PreacherRhetorica
  • Home and to sermons
    • Year B frontispiece >
      • Proper 5B
      • Seventh of Easter
      • Sixth of Easter
      • Fifth of Easter
      • Fourth of Easter homily
      • Third of Easter
      • Second of Easter
      • Easter Day
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Palm Sunday
      • Lent 5
      • Next Before Lent
      • Presentation (Epiphany 4)
      • Third of Epiphany
      • Second of Epiphany
      • Epiphany (2)
      • Epiphany
      • Holy Innocents
      • Christmas
      • The Reign of Christ (Proper 29B)
      • Christ the King (Proper 29B)
      • Proper 28B (2nd Bf Advent)
      • 3rd Bf Advent (CofE)
      • Proper 27B
      • All Saints Sunday
      • Proper 26B
      • Proper 25B
      • Simon and Jude
      • Proper 24B
      • Proper 23B
      • Proper 22B
      • Proper 22B homily
      • Proper 21B
      • Proper 20B
      • Proper 19B
      • Proper 18B sermon
      • Proper 18B performance poem
      • Proper 17B
      • Proper 16B
      • Proper 15B
      • Proper 14B
      • Proper 13B
      • Proper 12B
      • Mary Magdalene homily
      • Proper 11B
      • Proper 10B
      • Proper 9B homily
      • Proper 8B
      • Birth of John the Baptist
      • Proper 7B homily
      • Proper 6B
      • Trinity Sunday
      • Pentecost
      • Lent 4 Mothering Sunday
      • Lent 3
      • Lent 2
      • Lent 1
      • 2nd Before Lent
      • 3rd Before Lent
      • 2nd of Christmas B homily
      • Christmas Day
      • Advent 4B
      • Advent 3B
      • Advent 2B
      • Advent 1B homily
      • Year A frontispiece >
        • Proper 28A (2 Bf Advent)
        • Proper 27A (3 Bf Advent)
        • Proper 26A (4 Bf Advent)
        • Proper 25A Last after Trinity
        • Proper 24A
        • Proper 23A
        • Proper 22A
        • Proper 21A
        • St Matthew
        • Proper 20A
        • Proper 19A
        • Proper 18A
        • Proper 17A
        • Proper 16A
        • Proper 15A
        • Proper 14A
        • Proper 13A
        • Proper 12A
        • Proper 11A
        • Proper 10A
        • Proper 9A
        • Proper 8A
        • Proper 7A
        • Trinity Sunday (Homily)
        • Pentecost
        • Seventh of Easter (Sunday after Ascension)
        • Sixth of Easter
        • Fifth of Easter
        • Fourth of Easter
        • Third of Easter
        • Second of Easter
        • Easter (Poem)
        • Maundy Thursday
        • Palm Sunday
        • Lent 5
        • Lent 4
        • Lent 3
        • Lent 2
        • Lent 1
        • Next Bf Lent (Epiphany last)
        • 2 Bf Lent (Proper 3)
        • Epiphany 7 (RCL)
        • Epiphany 6 (3 Bf Lent)
        • Epiphany 5 (4 Bf Lent)
        • Presentation of Christ
        • Epiphany 3
        • Epiphany 2
        • Baptism of Christ (Epiphany 1)
        • The Epiphany
        • Second Sunday of Christmas
        • First Sunday of Christmas
        • Christmas Day
        • Advent 4A
        • Advent 3A
        • Advent 2A
        • Advent 1A
        • Christ the King Yr A (2)
        • Christ the King Yr A
        • Remembrance Sunday
        • All Saints' Sunday
        • Harvest Homily
        • Harvest
        • Admission of Pastoral Workers
        • Saint Thomas homily
        • Corpus Christi
        • Trinity Sunday
        • Pentecost
        • Pentecost: another example
        • Year C frontispiece >
          • Christ the King (Next bf Advent)
          • Proper 28C (2nd bf Advent)
          • Proper 27C (3rd bf Advent)
          • Proper 26C (4th bf Advent)
          • Proper 25C (Last after Trinity)
          • Proper 24C
          • Proper 23C
          • Proper 22C
          • St Michael & All Angels (homily)
          • Proper 21C
          • Proper 20C
          • Proper 19C (story sermon)
          • Proper 18C
          • Proper 17C
          • Proper 16C
          • Proper 15C
          • Proper 14C
          • Proper 13C
          • Proper 12C
          • Proper 11C
          • Proper 10C
          • Proper 9C
          • Proper 8C
          • Proper 7C
          • Proper 6C performance poem
          • Proper 5C
          • Proper 4C
          • Trinity
          • Pentecost homily
          • Seventh of Easter
          • Ascension Day
          • Sixth of Easter
          • Fifth of Easter
          • Fourth of Easter
          • Third of Easter
          • Second of Easter
          • Easter homily
          • Easter (story sermon)
          • Maundy Thursday
          • Palm Sunday
          • Lent 5C
          • Mothering Sunday
          • Lent 4C homily
          • Lent 3C (story sermon)
          • Lent 2C
          • Lent 1C
          • Ash Wednesday homily
          • Next Bf Lent/Last of Epiphany
          • Epiphany 4 (RCL)
          • Second Before Lent
          • Presentation of Christ
          • Fourth of Epiphany
          • Third of Epiphany
          • Baptism of Christ
          • The Epiphany
          • First of Christmas homily
          • Christmas Day homily
          • Christmas Day
          • Advent 4C
          • Advent 3C
          • Advent 2C
          • Advent 1C
        • Non-lectionary sermons >
          • Plough Sunday
          • Advent and Christmas ideas
          • Christmas Day homily
          • A Christmas Tale
          • Remembrance 2013
          • Remembrance Sunday
          • Harvest homily 2
          • Harvest
          • Harvest homily
          • Harvest Water
          • New Pastoral Ministry
        • Ascension
  • Homiletics
    • A Definition of Preaching
    • Speaking locally
    • Notes from a masterclass
    • Design analysis 1
    • Design analysis 2
    • Encouraging feedback
    • Preaching in an amnesic society
    • The Aldi bag syndrome
    • Blog
  • Disciplecraft
  • Recommended
    • Preaching Fools
  • Second of Epiphany

