As you know, today is Palm Sunday, the day which kicks off Holy Week,
when we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and,
frequently, go on to read and think about his arrest, trial, and
crucifixion, before the wonderful Resurrection on Easter Day. Most
years, we’d be reading about this and, in many churches, they’ll
not even have a sermon, but will just read the whole of what are
called the “Passion Narratives,” this year it would be chapters
22 and 23 of Luke’s Gospel. That is thought to speak for itself,
no need to elaborate!
But this year, the Methodist Church
has suggested we just look at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and
specifically at the way the crowd of disciples, so Luke tells us,
burst into spontaneous praise and song when they saw Jesus riding on
a donkey.
We’re standing at the edge of Holy Week. The
road ahead is about to turn steep – both for Jesus and for us.
Today is full of joy and shouting and waving palms, but we all know
that just a few days from now, we’ll be walking into the shadow of
the cross.
But now it’s time for celebration. There’s
a sense of movement, of something important about to happen. And
right at the centre of it all is music. Not instruments. Not
choirs or pipe organs. But something deeper: people lifting their
voices in praise. It’s music from the heart. The kind that doesn’t
need tuning or lyrics – it just pours out.
This is what
we’re thinking about this morning: how music from the heart
nourishes us. In this season of Soul Food, we’re
thinking about what feeds us, what sustains us in our faith, what
helps us grow strong and rooted as people of God. We’ve thought
how we are nourished by all the things, not just bread;
by a
safe home for everyone;
by patience and slowness;
by
unconditional love and forgiveness;
then last week by
companionship;
and today, we think how we are nourished by music that comes from deep within – the kind that
rises up when our hearts recognise the presence of Jesus.
Here,
on the road to Jerusalem, the music just pours out from the crowd.
Spontaneously. They may have started by singing one of the psalms
that were traditionally sung on the way to Jerusalem for Passover –
in our Bibles, these are Psalms 120 to 134, usually titled “A Song
of Ascents”. They include favourites like “I will lift up mine
eyes to the hills”, “I was glad when they said unto me”, “Out
of the depths I call unto Thee”, and so on. Have a look
sometime.
But I don’t think they stuck to the Psalms.
Luke’s Gospel tells us that they sang “Blessed is the king
who
comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory
in the highest heaven!”
No “Hosannas” here, although
the other Gospels that record the story have them, but do you see how
Luke has cleverly managed to make what they sang echo the song the
angels sang at Bethlehem the night Jesus was born? “Glory to God
in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his
favour rests.”
And then, when the religious leaders try
to make them shut up, Jesus says “Look, if they keep quiet, these
very stones will start to shout out!” All creation sings God’s
praise, and if it’s dammed up in one place, it will spill out in
another. This time of year, springtime, it can feel as though the
whole creation is joining in praise! I know as well as you do that
the birdsong that we love is actually about sex and turf wars, but it
can sound like praise! The blossoms and the spring flowers are again
about reproduction, but even still…. Perhaps that is how Nature
praises God – in the cycle of the year, in the changing of the seasons.... There’s a hymn we used to sing when I was at school – it’s not in our hymn books – which begins “The spacious firmament on high”, and talks about how the heavens were made by God, and ends by imagining the stars all singing “The hand that made us is divine!” Maybe the stars do sing, at that! And, of course, we’re told that music is a characteristic of heaven! The “heavenly host” praises God constantly, and we are encouraged to join in with that.
Praise
isn’t just about making us feel good, or making us feel close to
God; praise isn’t just something we do because God demands it. God is
worthy of our praise and worship at all times, of course, but there
seems to be even more to it than that. It’s as though praise is an
integral part of creation, and when we praise God, whether in words or
in music, we become part of that.
Note that “constantly”.
It is always the right time to praise God – although sometimes
it’s really hard to do. There are times when we simply have no
praise in us. And that’s okay, because that’s where being part
of a community comes in. It’s not individual praise, it’s
corporate praise. If one individual has to drop out for a time, the
rest of us can carry them in our own praise. It happens to us all,
and is nothing to be ashamed of. But it is worth making the effort,
even if you are just mouthing the words and no tune will come – God
knows what is on your heart, and will honour your attempts at praise.
Sometimes, of course, a flamboyant, bouncy praise song is totally
inappropriate – at someone’s funeral, for instance, unless they
specifically requested it, or at a time of national mourning, or
straight after a mega-disaster. But it is still right to praise God
– not for what has
happened, of course, but anyway. And there are quieter, more
reflective worship songs that will be appropriate then, and the more
cheerful ones on other occasions.
I wonder what
sort of music enables you to praise God? That’s the joy of the
Church – I mean the whole Church, not just us Methodists! It
caters to the whole spectrum of Christians, and that includes the
music available. For some, it’s the wonderful choral music of Bach
and so on – I like to listen to it, sometimes, but for me, it’s
not so conducive to worship. But I know it is for others, and maybe
it is for some among you.
I personally prefer music I can
join in with – traditional hymns, for a start, and many of the more
modern choruses and worship songs. Wasn’t it dreadful during the
pandemic, do you remember, when we weren’t allowed to sing, but
just had to hum with closed mouths behind our masks! I hated that.
And there was the time when I had been diagnosed with pulmonary
embolisms, and I wanted and needed to go to church to thank God that
I had been diagnosed and treatment started ere worse befall. Anyway,
came the first hymn and – I absolutely, physically couldn’t! I
don’t mean I couldn’t sing in tune – you all know I don’t
have much of a singing voice at the best of times – but I simply
couldn’t get the air in the right place in my lungs to sing!
Incredibly frustrating! Fortunately it didn’t last long, and
within a week or so I was singing as loudly out of tune as ever! It
is, I think, as well that we are commanded to make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, not necessarily a tuneful one!
But the
point is, no matter how unmusical we are, the music of praise helps
align us with God, and thus nourish our souls. Whether it is
listening to other people praise, and praising in our hearts as we do
so; whether it is singing aloud, joyfully and, one hopes, tunefully –
and whether that singing is when we are on our own, or when we are
together as a church – then we are both praising the Almighty and
nourishing our own souls.
It is Palm Sunday. Jesus is
entering Jerusalem and the crowds – and we – are singing his
praises. But we know, as he knew, that he is going to his death. On
Thursday we will be remembering how he washed his disciples feet and
instituted Holy Communion at the Last Supper, and on Friday, of
course, we will be solemnly remembering his death on the cross. But
we can, should and, indeed must continue to praise, all through this
Passiontide, as it’s called. Perhaps bouncy songs are
inappropriate, but there are plenty of others. Perhaps we might want
to listen to one of the great Passion oratorios – Handel’s
Messiah, for instance, or we might just want to sit quietly and let
our praises sort of rise up in silence.
And then will
come Easter Sunday, and our praises will spring forth joyfully and
unrestrainedly as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord. And as
the year continues, as we celebrate the Ascension and Pentecost,
Trinity Sunday and the long, long stretch of Ordinary Time until it
all starts again in Advent, so we adapt our praise, but we don’t
stop praising!
Those who wrote the Soul Food series
suggest we now sing hymn number 82, “How Great Thou Art”, and
reflect on the blessings God has given us while we do so. So let’s
stand to sing.
