All the Best Cowboys...

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 19:28-40

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

As a congregation, we have been together for nearly two years. In that time I am sure you have noticed that I tend to look at life a little differently. When I was a kid, I used to thumb through the encyclopedia. When I had my first apartment I didn’t keep magazines in the bathroom, I kept an almanac. I never had the time to read an entire article in the bathroom, so I would just scope out some facts. Today I still cruise an online encyclopedia to find new little mental diversions.

This has never been particularly useful, but it does add spice to conversation. Once, my older sister and I were heading to Downtown Kansas City from her house north of the river. We were crossing the Armor-Swift-and-Burlington bridge, the ASB as it’s known in KC, and she pointed over to an old rail bridge and asked me, “Do you believe they are putting a piece of that in the Smithsonian?” “Sure,” I replied, “After all it is the oldest swing type rail drawbridge in America.” This is my sister, she’s known me all my life, she knows me well, and she was dumbstruck. “How in the world do you know that?” I was a little embarrassed to tell her, “Well, it’s in the almanac.”[1]

So you won’t be too amazed that when reading today’s gospel, I was reminded of the name of a 1982 record album by Pete Townshend, the lead guitar player for a British Invasion rock band called “The Who.”

Reading the gospel, I just get this image of Jesus riding into town on a colt that hadn’t been broken. If you have ever tried to ride or even seen someone try to ride an unbroken colt, you would know that nothing will throw you faster, especially bareback. Throw in the spectacle of people shouting and throwing their cloaks in their path and the degree of difficulty and danger increases drastically. Yet scripture tells us Jesus is placed on the colt and it’s calm, cool, and collected. Together they ride into town.

Anyway, I remember hearing an interview with Pete Townshend on the radio in the early 1980’s.[2] When asked about the title of his new album, he says in his British accent, “When you watch these old Western pictures, you see John Wayne (now imagine if you will a man with a British accent going into a John Wayne imitation), and he’s riding out on the range, and he looks like a bloke, just like any other man. Well, it figured that if you spent all this time out on the range looking off into the sunset like the Western heroes do, you’d spend a lot of time squinting, so I always thought (and here’s the name of the album) ‘All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes’.”

So here’s Jesus, riding into town, on the back of a colt that had never been ridden. He’s working it like all the best cowboys. He has spent a lot of time on the roads between villages, spending time in the fields and plains with the people, and he doesn’t have a big Stetson hat, or Oakley sunglasses, so, for some unknown reason, I sort of wonder if Jesus has “Chinese Eyes,” you know, just like all the best cowboys. Or is it just me?

The striking thing about this text is that it is so simple yet so lush. There is so very little written here, but it is so full of detail and imagery. Listen to the word of the Lord…verse 31 reads, “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying this colt?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it’.” This is so simple. The Lord needs it. Is there any more subtle piece of scripture?

With a simplicity and richness Jesus brings to the event, he rides into town on the back of a colt. The people are expecting a king. They want a king. They cry, “Blessed is the king!” Putting cloaks in his path is one way kings are greeted,[3] but Jesus does not enter like the political or military king the people wanted to end Roman oppression. He does not enter Jerusalem on the back of a war horse leading an army and bringing the conquered and vanquished enemy to his capital. He does not come in a chariot like the Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian Kings, and Roman Caesars of Israel’s past and present. He comes on a colt. The colt is nimble. The colt is sturdy. These qualities make the colt the preferred mount of the Jewish kings since it could move through the hill country far better than a war horse or a chariot could.[4]

So this simple gesture reveals Jesus comes humbly. He is a Jew come to his people during their most important celebration, not a conquering hero. He comes as one who serves, not one who is served. He comes with humility, but he also comes with knowledge. He comes knowing his place in the past, the present, and the future.

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” The Pharisees knew if the crowd did not, there would be consequences. The Romans want order in the territories, and this would not do. Jesus knew better. He knew “if the people were silent, the stones would shout out.” Nothing was going to stop Jesus. Nothing was going to stop his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Nothing was going to stop the Word of the Lord, his Word, from being shouted out to a world desperately needing to hear it.

