Palm Sunday 2022

4/10

Palms on the street

palms for all

On a beautiful Sunday morning, I go to my favorite Venezuelan cafe  to start my day with coffee and the Times. The owner/artist has added one of his wood portraits of Frida Kahlo.  The I make my way to Lincoln Center to lead Palm Sunday services for the Good Shepherd Faith congregation.  There's more of a mix of Korean and English speaking members this time around and I've given my friend Chris enough time to translate my sermon into Korean.   The ushers have cut the palms and there are plenty for everyone.  Here's what I had to say......  

Frida

Palm Sunday.  Childhood memories. Full church.Waving palms. Not sure I knew what jt meant, but it felt good. Opening  the door to what felt like a long week of church going. The Maundy Thursday communion service.  That three hour long Good Friday Seven Last Words service.  And finally two services on Sunday. By the time I got to Easter, I always felt  like I’d had so much church, it was hard to feel the joy except that it was over. 

Which is good background to look at church history a little. For centuries, that was the pattern, I would add that in my church, Maundy Thursday was when the Communicants Class would officially join the church and take communion for the first time after a year’s preparation.  For our Catholic neighbors, there would be the Saturday Easter Vigil with baptisms. That was the pattern. 

Then sometime in the 1970’s, the folks who made up the Common Lectionary began to become concerned that far too many people were going straight from the triumphant entry of Palm Sunday to the victorious joy of Easter Sunday without experiencing the Holy Week journey.  And so this Sunday became designated Palm/Passion Sunday with the reading of both the Palm Sunday passage and the entire Passion story.  Now that’s a tall order for any Sunday.

I must say that I arrived in my  ministry here in time to catch the tail  end of the Upper West Side Presbyterian joint practice  of a Lenten School at West Park, the beautiful Maundy Thursday simple candle lit  meal and communion here at Good Shepherd faith with its quiet  and warmth, and the three hour Seven Last Words Good Friday service at Rutgers. I can say that I actually got to preach each of those seven words twice. Sadly, one by one, these all came to an end.

SO here we are on this Sunday and this year. So relax…we are only going to do Palm Sunday, not the whole Passion. You are responsible for your own Holy Week.  And we begin with a procession. 

I learned something this year that I never knew before.  Reading the book, the Last Week, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, which systematically looks at each successive day of the last week of Jesus’s life in Jerusalem, I learned that there was another procession that day. 

It seems that the season of the Passover week, with so many pilgrims coming to Jerusalem and celebrating a festival of liberation, was seen as a potentially dangerous time by the occupying Roman Empire. So every year, the Roman governor, would enter Jerusalem to be the presence of the Empire in the city for that week. A reminder of who was in  charge.  So on this day, as Jesus is entering the city through one gate, Pilate is entering through another. 

It is very possible that Jesus chose this day deliberately as a counter procession, a demonstration,  to challenge the authority of the Empire. It’s interesting that since the time  of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperors were called “son of God,” “savior” and “bringer of peace on earth.” Augustus even claimed that Apollo was his father, his mother simply the vessel for bearing the child of God. So…Pilate’s entry was not only about political oppression but a theological affront to the Jewish people as well. Jesus’ entry was ultimately a proclamation that there is no God but God. 

The Jerusalem of Jesus day was under what we call a domination system. The three parts of which are political oppression, economic exploitation and religious legitimation.  Thus the Romans installed Herod as an ethnarc, one of the subject Jewish people to rule on their behalf.  And it was the job of the Temple to collaborate with the empire in areas like  taxes and a kind of money laundering and a bit of religious cover. And so it always is in occupations from 1940’s occupied France to 1950’s Iran to 1970’s Vietnam to …well it goes on. And I can actually understand how the temple authorities might actually have thought they were helping to protect their people, even as they personally benefited from their collaboration..

It’s interesting that in the Luke version of Palm Sunday, there are actually no palms, and no Hosannas. Luke wants to make very clear that we’ve got a very different kind of king here and a very different  kind of kingdom being celebrated here. So he leaves out the signs and language of empire. 

Two very different processions. Two very different kingdoms.

Jesus’ message is always not about him, but about the kingdom, the reign of God he represents. We are always to look beyond Jesus to God.

Every sermon needs  to teach and to reach. That was pretty much the teach part.  And now to reach. In the language of Jesus’ time, the word believe was not so much about giving assent to some ideas.  It was more about trust and commitment. Whose word do you trust? What is the authority in your life?  What are you willing to commit yourself to?

And that question is a very serious question. For Jesus, his procession was a symbolic denial of the power of the Empire and that would lead to his arrest and execution. For the only crime for which Rome would use the cross was denial of the authority of imperial Rome.

So here’s the point…if we want to call ourselves Christians, then we are called to be disciples.  To be a disciple.  Go with me here. Genuine discipleship means  to follow Jesus.  All the way. We must follow him on his way.  And that way leads to Jerusalem and that leads to confrontation. And ultimately death.  AND resurrection. 

That is the theme of Lent.  And Holy Week.  And all of Christian life. To be wiling  to follow Jesus all the way.

So the question is …which procession are you in?  The procession of Pilate …of the power, glory and violence of the empire? Or the procession of Jesus, of the proclamation of the kingdom, the kindom of God?

Let those with ears to hear, hear…

Ta'u sings...and waves....

One of my favorite singers here is the former NFL football player now opera singer with a burgeoning career, Ta'u Pap'ua.  He sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic bringing new meaning to the words as related to Palm Sunday, waving his palm as he sings, his truth is marching on....

hot cross buns

On my way home, I stop at the Silver Moon bakery for the their traditional hot cross buns. 

And as I walk home down Adam Clayton Powell, the good people of  First Corinthian Baptist are passing out palms on the street. The line stretched down the street. It's Palm Sunday.....

Luke 19: 28-40

28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it'" 32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34They said, "The Lord needs it." 35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38saying,

"Blessed is the king

who comes in the name of the Lord!  (Ps. 118:26)

Peace in heaven,

and glory in the highest heaven!"

39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." 40He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."