The Joy of a King without an Army

Matthew 21:1-14

A Week of Joy and awful Foolishness
Palm Sunday leads to Easter – two celebrations bracketing startling, awful events: conflict, betrayal, abandonment, injustice, torture, crucifixion. This year Easter is April 1 –April Fool’s. It’s there from the start: It’s a fool’s tale: “The word of the cross is foolishness...” (1Cor 1:18). 
And for many of the wise of our day it still is. Actually, for everyone! The foolishness is built in. In this series of events God intends to challenge all our assumptions of how things are: What it means to be strong, to make a real difference, to show glory and power, even God’s. We all, even much of the church, think we know better what’s smart, powerful, glorious, wise. 
And then there’s that young man! Astride a little donkey, riding down the hill toward the brilliant marble and gold of Herod’s vast temple, with the fortress of Rome’s soldiers, toward death. 

Resurrection - "Come and See...Go and Tell"

Matthew 28:1-10, 16-20

Can this really be happening?
Jesus' resurrection is not a doctrine; it is an event. Christian life has many teachings but none would be known or noticed without what happened that Spring morning, 1986 years ago. Jesus wasn't like other religious founders who labored years to build a religious community. If Jesus had simply stayed in the tomb, nothing would have happened. A different world.

God’s Gift of Life in Jesus

Romans 5:6-17

Out of Death – Into Life
Today is a focused concentration of all Christian faith. It marks its distinct character. All flows first from events announced as “Good News,” Gospel – actions of God in his world. Thus deeply miraculous! Not in the common idea of a distant god breaking into the orderly laws of nature to do something strange. But the Creator of that wonderful order, who also pervades it, working within it to show a deeper reality than we ordinarily perceive. 

Jesus’ Death and the Love of God

Romans 5:1-11

A Week of Death and Life – All comes Together 
This is Palm Sunday. In a.d. 30 (1,985 years ago), it was just a work day, crowds were pouring into Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus approached the city. Every action of ‘the prophet’ meant something. He begins the week that changed the world. Events happened – ordinary, wonderful, horrific, impossible – irony, paradox, multiple layers of meaning...