Being a transplanted New Yorker, I recall that the great Yogi Berra once remarked, “If you come to a fork in the road that leads to winning take it.”

Would you agree with me that if you came to a fork in the road, and one direction led to saving your life and the other to losing it, being a reasonable person, you would take the road to safety?

In other words, saving your life is a reasonable thing to do.

In the 17th century Lancelot Andrewes was a Bishop in the Church of England.

He was head of the translating team that gave us “the King James Version” of the Bible.

Bishop Andrewes was a brilliant scholar and a master of the English language whose sermons are some of the most elegant ever preached.

And yet, he was not a very good pastor.

When London was hit by a plague in 1665, many clergy chose to remain in the city and minister to the citizens. Bishop Andrewes chose otherwise. When he heard the news of the plague, he left the city to save his life.

Who could blame him? If one direction leads to saving your life and the other leads to the possibility of death, what normal person would choose to put their life in jeopardy?

Look at all the refugees fleeing from Syria and the Middle East. To stay means almost certain death; to leave means hope for a new life in a new country.

Who can blame them for trying to escape violence and chaos?

As I said, saving your life is a reasonable thing to do.

So a question to ask this morning is why did Jesus go to Jerusalem?

Surely he knew what awaited him there. Three times he told his disciples about the prospect of his death. His disciples begged him not to go, but he insisted that he had to fulfill his mission and that meant going up to Jerusalem.

The disciples were dumbfounded why any man, especially Jesus, want to take the road to certain death.

But then the 12 finally agreed to go with him.

With Thomas saying bluntly, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” He is called Doubting Thomas but in my view in had more faith than any of the twelve.

He might have even been the original Episcopalian.

Like Thomas - we may doubt, we may question, but we have a strong, mature and reasonable faith.

Think about this.

Whatever you think about Jesus, you have to admit his death was unlike any in recorded history. No anger, no hate no bitterness – it’s as if his life was not taken from him, but that in some strange way he gave it.

Why would Jesus go through all of that? Why would he suffer the horror and humiliation of the cross?

I believe it was the ultimate act of reconciliation. Reconciliation for the world.

Jesus gives us something far better than anything we could ever deserve. He gives us grace, mercy, forgiveness, a new life when we feel burdened by our old one and hope, as he gave hope to one American prisoner who was working on the Bridge over the river Kwai in Burma during WW2.

After a day of heavy labor on the bridge the Japanese guards would count the shovels of all those who had worked on the bridge. Because they could be used as weapons.

One shovel was missing. A guard said, “Return that shovel or twenty men will be shot.” No one stepped forward.

Then the guard said, “Alright, we will now shoot twenty of you.” One man stepped forward – and he was promptly beaten to death by the guards.

When the prisoners got back to camp, they found there was no shovel missing. The man, who had done nothing wrong, saved his fellow prisoners from certain death.

He was willing to die so that they might live.

That is what Christ did for us. He took our guilt upon himself as if he were guilty.

He died our death and took our place. And because Christ went up to Jerusalem today

We now live with hope.

See, you and I need hope. We can’t live without it. Life becomes a bed of despair and the quick sand of frustration without hope. Hope is the one thing we need in order to face the future with courage and confidence.

Maybe you are going through a difficult time right now and you have no hope.

Maybe you have done things in your past that continue to haunt you in the present.

Maybe your life is oppressed by one burden after another, one sorrow after another.

You get a diagnosis of terminal cancer, or your marriage falls apart, or your job ends when you had only a few years to go before retirement.

It’s easy to lose hope under those circumstances but Christ went up to Jerusalem 2000 years ago; not just to give us hope for today or tomorrow but hope for eternity.

None of us can exist without hope and you take nothing else away from church today remember this - Christ died to give us hope, to give us dignity.

And as I think about dignity I can’t help but think about the Trail of Tears. Let me tell you the story.

Americas treatment of our Indian people is tragic, but nothing was as tragic as what happened during the forced exodus of more than 17,000 Cherokee Indians from their southeastern homeland in Georgia and Tennessee.

For many years the Cherokees lived, tilled the soil, hunted the game, worshiped their spirits and lived according to “Their Way.”

But then the “white man” came and said we want your land. We want you to sign these papers, and if you do, everything will be fine. Sign, and you may stay on your land.

The Cherokee signed the “white man’s” papers, but over the years the understanding of words on the document changed. Especially after Gold was found on the land.

So in 1838 the Army rounded up the Cherokees and forcefully relocated them Indian reservations in the West.

They were led away by soldiers to a land the “white man” didn’t want. They called it the Trail of Tears. The “Cherokees” walked with their heads held high and their eyes focused straight ahead.

They did not look at the people who were lined up along the sides of the trail laughing and making fun of them as fools.

There evictors followed them with wagons, but the “Cherokee” refused to ride in those wagons.

No, they would walk with their heads held high.

As they walked and walked, they began to die. About 4,000 of them would die. And for a while the soldiers let them bury their dead every-day. Then the soldiers said that’s taking too much time. You may only bury your dead every three days.

So when a child died, the child was carried by his mother until the child could be buried.

When a wife, husband or family member died, they were carried until they could be buried.

The people along the way stopped laughing and started crying. They now saw the injustice that was being done.

But the Cherokees never cried and never rode in the “white man’s” wagons.

They kept their chin up and eyes straight ahead. Because........

You can take away a person’s land, but you cannot take away a person’s dignity.

You can be cruel and punitive, but you cannot take away a persons soul

You can take away their family, their land and their possessions

But nothing, nothing can be taken away from you as long as there is hope.

I have been in the ordained ministry for now 12 years, and in that time I have seen much about what can happen to a human being.

I have seen the transforming power of Jesus to bring peace to the dying, hope to the despondent, courage to the weak and direction to the aimless.

I have seen lives that were spiritually dead rebound with new life in God.

I have seen marriages that I would have considered finished, begin anew.

I have seen people who I would have dismissed as hopeless, turn their lives around and become decent, caring human beings.

In other words as Bishop Katherine spoke about just last Wednesday evening, I have seen the power of reconciliation working through Christ in our lives.

It’s grace, amazing grace my friends. I have known such grace, and perhaps you have, too.

And why? because God proves his love for us beginning this week, This Palm Sunday when he enters Jerusalem and chose the most difficult loving path there is.

To die for us, as one of us, and to be with us on our life’s journey no matter where that road may lead.

As we will be with Jesus through it all —- this most holy of Holy weeks.

So join us this week as we celebrate Hope....after all that us what this week is all about..Is it not!. Hope .... Hope.... Hope......