Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the crowd shouting words from Psalm 118, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." After entering town, Jesus declares that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. If Jesus were to give a Palm Sunday sermon, he would likely use this text from John 12:20-43. May we be with the great multitude standing before the throne of God on that day crying out with a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb."

Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40). What does Jesus means by this statement to Martha and how does it apply to us today? What is the glory of God?

We won't know what we have until it is gone. The prophesy of Amos is applicable to us today.

Who is blind from birth? Was it only the man on the side of the road? In the scripture passage today, all were blind to the works of God: neighbors, disciples, parents, and Pharisees. The blind man was given physical sight by Jesus, as well as spiritual sight to believe. Jesus is in our midst to grant all spiritual sight. To be baptized is to see Jesus and be raised in death to new life. Jesus says "Whoever comes to me will not be cast out." He makes all things new. Don't shut your eyes to Jesus which is self-imposed darkness. Jesus lights the way back home for each of us who come to Him.

The prophet Amos depicts God as a lion who roars against this wicked world because he would have us remember who he is, and have us repent.

The lion from whom we wish to flee, is the very one to whom we must draw near.

Too long in the church have we given and been given that Christianity is a set of ideas to be believed rather than a life to be lived. What we believe we must live.

Seek God, and seek good, for God is good.

He is gracious, he is merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. He hates evil, loves good. He forgives, he brings justice, he speaks peace, and fulfills his own law for us and toward us. How should we be? Like father, like son...for God has declared us to be his sons now and forever in the waters of holy baptism.

God is both just, and the justifier of the one who has no hope but Jesus.

Let us seek God, and seek good, especially the good of our neighbors around us. For our God has sought us first and has loved us first so that we might also love others and seek them.

God's love for us in Christ Jesus anchored in the cross holds us strong and steadfast in all the storms of life that we might remember that with his roar he not only destroys, but also restores.

He roars and we are changed from fallen and forsaken to found and forgiven and forever his.

Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross presents the world with a crisis, just as the bronze serpent did for Israel in the wilderness. You can either reject the Crucified One and remain as you are - flesh born of flesh, and destined for death - or, by trusting that the Crucified is the manifestation of God's love, you can receive the life that is from above. The new life in Christ Crucified isn't just a better life from the same source, but it comes from a new source: God himself. Through the begetting of water and the Spirit - that is, by receiving Holy Baptism - we have received the Spirit of God and the new life that He gives, and we now walk according to that Spirit as we follow Christ our Lord.

The Devil is our greatest enemy. Science says there are many causes of our suffering, but when we look through to the ultimate cause, Satan causes all evil. The Devil led us into rebellion, sin, suffering, death and separation from God. The small"g" god- Satan - hinders us from all that we have from God. Our vocation is to wage war against the Devil and his kingdom. We must not be apathetic! It matters what we do. We are the baptized, the holy Christian church fighting against he powers of this world by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need not fear death and Satan. We walk in newness of life and have the Holy Spirit to defeat Satan. The kingdom is ours forever.