The Swiss theologian Karl Barth once said, “The Word became flesh—and then through theologians it became words again.”[5] It’s all right to laugh. This may not be very funny, but it’s pretty funny. After more than three years of seminary, nearly two years of sermons, and countless reports to various Presbytery groups and agencies, I can say with no reservation that I am able to make the Word become flesh become word again. After looking at the Book of Confessions and reading such truly wonderful statements as, “I ought properly to acknowledge the only true God, trust in him alone, in humility and patience expect all good from him only, and love, fear and honor him with my whole heart.”[6] And as wonderful and glorious as this is, next to “The Lord needs it,” and “the stones would shout out,” it just seems so very wordy.

Jesus comes simply. He comes knowing who he is and what he has come to do. He comes with integrity, something sorely lacking in our world today. There has been a lot of talk about the circumstances surrounding former pro football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan; and how the government has chosen to handle what happened to him on that fateful day. Former Arizona State University head football coach Bruce Snyder was Tillman’s coach from 1994 to 1997. Coach Snyder summed up the government's handling of Tillman’s death perfectly. In a recent interview, he said that things like war and religion are complicated, but accountability is not. He was very upset with the way the military and the government have handled things and thought Tillman would be too.[7]

Integrity forces us to tell the truth. Integrity allows us to say war is hell and horrible things happen in war and in war time. Integrity makes us face the fact that this is especially true in wars that need to be fought. Integrity does not let us cover up the harsh parts of reality with a glossy sheen that looks pretty but hides flaws. With this same integrity, we are called to know who we are and find our place in the world. We are called to tell the truth. We are called to tell the truth in business. We are called to tell the truth at home. And we are called to tell the truth to the world.

Jesus comes on a colt as the Lord and Messiah. He is more than a victorious military leader. He is more than a skilled politician. He is the anointed one who comes in power, and in authority, and in humility. He comes to lead us and all of creation into Jerusalem. But humanity can be just as unruly as a colt that has never been ridden. But the Lord does not lead by force or coercion. He calls us with a whisper we hear at a level we don’t understand from a place we cannot deny. The colt can give us insight to these whispers. This description comes from the movie The Horse Whisperer:[8]

“A million years before man, [horses] grazed the vast and empty plains, living by voices only they could hear. They first came to know man as the hunted knows the hunter, for long before he used horses for his labors, he killed them for meat. The alliance with man would forever be fragile, for the fear he’d struck into their hearts…was too deep to be dislodged. Since that Neolithic moment, when a horse was first haltered, there were those among men who understood this. They could see into the creature’s soul…and soothe the wounds they found there. The secrets uttered softly into troubled ears. These men were known as the whisperers.”

Jesus will not be deterred. What he does he does for one of us and for all of us. His disciples cry out “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Yet, even if they were not able to cry out, the stones would cry out in their stead. Today we celebrate the triumphant entry of the King of the Jews into Jerusalem. Today we celebrate His triumphant entry into a kingship the people did not understand. We are called to cry "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven.” We are called to do this because the Lord sees into our souls and soothes the wounds he finds. We are called to do this because the Lord needs it.

[1] The World Almanac and Book of Facts, I believe I am referring to the 1987 edition.
[2] I believe this was from Redbeard’s radio show probably from 1982.
[3] http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=3237, accessed March 26, 2007, and see 2 Kings 9:6-16, the inauguration of Jehu
[4] Ibid.
[5] http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=93000055, accessed March 26, 2006.
[6] Office of the General Assembly, The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Part I, The Book of Confessions. The Heidelberg Catechism, Question 94. Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 1996, page 30.
[7] http://www.jimrome.com/home/jungle/interview.html, Bruce Snyder Interview, accessed March 28, 2007.
[8] Touchstone Pictures presents, The Horse Whisperer. Written by Eric Roth based on the novel by Nick Evans. 1998.