Sunday, March 29, 2015

Hosanna


“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
    triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech 9:9)

These are words from the prophet Zechariah who lived in the late 6th century BC.
Zechariah is one of a few prophets recorded in the Bible who lived in Israel during the years of restoration. 
He observed as the people who returned from exile worked together with the people who had never been forced to leave in order to rebuild the place that was their home.

And it’s a time of hope for the community.  Returning, rebuilding, restoring.
But one important difference remains.
They could rebuild their temple. But King Cyrus of Persia would be their king.
They could live in the land, but only in exchange for their loyalty to the Persian Empire – the most recent in a line of conquering powers in the land.

And so here in Zechariah we see the vision of the prophet who speaks to the longing of a people under occupation.  Grateful for return, but longing for full restoration.

And no one knows who this passage referred to, if it referred to anyone that was living when Zechariah wrote it during that time in the late 500s BC
when the longing for independence and a good and peaceful leader was on the minds of everyone helping to lay the new foundations of restored Jerusalem.

But one thing that is really significant is that in this vision, the imagined king would not come in a caravan of armed chariots. 
The king would not be trotting in, high up on a war horse with the glory of conquest.

The king that the prophet Zechariah sees and draws his listeners and readers in to behold.
Is one who comes to the people triumphant, victorious. Yes.

But humble.  And riding on a donkey.
Signs of peace and peaceful intention.

This is one of the many visions of Messiah, a Hebrew word that literally means “Anointed One.”

The one who is set apart for the purpose of God – to restore, renew, heal, bring together – make real and visible the steadfast love of God for the people.

And so it’s not completely coincidental that when Jesus comes to Jerusalem he comes in this way.  He asks his disciples to get a young donkey. (polos – colt, but any young animal)

He’s thinking of Zechariah.

This is symbolic action.
In a way, Jesus is saying to any who would watch or listen or join in,
Remember that this is the way of God – it is a way that must come on a donkey and not a war-horse.

This is what gets him in trouble ultimately.
His preference for the donkey over the war-horse.

Jesus believed that the way that God would rule was through mercy and not manipulation.
And so in Matthew we read him saying “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” 

Jesus knew that he was going to make a stir by riding a donkey to the city.
But he believed this was a stir that needed to be made.
This was light that needed to be shone on the darkness of the real-politik of occupying Rome and the Jerusalem elite.

He was aligning himself with the vision of Zechariah as he gently rode to Jerusalem down the Mount of Olives –

The Mount of Olives.
The mountain directly east of the city.  Which like Gates Mtn where you can see the villages of Acworth and South Acworth, you could look from the Mount of Olives and see the city of Jerusalem – see inside the temple walls.

The Mount of Olives.
East of the city – the same path that was walked in the other direction by the defeated all those centuries before when Jerusalem was destroyed and so many were exiled–
But also the same path that the returning exiles would have taken when they, like Jesus now, were returning to Zion.

And so there’s a lot here in Jesus’s choice to ride to the city from this mountain, on this donkey.

And the people sing Hosanna.

And I’m not sure if you’ve ever asked or found out what this word that we only use in church means.

It’s what the Hebrew sounds like in the part of the Psalm we read this morning where we heard: Save us, Lord, save us! It’s actually two Hebrew words: Hos-anna

Two words that were used as part of that Psalm in the liturgy for the holiday Sukkot,
And so it came to mean more than just “Save us” – it came to be a festive phrase –
An expression of praise and of hope in God’s promise to make things right, to bring healing to the people and to the land.
Hosanna.

And when the Bible is translated into Greek, these two Hebrew words get glued together and made into one Greek word.  And when English translators come to this Greek word, they leave it as is.
Hosanna.

In this word is all of the hope and trust of a people that long for the kind of world where kings ride donkeys and not war-horses, where gentleness and peacemaking are the values most highly cherished – where love changes hearts of every person, from the stable-boy to the CEO.

And we still sing Hosanna.  And it’s not just because we hope for things to get better but also because we’ve seen how in Jesus things have already been made better.
Grace has changed us.  Love has restored us and we are able to love God and to love one another because of the love that we have seen in this Jesus of Nazareth.
Hosanna.

Singing Hosanna is like singing Amazing Grace!

It’s a confidence in what God has done that leads to praise for what God is doing and longing for what God will do in our lives and in our world.

Can you sing Hosanna this morning?

Are you feeling the dual feelings of longing and gratitude?

Thankful for the blessings of God for you and those you love,
For the gifts of life and new life.
For new beginnings and forgiveness.  For being rescued from danger.
For the joy of community and worship, of fellowship and friendship,
Of the smell of steam in the sugarhouse, the taste of sugar on snow.
Are you feeling the gratitude in Hosanna?

But also – are you feeling the longing in Hosanna?
that longing which comes as cry from the heart – save us. 
Make something new in me. In us.
A longing borne of experiencing that part of ourselves that is out of joint.
An anger that clouds our minds and scorches relationships.
A sadness which depletes our energy and confidence and makes us just want to crawl back into bed.
An emptiness which just can’t seem to see hope within the maddening maze of things,
the grief of lost loved ones, or lost job, or divorce.  The struggles of life.
A confusion that makes us restless and unable to focus.
A longing born of the gap we experience between what is and what ought to be.

Can God heal these?  Can grace make a difference?
We long to be made whole.

Hosanna.

And the longing for our community and state and nation and international community – longing for donkeys over war-horses.  For plowshears over swords.  For cooperation over conflict and competition.

And so.
Hosanna.
We are grateful for this and now and we.
But Hosanna.
O God make us new, give us a new lease on life,
heal our wounds as individuals and as a society. 
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Riding on a donkey.
Amen. 

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