DO IT ANYWAY
Palm Sunday, March 20, 2005 – 8 a.m.
Texts – Isaiah 50: 4-9a
Matthew 21: 1-11
I wonder how many of us remember the name Karl Menninger? He was, of course, the psychiatrist who founded the Menninger Clinic and the Menninger Foundation for Psychiatric Education and Research. In 1981, at the venerable age of 88, he was invited to address the General Assembly of the United Nations. What he said has become for me and for many a kind of “mantra” that I enjoy revisiting from time to time. It has also become something I associate with the meaning of Palm Sunday. Listen to it again:
“People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centered. Love them, anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good, anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Try to be successful, anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do it, anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank, anyway.
People favor underdogs, but I notice they follow the top dogs. Fight for some underdogs, anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help, but they may attack you if you help them. Try to help people, anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have, anyway.”
It’s a message uniquely suited to Palm Sunday.
Three times in Matthew’s gospel . . . not once or twice, but three times . . . Jesus tells his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. Matthew writes in the sixteenth chapter –
“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed . . . . And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of people.’” [16: 21-23]
A short while later, in the seventeenth chapter, he writes –
“As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men and women, and they will kill him . . .’ They (the disciples) were greatly distressed.” [17: 22-23]
Finally, in the twentieth chapter, it says –
“As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified . . .’” [20: 17-19]
The point, of course, is that he knows what waits for him in Jerusalem, but he goes anyway. Do you suppose that’s where Karl Menninger got his idea? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Why does he do it? The answer lies in the instructions given to the two disciples who are sent ahead of the rest. “Go into the village opposite you,” Jesus says to them, “and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with h er; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them.’” [21: 2-3]
It is a play on words, isn’t it? Jesus will go up to Jerusalem, Matthew is saying, because “the Lord has need of it.” Jesus will accept betrayal and arrest and crucifixion because “the Lord has need of it.” And what sort of need is that? It is the need to demonstrate, once and for all, the powerful love which God has for each and every one of us. It is the need to prove that nothing can separate us from that love. And it is the need to demonstrate that death is not the last word, is not victorious. “The Lord has need of it.”
Might that be true of you? of me? Might that be the why and the wherefore behind Karl Menninger’s admonition to “do it, anyway”? Might it be because “the Lord has need of it”?
I love the story I ran across years ago about a young teenager who had just left a theatre and was heading to his car. He jumped into his old Chevy, but it wouldn’t start. Frustrated, he sat there for a time, and then noticed a man dressed in black with blonde hair standing next to a black van. The two began to converse. Finally they exchanged names, and the stranger introduced himself as the devil. After rejecting and laughing off such an outlandish claim, the young man decides to play along with the joke. He tells the stranger that if he were the devil, he already knows what the devil wants – “You want my soul.” The devil says he is not at all interested in his soul. And then this dialogue begins:
“If you are not interested in buying my soul, what do you want to buy? Surely not my car?”
“Correct,” the Devil says. “You’re a sharp young man. I do not want to buy second hand souls or second hand cars; my business is dreams. What I want to buy from you is your dream.”
“My dream?” says the young man. “Well, let’s see, I had a real dilly last night. I dreamt that I played the saxophone in a Masonic marching band, and ...”
“No, no, no,” interrupts the Devil. “I’m not in the market for sleep-dreams or even day-dreams. What I buy is the dream; that special vision of how you see yourself as an adult in this world. That dream fuels your life with meaning and a rare form of excitement. It is that dream that sets you apart from the others; in fact, from everyone else!”
“I don't understand,” the young man says. “Why would you want to buy my dream and not my soul?”
“Because, my young friend, if I were to obtain your soul I would have just a soul, but if I am able to purchase – at a fair price, mind you – your dream, then I will have changed the course of history! Your soul affects only you, but your dream – ah, that’s something different. Your dream touches the lives of countless people and, who knows, maybe (even) people yet to be born? The effect of your dream is cosmic, and that’s why I am interested in it.”[1]
Now it’s just a story, of course, but if the Devil is interested in our dreams (and I think that’s probably truer than a lot of us would like to admit), might it be because, as Jesus said to the disciples, “the Lord has need of” those dreams, even as God needed Jesus to go up to Jerusalem anyway?
Finally, one more thing about the story of this day. As he is being greeted by the crowds with shouts of “Hosanna,” the Pharisees ask Jesus to order his disciples to be silent. He says, “If these were silent, the stones would shout out.” [Luke 19: 40] Think of that in relationship to Karl Menninger’s words. If you decide not to love, does that mean love will go away? If you decide not to do good, does that mean that the good will go away? If you decide not to be honest, does that mean that honesty will fade away? If you decide not to build, does that mean all building will stop that day? If you decide not to help, does that mean all help will go away? And if you decide not to give your best, does that mean that the best will no longer be offered after that day? Of course not!
But it is risky living this way. People get hurt in the real world when they follow their dreams. If you open yourself up in love to another, you may find your heart is broken one day. It is so much safer not to do it, not to try it. The same is true of struggling to do what is right instead of what is merely expedient . . . and of speaking the truth, and trying to help, and giving your best. And so, time and time again, many of us decide not to risk. We say to ourselves, “Things may not be too good right now, but they sure could be worse!” And so we do nothing. We make do. We hunker down and concentrate on just getting by. Do you do that? I do.
Palm Sunday. On this day we are invited to look at a man who chose to live a different way. He went on ahead, up to Jerusalem, knowing full well what the risks were. “The Lord has need of it,” he said -- need for my courage, my integrity, my life . . . insignificant though those seem to me. Isn’t that true of each of us?
But hear again the challenge in Jesus’ words. “If these were silent,” he says, “the stones (themselves) would shout out.” You can’t stop this, in other words. This isn’t ultimately up to you or me; it’s not up to Jesus. This is God’s plan. This is God’s agenda for the world. This is the way the Universe works. It invites your dreaming. It unfolds through loving. It is expressed through goodness. It erupts in honesty. It entails building. Helping is as natural as the sun rising in the east. And offering your best is as certain as night following day.
I hear it all to be saying, “Do It Anyway.” It means go on and go to Jerusalem. It means the Lord does have need of you, and of your dreams. It means this is the very nature of human life as we know it and experience it, that even if you refuse – because of fear or whatever – . . . even if you refuse, it will unfold this way anyway.
So, yes – people are unreasonable and illogical and self-centered. Love them, anyway. Yes – if you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good, anyway. Yes – if you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Try to be successful, anyway. Yes – the good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do it, anyway. Yes – honesty and frankness do make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank, anyway. Yes – people say they favor the underdog, but they often end up following the top dogs. Fight for some underdogs, anyway. Yes – what you and I spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Let’s build, anyway. Yes – people really do need help, but they also often attack those who try to help them. Try to help people, anyway. And finally, yes – if you give the world the best you have, you may well get kicked in the teeth. Jesus did. Give the world the best you have, anyway.