Palm Sunday
April 12, 1992
I have great sympathy for the secular humanists in Indiana. They want to place a note next to those Gideon Bibles in motels, which would start out saying, Be careful, this book can be hazardous to your health.
Perhaps all books should carry warning labels like cigarette packets. Watch out, dangerous if taken to heart, may be injurious to your well-being.
The story of Jesus is like that. It’s a scandal to our ears. The person of Jesus defies our categories and acts differently than we would suppose. And, if we follow in Jesus’ footsteps, there is little doubt we will end up in trouble.
The Crow Indians have an expression for people who act the way Jesus did. They call them crazy dogs. Crazy dogs do not do ordinary things. Although they might invite strangers to eat with them, they will be found playing with pots and pans, Symphony with the neighborhood children. Or they might be wearing something other than their Sunday best at church on a Palm Sunday. Being the crazy dog for the Crow Indians meant going against the grain green questioning the conventional wisdom, or daring to be seen as foolish, weak, strange, or unorthodox. Crazy dogs usually end up in lots of trouble, where they seem to have an upside-down or inside-out approach to life. If you listen to those kinds of people, you’re bound to end up in hot water.
The Kingdom of God, Jesus insisted, would be filled with crazy dogs. People who believe the first are last, the greatest are the least, the strong are the weak, and the meek will win it all. So when you pick up Jesus’ story in the Bible, be prepared to be shaken, to be disturbed, for it is a story of a crazy dog person. Incidentally, I recently saw a fantastic T-shirt, it said, it will be a great day when the schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to have a bake sale to buy a new fighter plane I don’t think you can run for president on that platform but Charles handy would encourage us to push our imaginations and begin to say why not? Why not think about that idea? Why not act upon it you will never know what will happen to you. Let something new stretch you, change your thinking, nudge you into a new way of being.
The Jesus we meet in the gospels is always saying Why not, Why not associate with tax collectors, why not heal a Phoenician woman’s daughter, why not ride into Jerusalem on the back of a scrawny mule instead of a magnificent War Horse? Why not allow yourself to be vulnerable, lead with weakness instead of strength, why not be a crazy dog?
Years ago, a movie was presented at the New York World’s Fair. It was made by the National Council of churches and was called the parable. The movie shocked and disturbed many conventional church people. Jesus was portrayed as a second-grade carnival clown. The clown kept sticking his head in these booths where people throw baseballs at some luckless character’s head or this clown took the place of someone who was getting dunked in a barrel of water. The movie was destabilized and subversive, like a hand grenade thrown into our very neat, conventional picture of Jesus.
A lot of Christians weren’t ready to accept Jesus as a clown. It undermined their expectations, and it played havoc with their image of a successful savior.
But that is Palm Sunday for you. A day where Jesus not only says Why not? He acts it out. In a crazy dog manner. A new way of seeing and living life is presented to us. Palm Sunday is a day of prophetic confrontation that can change your life. The story of Palm Sunday is not that of a traditional ticker tape parade; instead, it is the beginning of the passion narrative that ends up with the crucifixion. If we take this story seriously, it will turn us upside down and inside out.
After reading the biblical story, can we no longer live life with the conventional hope that all will work out in the end? The good guys don’t always win. Jesus ends up on the cross, no longer can we simply hope the world will come to its senses. All we have left are crowds shouting Crucify him, and the loser for a savior, who says why not? Why not be a crazy dog? Why not risk crucifixion? And sometimes when I read that story it causes me to tremble tremble.
Amen