Travel on
Palm Sunday homily
Mark 11.1-11

Picture
It was all planned. I was to meet a guest arriving by train, drive her to her host for the night, and still have 30 minutes to get to an all important meeting. Then came the announcement, 'The 1714 departure is reported running 30 minutes late. We apologies for the late arrival of this train due to the breakdown of an earlier service.' 
 
Thirty minutes on a Crewe station platform. A world of people on journeys: the bored looking Executive in a cashmere coat; the serviceman in uniform; the aged  lady with an over large suitcase; the courting couple sitting on their bags kissing; some noisy kids, rucksacks in a pile. There are parables here of God and his people.
 
Burdens
Some are literally loaded down. How will that old lady manage the suitcase that seems almost bigger than her? The flight weight allowance always too constraining. That's us: loaded down. Not just possessions, but the things inside us that burden us. What the psychologists call 'our baggage' – hurts from long ago, cynicism, unresolved guilt, jockeying for position, self-concern, and lack of trust. All these things and more weigh us down.
 
The disciples were weighed down. There had been dissension when the sons of Zebedee made a play for the places of authority at Christ's left and right. Soon there would be Jesus' dismaying words about the destruction of the Temple. Talk of his death would prompt them all to promises of death-defying loyalty. All too soon the promises will be found
empty. Did they understand the donkey?  The beasts of common labour; rather than the war horse of power? Or were
they weighed down with expectations of what a king's authority should look like? The palms gave Jesus and the animals the red carpet treatment. No hoof or foot laid on bear cobbles. But didn't the disciples see that as a royal beginning,
rather than the end of power plays? Jesus had sent them out (10:9) without money, begging bowl, shirt, shoes or stick. Could there be a clearer instruction to leave the baggage behind. But it is so hard.
 
Self-absorbed
It is so hard because 'I' becomes so big on a journey. The 1714 did indeed arrive 30 late, and then chaos broke out. The earlier breakdown meant there were already too many people on the train. My guest could hardly get off for the anxious press of people getting on. There can be so much aggro and conflict in the journey.

Luke tells us the disciples argued about status. The sons of Zebedee incident was but a part of wider rivalry. 'I' becomes all important on a journey, even on the road with God it seems. The new king journeys in  humility and gentleness on a beast of burden. Those who would follow him must read the sign aright and do as he does, but even after years on the road with  him, the disciples got it wrong.
 
Encounter
Unexpected encounters can be the joy of journeys but preoccupation with getting where I want to go dulls the imagination. The averted eyes, the impatient sighs, the rush to the platform gate; are signs that say it all. But God refuses to leave us in our self-absorption. The crowd intent on their Passover pilgrimages suddenly found a shared voice in a wholly unexpected shout. 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' The city went wild with excitement. Even the sophisticated urbanites found that something good can come from the backwaters of rural Nazareth.
 
The road of faith overturns our self-concern, lets us leave our burdens aside, and calls us into unlikely, but joyful, company. Ours  is a God of the brief encounter on the only journey that ultimately matters – the journey to him. And, lest the clouds of Friday obscure the way, we know also of two sad friends journeying to Emmaus who met their Risen Lord, and although they knew him not, it was like a fire burning within them.
 
In the kingdom of heaven is my end and my beginning
And the road that I must follow night and day.
Travel on, travel on to the kingdom that is coming,
The kingdom will be with you all the way.
Sydney Carter.