Palm Sunday | Enjoy!
“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the king of Israel!’”
A festival announces something completed, something survived, something brought to fruition. Yet on this Palm Sunday – celebrated each year in sacred time -- you and I already know that the festal crowds who lay down their cloaks, shouting hosannahs for Jesus, will, in just five days, be clamoring for his execution. Even then, that very death will give way to resurrection.
This Holy Week, the recurrent pattern of the Bible draws us in: hope crests, is dashed, and rises again: chastened, tested, taught, more complex, more mature, wider in its vision and its hope.
At today’s festive moment in God’s larger story, may we celebrate one another as fellow travelers, people found and beloved, people who celebrate. “Here,” the Spirit seems to say, “enjoy one another. Enjoy the moment, even when you know darker days are coming. May you never forget what you are created for: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
“Leaves Underfoot” by Phuc Luu
He rides into the holy city
entering its gates, as king
Proclaiming victory
Branches of palms laid at the feet
Not over conquered people
Not over claimed lands
Nor vanquished enemies
But ending the enmity between God and others…
Bringing them back into the holy house
The temple made not by stones
But by the flesh and bones
Of the one who in his body absorbed the hatred
the sickness and sin
the diseases and despair
And gave back love and tenderness
wholeness and healing
compassion and commitmentThe Prince of Peace who enters our hearts
Into the depths of our souls, the holiest of holies
Seeing who we are
Knowing every part of our being…
So what is beneath could come to the surface
To face the light and love
To see ourselves as we truly are
Allied with the one who saw himself
Rejected and despised
Disposable
But remade and rebuilt
Into a holy house, a sacred temple
Body rebuilt, renewed, restored
As the cornerstone
The foundation of God’s hesed,*
God’s tenacious and everlasting love
Extreme love that endures forever
* a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another person
*reflection inspired by Where the Eye Alights: Phrases for the Forty Days of Lent by Marilyn McEntyre