In the month of October, I am sharing a
first person dramatic sermon which I wrote for a Palm Sunday service.
Last month you will remember, we shared and discussed using exegesis
in a sermon.
This month I would like your reactions to using a first person
sermon. I would dress up to act the part and find someone in the
congregation to be the stranger, the inn keeper and finally the
narrator at the end of the sermon.
Palm Sunday
Luke 19: 28-40
Luke
22:14-23:56
The Street
Sweeper
Push, push, push, bend, bend, bend, haul, haul, haul. What
happened here? I had 3 days off, went to the Lake came back late this
morning, show up for work and what do I see, a messy street. It sure
is different than the last one I cleaned up. This time I see stones,
sticks, torn clothes, and what's that blood. What happened here? Hey,
why is the sky getting so dark it is only a little after 3 in the
afternoon. I need day light to get finished before the Sabbath
starts.
Push, push, push, bend, bend, bend, haul, haul, haul. Leaning on
his broom, he sees someone coming. Hey mister, what happened here?
Looks like another parade?
The street sweeper sits down while the stranger tells him a very
interesting story.
The stranger says: I just returned from Calvary, the place of the
skull. They crucified 3 men, 2 robbers and that Jesus of Nazareth.
The religious guys said that the Jesus character was claiming to be
the King of Jews, that he blasphemed, that He claimed to be the Son
of God, so they tricked the Romans into crucifying Him.
The religious guys worked up the crowd so much that they were
yelling "Crucify, crucify him!" Pilate had no choice but to hand
Jesus over. Since one person is allowed to be freed on the Passover,
the religious guys wanted Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified. So he
was paraded through the streets, as one who was a traitor, a false
king, as one who blasphemed the word of God!!
As Jesus was carrying his cross, he slipped, and the Romans
grabbed someone in the crowd to carry it. They grabbed my cousin
Simon of Cyrene and he carried the cross to the hill. They nailed
Jesus and the other two to the crosses and lifted them into
place.
I was not real close but Jesus did mutter some words from the
