Sodzo

Text: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Focus: Salvation

Function: To help us worship and prepare holy week.

Form: Lecture

Intro: Sodzo

The sermon title is a Greek word that must have been on the mind of the crowd that day that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey.

The word is Sodzo, and it means “Salvation.”

In a sense, it is the Greek equivalent of Hosanna. It is the noun form of the verb, Hosanna.

The word Hosanna means “Lord, Save us.”

Sodzo, is the fruit of the answer to that prayer. Salvation.

Restoration, healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, acceptance, being born from above, becoming a new creature, and I'll end the list with the root word for Restoration, Rest.

This is the promise of God.

We rejoice in God's salvation.

I preach a lot from Micah 6:8, Do Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with God.

I understand the Do justice. It is American in the sense that we are the “get `er done!” sort of people.

When I think of what it means to be an American, I think of the possibility that it means that I can do anything I set my mind to accomplish.

We are the people who can and who do not take no for an answer.

Of course, when I look at the pyramids in Central America, I realize that not taking no for an answer isn't American Exceptionalism, it is what happens when people have the strength and encouragement, or are desperate enough to force change, that causes this I can do it attitude.

But what is different to that when we are Christians is that the “I Can Do It” attitude is not about personal wealth and accomplishment for ourselves, but the thing we are commanded to do, is justice.

Justice. It is what we do.

In the Dentist's chair, the assistant and I were talking about gun violence and I merely said this: “I read somewhere that we are to love, bless and pray for our enemies, I don't see how killing them fulfills that scripture.”

To which another person who was passing by interjected herself into our conversation something about being afraid and living in fear.

To which I said. I said, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

She said, “well the serpent is wise enough to strike in defense of itself.”

To which I said, “but doesn't that scripture itself command us to use the wisdom God has given us to find a non-violent solution when it commands us to be wise and harmless?”

To which she got busy and went on with her task.

Do justice is a command that we can easily adapt because we do things. It is pro-active.

Love mercy is an heart issue.

It goes along with the doing justice. It is easier to do Justice when we Love mercy. And God's Holy Spirit is inside of us calling us to be this kind of people.

But I want to stop for a moment at walk humbly with God.

Because I hope you heard me just brag about how I won an argument. But what I should remind myself is this, no one changes their mind when they are humiliated.

That “walking humbly” part is really hard for me.

It starts with relationship.

To “walk with” means to be in fellowship, communion, agreement and support.

We walk with God. We walk before God. We live our lives in knowing that God is there with us in every step and since God is there, it changes how we respond to everything.

And God sees both the pride and vanity about ourselves, as well as the sincerity and genuine love we have for others.

What does this have to do with Sodzo? What does this have to do with Hosanna? What does this have to do with Salvation?

Let me re-read the scripture from this morning.

I don't know what the setting was for this song.

I don't know if it is a spontaneous dance to be sung at a celebration, or if they had a formal choir singing it in harmony before an huge crowd. I don't know.

But I do see the way they took the time to stop and celebrate God's salvation.

They took time to stop and acknowledge their need and dependence on God.

In Worship, we take the time to stop, acknowledge our source, our center and our strength.

In worship, we are re-connected with the divine and we remember where our center -where our source- truly is.

Why was the crowd out that day on Palm Sunday?

Were they out because they also were full of joy and praise at the power of the Holy Spirit in the full knowledge of salvation?

Or, were they there because they had an immediate need, which at the time was for a violent revolution to throw the yoke of slavery from the Romans off their backs and they were hoping for an human kingdom to set them free?

This convicts me. Did they focus on God on or a politician?

I don't think they understood that the actual Kingdom of God is formed in hearts instead of empire.

We spiritualize the entire event.

But they did not see it that way.

Only half of them even believed in heaven, hell and the afterlife.

I submit that this crowd that was crying out Hosanna was in a desperate state of mind.

But the beauty of this moment is the hope they had.

And Jesus did not disappoint them. But, Jesus did not give them an earthly kingdom. Jesus didn't overthrow this violent nation that in another 40 years will perpetrate genocide against the Jewish people.

And yet, His healing, His salvation, His restoration happened.

We know it happened when we sense the peace that God gives us inside of our hearts knowing that it is right and good to do justice, to love mercy and to walk this way before God.

Hope gives us the power and purpose to go on in the midst of a world where it seems like every one else is competing for a bigger piece of the pie and they don't care if they have to take it from you to get it.

We know better because of the Power of the Holy Spirit inside us. It gives us hope to make things better.

I suppose that those who are living merely for themselves, for selfish purposes, would never understand the true nature of the Kingdom that this King established that day.

But Jesus did not disappoint that crowd.

These people were desperate, and they had a right to be. And in 40 years, all their fears about their nationhood will come true and for 1900 years, they will cease to have a place to call home.

But tragedy came. Israel means “the one who fights with God.”

Perhaps living as the “example nation state” in God's politics was not a blessing because God was pretty severe.

God did not dash their hopes, but in a severe way, very severe, God showed them that our salvation is not in political structures.

God gave them the power to do justice, love mercy and to walk with Him.

God saved them that day.

God saved us that day.

God saved us from living for ourselves into the purpose of living for God.

So where is the healing, the salvation, the reconciliation, the restoration?

It comes in surrender.

To do justice is a way to live nobly. To love mercy is a way to see joy in the success of others, even our enemies and to walk humbly with God is to surrender to God.

Perhaps it was the same crowd that rejected Jesus later that week when they cried out “Crucify Him.”

I suppose it is within all of us to turn our backs on Jesus.

But, I tend to think that the crowd that cried out crucify him, and the crowd that shouted Hosanna were to different crowds.

But this is Holy week. It starts with this party, goes through severe tragedy and ends with Hope restored again as Jesus raises from the dead.

God didn't answer Jesus' prayer the way Jesus wanted in the Garden, instead, God allowed Jesus to go to the cross.

Jesus didn't send a military conquerer to deliver Jerusalem from the Romans. Instead, the opposite happened.

But, God changed the hearts of 12 who changed the hearts of 120, who changed the hearts of thousands who changed the world with the idea that loving our enemies is better than violent earthly kingdoms.

God saves.