Palm Sunday: the Lord has need of it...

 4/14

Ready for Palm Sunday

On Palm Sunday morning...I go to Good Shepherd Faith Church near Lincoln Center....

We all love a parade. This neighborhood is mad crazy every night before the Thanksgiving parade when they have ballon blow up night. Next week will be that unique New York event known as the Easter Parade. El barrio has its annual Three King’s parade. (Although the real sign of having made it as a religion in or city is to get a no alternate aid parking day.) and all the ethnic groups get their parades- Columbus Day, St.Patricks Day, Puerto Rican Day, West Indian day—-. Today Jesus gets his parade...Palm Sunday.

I have great memories of Palm Sunday as a kid, although I can’t say I ever fully understood what all those palm branches

Palm branches

were about and there was always that ominous sense that the long depressing stretch of Holy Week about to begin. The most days in church of any week of the year ending with the endless Good Friday service.

Maybe the wasn’t so bad. As a pastor, I really didn’t like it when the liturgical powers to be in the church decided to make this Palm and Passion  Sunday ...out of anxiety that modern Christians would want to jump straight from the celebration of Palm Sunday...ending our Lenten journey- to the joy of Easter...skipping right through the liturgical journey of Holy Week....with Maundy Thursday and the darkness of Good Friday. ( May I say I have very good memories of the intimacy of Holy Thursday at Good Shepherd and the annual 7 last words service at Rutgers...I have to say I miss that...but glad I had to have had to opportunity to complete the whole Seven-Word cycle...)

So what’s going on with Jesus today? Luke’s telling of the story is especially vivid... it’s got that “unridden colt” detail...what’s up with that? Maybe it's similarity to an unblemished sacred sacrifice? Maybe a reference to Zechariah 9:9 where the king comes riding on.. a colt, the foal of a donkey? And that wonderful line the disciple use to secure the loan of the donkey, “ the Lord has need of it...”.....

Of course, that raises the question what do we have that the Lord might have need of? Anyways, it seems to work...

What’s important is that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is an evocation of, or mimicry of or even subversion of the triumphant entry of a victorious military leader into a conquered city. It excites the people. Maybe even they believe that Jesus is about to launch the revolution.... completely missing the point that Jesus’ victory has already begun in what is now his inevitable journey to the cross. This victory is beyond what military victory could ever be imagined....it is an entirely new way of living in world.

And there is at least the the implication that Jesus’ failure to live up to their expectations would ultimately contribute to his crucifixion...like in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Which of course leads to the question what expectations do we have of Jesus this are not appropriate to who he is?

My favorite line of course is that you can silence the disciples but the very stones will cry out...there are some things that are so wrong, creation it self moans with agony and cries out.

The poor stones could be crying out all the time these days. I have had a hard time dealing with the fact that we were separating parents from their children. That we put children into cages. The smallness and pettiness of seizing rosary beads from detainees. Or how naval ships in the Mediterranean refuse to rescue imperiled refugees. When do you hear the stones cry out?

The beauty of the palms makes for a glorious Sunday....but what happens when the parade is over?

There is one week before Easter..,what unfinished Lenten work do you have to do to make your Easter truly a celebration of resurrection?

So..,

1. What do we have that the Lord might have need of?
2. What expectations do we have of Jesus that might miss who he is?
3. What makes the very stones cry out?
4. What’s on your Holy Week to do list?

So...what do you say?

Hosanna....blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord?

Amen.

We are blessed today to have sharing their music with us Ta'u Pupu'a, former NFL football player and rising opera star, and Pamela Thomas.

Ta'u Pupu'a and Pamela Thomas

By the time Ta'u finishes Ride On King Jesus, the walls are ringing in Palm  Sunday glory.....