexual predilections of some of his men favour dead young women,
so he says he will take the dead body for their use and enjoyment.   

The doctor, who has kept the angry crowd and his own repugnance

at bay throughout the treatment, finally gives up -
he pushes the warlord to the ground in anger and walks off.   
The crowd attacks and kills the warlord as he lies there, leaving the doctor to reflect on love and vengeance, forgiveness and retribution.

A parallel story in the film is set back in Europe in comfortable Danish suburbia and is about the doctor’s son being bullied in the local school.   The same questions how to respond to evil and violence in real life.

In political & domestic life, the challenge of love v. vengeance is everywhere - and being loving is neither simple nor easy.    It needs courage and often the ability to face physical assault and public ridicule.

But still this is the way of true power and victory -

Mahatma Gandhi based his methods passive non-resistance on the person and activities of Jesus. Of this method he said, "First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Which reminds me of words of Lord Soper
"At the foot of the cross on Good Friday, the way of Jesus, of Gandhi, of Martin Luther King, may look like defeat.   But Good Friday is not the end of the Christian year, only its beginning.   The end is Easter morning when even death is swallowed up in victory"

Today is April Fools’ Day - we are called to be fools for Christ - to do the things that the world considers foolish - but as Paul knew, what the world calls foolish can be the beginning of wisdom.

I hope you will explore our prayer stations today or on Monday or Tuesday - they are a chance during this Holy Week to walk with Christ and find that love and power and wisdom which the world calls folly.

And maybe being a fool for Christ is being a donkey, an ass.

On the first Palm Sunday Jesus sent for a donkey
”Say the Master has need of it” says Jesus.
An ass needed to carry a king - Is that a job for you and me??

Going back to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,
Mark Anthony and Octavius are talking dismissively about Lepidus,
the third part of the Roman ruling triumvirate -

Mark Anthony says:  “He is of no value - a mere messenger boy”

Octavius replies  “You did think well of him”

To which the reply comes: “He is a mere donkey carrying gold -
to be put out to field when used - cast aside.”

Carry Christ and you carry gold.   But you will not be cast aside –
those who take Christ on the road to Calvary,
find it is also the road to the Kingdom.

So let me conclude with some words of Joy Cowley - (SCIO p26)

who tells a modern version of the Palm Sunday story
with these words of hope and challenge:

No donkey this time but a borrowed Honda 550.
Jesus riding into town with a black leather jacket,

Jeans frayed at the knees, and L-O-V-E
tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand.

Those who saw him said that his smile was like the sun,

Warming shadowed corners & causing the way to blossom unexpectedly.

Those who saw him told of all the light left over

To be taken home and set in eyes, in hearts and at windows for strangers

It was like a miracle, they said.

The rest of us missed it.

We were in another part of the city, waiting for the Messiah.

Lord help us find you,

serve you, carry you.

And bring us safe home.