Plastic Jesus! Luke 19:29-40, Luke 22:39-56 April 4, 2004, Palm Sunday, Year C The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi A 1960's underground folk song included these lyrics. Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus, Riding on the dashboard of my car. I don't care if it rains of freezes. 'Long as I got my Plastic Jesus Riding on the dashboard of my car. Through my trials and tribulations And my travels through the nations With my Plastic Jesus I'll go far.  Riding down a thoroughfare With His nose up in the air, A wreck may be ahead, but He don't mind. Trouble coming He don't see, He just keeps His eye on me And any other thing that lies behind. Though the sunshine on His back Make Him peel, chip and crack, A little patching keeps Him up to par. You can buy him pink and pleasant, Glows in the dark, he's phosphorescent, Take Him with you when you go afar. When I'm in a traffic jam He don't care if I say "damn" I can let all my curses roll Plastic Jesus doesn't hear 'Cause he has a plastic ear The man who invented plastic saved my soul.  Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus, Though he always pleases Riding on the dashboard of my car I'm afraid He'll have to go. His magnets ruin my radio And if I have a wreck He'll leave a scar. There're more verses, but I'd better stop before I get into serious trouble. Why such strange verse on such a significant day in our church year? Because since his birth, Jesus has been recreated into what others have desired and because nothing better reveals this than today's juxtaposition of the polarities of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem with his tormented crucifixion. And yet this incongruity illustrates the expectations and correlating disappointments of the characters in the Gospel story. High hopes and promises turned to frustration and despair. Jesus failed some. Others failed themselves. You see, all of them wanted Jesus to be what they wanted him to be. A criticism I have of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was that everyone except Judas and Simon of Cyrene is one dimensional - ghoulish fiends or oppressed spectators. But in reality every character in both of today's Gospel accounts are normal folk trying survive in hard times or protect what they have and see Jesus as friend or foe in the process. Consider those we encounter. The crowd: Oppressed folk hoping for the Messiah. Come on Jesus free us from Roman oppression. Judas: Look Jesus, it's time to do something spectacular. If you aren't ready, perhaps I can motivate you. The disciples: After all we've given up, how about a little extra reward? We didn't mean to fall asleep, but the stress has been hard. Who wouldn't run when it looks as if the whole thing is crashing down on them? Specifically Peter - it's so easy to make grand proclamations until there's a price to pay for doing so. The religious leaders: So much is at risk. Come on Jesus, can't we work out a deal? We've got the authority, and you've go the charisma. If not, it's too bad if one man has to suffer. After all, he brought it on himself. Pilate: Okay, Jesus, I've got things under control here. If you don't create too big of a stir, we can pull this off together. If not, it's my way or no way. Herod: Hey, Jesus, I've been a fan of yours. I hear you do some clever things. How about doing one for me. No, no, I don't want to hear any of that obedience, humility or love your neighbor stuff. It wears me out just to think about it. All know the Jesus they want. All reject the Jesus they get. All respond in their own ways. The disciples betray, abandon and deny him. The religious leaders eliminate him. Pilate washes his hands of him. Herod quickly becomes bored with him. The crowds that welcome him with cries of "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" move from adulation to anger with cries of "Crucify him!" to despondency beating their breasts. Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus, riding on the dashboard of my car. Who among us, myself included doesn't have a Jesus we've created. Who among us when things are going our way and think we have found the one to establish our power isn't capable of standing in the crowd looking for the quick fix, the easy answers, the short sound bites, waving our patriotic flags and saying we want what is best for society, shouting our political slogans but ignoring our own responsibility to bring about change and yelling, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"? Who among us who when we pray for the poor and suffering but realize he expects us to participate in the process isn't capable of betraying him? Who among us when we realize that there is a cost of proclaiming the suffering Jesus isn't capable of denying we know him and find a much easier Jesus to proclaim? Who among us hasn't said, "Jesus make me happy, take my pains and sufferings away", and gotten bored with the Jesus who doesn't respond right away? Who among us, when confronted with injustice and suffering of others, isn't capable of washing our hands of it under the assumption that it's not our responsibility. Who among us when we realize Jesus came not to raise us up to power but is himself a helpless prisoner, who came not to comfort us but to transform us isn't capable of screaming, "Crucify him!"? Who among us when our life is falling apart and we don't know which way to go, isn't capable of fleeing for safety as we beat our breasts? That's the reality of our world. The Gospel reminds us of this reality. However, the reality of the Gospel also is as soon as we have this awareness, if we'll listen, that he too speaks to us. We also are there when he says, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." We, too, are invited to believe, receive and be humbled in his giving back our lives by letting his be taken. We, too, are invited to be transformed from one capable of denying we know him to one for whom carrying his reconciling love into the world becomes our primary reason for living. Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus, riding on the dashboard of my car. When our journey of Palm Sunday is over, we will be left with a dead Jesus in a tomb. There's no Easter in the lessons today. Nor will there be all week. No, today, we leave with the question of whether we have one of our modern created Jesuses: a prozac Jesus who keeps us happy and relaxed, a non-threatening Mr. Rogers Jesus, a plastic Jesus who keeps us safe but expects nothing of us, or whether we have a beaten, scourged, abandoned Jesus, who in his dying breath calls out, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do!" Unless, as we will sing in our post-Communion hymn, we can go to dark Gethsemane, unless we can walk these paths, leaving our comfort zone, our self-satisfaction, daring to walk beyond safety into the darkness of evil and death, carrying Jesus to the tomb, we will not even begin to grasp the power of the Resurrection. Enter this week in humility. Expect to see yourself in the frailty of people like Peter, Judas, the soldiers, and Pilate. Enter the week in joy, anticipating the power of God to work in and through our frailty to make us new through his mercy. Enter the week in thanks, for the hope we have depends not upon ourselves but upon a loving God who won't let us go, regardless of our sins.