This Week's Sermons

Sermons for the Month
The Celebrity Christ
DATE: March 28, 1998
SERVICE: Palm Sunday
TEXT: Matthew 21:1-11
"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

Last Sunday, many of us watched the Oscars. We live in a world where you can be famous for being famous. For a few brief moments, even Jesus was the object of adoring fans. However, he refused to be swayed from his vision by their demands of him - with predictable results.
About three years ago, Linda and I visited some friends in Palm Springs. One day we drove into the Los Angeles area. All over we saw billboards of a model who draped over a pink Corvette, or waveing to drivers from a pink Cadillac.
Her name is Angelyne. Years ago, she hired an agent to make her famous, and so he plastered her picture on billboards throughout the city.
But she does not advertise cognac or cigarettes.
She is not selling pink Caddys or 'Vettes.
As far as we know she doesn't type.
The only thing she advertises is herself. And now you can purchase her latest video over the Internet.
We live in a world where you can be famous for being famous. Once, not so long ago, one was considered famous only after making a life-changing discovery (Jonas Salk), or after orbiting the earth not once but twice (John Glenn), or after displaying extraordinary talent (Benito Belligni), or after achieving some other great, historic endeavor.
Today you can be a celebrity if you merely spend time with other celebrities (Shoshanna Lonstein), or if you engage in illegal behavior (John Gotti), or if you have no shame (Jerry Springer).
The Time-Life Corporation was really on to something when they created People magazine in 1974 as a respectable alternative to tabloid fare. Once only The National Enquirer or The Globe would print headlines like these: "Julia Roberts With a New Man!" "O.J. Still a Bad Boy!" "Rendezvous in the Oval Office!" But when the creator of Time's esteemed "Man of the Year" gave birth to People's "Sexiest Man Alive," our culture would never again be satisfied only with cover stories about national trends or global affairs - unless, of course, a scandal was involved.
How many tens of thousands of readers pore over celebrity magazines every month? Newsmagazines cannot survive without including news on the rich and famous. Specialty magazines on everything from cigar smoking to furniture refinishing use celebrities to adorn their covers. One can become famous for a myriad of noble and ignoble reasons.
The special annual issue of People magazine which highlights "The 25 Most Beautiful People," displays the faces and bodies of the physically blessed: beautiful actors, beautiful musicians, beautiful politicians. These people are famous for being beautiful. And it is one of People magazine's best-selling issues.
If you think that's shallow, you don't even want to know how many consumers purchase "The 25 Most Intriguing People" double issue. The celebs in this issue ostensibly arouse our curiosity. Today we find people such as Howard Stern and ICE "intriguing"; yesterday, we thought they were merely crude or banal.
According to the 1997 "Most Intriguing" issue, we were still intrigued by Princess Diana almost four months after she died. In fact, there are countless self-respecting Americans who continue to be "intrigued" by the late princess, and People magazine takes full advantage of that reality. In the year and a half since her death, Diana or her family members have continued to grace the cover of People every few months. For a first-rate celebrity, the story never ends. Frank, The Duke and Elvis will always sell magazines and books. We will forever be "intrigued" by celebrity mysteries: Had Jackie planned to marry again? Can we blame the Kennedys for Marilyn's death? Could Diana have survived if taken to a different hospital? What exactly did these people eat for their last meal?
Can you imagine if Jesus had been treated like a 20th-century celebrity as he rode into Jerusalem?
• Wolf Blitzer might have reported on rumors that Jesus planned to disrupt temple business.
• Pundits would have argued about who he "really" was.
• Gail Sheehy would undoubtedly have written a psychological profile for Vanity Fair.
• Some tabloid would investigate Jesus' relationship with "the woman at the well."
• There would be in-depth analysis by cult specialists and modern-day Pharisees on MSNBC.
• A council of church officials would be in place to study the authenticity of Jesus' feeding the multitudes and walking on water.
• As he entered the dusty city, hundreds if not thousands would have snapped their throwaway Kodaks, and pointed their videocams while Katie Couric, along with Willard Scott, making a special appearance, would stand by to offer color commentary.
But it was not like this at all, was it? While the celebrities of today are famous because they have hired promoters and agents, Jesus was celebrated by a relatively small number of followers who were not quite sure why they were there, except for the fact that something drew them to this teacher, this holy man. He could heal them. He spoke in mysterious parables. He was very different from anything they had seen before. And he loved them in a way they had never before experienced.
There was something about him. In a cruel and violent world, where most people were interested in basic survival, Jesus regularly stirred up enough trouble to risk his safety. In a culture where people shamelessly promoted themselves, Jesus told those he healed to "tell no one." He was not swayed by current trends. He was not concerned with money. He had no problem with challenging those in power. His ministry was guided, nourished and planned by the only Power that really matters.
The Bible, of course, is a best seller. One could make a case that it is a celebrity best seller. It is not exactly a Stephanapolous "tell-all" book, however. And yet, while most best sellers about celebrities chronicle every possible detail about the subjects' lives, from what the celebrity ate for his or her last meal to what the celebrity "would have wanted" after death, we have relatively few details about the life and death of Jesus. Most Christians are unconcerned with the precise details of Jesus' crucifixion, much less the details of his last days.
So what was it? Did Jesus ride into Jerusalem on a donkey or a colt? Matthew's account of the first Palm Sunday makes it sound like Jesus sat on both animals at the same time (though it probably means that he rode the mare with the young colt at its mother's side). The other gospels tell us that Jesus rode only on a colt. Does this really matter? (If we were talking about Diana's death, it would matter a great deal - like, for instance, was the car in which she died a Mercedes S280 or a Silver Shadow Jaguar?)
And exactly who was there with Jesus when he entered Jerusalem? Matthew's gospel tells us that there were great crowds both in front of and behind Jesus as he rode into town. But in Luke's version it sounds as if the crowds were not part of the procession at all.
Does it really matter?
Our faith does not rise and fall on such details. We do not need to "make sense" out of seemingly inconsistent or inconsequential particulars. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the last week of Jesus' life. We know some, but not all, of the details.
He was not a particularly young, considering the life expectancy of a man of his time. He probably looked nothing like People magazine's idea of "The Sexiest Man Alive." He was most definitely not rich. His immediate followers were limited to 12 men of limited resources and a few women of uncertain reputations. And we do have a pretty good idea what he ate for his last supper and with whom. But more on that this Thursday.
And while his followers often could not believe that he could really die, we know that he could and he did. It was as senseless to his disciples then as, on the face of it, it is senseless to us today.
The one detail we know for certain is that this story never ends.
It did not end in a procession in Jerusalem.
It did not end on a cross.
It did not end in a cave on the property of Joseph of Arimathea.
On the contrary, the story continues and is continuing right here, right now. It continues in the lives of people like you and me in whom the living Christ continues to work wonders. The story continues in us who are called to keep it alive. The story continues. It may not continue on the pages of People magazine, and therefore, it is not "need-to-know" material for many. But it is an irresistible story, a life-changing story for those of us who have, by grace, found ourselves following Jesus.
AMEN