It was a warm autumn day, with little wind and the sun starting to thin as it does in autumn and the crowds gathered beside the road. We all knew that something important was going to happen and that we were going to be part of it. In the crowd there was the continual buzz of excitement as we approached the appointed hour. And we waited and watched and socialised and chatted as the time passed. There were people there from all ages, from babies in pushchairs to elderly ladies in wheelchairs and school children with flags. People from all walks of life, all ages and sizes and all there because we knew something would happen.

And then it did, the car pulled up and she got out and moved down between the crowd — taking flowers and smiling and engaging first one and then another. And then it was over. But we all knew that we had witnessed history happening!!!

I know that some of you were in the crowd for the royal visit to the Woolmers estate recently and it is a real window onto the events that we celebrate this day. This was an occasion, and perhaps the only popular acclamation of Jesus as a leader — for it was the same crowd that would scream crucify him five days later. And I don’t think that these people were ingenuine in either response. Whether royalist or republican, all welcomed the Queen with fervour for it was the nature of the occasion. The popular acclamation of Jesus did not mean that he was a leader that they would necessarily follow but that he was a person of whom they should take note.

And to the enemies of Jesus, this was just the last straw, and precipitated the events that would overtake the world in the subsequent days.

Well everyone loves a parade and this entry of Jesus into Jerusalem continues to be celebrated not as just an historical event, but as a preview for what is to come. Scripture shows us that we are able to look forward to Jesus arriving in Jerusalem as King. This will be the beginning of the new age of the Kingdom. So it is important, that this day we not only look back, but also look forward to the end times.

But what about us here in Cressy? How do we relate to this? How do we engage the story?

There is a tendency for us to place ourselves in the story in the crowd. The crowd is a comfortable place to be. We may look on, and even cheer, but our commitment is to the crowd and not to the person that we are watching. It is easy to gather the crowd. Curiosity or the expectation of something happening will always draw them in. People want to know, want to be part of it, but they do not want to commit. It is almost as if belonging to the crowd is the most important thing. We will commit ourselves to the crowd but not to the cause. The monarchist would be foolish to see the success of the Royal visit as an indication of the support for their cause.

As a church, we have been the crowd at times. One of my colleagues remarked in a recent letter, that for most part the church enjoys the favour of country people except when they try to close their churches. (Although this is slowly changing.) But support is one thing — commitment is another. Only if the crowds were prepared to tread the path of the disciples would Jesus have been satisfied. Even the crowds, could be replaced by the very stones if necessary.

The question that we must ask ourselves is, Have we the commitment to stick? The privilege of observing the resurrection was given to the disciples and not the crowd. The crowd did its own thing and in doing so missed out. It was the women who received the privilege of first knowing about the resurrection who had stayed by cross. Peter and John had followed to the trial were next. It is the reward of perseverance that will reveal to us the risen Lord, no the following of the crowd.

For the church of our times there is great danger — for popularism is rife. Our literature praises the great churches, the mega-churches and the small churches are dismissed as ineffective or in-efficient. Our diocese says that bottoms on seats and bottom lines are more important than spirituality or community. We have fallen for the lie that the majority is always right and that unless we are the majority we cannot be right.

This week as we move towards the cross, as we move towards the empty tomb, I would like us to forget the crowd. I would like each of you to forget even your brothers and sisters in Christ. I would like each of you to make this journey through this next with no other companion than Jesus. You may choose to engage with us or not during the week, but our services will be about focus on a personal spirituality on a personal journey of faith.

And this not just for those new in the faith but for all of us, you and I, to renew our faith, to experience it anew and to discover within ourselves new resources of faith.

And I would like us to begin today.

The first part of the journey is the preparation. Many of us carry with us baggage from the past. You and I carry hurts or sorrows or regrets that belong to the past and should be left in the past but we find ourselves hanging onto them. Baggage that will slow us down or prevent us from reaching the journey’s end.

Now I am not expecting that we can solve these things immediately, but our first step is to identify them and ask God to bring his forgiveness into the circumstances. Towards the end of this week, there stands the symbol of the Cross the great act of reconciliation and forgiveness by God. As we journey to the foot of the Cross, each of us has the opportunity to lay our burdens down there and to make a fresh start.

I would like to commence this process this morning. It is to begin by asking God to get involved. Now for some we have had the tendency to hold God off at arms length, but the message of the Cross is that he wants to get involved.

In a moment I will hand out a piece of paper on which I invite you to write down one burden that you are carrying — a hurt from a person or a situation or a group — even something that makes you angry with God. We shall collect those papers and before the absolution, burn them as a symbol that we have given them to God to deal with.

Take some time now to think as we listen to "Lay your Burdens down"