Humble Like Jesus

SERMON TITLE:   “Humble Like Jesus”
SERMON TEXT:    Matthew 21:1-11
PREACHER:           Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:           April 5, 2020, at FUMC
                              for Facebook Live Worship during Coronavirus Season
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
                Planning how to do Palm Sunday worship has been challenging this year.  As I’m sure you’re experiencing too, the coronavirus has put an extra layer of confusion and difficulty in planning and doing just about everything.  But, honestly, Palm Sunday has always been a bit of a conundrum to preachers and worship planners.  On the one hand, this first day of Holy Week is a joyful and triumphant day of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and it’s a lot of fun to celebrate that.  Since the time leading up to Palm Sunday is traditionally a season of solemn introspection and personal repentance of sin, a robust palm branch parade can be a nice change of pace.  The festivities of Palm Sunday gladly anticipate the even greater joy that we will celebrate one week later on Easter.
                But Palm Sunday is also the beginning of the week that includes Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  And, technically, Palm Sunday is the final Sunday in the season of Lent, so we’re not yet completely done with that introspection and spiritual purification hat prepares us for solidarity with Jesus in his death and his resurrection.
                So, yes, we certainly are waving our palm branches with joy—and oh, how we need that joy during this coronavirus pandemic!  But I also want us to return to our Lenten sermon series on The Seven Deadly Sins.  The sin that was scheduled for today was Pride.  And quite appropriately, Jesus models for us the antidote.  In the Palm Sunday story from the Gospel of Matthew, we read that Jesus entered Jerusalem, humble and riding on a donkey.  So, on this Palm Sunday, I invite you to consider how we can combat the sin of pride by being humble like Jesus.

Continue reading