Palm Sunday: The Sunday of the Passion - April 13

Distracted by Jesus
 Matthew 26:14 - 27:66

In what has been a bit of a theme these last Sundays in Lent this year, we’ve just heard another very long Gospel reading. Not that I’m making light of the Passion Gospel. Every year on this Sunday we hear one of the full versions of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion.

But I wonder, this morning as you listened to the Passion Gospel, did your mind wander just once or twice? I know that it’s possible, even while your eyes are following the words on the page for you mind to wander off somewhere else.

Or if your mind didn’t wander during the reading of the Gospel this morning, what about during a typical Sunday morning service? How often do you find yourself occupied planning the rest of your day, worrying about an issue at work, making a mental grocery list, writing an actual grocery list on the back of the service leaflet? How often during church do you, in effect, leave church?

Don’t feel too bad. It happens to all of us, and it’s not the gravest of sins. But here’s the question to ponder:

Does it ever happen the other way around? When you’re “out there” doing all of the things we do “out there,” does your mind ever wander “in here?” In the midst of grocery shopping do you ever find yourself lost in thought as you think of yourself praying the prayers of the people? In the middle of all those things going on wherever they are going on… at work, at Little League, working on your taxes… Other than a brief thought about potential deductions, do you have to “shake off” thoughts of church as you go about your daily life? In the middle of a Thursday, does your mind wander to the experience of participating in Communion? Life distracts us from church all the time. Does church ever distract us from life?

Maybe this week. This Holy Week. We all have the opportunity to spend a lot of time at church. More time than usual. At the very least church forces itself into more of our personal time this week. Maybe church also seeps more into our ongoing awareness this week as well.

Being distracted by church in the midst of life isn’t the point, of course. Being distracted by Jesus is. And that’s what the church does during Holy Week. This week the church distracts us over and over and over again with Jesus.

In worship services we walk Jesus’ last week with him. We hear the stories. We enact parts of them, as we did this morning in the palm Sunday procession, as we will with the foot washing at Jesus’ last supper, as we wait with him trying to stay awake in the garden the night before his death, as we venerate the cross he hangs dying on. We place ourselves with him. We don’t just hear the stories, we take part in them. We put ourselves there with Jesus during the final events of his life.

We spend a lot of time with Jesus. We spend a lot of time with Jesus this week. A lot of holy time with Jesus. And as we intentionally share his life, perhaps we become more mindful, more aware, that he shares ours. It is not just that we are with him here this week, he is with us here this week. And everywhere all the time. He places himself in our lives throughout our lives. Not just as we worship, but as we struggle… in the painful times and the boring times… sleeping, waking, times of joy, times of sorrow.

Jesus’ holy presence distracts us day and night this week. As we enter in to his life, we cannot help but be distracted by his presence in ours. This week.  Just this week?

Perhaps the greatest gift of Holy Week is that it teaches to hope that all of our lives, not just this week, can be holy. The experience of Holy Week teaches us to hope, to believe, that Jesus distracts our daily lives. His holy presence is with us throughout our lives.