Palm Sunday

What's Next?

Writing about Palm Sunday, Professor Debra Dean Murphy writes:  “That we call these long, dense narratives “liturgies” reminds us that when we read and hear them we are not innocent bystanders–we are implicated in the stories; we have “work” to do in them. We are the crowd along the streets of Jerusalem shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!””

When we incorporate the sweeping narratives of Palm Sunday into our liturgy, we accept these narratives as more than just stories, even compelling stories, that we sit outside of as listeners or bystanders. We are implicated in the stories.

The Palm Sunday procession is not just another church “activity”; it is liturgy. The word “liturgy” means “work of the people.” The liturgy is the work of the worshiping congregation. The liturgy is the work that all of us here today are gathered to do. And that work “implicates” us in the story.

As we participated in the liturgy of the Palm Sunday procession we became the people who gathered joyous, expectant as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. We welcome Jesus, the Messiah, into our own hearts, into our own cities, our own lives. Today God is with us.

We are meant to know and feel that great joy. We are a part of the celebration.

Our hearts and souls celebrate. We are stirred up by the triumphant arrival of Jesus. So what happens next? In our lives? Where are you going for lunch? What’s on your agenda for this afternoon? How about the rest of the week? The glorious parade is over. Hopefully the joy remains. What happens next?

An image comes to mind. You’ve all seen or been a part of this experience. A young child has a shiny coin, maybe a whole quarter. He’s captivated and excited. He can’t take his eyes off of it; he plays with it; he considers putting it in his mouth. Then his mother’s voice rings out: “Don’t put that in your mouth! You don’t know where that money’s been!” But the child is meant to imagine where the quarter might have been…. its long a varied path into his hand. We imagine the long strand of history leading up to this moment. That quarter had passed through many hands, been a part of many everyday activities—maybe some were less than sanitary, but maybe some were also celebratory—before it became a young boy’s gift.

So now imagine we are the coin. Faces shiny, spirits full of wonder. But run your imagination forward instead of back. What is the journey of your life going forward? We are people who have just shouted with unrestrained happiness. Hosanna! God is with us. At this moment we are people who are inspired, enthused, transformed. We are Palm Sunday people. We are implicated in this story. Take that experience, that new identity that is yours and follow it forward in your imagination.

Later today, will it make any difference that you welcomed Jesus this morning?

Over the course of the week ahead, your lips that shouted hosanna… what else will they say? Will they express impatience with your family or your neighbor or a stranger at the grocery store?

Undoubtedly in the days ahead you’ll do a lot of ordinary things. Maybe some will be holy; maybe some will be dismissive of the God whose arrival you just cheered.

Will you say hosanna again? This week, or any time before next Palm Sunday?

We are the crowd along the streets of Jerusalem joyously shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” Professor Murphy reminds us that we are the same mob on Good Friday screaming, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” In the Passion Gospel we said it. “Crucify him!” Fleming Rutledge, a noted Episcopal preacher, has noted “the liturgy of Palm Sunday is set up to show you how you can say one thing one minute and its opposite the next. This is the nature of the sinful human being.” One minute we can be celebratory; the next minute indifferent or even murderous.

Part of the work of Holy Week is figuring out who we are. The work we do together in liturgy impels us to look clearly and unflinchingly at ourselves. No masks, none of the rationalizations we all carry in our pockets all the time, no denial, no wishful thinking about who we’d like to be.

If we do this work seriously and faithfully we will see ourselves as sinful human beings. But, if we do this work seriously and faithfully, we also see ourselves as God’s beloved, accompanied every moment by Christ. Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes to us, the Messiah.