“Miracles Beyond Reason or... Living With Noisy Stones”

March 16th Sermon
Luke 19:28-40

You know, there are some events in life that are just so remarkable and so joyous and so needed, that no matter what reality might say to the contrary, they are going to happen.


Take the story of eleven year-old Angela, as told by Hanoch McCarty:

“Angela was stricken with a debilitating disease involving her nervous system. She was unable to walk and her movement was restricted in other ways as well. The doctors did not hold out much hope of her ever recovering from this illness. They predicted she’d spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. They said that few, if any, were able to come back to normal after contracting this disease. The little girl was undaunted. There, lying in her hospital bed, she would vow to anyone who’d listen that she was definitely going to be walking again someday.

She was transferred to a specialized rehabilitation hospital in the San Francisco Bay area. Whatever therapies could be applied to her case were used. The therapists were charmed by her undefeatable spirit. They taught her about imaging - about seeing herself walking. If it would do nothing else, it would at least give her hope and something positive to do in the long waking hours in her bed. Angela would work as hard as possible in physical therapy, in whirlpools and in exercise sessions. But she worked just as hard lying there, faithfully doing her imaging, visualizing herself moving... moving... moving!

One day, as she was straining with all her might to imagine her legs moving again, it seemed as though a miracle happened: The bed moved! It began to move around the room! She screamed out, “Look what I’m doing! Look! Look! I can do it! I moved, I moved!”

Of course, at this very moment everyone else in the hospital was screaming, too, and running for cover. People were screaming, equipment was falling and glass was breaking. You see, it was the San Francisco earthquake that occurred a few years back. But don’t tell that to Angela. She’s convinced that she did it. And now only a few years later, she’s back in school. On her own two legs. No crutches, no wheelchair. You see, anyone who can shake the earth between San Francisco and Oakland can conquer a piddling little disease, can’t they?”

Beyond reason Angela was able to walk again. It was a remarkable, joyous, irrational event that needed to happen. It was a miracle beyond reason.

And isn’t that what we celebrate today. Hear us shout! Because of a remarkable, joyous, irrational event that occurred thousands of years ago we can be victorious in life today. A king with no apparent power, riding a donkey into the most powerful city of the time, set the stage for the most transformational and controversial event of eternity.

Without a doubt this was the moment that the people Israel had been waiting for. The messiah had arrived. Gathered outside the city on the Mount of Olives, the celebration began. As the procession wound down the mountain the crowd increased in number and in anticipation. Then, entering the gates, the frenzy of adulation became overwhelming. The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem could not be stopped.

The joy of the people, anticipating all that surely was going to happen with their new king could not be silenced. Now the Romans would get what was coming to them. Control this crowd? No way. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were crazy!

No one can stop the joy that comes when a person feels the release of one’s soul. No one can put down the elation felt when those imprisoned by the circumstances of life are offered even the slightest sense of hope. And the hope that was offered by Jesus to a people who were at the point of losing all hope caused such a joyous response, that if there was an attempt to stifle the words and actions of the people, it would seep out from even the lifeless rocks and stones. The very rocks and stones themselves would ooze joy and would start to sing! Hosanna! Hosanna!

In the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, Freeman Morgan is serving a life sentence for murder. He utters a line that speaks volumes to Tim Burton who is also serving a sentence for murder and is relatively new to the prison: (Show clip)

“Hope is dangerous for a prisoner.” A reference to the fact that for the “lifer,” hope would only cause insanity. Cause you ain’t getting out! For some, this world is a prison. A prison every bit as harsh and as filled with hopelessness as Shawshank Prison. When you see your circumstance as a prison... hope IS dangerous. When you live your life as a prisoner... hope IS dangerous.

But we are not prisoners, as Christians we know better. We are not prisoners....We are not “lifers...” We are “livers.” We have been given hope. We can live to the fullest because God’s presence through Jesus Christ has transformed us. Filled with the Holy Spirit we can wave our palm branches today even more fervently than those early believers because we know the entire story. While they could only celebrate an earthly king, we can celebrate the inspiration of hope given to us by a heavenly king.

Try as we might to be somber during this time of lent; try as hard as we can to grieve the one who died on the cross; try, with all humility, to bow our heads in sorrow as the stone is rolled across the tomb; we just can’t be made silent. We are the noisy rocks. The joy in our lives can’t be stopped from being expressed. Jesus is king. Hosanna! The Messiah is here. Hosanna! “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna! “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Hosanna!

The message that God loves us... is very much a part of us, gives us hope... can never be quieted. I know. I tried to quiet that message in my own life. In high school I felt called by God to somehow share the good news that Christ offers us. I was going to be a minister. A short way into my first year of college I tried to squelch that feeling. For thirteen years after that I hid the palm branches behind my back. For thirteen years I denied that Jesus was my king and had a use for me. But even in the lifeless stone that I had become, the noise and the joy had to come out.

There’s no way God will let us remain silent. There’s no way God will let us stagnant. There’s no way God will allow you... or me... or anyone else... to stop celebrating “The Life” in our lives. And at the point someone tries to tell us otherwise... why... even the very stones God created, will be pulled into the act of celebration.

That is why we exist as a church. We are called to shout the joy of Jesus Christ. We are called to become a church that is so remarkable, so irrational, so joyous, and so involved in sharing the good news that people can’t help but be transformed. Beyond all reason we exist and are here waving our palm branches. Hosanna.

We are in the midst of a miracle... Let me rephrase that. We are in the midst of miracles... remarkable, irrational, transforming, noisy rock miracles. The miracle of living, the miracle of relationship, the miracle of salvation in Jesus Christ, and today... gathering together as believers in the ministry of Jesus Christ, we are participating in the miracle of hope.
We are here to shout out the ways that God has blessed us through the presence of Jesus Christ... here to shout out the ways we have been blessed in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are here to give tangible evidence of the blessings of God. We are the noisy rocks and stones singing out the hosannas.