Since it's been a few weeks since my last emailing, I thought I'd drop you all a line.

Prep for the gig on Monday, the 19th of April, is going fairly well, though I must admit I think they show will be a bit fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. We've got some GREAT musicians working together, BUT, I'm only able to rehearse with individuals, not all of them together at the same time --> we'll only be having 3 full-band rehearsals, and that'll be the 3 days before the show itself. Also, for any who are able to make it, expect a lot more of our rockin' material, and also expect it to be interpreted with a lot more "jam" in mind; it looks as though I'll not only have some lead guitars, but even a lead bassist (he's quite the improvisor!)! Anyway; I think it'll end up being worth your while.

Updates on other bands; Over the Rhine is in SERIOUS negotiations with a major label, for whome they've recorded 4 c.d.'s worth of material over the past year or so. This is good new either way -- if they sign they re-record the best material from the discs with some big producer and will have a great record released nationally, and if they don't sign by this summer, they plan on releasing all 4 collections of demos independantly. Also, Linford Detweiller has an instrumental piano record he plans to release very soon. Monk is finishing up a live release.

"Audible Sigh" by the Vigilantes of Love, quite possibly their greatest record, full of alt.-country influences (due to Buddy Miller's wonderful prodution -- he's worked with Emmalou Harris and Steve Earle, among others), has been delayed a bit. The record label that was going to release it went under. It looks as though Atlantic Records is currently interested in the project though, and there is the possibility that it could be released independantly. Bruce Cockburn is IN THE STUDIO.

Waterdeep is signed to Squint records, home of the wonderful bands, Sixpense None the Richer, and Burlap to Cashmere. Before they signed, though, they released a BEAUTIFUL independant project with their friends, 100 Portraits, called "Enter the Worship Circle". It's well worth the $$.
Oh, and local-but-nationally-recognized Geniuses, Olivia Tremor Control, have just released their newest c.d., and I can't begin to tell you how incredibly fun and tripped out it is!

Well, that's all the official news I have on my end of things... this past Sunday at church, Dan preached a sermon that really struck a chord with me...in the case that you're interested in reading it, I thought I'd pass it on. Feel free to delete it, if not.

I pray that you all have a glorious Easter, and that you are continually reminded of God's goodness on this day!

Dr. Alan Dan Orme, Minister of University Church
Sermon: March 28, 1999

Mt. 21.1-11; Mark 11.1-10; Lk19.27-44; Jo12.12-19 Palm Sunday 3.28.99

INTRODUCTION
On this Sunday before Easter in the traditional church calendar is observed Palm Sunday on which the theme is the triumphal entry of the Lord into Jerusalem one week before the resurrection. In some cases the traditional church calendar is trivial and celebrates imaginary events but this and Easter and Christmas and Pentecost are surely events that are dear to the church and there is no reason not to celebrate them on the traditional date.

This event of Palm Sunday is a telling and charming picture of the ancient Jews among whom Jesus was born and to whom he ministered. One year, when I was a student in Jerusalem, I lived about 40 feet from one of the two possible paths Jesus took into Jerusalem and just about a mile from Bethphage on the eastern slope of the Mt. of Olives where the disciples got the donkeys. And I often walked down into Jerusalem thinking about this event. It is a dramatic scene. One sees here in the Gospel account the fascinating pageant of primitive people so much like the crowds that celebrities encounter in Africa and South America and Italy and reminds himself that even if this seems rustic and bizarre to us, it was an extremely serious and intensely felt demonstration by these ancient disciples twenty centuries ago. And they were acclaiming him the Messiah, the King of Israel!

The incident of acclaiming Jesus King is connected in Matthew with Zechariah 9.9, a messianic prophecy. "Behold your king comes to you humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass." And that prophecy probably hearkens back to the 900's B.C. when Solomon was acclaimed king this way after he had ridden into Jerusalem on David's mule. This is in 1 Kings 1.

