A Palm Or A Cloak Series

Kind of cool but really, there was a little effort. I mean here there would be an effort in finding a palm branch. In Israel you would just have to turn around and rip one off a tree, and if they were anything like the palm trees we had on our property in Australia you just have to stoop over and pick one up. The real sacrice didn’t come from the people nearly as much as it did from the tree.

But is a gift a gift if it doesn’t cost something?

And it is the same with the church. There are those whose giving to the church is little more than a tip of the hat. Oh they might mouth the words and talk about giving but it’s a five dollar bill dropped in the box every once in a while. And to be frank the church cannot survive with Palm Wavers. Marilyn and I were talking the other day and she reminded me of a statement that one of our professors at Bible College made. And I am in no way trying to imply that Marilyn and I are in any way close to the same age. She obviously began college very, very young.

But I digress. Marilyn reminded me that Dr. Kanzelmar said that the way to see if an idea was valid was to see if it could be transferred to everyone in the church. So obviously giving five dollars a week per family isn’t valid, for that matter even if every family in our church gave twenty dollars a week we would just barely be able to pay our mortgage. So Cornerstone would have a really nice building with no heat no power and no staff. Is that the Church that you want?

And so church is like everything else how much you value it is really indicated by how much you are willing to pay for it. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Jesus was telling people “If you want to see what is important to you, look to where you spend your money.” I’ve said before if you want to see where your priorities are than look into the two most important books in your life. Your chequebook and your date book. Where do you give your money and where do you give your time.

Angela’s father told me that once he was in Virginia on a Navy Ship years ago and went to a black church for service one Sunday and when it came time for the offering the preacher admonished the people to give out of their means not their meanness. What do you give out of? Your means or your meanness?

Mark 11:8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him . . .

Some Gave a Lot: So perhaps you are sitting there thinking “So what’s the big deal? They laid their coats down.” Well those in the know tell us that 2000 years ago in Palestine that the vast majority of people didn’t have a closet full of coats or for that matter a few coats or even a couple of coats. Instead we are told that most people would have only owned one outer garment.

So there you are with only the coat on your back and here comes Jesus, some are waving and chanting and some are breaking off palm leaves and laying those down for Jesus to ride on and you really want to demonstrate your love for the one they call the Messiah. Would you literally give him the shirt off your back? Apparently some would. This is a garment that was used as outerwear during the day and a blanket at night. It was so important that it was actually protected by Jewish law.