Sermon for the Palm/Passion Sunday What the People Need is a Way to Make Them Smile (It ain’t so hard to do if you know how)
Theme: Memorized hymns are an extremely powerful tool for you, both for your own strength of faith and for the way you show love to your neighbor. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Gospel, the disciples do not know how to help their dear Lord Jesus as He moves forward into suffering and death. These men cannot prevent what is about to happen. They can barely understand what is about to happen. The disciples do not know what to say concerning what is about to happen. When they try, they just end up sticking their feet into their mouths. So what do these men do? The disciples rely upon the liturgy and hymnody of the Church to speak their faith in God: “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Dear Christian friends, One thing I love about this congregation is its willingness to sing. Yes, I know some tunes are more difficult than others; I know that fifteen stanzas seems like a lot of singing for one hymn; I know that some of you do not feel as though you can sing and others of you do not even open the hymnal to try. Nevertheless, I love this congregation’s willingness to sing. It is happiness for me when I sometimes feel as though I must yell the communion blessing so that I may be heard above the distribution hymns. As much as I love this congregation’s willingness to sing, I think you should try to do better. You should be attentively reading the words of the hymns, even when the tune moves up or down out of your vocal range. You should regularly memorize the stanzas of important hymns, continually practicing them in the car and in the shower so that you do not forget them again. You should have hymnals in your home and at some set point during the day you should sing with your household—even if you live alone. Today’s Gospel tells you why: “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” · We can say with certainty that these guys did not sing, “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox When I Die,” or some other song from the radio. · Based upon the context of today’s Gospel, with its Last Supper and its Sacrifice-to-End-All-Sacrifices, we can hopefully also agree that the disciples were not singing any happy-clappy, toes-a-tappy little ditties. · These men sang the Christian faith. These men sang the closing hymn of the Passover liturgy. Quite possibly, they sang from book of the Psalms, that is, the ancient church’s hymnbook, which spoke about the Christ (e.g., Psalm 2:12) and His death (Psalm 40:6-8) and His resurrection (Psalm 16:9-10). · When they sang a hymn, these men sang the Words of God back to their God. They comforted their Lord Jesus in His human nature with the same comforts that they themselves had first received from Him and from His Word (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Listen to what Luther had to say about adding music to God’s Word, especially to the psalms: The Book of Psalms is a sweet, comforting, lovely song, because it sings and preaches the Messiah, although one usually just reads or recites the words without notes. Nevertheless, the use of notes or music, as a wonderful creation and gift of God, helps greatly to produce this [comforting] effect, especially when the people sing along (What Luther Says #3098). Or, to quote the Doobie Brothers, “What the people need is a way to make them smile. It ain’t so hard to do if you know how.” You know how, Christians, just as our Lord’s disciples knew it before you: “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” What Jesus needed was a way smile, even in the growing darkness. The disciples gave that smile to Jesus “when they had sung a hymn.” It wasn’t a giddy smile; it wasn’t a happy smile, as if nothing monumental was about to happen; it might not even have looked like a smile. The disciples gave Jesus the smile that comes as a result the hearing of God’s Word. The disciples gave Jesus the smile of resurrection certainty. They gave Jesus a way to smile with certainty that this looming horrible ordeal would not be the last of it for Jesus. They sang a hymn. That is why you can do better with your singing, Christians! That is why we should wake the neighbors with our Sunday morning song. That is why the hymnody of the Church should be woven into your minds and daily stuffed into your children’s ears and even hummed under your breath while you are at the library. It can be difficult to memorize Bible verses. Supplement your memorization with hymn stanzas. The hymns are written to rhyme and rhyming makes everything easier to remember, especially when a musical tune is attached. Think of the great blessings and benefits that will come to you when you do: · First, you will have something to say to your friends and neighbors. I know that you sometimes hesitate to speak the faith in your neighbor’s time of need. Like many Christians, you might feel self-conscious and unable to say the right thing. Learn from the disciples in today’s Gospel! Use a hymn! Even if you do not dare to sing, speak the lines or write them into a greeting card. Give your neighbors the smile of resurrection certainty that will remain unmovable even in the hour of death. Send God’s Word soaring into their hearts and minds upon the wings of a song. · You can also nourish yourself during the week with the same hymns you sing on Sunday morning. Chose one, single stanza. Sing it repeatedly to yourself during your daily tasks. Like the psalms, the hymnody of the Church is merely God’s Word set to music. o When you have the hymns, you have the Word; o When you have the Word, you have the presence of your Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is the Word; o When you have Jesus, you have also the forgiveness of sins and eternal life Jesus earned for you by His death and resurrection; o With the forgiveness of sins, you now have reason to smile, no matter how dark your road may grow as you walk with Jesus out to your own Mount of Olives. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. 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