These were not the people who killed the Lord 5 days afterward but many of them were the people who had followed him for months or years and a substantial number of new-comers who had just recently heard him and who recognized that this was the Messiah that they were hearing! These were the AmEretz the "people of the land," as they are called ---the common people who heard him gladly and not the religious leaders or the political leaders, or the powerful or the rich. Their theology, in many cases may have been very minimal but soon it would be enriched with all the theological hindsight of a post resurrection and a post Pentecost view that they were soon to gain. But as deeply as they understood it they accepted the Kingship and Saviourhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the 8,000 people who believed in the first couple of chapters of Acts were probably delayed conversions that grew out of this event we are reading about.

This combined account of the 4 Gospels which I read makes it seem likely that over and over again the crowd cried out: "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to the King of Israel!" an Aramaic expression meaning "Save now! Save now! Save now! King of Israel! It is a graphic historical portrayal of the Kingship of Jesus that plays such an important part in church history, in the church itself and in our own lives as Christians. THE "ONE-LINE" HARMONY OF THE EVENT

I. FIRST, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE TITLE, "KING."

1. Jesus seemingly was not only the descendant of David but the exclusive heir to the throne of David. The best explanation of the differing genealogies of Matthew and Luke is that, though both of them go back to David, Luke traces his lineage through his earthly mother to David and Matthew, portraying Jesus as the King of the Jews, traces his line though his adopted and legal father Joseph.

2. As in so many things the primitive and external and foreshadowings in the O.T. institutions are fulfilled in a spiritual and theological way in the N.T. Just as the Lord's priesthood is a spiritualized and glorified version of the O.T. high priesthood, so his kingship is spiritual and non-political.

In fact, Paul, who labored among the Greeks and Romans--- who thought that political kingships were barbaric, uses and popularizes the concept of "Lord" to describe Jesus. It is a cultural equivalent to the more Jewish idea of "king." In the later-N.T. equivalent of that word we refer to Jesus as "Lord" but we are referring to King Jesus, David's greater son and the Messiah of Israel. And we are acclaiming Jesus as king when we affirm the Pauline phrase "Jesus Christ is Lord!"

II. BUT WHAT IS MEANT BY THAT TITLE? What is meant by "Jesus is king" "Jesus is Lord"?

1. This kingship, this lordship, applies universally--for we are made to understand that not only in the eternal state will every knee bow before him, but in the future historical state, at the end of the age, Jesus will rule and "every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Revelation pictures him as a king with the royal title inscribed on his person: "King of Kings and Lord of Lords."

A subject I will not go into in detail today is that it applies to the church. He is king over his church. It is the will of God the Father that "in all things (the Son) might have preeminence," that he might be Lord "to the glory of God the Father" in God's true church. It's not the Virgin Mary; Not the Saints and martyrs; Not even the blessed Holy Spirit! It is the incarnate Son of God who has preeminence! "Jesus Christ is Lord!"

But my main concern today is its personal application. "Jesus Christ is King! Jesus Christ is Lord!" as far as you are concerned. When you took Jesus as your Saviour, you also accepted him as your "King", your "Lord Jesus Christ."

This has been frequently misunderstood. Often it is thought that there are two stages to salvation and consequently 2 kinds of Christians---those who are half saved and those who are really saved. Their idea is that people are saved when they verbally accept Christ as Saviour but then they have the option of taking him as their Lord. And only then do they become disciples. Sometimes you will hear someone described as having "taken Jesus as Saviour but not as Lord."

The N.T. is clearly against this when it classifies all Christians as disciples and rebukes every professing Christian who is not aggressively seeking and obeying the Lord. In the book of Acts it often refers to Christians as those who have obeyed God and those who have come to repentance. These varying descriptions are describing the same people. viz. those people who are true Christians. Saving faith includes all of these things.

2. What are the implications of this? One of them, of course, is obedience. I am not going to spend much time on this today because of time constraints. But certainly it is a theme that is called for! It appears that the mentality of professed faith without a glimmer of obedience is a major growth area in American Christianity. It is sometimes called "easy believism" but it should be called a deficient form of Christianity that simply does not accept the Biblical idea of faith.

If a man loves me, he will keep my word," the Lord said. "If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me." "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?"

