Palm Sunday – March 28, 2021: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Now, as I have often mentioned on this wild and crazy day we call Palm Sunday, good preachers will say, “Don’t try to preach everything that is going on in the texts today – it is too much.” And, they are right.
The thing is, we throw the Passion into this Palm Sunday liturgy (for us it is at the end) is because we know that many of our parishioners will not, or perhaps are unable to, continue the journey on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Yet there is so much to be experienced there, and we know that without it, Easter loses the power of its full meaning. Without Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we go from glory to glory – from Hosannas to the empty tomb. Easter, without Good Friday, loses its meaning. That is why the passion is included – on Palm Sunday – where it really doesn’t belong.
And so, I agree with my preacher colleagues, that with the passion included, it is too much to try and unpack it all. In fact, some even argue there is no need for a sermon on this day – just listen to all the texts. There is a good point to be made for that – but…no such luck for you’all.
So, today there is a lot to take in, let us narrow our focus to right at the beginning, in the liturgy of the Palms. There we have this very odd story about a colt, Jesus, and the temple. In the story, Jesus tells his disciples to go into the village, untie a colt (a young donkey really). If confronted, they are to say that “the lord needs it” and it will be returned. Then he goes toward Jerusalem riding it as people shout praises of him in the streets, and lay cloaks and leafy branches on the path before him. So, if you grabbed a jacket out of your coat closet and threw it on the floor this morning during the virtual procession, you were on the mark!
I love this version of the story of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem – the one found in the gospel of Mark – because of one particular detail that only this evangelist mentions – a single sentence that ends this story. The last line of this gospel for today says “Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
Jesus entered the temple, took a look around, and as it was late, then headed to where the others were waiting in nearby Bethany. What the heck was he looking at…and why?
St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians that we heard this morning, wrote “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” After entering Jerusalem amidst the clamor of the “hosannas” ringing out before him…what was in his mind at that late hour standing there in the temple, as the echoes of those hosannas were already drifting into the nothingness? What was in his heart as he headed to his friends in Bethany knowing what was to come?
I like to think that all the people had left the temple by the time Jesus entered – the light of the sun fading and its low setting casting dark shadows across the floor and walls. Perhaps he was taking a moment to consider, in the quiet – away from the crowds – what was to take place in the days ahead.
Perhaps.
Well, whatever it was, one thing is for certain – it was a turning point for him…and for the world.
The procession of the palms we do today, is as it was for Jesus, an announcement that things are going to change. It is a transition point. And what we experience in the days to come, like it was for those who were with Jesus that night, will change us, if we let it. Palm Sunday is our time in the temple. Our time to consider what we have experienced, and what God calls us to do in response.
It is this moment – this unique detail about Jesus on that day – that we would miss if we rushed past it to the Passion. This is why it is important to keep the focus today on this moment, and not jump ahead. Jesus took his time. He knew what was to come, but everything had to be set into motion. Everything had to be in place. Even he had to be fully ready.
The question for us is – are we?
Are we ready for what is to come this week?
Are we of the same mind as Christ Jesus?
What does that mean really?
I suspect one of the things that he had in his heart, as we will hear him express to his disciples as his time draws even nearer, that they would not be able to see him in the way they had always done. He would be with them in the world, but not as they had come to expect.
What a message for us today, as we enter into a second Holy Week separated from where we had usually come to be renewed in Him.
You know…when I leave here on Sundays, this church is deserted. It is quiet, peaceful, holy – your voices singing, praying, connecting – still echoing in my heart, as though being carried in the air above. And yet, as I turn off the lights and head out toward home, I know that I did not leave Jesus there, any more than I left any of you. You bring him forward into the world. You are seeking and serving him in the marginalized. You are marching in the streets – not with hallow hosannas, but with shouts for justice for all God’s children And you have been renewed in him here, and in other places of worship. For you have recognized that he is not located here, or at least not only here.
Through this long Holy Week of pandemic – this time of suffering and death – we have come to understand what Jesus knew that night – what his disciples did not yet know – that he could not be contained – not in the temple, not in Jerusalem, not even in the tomb. And he certainly could not be contained within these church walls.
We have come to see this past year, perhaps even more clearly than ever before, that he is in the world, that he is with us in new and different ways.
And we will come to see that he will continue to be with us as we emerge toward the empty tomb of resurrection when this pandemic is fully over.
These “temple moments” are the way we remember who we are, and what we are called to do. We find them in prayer, or perhaps just before we drift off to sleep, or on a walk. And in the turning points of our lives, they are where we seek to look around and reorient ourselves. In the stillness, we are able to see what gets lost in the din of our everyday lives. It is a check-in with God – are we still going where the Spirit is leading?
What did he see in the temple that afternoon, what was he looking for? Perhaps the question should be, what do we see? When we take our own private temple moments to look around at our lives, at our faith, at our actions in the world… what do we see? What are we looking for in this moment of our lives?
After all that has happened this past year, let us take this moment – this Palm Sunday moment – to look around with him once more – to let the same mind be in each of us that was in Christ Jesus in that temple.
For there is a Holy Week ahead still.
It is already late…Bethany awaits.
This is a turning point.
And nothing will ever be the same for you, or for the world.
Amen.
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The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
March 28, 2021
Palm Sunday – Year B
1st Reading – Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
2nd Reading – Philippians 2:5-11
Gospel – Mark 11:1-11 & Mark 14:1-11
