Palms, Poetry and Passion
Luke 22:1-2, 7-13; Luke 23: 44-49
A Palm Sunday Meditation
By the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
March 28, 2010

Year after year we hear the story of Palm Sunday, the story of the palm-waving parade into the city. Cloaks cover the ground as Jesus boldly and humbly rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Palm Sunday is a celebration, a demonstration, a movement of liberation and resistance and irresistible joy.  

And then, the next Sunday, we celebrate Easter.  

The passion of Jesus is somewhere in the middle. (If we worship throughout Holy Week, we are immersed in the whole story – the conflicts, the upper room, the cross, darkness and dawn)

This year, waving palms and with the help of poetry, we begin with the passion.  Let us pray...

While I was living in Boston, my sister Sharon visited me. And one day we walked across Kenmore Square.  Kenmore Square is where several main city roads come together and several other cross streets as well. You add that to the well-earned reputation of Boston drivers and you’ve got some excitement on your hands as pedestrians.  We had crossed the first street, we made it to the first sidewalk, but that was no guarantee of safety, as a frustrated taxi driver nearly hit us while running a light and cutting across the sidewalk corner on which we were standing!  Sharon, an actor with a flair for the dramatic, took off after the taxi, hitting it, yelling, and wildly gesticulating.  Once we regained the relative sanity and security of the corner, we made it across another street in the square and saw that an ambulance was parked on the side.  Sharon pointed and shouted, “See?! There they are just waiting to scoop up the next victims!”  The ambulance driver got on the loud speaker and warned, “Yes, and you could be next!”

There are many dangerous intersections when we dare to venture by faith  into the public square.  We can stand on the corner, immobilized by fear, but that does not insure our safety.  And in cities that are the seats of political, economic, religious power the dangers can seem more subtle, but can be equally lethal.

There are a lot of parades to join. There are a lot of demonstrations, movements, marches, dramatic entrances, quiet vigils, bike rides, cultural celebrations, confrontations, marathons, Facebook causes, support rallies, and actions in public squares around the world. There is street theater in halls of government, cries for justice in the poorest neighborhoods, and organized resistance to oppression. And whatever side of the political, cultural, theological avenues you may stand upon, there are casualties and costs.

There are a lot of parades of passion to join.  Right now there are marches into cities of power.  There are vigils outside prisons, religious centers, nuclear labs, and city halls.  There are demonstrations against health care reform, against war, against walls of exclusion.  There are marches for human rights, for public education, for pride, for immigration reform.  

Sometimes it is easier to shout about what we’re against than it is to declare what we are for.  An anti-war rally draws more press than a peace vigil.  A “kill the bill” placard is a photo sent round the world, while a “health care for all our children” sign is not.   

There are a lot of parades of pride and of passion to join.  Which will you choose?  Which follow the bold humility and liberating vision of Jesus entering Jerusalem? Which are moved by hate?  Which are moved by love?  Which are ruled by fear? Which are guided by vision?  

“The greatest power we have is the power to choose to whom and to what we give the power to define who we are.”  And so, we wave palm branches and cry out for help and claim our identity and vision as Christ followers.

This is Palm Sunday.  We must choose at which parade we will throw down our cloaks, wave our palms, raise our voices.  If we do not cry out, the very stones will shout!  We do not have the luxury of choosing “none of the above,” of choosing to watch in isolation on a big screen TV, of choosing to remain “undecided.”

Jim Wallis said the big divide, the big wall, is between those who think the kingdom of God is in the future, and those who think it is here and now.  To this wall ... this big divide ... I say “yes” ... and ... “yes”.  The kindom of God is here and now. But it draws us with future promise as well.

Last year at noon on Good Friday some of us walked city streets, singing songs of hope, hearing scripture and visiting sites of neighborhood violence and injustice. We were pilgrims on the way of passion and compassion of Christ Jesus.  It was a small and powerful witness in the midst of the busy work and school day.  Strangers joined the prayer walk, the passionate parade.  

The nearness of God changes and challenges us to choose and to cry out “Hosanna!”  “Save us!” With passion and joy.  The passion of Jesus does not mean God wills innocent suffering.  Suffering, pain and violence are everyday reality.  The passion of Jesus expresses God’s compassion for the world.  God with us.

Jesus’ entrance into the city of Jerusalem was a well-timed celebration and demonstration.  Jerusalem was the center of imperial power, religious authority and economic control.  As Passover approached, as the city tripled in population with pilgrims, Jesus entered the city riding on a donkey.  The power of servanthood confronted the power of empire.

Jesus knew why he was there and what was ahead of him.  Jesus challenged empire’s power to define “the way things are,” and he was crucified. Jesus challenged the domination system not only on the day of his entry into Jerusalem.  All through his teaching, healing, changing, loving, questioning life Jesus shone a different light on “the way things are.”

As he began his public ministry, Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and proclaimed the fulfillment of these words, “The Spirit of God is upon me because God has anointed me to preach good news, ... sent me to proclaim release...recovery...to set at liberty...to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

“The way things are” is not the acceptable year of the Lord.  We need, passion, parades and poetry. “The ways things are” needs new vision, good news, restoration, salvation.  And people who pay attention always will shout out “Hosanna!” “Save us!”

Rather than shaking our heads let us shake palm branches throughout this day, on the streets, let us be bold in our praise, and our prayers and our choices.  Poet Ann Weems wrote,

“Holy is the week... Holy consecrated, belonging to God...

Our hosannas sung, our palms waved, let us go with passion into this week.”
 
Let the people say ...