Now I hope you are giving attention to the matter of obedience in the Christian life. Let me ask you the Palm Sunday morning: Does your life bear the evidences of the sovereignty of King Jesus? Have there been a half dozen points or a dozen in the past day or so in which you have done something that you might not have done (or not done something that you would have done) simply because you are under the Lordship of Christ? Is obedience to Christ a conspicuous part of your life?

Yet another implication is preeminence; the preeminence of Jesus Christ in the life of the believer.

"For me to live is Christ" Paul said. "Whoever does not hate his own life cannot be my disciple ....Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple," the Lord said. (Mt14.26,33) He uses a hyperbole in the matter of "hating" one's own life but is really speaking about the preeminence of Christ in the Christian life in the sense that the believer's life is a Christ-dominated life. In most of the pagan religions and even in paganized Christianity, religious practice and consciousness is confined to special times set apart for the deity and to times of difficulty and stress (when the devotee really feels his need for the deity). But in Biblical Christianity every aspect of life is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ---he dominates the whole of life.

Now, this is not just for a few hermits living their life in caves; it is for all Christians. It is not a way of earning their salvation (which they could never do and which Christ himself has already earned) but it is a part of the faith commitment they exercised when they took Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. "Jesus --Christ --is ---Lord!"

Kings in ancient times had servants who were in life-long dedication to the slightest whim of their king. their whole life was absolutely devoted to the slightest need of the king whom they served. So too in this spiritual kingship, these ancient followers of the Lord on that first Palm Sunday demonstrated this when they threw their valuable garments on the rocky path for the Lord and his entourage pass over; For he was the King of Israel the Messiah. He was preeminent.

What are the signs of the preeminence of Christ in your life. We talk about people who are "full time Christian workers;" Are you a "full time Christian?" Is every consideration, every facet, every possession, every success, every failure evaluated in terms of the lordship of King Jesus? Are your career; your marriage relationship (or your hoped-for marriage plans- as the case may be); or your non marriage plans; your self image regarding what your life is all about; your spending/saving habits; your possessions and would-be possessions----are they reflective of the Lordship of King Jesus? Does your entertainment reflect the preeminence of King Jesus? Do your career plans reflect the preeminence of King Jesus?

Then very quickly think of the third implication of this kingship--and which is related to this matter of the preeminence of the King; It is the profound joy of the kingdom.

Admittedly, the experience of this crowd of the common people of that culture was culturally primitive and seminal and not the same kind of expression as would have been true after years of experience. And we who live in a completely different culture and time may express our joy in a more refined and restrained way than throwing our shirts and jackets on the ground and cheering boisterously. (Although I admit in observing a game in Sanford Stadium that there isn't really much distance between some of our contemporaries and the ancients). But you don't have to act like a deranged person to show true joy! Joy can be experienced in a cultured and refined person as well as in a primitive in an ancient historical setting.

We have here a picture of the great, whole-soul joy of the kingship of this God-man/ King. His kingship is not a dreadful dictatorship. It is a joyful, soul healing, life fulfilling relationship! Jesus Christ is King! Jesus Christ is Lord! "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to the king! Save now Lord! Save now! Be king in my heart and life! Continue thy saving work!"

I wonder if you have had some disappointment or difficulty this week that has put a damper on your life? Was it a loss, or an accidental thing, or a disappointment? Maybe your job went badly; Or did a personal relationship suffer a downturn?. These things happen. But we are connected by the work of Christ to the most spectacular event in history and its outcome, the kingdom that flowed from that event. Not one negative thing; not one disappointment in life; not one loss or all of them put together should be able to cancel out the joy and comfort and praise that this should raise in our hearts. "Hosanna! Hosanna! to the King!" --"Save now! Save now! our dear Saviour and King! Blessed is the King who now rules over our hearts and minds and lives! All glory be to him who reigns with God the Father and the Holy Ghost, forever and ever!"

May God increasingly give us grace to follow out the logical consequences of the Kingship of Jesus in a culturally realistic way. We committed ourselves to this in our own personal Palm Sunday. May God help us to increasingly discover the implications of this day by day. May we each be able to cry with all of our hearts as these ancient disciples did acclaiming Jesus king of all our lives. "Hosanna to the Son of David--- Jesus Christ is Lord!"