April 14, 2019 – Palm Sunday                                                        Text:  Exodus 34:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Jimmy Wayne learned never to trust a soul.  That’s why he never unpacked his bag.  We can’t blame him.  He didn’t know his father; his mother was in jail more than out of jail.  When he was small, his mother was in trouble again and he lived out a car for a year.  He learned not to trust and Jimmy Wayne never unpacked his bag.

            After a year in the backseat of a car, Jimmy Wayne was dumped off at a train depot in Pensacola, Florida.  His mother and her boyfriend sped away in their Delta 88.  Jimmy Wayne desperately needed a new beginning.

            Today, Palm Sunday, we have the 7^th sermon in our series Let My People Go!  Today is Exodus 34 and Aaron, Israel’s high priest, needs a new beginning.  So does Israel and so do we.

“A NEW BEGINNING!”

            A new beginning is necessary.  Why is that?  If you were here on Wednesday evening you know that Aaron had led the Israelites in worshipping a golden calf when they thought Moses wasn’t returning. 

            Like it or not, in a crisis, the IRS knows what to do.  I quote from the IRS Handbook, “During a state of national emergency, the essential functions of the IRS will be as follows:  assessing, collecting and recording taxes.”  While everyone panics, the IRS knows exactly what to do.  Get our money!

            Faced with not having Moses, Aaron and the Israelites didn’t know what to do.  They build a golden calf and worship it.  Moses comes down the mountain smashes the Ten Commandments, grinds up the golden calf, mixes it with water, and makes the people drink it.

            Verse 1 of our text, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.’”  The Ten Commandments are smashed.  A new beginning is necessary.

            We are not much different than Aaron and Moses.  What do we do when faced with a crisis?  We become angry, impatient, faithless, and selfish.  We turn to our golden calves and look to them for salvation.  Our holy and righteous and perfect God has every right to dump us off at a train depot in Pensacola, Florida.

            But God doesn’t do that.  A new beginning is possible.  “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.” (v. 5)  Yahweh – God frequently comes down in the Book of Exodus.  He came down in the burning bush and Mt. Sinai and to the tabernacle to fill it with his glory.  Get it?  We can’t go up to God.  That is why God comes down to us, right where we are – in the basement of our broken commandments.

            What does God do when He comes down?  Scold us?  Berate us?  Reject us?  No.  Our compassionate and gracious God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.  A new beginning is possible.

            That brings us to Palm Sunday.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey because the following Friday He is going to lift up the huge mess and place it where?  Upon Himself – all wickedness, rebellion, and sin.  Jesus is God in the flesh.  Jesus teaches and lives this love.  Jesus demonstrates this love by shedding his blood on the cross for you.  Palm Sunday announces it.  Good Friday shows it.  And Easter Sunday celebrates it.  Amazing!

            One day, while aimlessly walking around Pensacola, Florida, Jimmy Wayne – remember Jimmy Wayne? – little Jimmy Wayne spotted a man named Russ working in his garage.  Soon Russ and his wife Bea invited Jimmy to live with them.  This home was like heaven with a hot bath, hot meals and even TV.  Jimmy Wayne learned not to trust a soul.  Jimmy Wayne still wouldn’t unpack his bag.

            We can refuse to unpack our bag and reject divine love.  That is not Moses.  “Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped.” (v. 8)  I invite you to follow Moses.  Trust that God is who He says He is.  His love surpasses your fear, shame, and guilt.  Throw yourself before God.  Be a sponge not a rock.  Put a rock in the ocean and the outside gets wet.  Put a sponge in the ocean and what happens?  It absorbs water.  The ocean saturates the sponge.  God’s abounding steadfast-love surrounds us like an ocean.  Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday.  Totally amazing.  What is our response? Rock or sponge?

            Jimmy Wayne had been rejected so many times that he was a rock – a hard, unmoved rock.  We get that.  That is why Jimmy never unpacked his bag.  It took another month before Russ and Bea convinced Jimmy that their love for him was real.  Finally, Jimmy Wayne unpacked his bag.  Jimmy Wayne is now a famous country music singer and songwriter.  But his new beginning started when he learned to trust – when he finally unpacked his bag.

            It’s Palm Sunday.  Hosanna!  Hosanna in the Highest!  Our past is behind us.  God’s grace is before us.  A new beginning awaits us.  So now what?  It’s time to unpack our bag.  Why do we do that?  Because we finally have a home.  Where?  Where?  With Jesus!

                                    Amen.